ᐅ Disadvantages of engineered wood veneer flooring? Apart from the inability to sand and refinish?
Created on: 18 Feb 2022 17:43
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christophen
Hello everyone,
We have a newly built house and have been looking into flooring options lately. For the living room on the ground floor, we will use standard multilayer parquet. For the other four rooms, we initially considered vinyl flooring due to the high cost of parquet. Then some people recommended a "veneer floor" as well. This is basically parquet with a very thin wear layer.
Advantages: affordable, parquet appearance, warm underfoot... basically all the benefits of parquet.
Disadvantages: it cannot be sanded down.
Several people have told us that the inability to sand it is not really a disadvantage anymore, since hardly anyone sands their floors nowadays. Tastes also change, so with veneer flooring you have the “advantage” that after about 15 years—if the wear bothers you—you can replace it with something completely different. You don’t have to pay a lot upfront for parquet. In terms of price, veneer flooring from the company Kährs costs around €30/m² (about $30/sq ft), while real parquet nowadays is at least €60/m² (about $60/sq ft).
Do you have any experience with this type of flooring? We are not looking for a floor we have to live with for a lifetime. If the wear looks bad in 15 years, we can choose something else. That’s fine with us.
Thanks in advance for your experiences.
We have a newly built house and have been looking into flooring options lately. For the living room on the ground floor, we will use standard multilayer parquet. For the other four rooms, we initially considered vinyl flooring due to the high cost of parquet. Then some people recommended a "veneer floor" as well. This is basically parquet with a very thin wear layer.
Advantages: affordable, parquet appearance, warm underfoot... basically all the benefits of parquet.
Disadvantages: it cannot be sanded down.
Several people have told us that the inability to sand it is not really a disadvantage anymore, since hardly anyone sands their floors nowadays. Tastes also change, so with veneer flooring you have the “advantage” that after about 15 years—if the wear bothers you—you can replace it with something completely different. You don’t have to pay a lot upfront for parquet. In terms of price, veneer flooring from the company Kährs costs around €30/m² (about $30/sq ft), while real parquet nowadays is at least €60/m² (about $60/sq ft).
Do you have any experience with this type of flooring? We are not looking for a floor we have to live with for a lifetime. If the wear looks bad in 15 years, we can choose something else. That’s fine with us.
Thanks in advance for your experiences.
C
christophen18 Feb 2022 20:00Benutzer200 schrieb:
Oak parquet starting at about €22. Then engineered two-layer parquet (completely sufficient for underfloor heating). Your €80-100 will soon be solid plank flooring.
I paid just over €30 for my Haro smoked (lightly) and oiled oak country-style planks. High-quality brand parquet.Please provide a link! As I said, we have visited 5 regular stores so far, and the average price was €80. The country-style planks were also not particularly wide (18-20cm (7-8 inches) wide, about 2m (6.5 feet) long).
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pagoni202018 Feb 2022 20:25By the way, links are not allowed here, so you’ll probably get in trouble for your first link, at least metaphorically “nailed to the cross.” 😱
Basically, these are often just wordplays or marketing slogans. Of course, a veneer floor still has a thin layer of wood on top, similar to the Lindura product from Meister, where a fine wood powder is burned onto the surface and then called real wood flooring. You can like it, but whether it is truly a wooden floor for you is something everyone has to decide for themselves.
Maybe you’ll find a more affordable parquet option. I personally have often recommended second-grade parquet, for example from Meister, and I had about 200 square meters (2150 square feet) installed that performed perfectly. I would lay it throughout the entire house anyway and place the few boards with color variations under the bed or wardrobe or simply leave them out. Otherwise, in terms of quality and appearance, to me it’s top-notch at a bargain price.
In my opinion, the option of sanding is greatly overrated.
The Kährs floor you linked has 7 mm (0.28 inches) of solid wood, doesn’t it?
It’s also important whether you want to glue it down or install it as a floating floor. This 7 mm (0.28 inches) Kährs floor can only be glued down.
Basically, these are often just wordplays or marketing slogans. Of course, a veneer floor still has a thin layer of wood on top, similar to the Lindura product from Meister, where a fine wood powder is burned onto the surface and then called real wood flooring. You can like it, but whether it is truly a wooden floor for you is something everyone has to decide for themselves.
Maybe you’ll find a more affordable parquet option. I personally have often recommended second-grade parquet, for example from Meister, and I had about 200 square meters (2150 square feet) installed that performed perfectly. I would lay it throughout the entire house anyway and place the few boards with color variations under the bed or wardrobe or simply leave them out. Otherwise, in terms of quality and appearance, to me it’s top-notch at a bargain price.
In my opinion, the option of sanding is greatly overrated.
The Kährs floor you linked has 7 mm (0.28 inches) of solid wood, doesn’t it?
It’s also important whether you want to glue it down or install it as a floating floor. This 7 mm (0.28 inches) Kährs floor can only be glued down.
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christophen18 Feb 2022 20:43pagoni2020 schrieb:
By the way, links are not allowed here, so you might still get in trouble for your first link, at least metaphorically speaking. 😱
Basically, these are often just plays on words or marketing slogans. Of course, a veneer floor also has a thin wood layer on top, similar to Lindura from the company Meister, where a fine layer of wood powder is burned on and then called real wood flooring. You can like it, but whether it actually counts as a wood floor for me is up to each individual to decide.
Maybe you’ll find a somewhat cheaper parquet floor. I myself have often recommended second-grade parquet, for example from Meister; I had about 200 sqm (2,150 sq ft) installed, and it performed perfectly. I would install that throughout the entire house and just put the few boards with color variations under the bed, under a cabinet, or simply leave them out. Apart from that, technically and visually, it’s top-quality material at a bargain price.
In my opinion, the option to sand the floor is significantly overrated.
The floor linked from Kährs, however, does have 7 mm (0.28 inches) of solid wood, doesn’t it?
An important point is whether you want to glue it down or install it as a floating floor. This 7 mm (0.28 inches) Kährs floor can only be glued down. 7 mm (0.28 inches) is the total thickness. The wear layer is not explicitly stated there, but I read somewhere it’s 0.7 mm (0.03 inches).
The PDF states the installation methods as floating or glue-down.
The problem with prices is that local parquet installers usually work with a few local dealers or stores, which naturally makes it more expensive. But a floor whose appearance changes depending on the lighting conditions really needs to be seen and touched locally. Small sample parquet pieces that can be ordered online don’t quite show how it will look as a whole.
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Myrna_Loy18 Feb 2022 20:55Benutzer200 schrieb:
Oak parquet starting at about 22€ (around $24). Then engineered wood flooring (completely sufficient for underfloor heating). Your 80-100€ (about $88-$110) will soon get you solid plank flooring.
I paid just over 30€ (about $33) for my Haro smoked oak country-style planks, oiled. High-quality branded parquet.That is a very beautiful floor! We wanted the same one, but unfortunately, it was not available in sufficient quantity at times.P
pagoni202018 Feb 2022 22:57christophen schrieb:
The total thickness is 7mm (0.28 inches). The wear layer isn’t explicitly mentioned, but I’ve read somewhere it’s about 0.7mm (0.03 inches).
The PDF states the installation method as either floating or glued.
The problem with prices is that local parquet installers usually work with a few local suppliers or shops. Those tend to be more expensive. But a floor like this, whose appearance changes depending on the lighting, really needs to be seen and touched in person. Small sample pieces of parquet (which you can order online) don’t fully show how it will look as a whole. Sorry, I had in mind that Kährs offers 7mm (0.28 inches) solid wood planks.
In the end, whether the wear layer is 0.7mm (0.03 inches) or 1.2mm (0.05 inches) probably doesn’t matter. I’m not sure if I want to glue it down, since it might need to be replaced after a few years. I would actually look for a more affordable option and stick with my recommendation of the second-grade choice from Meister before installing something like this in my home.
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