Hallmark Floors hardwood products combines the ageless beauty and craft of hardwood flooring with state-of-the-art manufacturing. They harvest materials in harmony with nature. Hallmark wood floors are manufactured in a sustainable and responsible way. Great care is exercised in manufacturing to ensure a healthful living environment.
When you are required to choose hard surface flooring, you can go in for natural stone, ceramic tiles, and wooden flooring. If you choose wooden flooring for its warmth and natural beauty, you have a choice between solid hardwood, and engineered hardwood. Solid hardwood is made up of solid wooden planks cut to the desired length and width, while engineered wood is made of layers of hardwood and plywood.
Engineered hardwood is constructed of many layers of wood, with each layer positioned in different directions. This gives the engineered flooring of wood a strength in all directions and prevents it from warping or getting bowed, as solid hardwood will do in damp conditions. This construction makes it very tough and able to withstand high footfalls with a great degree of durability.
The topmost layer is a veneer of hardwood that gives it the look of solid hardwood, and makes it almost indistinguishable from it. Engineered hardwood can also be laid below ground level, if a proper moisture barrier is installed between it and the subgrade on which the floor is being installed.
Engineered wooden floors are easy to maintain and care for. It looks just like real wood and good quality engineered hardwood looks very much like solid wood flooring. Solid wood will expand and contract with differences in weather conditions, but because of the way it is constructed, engineered wood will never suffer the same effect. This allows it to be used even in kitchen and bathrooms, where moisture levels are high.
It is possible to refinish engineered wood, just as you would solid hardwood flooring, by sanding it. But this has a limitation due to the thickness of the laminate that makes up the top layer of the engineered wooden flooring. You can probably do the sanding once or twice in a lifetime. You can use different types of wood for the top layer, and this allows you to give your wooden flooring the looks that you find better for your interior decor. Wider boards reduce the number of joints in a floor, and make it easier to care for.
Engineered floors come in various styles and are relatively easy to install. They are made in sections and configurations that are easy to assemble together. It is cheaper than solid hardwood flooring.
Its construction allows it to be made in wider widths, whereas in the case of solid hardwood, you will require bigger trees for wider boards.
