Can I Sand Engineered Oak Flooring?
9th Jun 2014 @ 16:21
One of the concerns we often encounter with customers purchasing engineered oak flooring is whether the boards can be sanded in the future.
Oak flooring may require sanding when the floor starts to show areas of wear and tear. A further reason for sanding may be to sand away the previous finish and replace it with a new finish. Whatever the reason there are a few factors which should be considered when sanding engineered oak flooring.
The thickness of the board is the first point to consider. A board of a thinner cut will of course have less sandings available than a board of a thicker cut. This same logic applies to engineered oak flooring. Engineered oak boards consist of a solid oak wear layer, which is connected to a plyboard base. The main concern of sanding engineered oak flooring for customers is the belief that eventually they will sand through to the ply-board base. Therefore it is important that the top wear layer is as thick as possible. A thicker wear layer will allow for more sandings than a thinner wear layer.
When choosing between thinner and thicker engineered oak boards, it is important to note that a thinner board will have a thinner wear layer. This thinner wear layer will mean less sandings are available. A thicker board will in result have a thicker wear layer, which allows for more sandings.
As mentioned previously the main concern of sanding engineered oak boards is that eventually you will sand through to the ply-board base. Although this in itself is unlikely, given the time it would take to sand through such a wear layer, this also leads many to believe that this makes solid oak flooring a more desirable option. This however is not the case as solid oak boards and engineered oak boards of equal thickness, will also have equal sandings available. This is because the distance between the surface of a solid oak board and its tongue, and the thickness of an engineered oak boards wear layer are often equal with boards of the same overall thickness.
If you would like to discuss the sanding of engineered oak boards further with us, please give us a call on 01538 304584.
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