Engineered hardwood flooring has a  thin hardwood veneer glued to a top surface of a core plank. The core plank is typically about six inches wide and about seven or eight feet long and a 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. The core plank is normally constructed with a cross-ply plywood, fiberboard, particle board, lumber board or OSB which incorporates a tongue and groove system to facilitate installation. The cross-ply plywood backer causes the layers to counteract each other's movements when humidity changes- creating a floor product that is dimensionally stable and doesn't have the expansion/contraction issues that solid wood flooring has with changes in humidity. Engineered flooring is available un-finished or factory finished where the veneer is sanded, stained and coated with a polyurethane or similar finish.

Engineered hardwood flooring provides the luster and beauty of hardwood floors, yet is typically less expensive and more convenient to
install than conventional hardwood floors. Engineered hardwood flooring is typically glued or nailed down, however; some wood flooring manufacturers produce engineered flooring that is floated over the sub-floor. In order to make floating engineered hardwood floors more comfortable to walk on and quieter, a foam underlayment is installed on the sub-floor before installing the engineered hardwood floor. It has been found that foam underlayments dampen floor vibrations, and reduce decibel level and duration of both low frequency impact noise (such as the sound of walking across the floor) and high frequency room noise. When used on a second story room, the foam underlayment also reduces sound transmission through the floor/ceiling into the room below.

Quality Engineered Hardwood flooring has the same resale value as 3/4 solid wood flooring if you ever decide to sell your home.

Engineered Hardwood floors range in widths from 3-7 inches wide and come in a wide variety of domestic and exotic hardwood species- some are even available in the popular hand scraped style. Some brands of engineered flooring have a thin wear layer that can only be re-coated and cannot be sanded and refinished new again once they get worn. Other brands or styles can have a thicker 2 - 4 mil thick wear layer that can be completely sanded and refinished 2- 5 times if they ever needed to be.

Engineered wood floors are manufactured two ways, one, where the top surface wear layer is Sliced/Sawn cut from the log like solid wood flooring is. Engineered hardwood flooring that has a Sliced/Sawn cut wear layer shows the truer natural look of the wood and finer graining. Sliced/Sawn cut engineered flooring also allows a thicker wear layer.