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hardwood floors


Posted by Henry in MI on April 8th, 2004 06:35 AM
In reply to hard wood floor repai by kyle lucas on April 8th, 2004 01:38 AM [Go to top of thread]

Real hardwood and plywood are different. Real wood responds to changes in humidity by expanding and contracting across its width. Engineered wood does not move in the same way because the glue that holds the cross grain plies together limits the movement. What movement there is in engineered wood goes into expansion and contraction of the total surface. That is why an engineered floor has a pad under it to allow the movement and you lay this kind of floor with a large gap around the perimeter that is hidden under the base molding.

Since your solid wood will move but may be limited by the position of the piece next to it, it will crush the fibers of the weaker of the 2 pieces and create a permanent gap. Filling this gap with something harder than the wood will just cause more crushing of the fibers. You could fill the space with something softer but that will stick up when the boards want to be wide and sink when they want to be soft. There is nothing made specifically for this and color would be a problem.

If you use natural materials like wood, you have to expect them to behave in their natural way. Man made materials, like vinyl, do not have the same characteristics and the characteristics that they have are more easily dictated than those of natural products.

Henry in MI

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