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Engineered vs Solid Hardwood: How Each Board Is Built, Where Each Belongs, Over a Slab and Over Radiant, What Each Costs Installed and How Many Times You Can Sand It
Flooring & Tile
Engineered or Solid Hardwood? One Is a Plank of Wood, the Other Is Plywood With a Good Face, and That Decides Where Each One Can Go
Solid hardwood is a 3/4 in. thick board sawn out of one tree. Engineered hardwood is a thin slice of that tree glued to a plywood or fibre core. That is the whole difference, and everything else on this page follows from it: solid moves with the seasons and has to be nailed to a wood subfloor above grade; engineered barely moves and can be glued to a concrete slab or floated over a heated floor. Solid can be sanded five or six times over a century. Engineered gets one to three, depending on how thick the slice is. Neither is better. One is right for your floor and the other is not.
The two boards side by side
| Solid hardwood | Engineered hardwood | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | One piece of oak, maple, ash or hickory, 3/4 in. thick, tongue and groove milled on the edges | A 2 to 6 mm face of real wood glued to 5 to 9 plies of cross-laminated plywood or a dense fibre core, 3/8 to 3/4 in. overall |
| Mid-grade material, delivered | $6.50 a sq ft | $5.25 a sq ft |
| Installed, mid grade | $12.00 nailed | $10.75 nailed, $12.75 glued over slab, $9.25 floated |
| Goes over | 3/4 in. plywood or 23/32 OSB, above grade, nailed | Plywood, OSB, concrete, old flooring, radiant heat; nailed, glued or floated |
| Basements and slabs | No | Yes, with the slab tested dry |
| Radiant floor heat | Narrow quartersawn boards only, and even then I would not | Yes, most products; sheet caps the surface at 27 to 29 C |
| Seasonal movement | Visible gaps every winter in a dry house | A fraction of solid; the plies hold the face still |
| Widths that behave | Up to about 5 in.; wider plank cups and gaps | 7, 9, 10 in. planks are normal |
| Sandings in its life | 5 or 6 | 0 to 3, by wear layer |
| Life | 80 to 100 years refinished | 25 to 60 years, by wear layer |
The per-foot rates and the grade ladder are on the master price table. The hub for everything wood is hardwood and engineered flooring.
Why solid moves and engineered does not
Wood takes on moisture from the air in summer and gives it back in winter, and as it does, it swells and shrinks across the grain. Lumber shrinks like bacon after you fry it: not much along its length, a lot across its width. A 5-in. flatsawn oak board changes about 1/16 in. in width between a damp August and a dry January in an Ontario house with no humidifier. Multiply by thirty boards across a room and you get almost two inches of movement that has to show up somewhere, which is why solid floors gap in winter and tighten up in summer. Cupping and gaps covers what is normal and what is a claim.
Engineered flooring glues that same oak face to plies laid at right angles to each other. The ply underneath wants to move the other way and the two fight to a standstill. The board still moves, but at a fraction of the rate, which is what lets you put a 9-in. plank on a basement slab and not come back in February to a floor with canyons in it.
Where each one belongs
Main floor and upstairs of a framed house, plywood subfloor, no radiant: either. Solid is the traditional answer, costs about $1.25 a square foot more installed and will outlive the house. Engineered gets you wider planks and more finishes for less money. If you plan to stay forty years and like the idea of refinishing, buy solid. If you want a 7-in. white oak plank with a matte finish and plan to sell in fifteen, buy engineered.
Basement, slab-on-grade, or anywhere on concrete: engineered, glued or floated. Solid wood on concrete is a floor you will be replacing; the NWFA guidelines do not allow it below grade, and above grade it needs a sleeper system or a plywood subfloor over the slab that costs more than the difference. The basement flooring page walks through the moisture testing first.
Over radiant heat: engineered, and read the manufacturer’s sheet before you buy. I have built houses on heated slabs since the early 1990s, and the only wood I put over them is engineered, glued or floated, with water at about 40 C and the surface running 30 to 37 C, which is warmer than the 27 to 29 C the sheets allow; it has worked for thirty years, but past the sheet the warranty is not what is protecting the floor. Solid strip over radiant can be done with narrow quartersawn boards and a careful installer; I have seen it work and I have seen it look like a washboard. The radiant compatibility article has the temperature rule.
Kitchens and entries: either, with the same warning. Wood and standing water do not get along whatever the construction, and a dishwasher leak ruins engineered and solid the same afternoon. Hardwood vs vinyl plank is the honest comparison for a house with dogs and kids.
A 400 sq ft living room, priced both ways
Mid-grade red oak, straight lay, over an existing plywood subfloor in a new house, no removal. Material is ordered at 10% waste, so 440 sq ft; labour is on the 400 sq ft you walk on.
| Floor | Material | Labour | Before HST |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solid 3/4 in. oak, nailed | 440 x $6.50 = $2,860 | 400 x $5.50 = $2,200 | $5,060 |
| Engineered oak, nailed | 440 x $5.25 = $2,310 | 400 x $5.50 = $2,200 | $4,510 |
| Engineered oak, glued over a slab | 440 x $5.25 = $2,310 | 400 x $7.50 = $3,000 | $5,310 |
| Engineered oak, floated over a slab | 440 x $5.25 = $2,310 | 400 x $4.35 = $1,740 | $4,050 |
Floating labour is $4.00 plus $0.35 for the taped poly under it. Add $150 delivery, $35 a transition and the baseboard to each line; the flooring cost calculator does that for your rooms. On a slab the real comparison is the third or fourth row against the first, because the first is not an option.
How many times you can sand it
A 3/4 in. solid board has about 1/4 in. of wood above the tongue, and a full sanding takes off around 1/32 in. That is five or six sandings before the nails show, and nobody sands a floor more than once every fifteen or twenty years, so solid is effectively a hundred-year floor. Engineered depends entirely on the face: a 2 mm veneer takes a screen-and-recoat and no real sanding; 3 mm takes one; 4 mm takes one or two; a 6 mm sawn face takes two or three and is as good as solid for practical purposes. The wear layer page has the numbers and the warranty fine print. Refinishing is $3 to $8 a square foot when it is possible, which is a lot cheaper than a new floor, so the count matters more than the salesman lets on.
Where homeowners go wrong
- Solid hardwood in a basement because it was on sale. It cups by the first summer. Engineered over a tested slab, or vinyl plank.
- Buying engineered because “it never moves” and skipping acclimation. It moves less, not never. The 5 to 7 days apply to both.
- Paying solid money for a 2 mm engineered veneer. At $8.00 a square foot you should be getting a 4 mm or thicker face. Ask for the wear layer in millimetres, in writing.
- Choosing a 7-in. solid plank for a house with forced-air heat and no humidifier. Wide solid plank in an Ontario winter is a gap-and-cup machine. Go engineered for anything over 5 in., or buy a humidifier with the floor.
- Assuming the price difference is bigger than it is. Nailed over plywood, solid is $1.25 a foot more. The savings with engineered are real on a slab, where solid was never going to work anyway.
Questions people ask
Is engineered hardwood cheaper than solid?
Mid grade, $5.25 against $6.50 a square foot for material and the same $5.50 to nail either down, so $10.75 against $12.00 installed. Premium engineered with a thick sawn face costs more than mid-grade solid. The grades matter more than the type.
Does engineered hardwood look fake?
No. The face is real wood, sliced or sawn from the same log the solid boards come from. From standing height you cannot tell them apart, and from a chair you still cannot. The giveaway is the edge of a board where it meets a vent, where you can see the plies.
Can you put solid hardwood on concrete?
Not directly, and not below grade at all under the NWFA guidelines. Above grade you can build a plywood subfloor over the slab, or glue down a 5/16 in. solid product some makers approve for it. By the time you have done either, engineered glued to the slab was cheaper and safer.
Which is better for resale?
Buyers and appraisers in Ontario say “hardwood” and mean either. A quality engineered plank in a current colour sells a house better than a tired solid strip floor in 1990s gloss. Condition and colour beat construction.
Which is better with radiant floor heating?
Engineered, glued or floated, with a product approved for radiant in writing and the house kept between 35 and 55% relative humidity; the sheet caps the surface at 27 to 29 C. Engineered over radiant covers species, widths and our own slabs.
Price it for your floor
The flooring cost calculator prices solid, engineered nailed, glued or floated, room by room, with removal, prep, stairs and HST. If you already have quotes for both and they do not line up, the $99 quote review reads them against these numbers.
Sources and further reading
- National Wood Flooring Association: the installation guidelines every hardwood warranty points to: subfloor flatness, moisture limits, acclimation, fastening schedules and the radiant-heat chapter.
- Mirage Hardwood Floors: Quebec-made solid and engineered hardwood; their installation guides give the moisture, acclimation and radiant limits in plain numbers.
- Torlys: Canadian maker of engineered, vinyl and laminate floors; the installation and radiant-heat instructions are a good example of what the sheet in the box says.
