Reclaimed boards vs engineered wood

[Strawberryshortcake40]

Need to lay wood floor in my lounge. Due to age of property and lots of beams I was thinking reclaimed boards would look better? But I'm not sure how easy that will be to get fitted/finished and look after in comparison to an engineered wood floor? All the engineered wood I've seen seems to look slightly fake too when it's near real wood.

Anybody gone for reclaimed boards?

Engineered wood is real wood. It's just real wood put onto a kind of board sandwich that makes it strong and stops it warping near heat sources.

You can get all kinds of distressed 'new' engineered as well as reclaimed boards. The cost of new is often the same as the cost of the reclaimed!

Yes I know it's real wood, I meant more the flatness and uniformity when it's next to a rough beam. Had it in a very modern house and it was lovely. I just need something that looks like it's been here 200 years!

engineered wood is plywood, where the top layer is chosen to be smooth and attractive, and the bottom two layers are chosen to be very cheap, below the standard used to make pallets. If you look at the side of a piece, and compare it to good-quality ply, you will see the difference.

However, ordinary ply usually has a much thinner, or an unattractive, top surface, so will not wear as well, or look as good unless you spend extra time and effort beautifying it. Engineered can look quite good, but it is intended to look new, shiny and modern. It has to be laid on a firm, flat, sound floor that you won't need to take up for plumbing, wiring, insulation or damp for at least 20 years.

In your case, I think floorboards made of wood are more appropriate. If you can get reclaimed ones, you will save time if you can find a vendor or a local joinery shop willing to put them through a thicknesser (this is a machine that planes them so they lie down flat and even) on the underside. They should last for a hundred years or more, except they will wear into dips along traffic routes.

It depends what type of engineered you go for. Width and length of plank, type of wood, level of knots/grading, finish etc. If you look at different finishes and oils, planks rather than multi strip, rustic or character over prime grain, textured or distressed texture, different bevelled edging, hand scraped, wire brushed and so on you'll find a huge variety and no doubt something that'll fit what you want. I find my engineered wood much easier to clean than my reclaimed boards too and want to change my reclaimed boards at some point.

Your choice may also depend on moisture availability in the floor beneath. You may have to go one way or the other dependent on whether the floor is above or below and damp proof course.

In 2016 we had reclaimed wood floorboards installed in half our lower floor.

It is absolutely beautiful.

The boards came delivered on a pallet and we had them put inside one of the rooms to adjust to our house temperature and moisture.

The builder then installed them on top of the house's original boards (which were a mixture of boards and replacement wood.
When he was finished we hired someone to sand and seal them. We used an eco-friendly German sealant in low gloss finish.

Go for the reclaimed boards! Some of ours come from an abbey. Our builder picked the more beautiful / contrasting boards for prominent areas.

We are saving up and will put reclaimed boards throughout.

Ahhh, I see what you mean.

As a PP said, check your floor type, as this could swing it. Also, if you're intending to have a powerful heat source like a log burner, this could swing it one way.

We have a log burner but it's not that big or effective. Under our floor at present is earth apparently. I'm guessing some form of boarding under the carpet.

In that case you definitely need to check on what would be suitable. You don’t want your gorgeous new floor lifting, twisting or distorting because of the natural passage of water in and out of your home through the earth floor.

I hope you mean that there is a ventilated void under the floor. If it is laid directly on the earth with no ventilated void then you need to take it up and do it properly.