Skip Navigation

Engineered vs. Laminate Flooring: Which is Right for You?


Engineered hardwood and laminate are both hard surface products made of multiple layers of materials and both can have the look of beautiful natural wood, but only engineered hardwood is made from real wood. Laminate is comprised primarily of a wood fiber core produced from recycled wood fibers, sometimes referred to as a high-density fiber (HDF) core, with an image of the desired flooring printed on top and coated with a durable wear layer. With the help of modern printing and embossing technologies laminate can be made to look and feel like wood, stone, porcelain or other flooring products while still having the same compressed wood-fiber layer. In contrast, the grain and texture you experience with engineered hardwood is the real deal, a layer of natural wood cut from an actual wooden timber. In some cases the core layer of engineered hardwood may also be a HDF core instead of layers of real wood or plywood, but the top veneer will always be real wood.