Solid or Suntups Super-Engineered™ Floor

In looking at these pictures, what's your first reaction? Like a lot of people, you probably said to yourself, "the solid wood must be better because it's solid wood all the way through". Well, guess what, you're not correct. Before I go into why, let me explain the black line drawn on an angle on the picture of the solid wood. This represents where a nail would be driven into the floor during installation. Now allow me to explain.

When comparing solid wood to a Suntups Super-Engineered™ wood floor, we tend to think about re-sanding & sealing the floor years down the road. This of course is directly related to the longevity of the flooring. Thinking about re-sanding the floor sometimes is the reason we may be misled into believing that the solid floor is better or will absolutely last longer. This is not so. Let's refer back to the pictures above. While there is no question that the solid wood floor is all exotic wood, take a look at where the nail is. When doing your resurfacing, maybe on the third or fourth resurfacing about 60 to 80 years from now, you are going to run into (literally) one of two things. It will be the nails with the solid wood floor, or the plywood core on the engineered floor. So, with that statement, now do you believe that the solid wood will really last longer? One can only sand up until the top of the tongue on both floors anyway so there is actually no benefit in the solid floor compared to a a Suntups Super-Engineered™ floor.

There are also other important factors to consider. A solid wood floor is usually less stable than an engineered wood floor. When I say less stable, I am referring to natural humidity changes from the dry season to the wet season and expansion & contraction related to these humidity changes. During the change of seasons you get climate changes in your home, which you absolutely will, wood flooring expands and contracts. With solid wood flooring, it generally expands and contracts a lot more than a Suntups Super-Engineered™wood floor, this can cause havoc or even failures with your flooring. The Suntups Super-Engineered™wood flooring is constructed to be dimensionally stable, in fact up to 70% more stable.