How to choose wood flooring in Hong Kong?

Moisture is real wood floor’s natural enemy. Hong Kong’s humid climate, coupled with moisture condensation from air conditioning, means moisture is often found on floors and walls. Once moisture penetrates into the floor, it can cause hardwood flooring and wooden flooring to swell. Once it swells, it is very difficult to restore the hardwood flooring or wooden flooring to its original beauty.

Quality hardwood or wooden flooring should last for decades. The last thing you want is to change your hardwood flooring every few years. Therefore, it is important to understand the material and characteristics of each flooring type before decorating your home. This guide will walk you through the pros and cons of three of the most popular hardwood flooring and wooden flooring options on the market, helping you find the most suitable floor for your home.

Common Types of Flooring

Engineered Hardwood Flooring

Engineered hardwood flooring looks no different from solid wood flooring. Engineered hardwood flooring can be divided into two categories: one is a 3-layer structure, with the top surface layer being real natural solid wood, natural softwood in the middle, and quarter-cut plank at the bottom; the other is constructed with natural solid wood on the top surface with a multi-layer composite plywood structure underneath.

The two types of floors are stacked at a 90-degree staggered arrangement in each layer, which can restrain each other and strengthen the stability of the floorboard. This effectively reduces arching, warping, or deformation caused by humidity and moisture.

Top layer: 100% natural solid wood, usually made of hardwood. Because this product uses much less hardwood, it is relatively more environmentally friendly than solid wood flooring. One piece of solid wood floor can be made into six three-layered engineered flooring planks.

Middle layer: Natural softwood, usually made of horizontally cut spruce, giving the floor higher stability.

Bottom layer: Quarter-cut plank, which makes the floor less likely to deform and provides high moisture resistance.

Engineered wooden flooring not only retains the appealing aesthetics of solid wood and hardwood flooring, but it is also the most environmentally friendly option among the three types of floors. Its 3-layer veneer texture is composed of straight, horizontal, and quarter-cut planks to form a stabilising force that secures the floor. The structure is stable yet flexible at the same time.

Solid Wood Flooring

Solid hardwood flooring is a floor material made of long wood planks that are dried and processed from solid hardwood materials, or logs. The surface layer is generally protected by PU paint or UV paint. There are concave and convex grooves on the edge, so when installing this type of floor, each plank can be locked together. It is recommended that solid wood flooring is installed by professionals.

There seems to be a type of flooring on the market called laminate flooring in Hong Kong. How does it differ from the other two types of flooring mentioned above?

Laminate Flooring

Laminate flooring, also known as fiber flooring, is primarily made up of high-density fiber. It is a board made of plant-fiber raw materials, usually by printing wood grain on the top layer. The surface is then covered with a hardened resin which mainly consists of aluminum oxide and melamine, helping strengthen its outer durability. Laminate flooring is applied with a seamless and glue-free lock-up design, which makes installation easier.

Comparison of 3 Common Types of Flooring in Hong Kong

What Is the Difference Between the Three Types of Floors in Terms of Appearance?

Engineered wooden flooring is made of 100% wood raw materials. The top surface layer is solid and has natural wood grains. The middle and bottom layers are also made of natural woods of different nature and properties to create a stable structure. Additionally, engineered wooden flooring is generally wider and longer than the other two floors.

Solid wood flooring is a 100% natural wood product, so the surface of the floor retains the original texture and colour of the wood. Solid wood flooring is available in a variety of colours and wood choices.

Good quality laminate flooring looks like solid wood and hardwood flooring on the outside, but in actuality is not real wood. Today’s technology can imitate a variety of wood textures, and some can even create embossed surfaces and crystal surfaces, giving the synthetic floor a more wood-like texture.

How Do These 3 Types of Floor Resist Moisture?

Engineered wooden flooring is the most resistant to moisture

Engineered wooden flooring performs relatively well in moist areas among the three, thanks to its three-layered or multi-layer structure which prevents it from warping and provides high stability.

Hong Kong is particularly humid in spring and summer. Coupled with the large temperature difference after switching on and off the air conditioner, moisture condensation will likely occur. Therefore, it is crucial to choose wooden flooring or hardwood flooring with high moisture resistance.

If you want to install solid wood flooring or hardwood flooring, you must beware that the degree of expansion and contraction of the solid wood cannot be predicted. Humidity may ultimately cause deformation and warpage of the solid hardwood, especially in wet areas or places near the shore.

Although the laminate surface of seamless flooring has high water resistance and stain resistance properties, when water or moisture enters the layers between the boards, it will cause the edge of the floor and the core of the fiberboard to swell and chip, which is difficult to repair.

How to Clean and Maintain These 3 Floors?

For engineered wooden flooring, professional parquet floor cleaners and regular application of wooden floor maintenance polishing can effectively maintain the floors. Engineered wooden flooring can be sanded and repaired 1-2 times. If the solid wood layer on the floor is thick, it can even be repaired 2-3 times.

The cleaning and maintenance methods of solid wood floors are the same as engineered wood flooring. Although solid wood flooring has the longest lifespan among the three types of flooring, it is easy to deform under improper maintenance.

The surface of the laminate floor is made of plastic, which is easy to wipe clean. However, laminate flooring cannot be repaired. When the floor is seriously damaged, it can only be removed and replaced.

With the analysis and comparison of the three floors, we hope you will find the best flooring for your home that is suited to your budget, Hong Kong’s climate, and your maintenance preference.

If you want to know more about hardwood flooring or wooden floors, please visit www.equalhk.com, call +852 2881 7066, WhatsApp +852 9830 9632, or email info@equ.com.hk.