Choosing the Best Hardwood Flooring for Your Toronto Home: Engineered vs. Solid

​Why Engineered Hardwood Flooring is a Top Choice in Toronto

Engineered hardwood flooring offers the beauty of solid wood but with increased stability. This makes it particularly suitable for the Canadian climate. The plywood base layers handle humidity changes better than solid wood, reducing the risk of warping or cupping.
Plus, engineered hardwood flooring can be refinished, just like solid hardwood. This means that, even after years of use, your floors can look as good as new with a bit of maintenance.

When it comes to hardwood flooring in Toronto, engineered hardwood flooring stands out as a top choice. Its durability, resistance to climate-induced damage, and the wide variety of available species make it an excellent option for any home.
Remember, the best hardwood flooring is not only about the type of wood or the construction method. It's about choosing a floor that matches your style, meets your family's needs, and stands up to Toronto's unique climate. With the right choice, you can enjoy the beauty and warmth of hardwood floors for many years to come.

Homeowners in Toronto lately had been shifting their preference from solid hardwood floors, to engineered hardwood flooring. Why? There are many reasons for this shift. One of the main ones is humidity and climate. As we all know, with weather changes and humidity fluctuations, solid hardwood floors tend to shrink or expand, causing gaps in between the planks. Engineered hardwood flooring is more resistible to that fact, having a wider range of possible humidity in the house/apartment, as opposed to the narrow range for solid hardwood floors.  Also, as opposed to solid wood floors, engineered hardwood floors have different ways of installation. Solid wood floors require to be nailed to a wooden sub floor. Engineered hardwood floors can be glued down, nailed down, floated, and some of them even come with a click float system.
Also, engineered hardwood floors can be installed over concrete, and in apartments and basements without having a subfloor installed before.
The introduction of engineered hardwood floor solved a lot of issues that homeowners faced with hardwood floors such as the humidity issue, high installation costs when trying to install solid floor over concrete or in apartment, and more importantly, it adds more flexibility to your budget, making sure you can afford and enjoy new wooden floors at your place!

​Nothing increases value of a house in Toronto area as newly installed floors. By installing solid hardwood flooring you are actually investing money and will obtain benefits and advantages of your investment in the future. Hardwood flooring perhaps is most popular choice. Hardwood flooring is highly reliable, durable and long lasting flooring material. Hardwood flooring is also poses aesthetic benefits: rich and sophisticated look.
Regardless of your residence type (condo, apartment or a house) you cannot go wrong with the solid hardwood flooring installation. Whether you own a business venue or private residence, hardwood flooring installation will immediately increase an overall value of the entire property. In addition, there is eco-friendly hardwood flooring materials available. It is a healthy choice for both pet owners and parents. If you are looking for a long term investment into your property, hardwood floors probably would be a best option. It increases the value of your residence instantly and costs are paid off quickly.

In the last two years, we have noticed a new trend in Toronto in regards of the flooring colour. Grey! 
Almost every client is considering to put a grey coloured floor. It became one of the most popular colours, and not only with floors, but walls and stair cases as well. Some prefer more darker tone, others would prefer the lighter one, as long as there is grey. 
Below attached few grey toned flooring pictures for some ideas for your next flooring project! Purchasing hardwood floors in Toronto, and choosing its colours, is one fun process!

​Recently, a lot of our clients have been asking us about environmentally friendly hardwood floors, and how to make a purchase of hardwood flooring with the least damage caused to the environment. We say it is a great question. And our answer is simple: Use engineered hardwood floors.
 
One of the main concerns people have had with engineered hardwood floors is the claim that they are not real. Let’s get this claim straight: It is simply not true. The top layer of the engineered hardwood floors is made of real wood, (in some cases bottom too, for more expensive types), and the bottom (or middle) made of different layers of plywood.
This particular structure eliminates the full solid wood structure, which tends to waste more wood.
Also, that same-engineered hardwood floors has enough thick wood thread on top to be able to refinish it in the future.
 
So, next time you go to shop for hardwood floors, and worries about the environment, then do not hesitate to go for the engineered hardwood floors. It is durable, in some cases cheaper, looks exactly the same like solid hardwood, but better for the environment. 

After getting their new hardwood floors installed, one of the first questions that the homeowners usually will ask is how to properly maintain their hardwood floors. We admit, it’s not an easy task. Here are few tips how to properly maintain your floors so they will last decades:
 
* Any substance spilled on the hardwood floors needs to be wiped immediately in order to prevent future buckling and dryness to the spot where the spill occurred. Remember, water and hardwood floors do not work together well!
 
* The floors need to be moped or vacuumed at least ones a week or more frequent. Soft vacuum head (or soft brash attached to a vacuum head) is preferable. As for mopping, a special mop can be found in various hardware or hardwood flooring stores in Toronto. AVOID USING WATER! There are many cleaning solutions for hardwood floors!
 
* Furniture legs should be protected with the soft pads in order to prevent any scratches or severe damage due to the furniture weight or shifting.
 
* It is a good idea to use rugs in a high traffic area, around the kitchen sink or near the front door of your residence.
 
* If you decided to move your furniture, make sure you are not dragging it again the floor. The top layer could be scratch. (Lift the furniture or place soft material under the furniture in order to prevent any floor damage)
 
By following these simple steps, your hardwood floor should look brand new all the time and last for the decades it should last! Enjoy!

Engineered hardwood flooring falls in the middle between laminated flooring and hardwood flooring in terms of durability and cost. Although each of these flooring has its own pro's and con's, it would not hurt to gain as much knowledge of both flooring types. In terms of stability, engineered flooring beats its "competitors" in terms of stability, moisture and humidity resistance. Such advantages make engineered flooring more frequently installed in the bellow-level areas. Due to constant involvement and development of the engineered flooring structure, house owners does not have to struggle with the flooring installation in their basements and laundry rooms.
Since top parts of the engineered floors are made from solid wood, it is almost impossible to distinguish engineered floors from more expensive types of flooring such as solid hardwood flooring. In addition, during the installation process, piles are placed on each other, but in the opposite direction, which gives such great stability.
Over all, if the homeowner does not have any plywood base subfloor (concrete for example), and still wants hardwood floor instead of laminate, engineered hardwood flooring is the way to go. (It is also great for plywood subfloor)
​

We all know that downtown Toronto has many old and beautiful houses. However, an old house requires extra care and customization, specially with hardwood flooring. New  hardwood flooring is one of the first things to consider, since it is first thing a visitor will notice when entering your residence. That's why knowing about different installation options such as hardwood flooring installation, laminate flooring or engineered flooring installation is very important.
Nailing down the hardwood flooring  would probably be a great option for an older house, due to its durability, long lasting" lifetime" and sophisticated look. However, there is no limit in terms of house type or location. The cost, however, will be slightly higher; but hardwood floors would last for decades. If you have flexible budget you would like to allocate towards your hardwood floor installation, hardwood would indeed complement "rich" and sophisticated look of your house. In addition, there are variety of products currently available in the market that would allow you to take care and preserve healthy look of your hardwood floor.
Also, there are variety of wood types and textures you can pick from. You can also pick a stain (floor paint) that would create either natural look of the chosen hardwood floors or the one that will make it darker or lighter than its natural/original wood color. With the right choice of professionals, the hardwood flooring installation process will be a breeze. So all you would have to do is enjoy your new beautiful and solid hardwood floors for years ahead.

Grey and white colour tones of engineered hardwood floors are in trends today. Such colorus of the wooden flooring could complement a classic design, as well as contemporary and sophisticated modern decor. A home owner could benefit from  of pale, light colours of the engineered flooring, since it is visually enlarging living space and looks great when  exposed to natural light, such as sun blicks. Moreover, light tones of engineered hardwood floors could give a feeling of vintage, antique atmosphere within living space and highlight some characteristics of interior design. In addition, wooden floors that are painted in light tones are more practical in terms of cleaning, since the dust does not appear as visible, as it would appear on darker colours.
Wide planks of engineered hardwood floors is another trend within flooring market. Wide planks of wooden floors, especially engineered hardwood flooring  not only provide visual and aesthetic benefits to almost any living space, but also poses practical attributes to it. For instance, due to technological advances  of engineered hardwood floors, such high level of stability and durability, wide plans are actually provide more stability to the actual structure of the engineered flooring.
With the high awareness of the environmental issues, a homeowner could address such issues through buying an environmentally friendly engineering floors that are now widely available within flooring installation industry. Eco-friendly wooden floors, particularly engineered hardwood floors will be a safe and reasonable choice for any homeowner who are concerned with both, the environment and the well being of its family members. The options for hardwood engineered floors are almost limitless, it is can satisfy almost almost any personal desire in terms of design, look and technical features. ​

There are few ways how a person can install his hardwood flooring. Before choosing the hardwood flooring installation method, the installer needs to check the subfloor. If subfloor is concrete for example, then a glue down or floating installation of hardwood flooring would be good. If subfloor is plywood, a nail down installation would be a good choice of method.

​The nail down installation
This type of method is used primarily when installing a solid wood floor. This option requires that your home have either plywood or wafer board/OSB on the sub-floor. The name says it all. Nailing gives you a deck-like style floor. Generally speaking, whether you opt for a glued or nailed floor is a matter of personal preference, except for the rare cases when the wood type requires nailing rather than gluing. Using nails to fasten down the flooring is advisable in the case of hardwood with thickness of about 3/4 of an inch. Getting the flooring stapled down in place is just another type of nailing. The advantage of having your floor stapled down is the process is easier and much quicker and is vastly preferred.