ᐅ Engineered Wood Flooring from the Home Improvement Store: Is a 2.5 mm Wear Layer Practical for the Long Term?

Hello,

Today I saw parquet flooring from the company "Haro" at the home improvement store, offered at 40% off as clearance. It seemed quite interesting.

More precisely, it was "Living by Haro." Does anyone know exactly what that is? It seems to be the home improvement store version of the regular "Haro." Is it low-quality seconds or simply the cheaper variant with a 2.5mm (1 inch) wear layer? The surface seemed reasonably good to me.

Another option would be birch parquet from Skandor (Hornbach), available at a similar low price (probably because it’s birch).

We plan to glue down the parquet due to underfloor heating. However, only in the basement, where the rooms are used less frequently.

Is this any good?
Does anyone have experience with it?
Is it worth gluing 2.5mm (1 inch) parquet, considering it might not be possible to sand it down and could cause trouble when removing it?
Will we regret it in 5 years because it’s cheap home improvement store material?

Nowadays, no one sands parquet flooring anymore. So, I don’t see any problem with parquet from the hardware store.

I wouldn’t do it. A flexible adhesive is needed for bonding. Removing it later is more than a difficult task. The risk of having to tear it out would be too high for the wear layer. It only takes dropping a hammer in the basement for 2.5 cm (1 inch) of the wear layer to be damaged.

Bookstar schrieb:
Nowadays, no one sands parquet floors anymore. So, I don’t see any problem with parquet from the home improvement store.

Why does no one sand them anymore? It’s not only about the wear layer; it’s also about whether it can be properly installed, whether the boards are cut straight, and so on...

aero2016 schrieb:
It’s enough for the hammer to slip out of your hand in the basement for a 2.5mm (0.1 inch) wear layer to get damaged.

Hmm... for the bedrooms and kids’ rooms, we have decided on parquet with a 2.8mm (0.11 inch) wear layer. Let’s see if we’ll regret it. But a thicker wear layer just gets too expensive.

So, does that mean you only glue down parquet starting at about a 4mm (0.16 inch) wear layer? But even then, dents from a hammer can still remain at first...

Well, if it’s your habit to bang around with hammers in the bedroom, then damage can certainly happen quickly. However, in general, I would expect the stresses in bedrooms to be different than those in the basement.

We have wood flooring throughout the entire house, except for the bathrooms. In places where heavy objects have fallen, the dents are clearly deeper than 2 mm (0.08 inches). Additionally, we have already had to replace 3 floorboards due to damage. The floor installer was frustrated. This flexible adhesive is really a nightmare when it comes to removing it.

aero2016 schrieb:
Generally, I would assume that the loads in the bedrooms are different from those in the basement.

Not in our case. There will be more activity in the bedroom and children's room than in the basement. The basement is only used as an office and hobby room (music, no heavy tools).