Is hardwood the same as laminate?

Question

is hardwood the same as laminate? Do you ABSOLUTELY NEED underlayment when installing hardwood? Can you use underlayment meant for laminate on hardwood?

Answer 1

Ive found that many people, and even stores, will confuse the terminology somewhat.  To many... "hardwood" means any kind of wood flooring, but this is inaccurate.

"Solid Hardwood" refers to a piece of flooring that is made from a single piece of wood.

"Engineered Hardwood" refers to a piece of flooring that is made of 3 layers of wood.  It is as thick as "solid hardwood" and shares many of the same benefits, but tends to be more stable....less likely to warp, or cup, for example, because it is layered, like plywood.  It also costs less than "solid" hardwood flooring.

Both of these types of flooring often come 'unfinished', and are at least 3/4" thick

Then we have another 'engineered hardwood'.... which is often about 3/8" inch thick, and is layered like plywood, but usually has a wood veneer at the top layer, and often comes pre-finished  (Bruce flooring is a good example for all of these types).  This 3/8" inch thick material though, has only a veneer as the top layer... a very thin layer of the 'high quality' wood.  This makes it a much lower costing product up front, but,  naturally, it cannot be sanded down and refinished....you'd have to replace it instead.

After that are the 'laminated' products.... which usually refer to a flooring that has a high pressure laminate as the top surface layer (The same stuff you find on most countertops, by the way), as opposed to wood, or wood veneer.  These come in many sizes and styles... from 'wood look', to 'tile look' products.  You can get them with the 'snap lock' system, or more traditional tongue and groove that has to be glued into a floating floor system, or nailed/glued to the sub-floor.

So... hardwood is NOT the same as 'laminate'.  Some solid hardwood products COULD be installed with no underlayment, depending on how it is installed.  If you were glueing it to the subfloor, you would NOT want to use an underlayment.  If you were gluing it together as a 'floating floor', or nailing it to the subfloor, then you WOULD want an underlayment.  Underlayment does two things... it helps provide a moisture barrier, AND more importantly it helps the floor covering to be able to expand/contract seasonally as it needs to do.  For typical solid hardwood flooring... a 15 or 30 pound felt paper (like what you find under shingles on the roof) will work just fine.

"Laminated" flooring has some different pecularities, and the underlayment made for them is designed to help with some of this.... for example.... standard laminated flooring sounds rather 'hollow' when you walk on it.  It tends to echo pretty badly... so the underlayment made for it, is more often a thin  layer of foam, to help cushion it.  This type of underlayment is not necessary for a solid, or engineered hardwood floor.  (thicker product).  It 'might' be helpful under something like the Bruce 3/8 inch thick wood flooring.

Each manufacturer has its own requirements for what type of underlayment MUST be used with their product.  If you fail to follow their instructions.... its an automatic voiding of your product warranty.  So be careful... read the fine print, go online if necessary, and find what the manufacturer recommends, and use that.

Good Luck

Answer 2

No, they are different and installed differently.  You need to do some research on the pros and cons for each to see what best fits your needs and budget.