Engineered timber flooring is simply, solid hardwood timber glued over plywood.

It was developed to solve the stability issues that occur naturally in a solid plank of timber and is quickly phasing out solid timber flooring.

100% solid timber planks can expand/contact, twist/cup/dome over time and will result in higher costs of ownership long term with additional maintenance requirements.

CONSTRUCTION

Multi-layer solid hardwood sheets are laid 90 degrees to each other to prevent natural movements of timber due to changes in humidity and temperature.

When one sheet naturally moves with changes in the environment, the other sheet above and below fights this movement and prevents cupping/warping and expansion/contraction.

The plywood foundation can be made of various species of tree (usually plantation grown) and using different methods of construction.

The layers of base timber are either, ‘Poplar’, ‘Eucalyptus’ or ‘Birch’.

Birch and Eucalyptus are slower growing, harder timbers which provide the best stability.

Poplar timber is faster growing, hence is cheaper, but has less dimensional stability.

ADVANTAGES

Due to the dramatically improved stability of engineered timber, much wider planks can be produced 

Typical widths are between 190 – 220mm and can even go as wide as an impressive 340mm.

Solid planks are generally produced at widths of only 90 – 120mm.

Engineered timber is also pre-finished and very easy to install.

Traditional ‘unfinished’ timber flooring is installed, sanded, and finally stained. Then sealer is applied on site.

This is a labour intensive, time consuming and an expensive process. All of which involves delays in moving in and calls a halt to other trades while this process is happening.

Engineered timber however is stained and sealed in the factory, so it is ready to go out of the box and ready to walk on.

A 100sqm installation can normally be finished in 1 day (* there is a 12 hour wait for adhesive glue to dry before light traffic can use, 24 hours until normal traffic).

Installation is quite cheap in comparison and can installed by your builder/carpenter or DIY if you have the basics skills.

Milton Lane uses only the thickest solid oak veneers that are sawn (not peeled).

We only use the best hardwoods in the multilayer base (Birch & Eucalyptus).

* Milton Lane does not use inferior poplar timber or 3 layer construction in the base layers (multi-layer is the gold standard).

Veneer Layer:

4mm or 6mm sawn veneers are used that will last up to 100 years (based on each sanding & coating lasting 20 years).

Milton Lane pay a premium for wider timber veneers and supply a 220mm and 300mm plank (190mm is the common width sold in Australia).

Veneers are solid oak from German, Polish and French renewable timber plantations.

The oak trees have been in plantation for a minimum of 20 years and average 30 years of age.

Base Layers:

Typically you will find poplar used in base layers. This is a fast growing ‘hard’wood which is more porous than the Birch and Eucalyptus we use in our foundation layers.

Birch and Eucalyptus are much slower growing, dense hardwoods.

The result is a dimensionally stronger board that can handle moisture much better than poplar.

The glue used to secure the hardwood layers in our engineered timber is ‘Phenol glue’

Phenol glue has an ‘EO’ (E-Zero) emission rating.

This means it emits trace elements of voc’s less than 0.5mg/l which is 66% less than other glues commonly used.

Milton Lane sources only sustainable FSC certified plantation timber from oak plantations in Europe (France, Germany & Poland).