Solid Hardwood Flooring In Lancaster PA

Maxamus Projects LLC believes that hardwood flooring is one of the most beautiful and charming character features in a home. What is a beautiful kitchen with a dated linoleum floor? Or a grand staircase with old worn tile? Hardwood is what brings elegance, character, and simultaneously practicality to homes. It comes from trees that lived out their lives under sunny skies and rainy nights, enduring humid summers and frosty winters. Each plank tells a story of a tree that once lived and now their story continues in your home.

Engineered Wood Flooring

Unlike solid hardwood, engineered wood floors have birch/pine or other softwood layers in their core, but the top layer that is visible is the nice wood layer that gives it its name such as oak, maple, hickory, Brazilian cherry, etc. Typically this top visible layer is pre-finished with a stain and polyurethane. The core layers alternate grain direction from one layer to the next making engineered wood structurally more stable than hardwood. The wider a solid hardwood plank is, the more the hardwood will shrink in the winter and expand in the summer. Gapping may sometimes occur in hardwood in the winter as it shrinks, and this is perfectly normal. It is not the case with engineered wood floors. Thanks to the numerous core layers, engineered wood floors are much less likely to shrink and expand regardless of the plank width. Additionally, crowning or cupping is much less likely to occur with engineered wood floors.

Since engineered wood floors primarily use a less expensive wood like birch or pine as their core layers, it IS a less expensive product than hardwood. It is generally about 25% less in cost than hardwood but prices may vary significantly depending on the product. Due to its thin veneer layer, however, most engineered wood floors cannot be refinished. Therefore they usually have a shorter life span than solid hardwood floors.