Engineering board and parquet board - what is the difference?

People who plan to make repairs in their home often face a difficult choice of the best flooring option. They are interested in what is an engineering board and a parquet board, what is the difference between these two popular materials. Outwardly, they are quite similar, but, nevertheless, despite a large number of similarities, they differ in technical and operational characteristics. Having understood the design of each of these materials, having studied all their advantages and disadvantages, you can independently answer this question. This article will review these two materials.

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The main features of the floorboard

In fact, an engineering board is a parquet board, only the most advanced. It is a three-layer product, and all the layers in it are arranged so that all the fibers in them are directed to each other perpendicularly. Due to this design, it is possible to provide special strength to the floorboards, they will be maximally resistant to changes in temperature and humidity.

To find out the difference between an engineering board and a parquet, let's first examine the structure of a parquet product:

  • Front layer. They make it, in particular, from expensive tree species. As a rule, these are thin lamellas 1-4 mm thick. In the production process, this part of the board is treated in different ways: tinted with tinting varnishes, impregnated with oils, brushed. To protect these thin lamellas, to extend the service life of products and increase their wear resistance, multilayer varnish coating is performed at the plants.
  • Middle layer. It is a slats that are laid perpendicular to each other. They are made from coniferous wood. These slats have a thickness of 8-9 mm. It is in this layer that the locking joints of the boards are cut, due to which the installation of the floor is greatly simplified and accelerated.
  • Bottom layer. They make it from solid wood materials. Softwoods are most suitable for this. The base, as a rule, has a thickness of 1.5 mm. Due to this, the design is not much heavier.
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Features of engineering boards

The main difference between an engineering board and a parquet board is that this product can consist of both three and two layers. The basis of such products is moisture resistant multilayer plywood. Due to the fact that plywood consists of glued layers, all fibers of the material are located in a mutually perpendicular direction, a sufficiently high level of strength and geometric stability of the floor covering is ensured.

A two-layer engineering board has the following structure:

  • Upper layer. It is a lamella made of valuable wood, which have a thickness of 4-5 mm. Due to such a difference in thickness from the parquet coating, the possibility of performing better surface polishing, which in no way affects the performance of the floor, is increased. In terms of protection and surface treatment, there is no difference between the two materials.Oil impregnation, brushing, multi-layer coating with wear-resistant varnish are also used here.
  • The main layer is moisture resistant birch plywood. Naturally, such a base is significantly superior to a parquet board, because it allows you to mount the floor in rooms with a high level of humidity.

Directly in the plywood layer is the connecting mechanism of the boards, allowing you to combine them into one. More often use the principle of a castle connection or spike groove. The first fixation method is preferable, because it allows you to lay the floor without gluing to the base. Moreover, the floor can be disassembled and laid again in another place, since there are no problems with the replacement of damaged or worn-out elements.

 

The three-layer engineering board does not have a layer of battens, unlike parquet. It consists entirely of solid wood products made from hardwood. Such floors, as an upper layer, have an ordinary lamella made of valuable wood species. Each layer is laid perpendicular to the previous layer.

Important! Some manufacturers supply the market with three-layer boards, the base of which is made of valuable oak wood.

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The similarity of parquet and engineering boards

Engineering boards have recently begun to be equipped with a lock connection, before they were made with a tenon groove system, because of which they could only be laid with glue. To answer the question, an engineering board or a parquet board - which is better, first let's look at their main similarities. In fact, there are a lot of them.

Important! Both coatings externally after installation resemble a solid wood floor. Due to the fact that under the factory conditions the surface of both materials is subjected to protective treatment, it is not necessary to use oil or varnish after laying.

The similarity of parquet and engineering floorboards is as follows:

  • Both materials are robust multilayer structures.
  • To fix and join in a single whole all the floorboards, a lock connection is used.
  • Installation can be done in several ways - glue, floating.
  • Both coatings are harmless, environmentally friendly, which allows them to be used in bedrooms, in children's rooms.
  • Under the influence of sunlight, the products do not fade, over time, their operational characteristics remain at the same level.

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The main differences between an engineering and a parquet board

Despite the external similarity, you can highlight a lot of nuances to find out what is the difference between a parquet board and an engineering board. The differences between these two materials in particular relate to the features of their installation and basic characteristics.

The main differences include the following:

  1. Due to the moisture-resistant plywood base, the engineering board does not deform when the level of humidity and temperature jumps. Stable floors can be laid even in the wettest rooms, the main thing is that the top layer is made of moisture-resistant wood.
  2. Engineering boards can even be laid on a warm floor, equipped with a heating system. Deformation will not occur even with strong heating or cooling of the surface. It is worth noting that parquet can not be laid on a warm floor.
  3. Due to the fact that the top layer of the engineering board is slightly increased, it can be sanded many times to extend the life of the floor.
  4. Engineering coatings last much longer than parquet floorboards.
  5. Engineering elements can have a front layer of expensive wood, only single-lane, made of a solid solid lamella. But parquet boards can consist of one, two or three layers of strip lamellas glued from pieces of wood veneer.
  6. Parquet flooring is recommended to be laid exclusively by the floating method, since the glue version increases the risk of delamination of products due to the high voltage occurring inside the material.Engineering boards can be mounted by any method - it all depends on the type of connection lock.
  7. Laying parquet flooring necessarily requires compliance with the technological gap between the wall and the boards. Also in such places, special sills should be used. Engineering products can be laid without such gaps and the use of special sills.
  8. Parquet can be laid only by the deck method, but engineering coatings are spread in different ways - herringbone, squares, mixed or deck, French herringbone.
  9. Parquet boards cannot be made wider, otherwise - they are deformed due to changes in temperature and humidity. In contrast, engineering products can have a fairly large width - up to 30-45 cm.
  10. Engineering floorboards have a higher level of sound insulation than parquet. You can glue them directly on the screed.

Important! Floors that are installed without using glue can only be sanded with a special non-vibrating machine, which is quite expensive. As a result, the entire economic feasibility of this venture is reduced to zero.

As you can see, the materials have many differences, they are all quite obvious. Parquet boards are cheaper, but in terms of size, they are much worse than their engineering counterparts, and they are not particularly pleased with the variety of drawings. In this regard, the engineering board is richer, in addition, it lasts longer, but it is difficult to assemble and restore.

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The best firms for the manufacture of engineering and parquet boards

Today on the market you can find many variations of such materials, which differ both in their basic characteristics and very insignificant moments. To make it easier for you to decide whether parquet or engineering board - what to choose from the offered assortment, check out the most popular manufacturers of these materials.

The three best suppliers of engineering floorboards:

  • Floor floor. This company produces perhaps the most unusual floors. It was she who first demonstrated on the market products with longitudinal edges, not straight, but uneven, in the form of wavy lines. In fact, each detail is unique in its own way, it all depends on the uniqueness of the saw cut of wood and its pattern. Finding two identical trims from this manufacturer is simply impossible. Each panel receives an individual code, which allows it to be restored in the future according to the same parameters, in the same shade and with the same design.
  • Marco Ferutti. This Italian factory was originally engaged in the manufacture of modular flooring, Hungarian and French Christmas trees. Relatively recently, the company began to produce an engineering board, but in a very short time it managed to win the love of consumers. In just a few years, products of this brand managed to occupy a leading position in the modern market in quality. The main thing that distinguishes these products from their counterparts is the manufacture of the top layer from exotic woods, such as Burmese teak, merbau, American walnut, sucupira.
  • Global Parquet. The main specialization of this company is the manufacture of parquet, engineering, large-format and anti-deformation boards. Engineering panels are made from American walnut, oak, ash, teak. In addition to the standard two-layer products, the company manufactures boards that are not deformed due to the stability and reliability of all three layers of oak cut. The products of this company are more like an array, but they are much stronger. They are treated with varnishes and oils.

Rating of parquet board manufacturers:

  • Kahrs. Today it is the largest manufacturer of parquet boards. The history of this Swedish plant began more than 150 years ago. It can be called the best manufacturer of parquet. It was thanks to him that parquet appeared in general, which was able to replace type-setting dies, which were expensive.
  • Tarkett. This is another giant supplying parquet boards to the market.Its products are the embodiment of impeccable quality, a wide range of wood. Strength and dimensional stability is achieved by using high quality selected raw materials. The company was distinguished by the invention of locking elements for fasteners, it was she who began to produce slats with a locking system, which provides ease of installation and generally increases the speed of installation.
  • Upofloor. This Finnish company has established itself as a supplier of unusually stylish and practical varieties of parquet flooring. Her products are coated with six ultrathin layers of special acrylic and polyurethane varnish, which helps to increase the level of light and moisture resistance.
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Now you know the difference between an engineering board and parquet flooring, what similarities they have, so you should not have any problems with choosing the best option. And the given ratings of the manufacturers of these two materials will help to make a choice even faster in the conditions of the widest assortment on the market.

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