Long-strip And Engineered Hardwood Floors By Marcus Peterson, Fri Dec 9th
Longstrip hardwood floors are wide and long, and each plank has2 to 3 strips of thin hardwood. These planks can be floated,stapled and glued-down. The floors can be installed in all partsof the home and are made up of numerous wood plies that areglued together, using a tongue and groove connection made fromsoft core. The core is sandwiched between a hardwood finishlayer on the top and soft wood ply below. Different types of wood can be used for the finish layer. Thelayer consists of separate and small solid wood pieces (usually17 to 18) arranged in three rows. Longstrip planks could be aslong as 86 inches. The maximum width is 7 ½ inches. Floatinginstallation makes them suitable for different subfloors andbelow or above ground level. The longstrip and engineered planksare good for concrete slabs and basements. In job sites wheremoisture exceeds the normal level, these glued planks can beused easily as gluing enhances dimensional stability. Engineered hardwood floors, on the other hand, are wood planksmade up of numerous wood piles which are glued and laminated.Quality engineered hardwood floors can be used over differenttypes of subfloors such as fully-cured concrete and dry
slabsbecause of higher dimensional stability.Pre-finished engineered wood floors are more durable than solidwood floors. Pre-finished engineered wood floors are offered inmany hardwood species and styles, and can be installed in allrooms in home. The floor width varies between 2 ¼ inch and 7inch and thickness between ¼ inch and 9/16 inch. Length ranges from 12 inches to 60 inches. Mostly, the topfinish layer is made up of exotic or local hardwood and isfactory pre-finished using polyurethane finish.i-Hardwood-Floors.com also explains that different installationmethods including floating, glue-down, staple-down and nail-downcan be selected for engineered hardwood floors.
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