Engineered Wood, an Eco-Friendly Option

St. Louis, MO, July 13, 2007--During the past few years, many environmentally conscious consumers have been looking for ways to increase the environmental friendliness of the choices they make for their homes, according to the National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA). The association says that one of the most eco-friendly flooring options available is engineered wood flooring.

The associations said engineered wood floors are real wood floors that are manufactured using three to five layers of different wood veneers. The layers are referred to as face ply for the top layer, core ply for the middle layers, and back ply for the bottom layer. Each of the layers can be of the same species, or of different species, but the face ply of engineered wood flooring always consists of high-quality wood. The grain of each individual layer runs in different directions, which is called a cross-ply construction process. This process makes engineered wood flooring very dimensionally stable, meaning that the wood will expand and contract less than solid wood flooring during normal seasonal fluctuations in humidity and temperature.

Engineered floors can be nailed or stapled to a wood subfloor, or glued down to a wood subfloor or concrete slab. This makes engineered wood floors ideal for slab and basement installations, but they can be used in any room in the home.

One of the best benefits of engineered wood flooring is that it requires less lumber to produce the final product. In addition, because the core and back ply layers can include any species, there is less overall waste.

To learn more about the benefits of wood floors, visit the NWFA's consumer web site at http://www.woodfloors.org, and click on the "All About Wood Floors" link. You also can find a wood flooring professional in your area by visiting the "Find a Professional or Product" link.

Related Topics:Engineered Floors, LLC, NWFA Expo