When we started The FloorHaus, we offered solid oak planks. They sold reasonably well. Then we got the first warranty claim, then the second, then enough of them to see the pattern.
Within 18 months we had stopped selling solid oak entirely. We will sell you engineered oak with a solid 4 mm top layer, which behaves identically underfoot but stays flat. We will not sell you a fully solid plank, no matter how romantic the appeal.
This is a short post about why.
What solid oak actually is
A solid plank is, as the name says, one piece of timber milled to the right thickness, usually around 18 to 22 mm. Beautiful material. Refinishable many times over the life of the floor. The choice every flooring traditionalist defaults to.
It also moves. Wood is hygroscopic; it absorbs and releases moisture from the air around it, expanding and contracting as it does. In a stable European climate that movement is small. In Dubai, with our 35 degree Celsius diurnal swings and the brutal dry-to-humid shift when air conditioning cycles, it is enormous.
What that movement looks like in your home, after a year or two: cupping (the edges of each plank curling up), gaps appearing between planks in winter, those gaps shutting hard in summer, and eventually splits down the length of a board.
Why engineered oak is the right call here
An engineered plank is built like a sandwich. The top layer is real oak, usually 2 to 6 mm thick. Beneath it sits a multi-ply core of birch and poplar, oriented in alternating directions so the structural movement of one ply is cancelled out by the next.
The result, in practice: a plank that looks identical to solid oak from above, feels identical underfoot, can be sanded and refinished two or three times, but does not move with the seasons. We have engineered oak floors fitted in Dubai villas that have been in place since 2018 and still sit flat.
The only honest argument for solid over engineered is the idea that a solid plank can be refinished seven or eight times rather than two or three. For a flooring brand telling customers their floor will last a lifetime, that matters. But it matters less than the floor being flat and crack-free during that lifetime.
The decision
We decided we would rather lose the sale to whoever still insists on solid than fit a floor we knew was going to fail.
If you want real European oak on the surface, structural stability underneath, and a manufacturer warranty that will actually pay out, engineered is the answer. Our engineered wood range is supplied to order with a 4 to 8 week lead time. Four colours, FSC-certified, fitted by our own crews.