What is a Wear Layer on Engineered Wood Floors?

What is a wear layer on engineered wood flooring? Sometimes it is called a veneer, or a wood veneer. The term is used across several different types of flooring, for instance, luxury vinyl planks have wear layers. But in this case we will be discussing the wear layer, or veneer, on an engineered wood floor.

Engineered hardwood floors are constructed by bonding multiple layers of softer plywood at different angles to make up the main body of the board. This helps to stop excessive movement under various temperature fluctuations and humidity, and is what makes engineered wood floors more versatile than solid wood floors in terms of where in the house you can install them. 

The Wear Layer

The wear layer is glued on top of the plywood, and would be a hardwood like Oak or Walnut. This is why engineered wood flooring looks identical to solid wood flooring when it is installed, because the floorboards will be glued or clicked together, and you won’t be able to see through the cracks, thus hiding the plywood. Wear layers on engineered wood floors can vary in thickness, usually between 2mm to 6mm. It is usually thick enough so that the floor can be sanded and refinished a couple of times, but after this the layer will be too thin to be sanded and refinished again, limiting you in scope to how many times certain spots can be repaired or refinished. Having said that, a well maintained engineered wood floor can easily last over 25 years.