Engineered wood - top layer thickness?

[Shulaz]

My first post, and I'm looking for some advice! We're having engineered wood put in a bedroom (light oak), and throughout the ground floor (dark), and are not sure what top layer wood thickness to go for. I think we've settled on 4mm for the bedroom, but I'm wondering whether we should pay pay the extra for 6mm for the ground floor, as this will take more of a beating, and may need to be sanded and resealed in the future. This is our forever house, so I'm hoping to get many years out of them!

4.0 mm is a decent thickness. Ours is 3.6 mm in our drawing room and lounge. It is a decent make and we were told this could be sanded probably twice. However, I really did not buy it thinking I would ever do this work. We do not have it any highly used areas. Where we do have highly used areas, I have "limestone" ceramic tiles which have been amazing and very realistic at a fraction of the cost of the real thing and no upkeep needed.

If you go for the wood everywhere, get the lacquered finish or you will be forever sanding and renovating. Where you come into your house, consider ceramic or at least some way to keep any damp off the wood. This, and high traffic, makes it shabby very quickly, whatever the thickness.

Thanks Bubbles. Yes, we're going for a lacquered finish. I do like the look of an oiled finish, but not the maintenance it would involve. I'll have a think about the entrance areas.

I thought I wanted oiled - but, it's far more faff! I am happy with lacquered. We also have a large inset door "mat" at the front door. I think John Lewis cut them to fit but we had ours from a local guy. You could try this. It certainly helps keep winter yuk off the floor. Our builders made the well for the "mat" by edging the floor tiles and making a rectangular mat well that is about 1 inch deep. You could buy the "mat" first and ask the flooring people to leave the well you require. Depth and size to fit what you have purchased.

That's a good idea!