On 1 July, 21:46, Martin Carroll wrote:
I am looking at flooring to go over an UFH system and have come across a
lot of sites selling "engineered oak" as suitable for this purpose. *The
description of these floors however sound to me more like laminate i.e.
a sub layer (be it of oak or ply) covered by a top layer of oak of
varying thicknesses.

I thought that engineered oak was made by taking pieces of oak and
gluing together to form a piece less likely to warp. *This is certainly
how the "oak" patio doors I have installed is made.

Cheers

Martin
--
Martin Carroll

Engineered flooring has a surface layer of real wood on a man-made
board substrate (typically, plywood). It is laminated, but it is not
'laminate' in the sense of laminate flooring (which has more in common
with a high pressure plastic laminate like formica - layers of resin
and paper).

The real wood surface thickness in engineered flooring can vary from a
cheap veneer to a 6mm or so layer. In the latter case, the only
difference from solid wood is in the mind and in any snob value that
remains in saying you have a 'solid wood' floor. Once you've sanded
down a solid t&g floor by 6mm you've ****ed it anyway, as the tongues
will be showing (or at least the top overlap on the grooved side will
be so thin it will be splintering).

Because of the cross-ply layers in the substrate, they are much more
stable, which is why they are recommended for over UFH.