How can I tell if my floor is solid wood or laminate??

[Tansie]

Concrete floored 17 year old 'estate' house so definitely not 'period'! I can see an exposed side of the flooring (short ends of the 'planks') by lifting the inset door mat. I should add the flooring is 'floating' as in it's laid on underfelt, on top of the concrete, like you do with laminate. This floor continuously covers most of the downstairs of the house. When looking at this exposed end I can see, there are no layers in the material, and the grain of the wood, if it is wood!- goes down through the whole depth of the plank. It is tightly pushed together tongue and groove, like you'd expect from this type of floor, be it laminate, engineered or solid wood; it's not 'click-together'. Each tongue and groove section is 260mm wide (no idea how long!) and each section comprises of smaller, oblong 'planks' of slightly different hued 'red' wood of varying lengths (but all 65mm wide) and 'glued' together to give a bit of a chequerboard effect. It's 10mm thick, and the sides of each plank are not chamfered, it's all dead smooth.

It's a dark reddish colour but has faded to 'blonde' with sun exposure in places, where the clear presumably protective coating/varnish has also broken a bit down and lifted around dints and scratches in the floor. Basically, I want to know if I can sand it back (solid or engineered) or whether I'm looking at a clever 'photograph' of wood! I'd've thought it was unlikely to be real wood but I'm not so sure.

Sorry I can't photograph- the one digital camera we have is on wedding duty abroad!

What still makes me think it's not 'real' wood is apart from some serious 'dropped furniture' (I guess!) dints, the surface is still in quite good nick but is old enough to have sun-faded, and to have the 'varnish' lift in places. Laminate wouldn't be varnished, as such, would it? But might have a surface, clear layer that might lift with age? However, it doesn't clack like laminate when you walk across it.

And finally- 'solid wood flooring' wasn't mentioned in the EA blurb when we bought 5 years ago but everything else that might add a bit of value was!

[PigletJohn]

"When looking at this exposed end I can see, there are no layers in the material, and the grain of the wood, if it is wood!- goes down through the whole depth of the plank. It is tightly pushed together tongue and groove"


Assuming it is 15mm or 18mm thick, and is ten inches wide, so I think it will be solid (but made of small pieces glued together) and you can sand it, but I would delay that, as it will be very dusty.

If you look in the sheds, you will see something similar. The boards are not usually so wide, though. Parawood is often made that way, it's quite a nice tropical hardwood, quite pale. As it is made from rubber trees in plantations that have been cut down, it seems quite eco-friendly. Far0eastern oaks are also done that way. You may recognise the grain if you look at some samples.

[PigletJohn]

just spotted it is 10mm thick, which is abnormally thin for engineered or solid.

When you look at the ends, can you see a different grain for each of the narrow pieces? It might help to wipe the end with a moist sponge. If you look carefully you should be able to see the ends of the boards. They might all be the same, about four foot long, or they may be much longer, or they may be varying lengths, but none over four foot.

[PigletJohn]

10mm thick sounds more like laminate

If you look at the whole floor, does the pattern of boards repeat itself, like wallpaper? Probably at intervals of about four foot?

[Tansie]

Hi Piglet, yes, each individual plankette's end has a different grain pattern. The longest continuous plank(ette!) is 900mm long but they vary in length, and as mentioned, all are 65mm wide.

It looks like this and is actually 12-13mm thick (more accurate ruler!). Wish mine were in as good a condition as the photo!

[Tansie]

Piglet! Was it something I said??

[PigletJohn]

I think, to be sure, you should measure it extra-accurately and go to a place that sells these boards to look at the thickness and the end grain of solid, engineered and laminate so you can match it to what you have.

[Tansie]

Thanks- I did nip into a store yesterday, in fact, and could clearly see the end of an engineered sample, and a laminate sample, but the 'solid wood' ones were all neatly framed, so I couldn't see the end of measure the thickness (I could have asked but the assistant was busy actually selling flooring! But the other two looked quite different to mine.

I'm thinking that in fact mine are solid, and am going to get a bloke in to quote on sanding it- he'll definitely know!

Thanks for you help.