Engineered Wood Flooring in Nairobi: Where It Beats Solid Timber

What engineered wood actually is

A real timber wear layer bonded to a plywood or HDF core. The top surface is wood, so it looks and sands like wood. The core is dimensionally stable, so it moves far less with humidity than a solid plank does.

That stability is the whole reason to choose it in Nairobi, where a solid board over a ground-floor slab has to contend with moisture from below and a wide daily temperature swing above.

The wear layer is the specification

Everything else is marketing. The wear layer is the thickness of real timber on top, and it decides how many times the floor can be sanded and therefore how long it lasts.

• 0.6mm to 2mm. Cannot be sanded. When it wears, you replace the floor.
• 3mm to 4mm. One or two light sandings. Reasonable for a home.
• 5mm to 6mm. Three or more sandings. Lasts decades.

Two engineered floors that look identical in a showroom can differ by a factor of ten here, and the price difference is smaller than the lifespan difference. Ask for the figure in millimetres and be suspicious of any supplier who does not know it.

Floating or bonded

Floating on an underlay, clicked together and not fixed down. Faster, cheaper, tolerant of minor subfloor variation, and it sounds hollower underfoot.

Bonded with adhesive to the slab. Quieter, feels solid, essential over underfloor heating, and it demands a flatter and drier subfloor.

We recommend by room and by slab condition. On an upper floor where noise transmission matters, bonded is usually worth the extra preparation.

What it does not fix

Engineered wood is more stable than solid timber. It is still wood, and it will still be damaged by standing water. It belongs in bedrooms, living rooms and studies, and it does not belong in a bathroom or a laundry whatever the brochure claims.