ᐅ Is a 2.5 mm wear layer on engineered hardwood flooring sufficient?

We plan to install parquet flooring in one level of the house (open kitchen-living area, guest toilet, hallway). The price is partly influenced by the thickness of the wear layer. The minimum thickness here would be 2.5mm (0.1 inches). We wonder if the thickness serves any other purpose besides sanding down the floor? We will probably only sand it once at most or replace the floor completely after the children have grown out of the roughest phase.

Purely for sanding purposes, 2.5mm (0.1 inches) would be sufficient for us, but somehow we are hesitant to buy the "cheapest" parquet.

2.5 mm (0.1 inches) is already quite thin. For wooden decks on ships that are constantly exposed to foot traffic, it is generally said that anything under 5 mm (0.2 inches) is not acceptable. Now, the floor in question is indoors, so there is no exposure to UV light or rain. Is it sealed? If so, 2.5 mm (0.1 inches) is definitely sufficient. If it is unfinished and only oiled, I would prefer an extra millimeter. Karsten

Oiled engineered wood flooring is planned

Hello unknown questioner.
The thickness of the wood wear layer on engineered hardwood flooring (formerly called "pre-finished parquet") has no significant downside, except that it can only be sanded twice at most. If you don’t see a disadvantage in that yourself, for example if you plan to live on that floor for another 20 years, then there is none!

I am not an expert, but I would consider the installation method. If it is glued down and the ceiling is structurally decoupled, I don’t see any issues with sound insulation. It would need to be clarified whether sound insulation suffers with a floating installation and lower mass.

I also agree regarding sanding itself. Although we will have a thicker wear layer, I don’t think we will ever sand in our case. More likely, after 20 or 25 years, when the children have moved out, the floor will be completely removed. A few dents also give the floor some character.

That is also our way of thinking. But precisely because the floor will eventually be removed again, we actually wanted to install it as a floating floor. Removing adhesive is very labor-intensive.