February 18, 2020May 16, 2022

Engineered Hardwood vs. Luxury SPC Vinyl: Which is Right for You?

We are going to tackle an important question today: should you choose luxury SPC vinyl or engineered hardwood for your home? We are proud to offer many selections in both of these categories in a variety of colors. Let’s take a closer look at each of these kinds of floor so you can decide which is the best fit for your family.

First, let’s take an individual look at each type of construction.

Engineered Hardwood Floor

Graphic showing how Urbanfloor engineered hardwood is constructed — *Engineered Hardwood Construction*

Engineered hardwood floor is made of 100% natural wood and is constructed in multiple, cross-grain layers. The top layer, or wear layer, comes in a variety of species and colors. Each layer of the core is laid cross-grain, in different directions, and ensures that the structure is highly stable, with less expansion and contraction when it encounters moisture, humidity, and fluctuating temperatures.

Luxury SPC Vinyl

Graphic showing how Urbanfloor SPC is constructed — *Luxury SPC Vinyl Construction*

SPC stands for Stone Polymer Composite. SPC refers to the core of our luxury rigid core floors. This core is affixed to a premium foam underlayment. On top of the SPC core is the image layer (which gives the floor its fabulous wood-like appearance) that is protected with a clear wear layer and a UV scratch-resistant protective coating. This durable floor can be installed in any room – kitchens, bathrooms, and basements alike. Our Cascade SPC is 100% waterproof and designed to absorb impact and resist scratches. SPC is structurally stable, meaning that its resilient construction minimizes seasonal expanding or shrinking, and its rigidity helps to cover minor imperfections in subfloor.

Now that we have defined our terms, let’s see how these amazing different constructions compare.

1. Installation

Engineered Hardwood

Depending on the type of hardwood floor, and given the correct environmental conditions, engineered hardwood floors can be installed below, on, or above grade using many different installation techniques (including glue, float, nail/staple). It can also be installed over all types of subfloor (including wood and concrete).

Luxury SPC Vinyl

SPC planks may be installed over on grade, above grade or below grade concrete subfloors, wooden subfloors, and even over most existing smooth, single layer, hard surface or un-cushioned resilient flooring. With a glueless, easy click installation system, and an attached UrbanShield Premium Underlayment, SPC flooring can be very simple to install. It is easy to cut and there are no specialized tools required, our SPC planks click together for a fast and trouble-free installation.

Click here for detailed, downloadable installation guides for your specific flooring.

2. Design Options & Aesthetic

Engineered Hardwood

Modern engineered hardwood comes in a variety of species and design styles, from smooth finished maple to ultra-wide, wire-brushed European oak.

Luxury SPC Vinyl

Likewise, SPC flooring comes in a range of design options. Our SPC selections are complete with embossed grain which helps provide the look and feel of genuine hardwood.

3. Cost

Engineered Hardwood

Engineered hardwood comes in a wide range of prices from entry-level to premium. The price per square foot largely depends on the species, wear layer thickness, or width of the plank. Whatever kind of engineered hardwood that is selected, as it is constructed from 100% natural wood, it will add value and style to any home.

Luxury SPC Vinyl

SPC is cost-effective and generally at a lower price-point than most engineered hardwood flooring. It is an attractive option for many homeowners because of its resilience and ease of care.

Click here to find an Urbanfloor retailer near you who can assist you with pricing and purchasing information.

4. Longevity

Engineered Hardwood

Engineered hardwood, when properly cared for and maintained, can last for years and years to come. While some engineered floors can be completely refinished, it is not a guarantee with this kind of construction. Whether or not sanding and re-refinishing is possible depends on the thickness of the wear layer. Make sure to select a product with a thicker wear layer if you plan on sanding and refinishing in the future.

For those who do not want to go through the extensive sanding and refinishing process, a screen and re-coat is always an option for refreshing your floors. This process is much less intensive and does not require sanding of the wood. Instead, a screen and re-coat involves buffing the original finish and reapplying a new top coat to restore your floors to their original glory. This can be done multiple time throughout the life of the floor.

Luxury SPC Vinyl

SPC flooring is extremely scratch resistant, but not scratch or damage proof. If any large gauges or damage should occur, a plank replacement is a great, low-cost option. SPC floors can last for many years with proper care and attention. The best way to keep SPC floors looking as beautiful as the day they were installed and to get the most out of your investment is proper cleaning and care.

Want to know more about your Urbanfloor warranty? Click here.

5. Cleaning & Care

Engineered Hardwood

Today’s hardwood floors are quick and easy to maintain, and with a few low-cost cleaning tools and a little preventative maintenance, can look beautiful for years to come. In addition to maintaining a stable environment, engineered hardwood floor should be cleaned regularly. Simply sweep, dust mop or vacuum to remove dirt and grit. When necessary, engineered hardwood can be cleaned with a hardwood floor cleaning product.

Luxury SPC Vinyl

As SPC floors have a completely non-porous surface, they repel water – making clean-ups a breeze! Dust, dirt, and grit can be an SPC floor’s worst enemy and cause them to scratch prematurely. The faster they are removed, the less wear and tear to the floor. Daily sweeping or vacuuming is recommended to help keep them scratch-free. If the vacuum has a beater bar (rotating bristle brush), it should be turned off. Twice weekly washing is recommended to avoid buildup of dirt and debris.

Click here to view our comprehensive cleaning & care guides for both engineered hardwood and SPC products.

6. Summary

Both engineered hardwood and luxury SPC vinyl are fantastic options when it comes to updating the look and feel of a home. While neither is inherently superior to the other, each has different pros and cons that make one or the other a better fit for different families or lifestyles. Some may opt for SPC as it is DIY friendly, waterproof and extremely easy to maintain. Others may select engineered hardwood for the unparalleled warmth, beauty and added value that genuine hardwood brings to a home.

Whatever your preference, we have floor we know you’ll love. Click below to browse our entire catalog of products and order free samples directly from our website!

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February 4, 2020May 16, 2022

Urbanfloor at Surfaces 2020

It is a new year and we are excited to share with you some of our newest additions to the popular Urban Lifestyle, Villa Caprisi, and premium L’artiste collections. We were proud to show off our new beautiful colors at The International Surface Event in Las Vegas last week.

In case you weren’t able to make it to the show, here’s a few photos to catch you up on what you might have missed!

How stunning is the Timbertop Lifestyle Vail on the floor of our booth?

On this display, you’ll catch a sneak preview of one of our newest, unreleased colors in the Villa Caprisi collection.

The Timbertop Lifestyle Papeete came alive on this larger-than-life photo display.

One of the things we are most excited about as we begin 2020 is our Cascade architectural folder!

Our Cascade architectural folder features all 30 colors of our stunning SPC collection. Complete with samples, technical information, and photos, this binder is perfect for flooring dealers and designers alike.

Surfaces was a fantastic way to kick off 2020! Stay tuned for more information as we release all our exciting new products this year – we can’t wait to share them with you!

Want to stay up-to-date with product releases and other important news? Subscribe to our newsletter! Head over to www.urbanfloor.com, scroll down to the bottom of the page and enter your email!

Want to see more? Check out our highlight video HERE!

Note: If you are a designer or flooring dealer and would like to request a Cascade architectural folder, please contact us at (323) 890-0000 or email us at customerservice@urbanfloor.com.

December 20, 2019May 16, 2022

Color Corner: European Oak Renoir

Our L’artiste collection of engineered European oak is inspired by history’s most prestigious French artists. The careful crafting of each plank mirrors the intricate artistic process of some of the greatest painters ever known. With genuine European oak featuring elegant brushed detail, each handcrafted ultra-wide and extra-long plank is a work of art in its own right.

AESTHETIC & STYLE

The wire-brushed European oak Renoir mirrors the intrinsic warmth and love of beauty of its namesake. With a balanced and neutral color, this 8 5/8” wide plank floor will infuse into your home the same life and richness of feeling of Renoir’s most beloved works of art. Beautiful wood grain patterns are coupled with a state-of-the-art reactive stain, lightly bringing out the natural splendor of genuine European oak by creating color from within the wood.

Learn more about reactive stains.

The charming knots and mineral streaks on each plank are creations of nature as lovely and as purposeful as Renoir’s many works of art. Each genuine European oak plank of the L’artiste Renoir is elegantly wirebrushed to highlight its natural grain and completed with a pristine UV-oil matte finish – harmonizing old-world style and contemporary design.

STRENGTH & DURABILITY

The Renoir’s strong 8 5/8″ wide planks are able to withstand heavy foot traffic. Its intricately wirebrushed texture make this floor a great option for families with children and pets. The L’artiste collection is backed with Urbanfloor’s lifetime structural and 50-year finish warranty (see warranty information here for more details). As a result, you can choose the Renoir with confidence that its elegant style will be around for years to come.

SAFETY STANDARDS

We ensure cleaner air for your family. In accordance with our company’s values, all our engineered wood flooring is proudly FloorScore certified and the European oak Renoir is no exception. FloorScore certification is a voluntary, independent certification program that tests and certifies that hard surface flooring and the materials that they are made with are in compliance with stringent indoor quality emissions.

What do you think? Is the Renoir right for your home? View the Renoir here.

Photos courtesy of Avante Garde Floors & DC Fine Homes

November 14, 2019May 16, 2022

Creative Hardwood Application // Katie Kurtz of Adorned Homes

We have another special treat for you today! Multi-talented Minnesota based designer and real estate extraordinaire, Katie Kurtz, thinks outside the (flooring) box when it comes to design. Read below to see what she did with some creative thinking and a few extra boxes of our European Oak Grigio!

Creative Application: Wood Floors Don’t Have To Go On Floors!

In our most recent project, we added a statement wall in the home office and then re-imagined the typical use of wood floors. The home has 3 wood tones already; light wood floors (Urbanfloor Chêne “Grigio”), grey oak cabinets, beams and fireplace mantel plus the white enameled trim. As a rule of thumb I don’t suggest doing more than 3 wood tones in a home so I didn’t want to introduce another wood color and came to the conclusion that matching the floor would look amazing! The Chêne collection is made to be used as a traditional floor application but having a handy husband who can make anything we were able to create a herringbone pattern and apply it to the wall in the office!

You will always, always find me recommending wood flooring to my clients! In the past years LVP has become very popular but I’m still a wood girl through and through. I might budge for a laundry room or bathroom:)!

Even though we created our own pattern, Urbanfloor DOES have a chevron pattern that makes install much easier! Timbertop, which is their chevron (very similar to herringbone), is a pre-done patterned floor that comes in 4 colors and is amazing! Being the matchy designer that I am we decided to tackle the pattern using the Chêne flooring product that we used on our floors so it matched perfectly!

We prepped the wall with 1×1 strips which creates a strong base to attach the wood planks to. Each box comes with multiple lengths to create interest and variation in the floor but for a herringbone pattern each plank has to e the same length. We decided on a size for each plank, we went mid size of the standards in the box to eliminate the most waste, and then went to town!

Two aged brass Hudson Valley picture lights were installed to finish off the look and I have a whole plan in place for the styling of this wall. Final styling and photos still to come so stay tuned but what do you think? We think it’s pretty awesome!

For your home projects, think outside the box. A cove ceiling with a wood plank floor would be amazing, or a backsplash behind a coffee bar! Options are endless, go on with your creative selves and have fun!

– Katie Kurtz, Adorned Homes

Want to see more of what Katie is up to? Click here!

August 20, 2019May 16, 2022

Urbanfloor Partners: construction2style

Welcome back to the blog! We have a special treat for you today – one of our favorite teams of interior designers/builders/amazing individuals, construction2style, are sharing some of their design wisdom and experience working with our floors!

We are construction2style, a team of four based in Minneapolis, MN that was started by husband and wife, Jamie and Morgan, back in 2012. Our company started as a DIY blog and has since evolved into a full service design + build interior residential and small media company. For over five years, we have been tearing houses apart and creating new happy spaces, not only for our clients, but within our own homes. We document everything on our blog from tutorials on the construction side, to how to build a website, to how we built and continue to build our brand.

A few years ago, we got connected to Urbanfloor and we’ve absolutely loved getting to work with this company and the kind humans who run it. Their products are top-notch, their customer service is amazing, and they have so many options from engineered wood to SPC.

Over a year ago, we remodeled our kitchen that really kicked off our firm partnership with Urbanfloor. They were open to any feedback and had any extra items we forgot and needed to us within days! When Jamie and Topher were installing the floor, they said it was a really easy process as well and we documented a full tutorial here.

After having dark floors in our prior home, we knew that we wanted to go lighter. With crazy kids and all. With the help of the team from Urbanfloor, we chose the Lambrusco, European oak.

The planks are 7.5” wide with a wire-brush texture and have a light, creamy wood hue. This flooring was the perfect combination of lightness we wanted, plus texture and deeper tones that makes our home feel cozy and warm.

We knew we wanted to continue the same flooring into the dining room and music room off the kitchen to keep the look consistent throughout. In our dining room, these light floors are a great base for the white trim and gray walls.

With this flooring in our home for the past year, it has performed really well, even with two toddlers, Minnesota winters, lots of traffic in and out. We love it so much that now we’re continuing it into our living room. And did I mention our kids ride their bike in our home nonstop? And not one visible scratch.

With our client projects, we have been seeing a shift to lighter wood tones. Whether in cabinetry, floating shelves, or wood flooring, white oak has been a major player in the remodeling world. In this main level remodel, our clients loved our Lambrusco floors so much that they wanted them in their own home.

Engineered flooring is a great alternative to solid wood flooring for the lower price point and durability. With Urbanfloor, they carry a lifetime structural warranty and 35 year finish warranty, which gives our clients peace of mind and makes these floors a material we highly recommend for our remodeling projects.

Another trend we’re seeing in the remodeling world is the want for waterproof and scratch-proof flooring. A majority of our clients have pets and young kids, so having durable floors is a big priority for them. We also live in Minnesota where it snows for half of the year, so the waterproof aspect saves the floors for years to come.

In this kitchen remodel, we installed Urbanfloor’s Cascade SPC flooring and since this flooring is non-porous, it makes cleaning and maintenance easy. When clients are wanting a floor that can continue throughout their home, we always recommend SPC. It not only is easy to clean, but it looks amazing too!

That’s just a few of our favorite projects that we’ve recently done using Urbanfloor and we can’t wait to keep incorporating more and more!

-construction2style

Love what you see? Click here to see more of construction2style’s work!

June 3, 2019May 16, 2022

Color Corner: European Oak Morisot

We are back to highlight another stunning hardwood floor! This time, we’re shining the spotlight on a beautiful almond-toned selection from the L’artiste collection, inspired by history’s most prestigious French artists – the Morisot.

Berthe Morisot, a French Impressionist painter, focused her painting on a variety of different subjects. From pristine landscapes to portraits and domestic scenes, her paintings were the work of careful, diligent study. From her watercolors, charcoal drawings, oil paintings, and more, each stroke of her brush or dash of her pencil was a focused act of inspiration.