There has been a lot of war of words about the contrast between solid wood flooring and composite flooring. Which one to choose, the most important thing is to look at personal preferences and economic conditions. If it is economically acceptable, I personally think it is better to choose solid wood flooring.
The following article by Mr. Lao Huo, founder of China Decoration Forum, compares solid wood flooring and composite flooring:
I have long wanted to write this article because too many people have asked me this question. But I am also afraid to write this article, because I am afraid of being the target of attack. Therefore, before starting the text, it must be stated that I am just an interior designer, not a seller of solid wood flooring, not a composite flooring industry, and not a pen container for both parties. If you have these doubts, you can stop reading.
Comparison between Solid Wood Flooring and Composite Flooring
Many people compare the floor is quite one-sided, of course, I wrote this article from my personal point of view, for reference only. Please advise on the shortcomings.
1. Controversy about arching.
Many friends choose composite floor instead of solid wood floor, because composite floor is easy to arch. In fact, the formulation of this problem is problematic. First of all, we should pay attention to an objective problem, that is, many people engaged in the decoration industry in the market now have no or no ability to seriously study this problem. In the early days of reform and opening up, quite a few wealthy families began to decorate, but the quality of the decoration team in the market was uneven. But solid wood flooring is a very arrogant thing, and not everyone can cope with it. So it has caused many such problems. Last week, the boss of a company came to me and said that his solid wood floor. The floor was laid at the end of last year, and it arched just after it was completed. As a result, everyone who decorated it ran away. It has been repaired three times by April this year, and there is only one phenomenon, that is, arching, so that even the door leaves can not be opened and closed.
I didn't go to the scene to watch. I just asked him something. I thought of this question as soon as I heard it. First of all, for the sake of beauty, there are no expansion joints on the floor. This problem obviously violates the laws of nature, because everything expands with heat and contracts with cold more or less, especially when the floor is laid in cold weather and is in a state of cold contraction. It is impossible to make the joints smaller for the sake of beauty and not arch when it is hot. Secondly, for the so-called fixation, a lot of glue is used. Here are some details. If it is a plain board, it is no problem to use white latex or 903 glue. The principle is to let the floor absorb moisture and arch first, and then polish it. It won't change. If it is a painted board, it is recommended not to drip glue. If you have to use it, you can only use a small amount of 903 glue, and you must never use white latex. At that time, the decoration company used white latex when it was made. Because white latex belongs to water-based glue, the moisture absorption of wooden floor is bound to arch.
If a professional camera is in the hands of a person who doesn't know how to operate it, it is even worse than a fool camera. But you can't say that professional cameras are not good, can you? The arching problem of solid wood floor is actually caused by operation or some plates with really poor performance, and a pole can't beat a group of people.
So, what about the arching of the composite floor? I don't think anyone has heard of any manufacturer talking about this problem. In fact, due to the problem of laying, although the composite floor will not bulge locally, it will bulge as a whole. Because the composite floor has no fixed point in the middle of the room, based on the laws of nature, it is inevitable that the composite floor expands with heat and contracts with cold. Therefore, many composite floors will feel soft when they walk, which is because of arching. 2. Disputes about wear resistance.
At present, when most manufacturers of composite flooring publish their wear-resistant data, most of the figures published are as high as 1000 rpm (of course, the revolutions measured by different institutions are not necessarily the same, and some say more than 5000 rpm). ) and when these manufacturers promote, the revolutions of solid wood floors are mostly 500 revolutions. In my opinion, any test should be scientific, any comparison should be objective and should not be generalized.
First of all, the comparison of revolutions should use products with similar wear resistance. In other words, choose the strongest or weakest on both sides to compare. I used to soak in the wood factory when I was a student. At that time, I found a good piece of wood in the warehouse, so I decided to make a pair of nunchakus. Later, when I was playing with a younger brother, a stick flattened its stainless steel stick. I want to put it another way, maybe I can accept it, because the surface of composite floor is objectively more wear-resistant than solid wood floor.
Secondly, the understanding of wear resistance. If it is only the wear resistance of the surface, I think there will be a small problem here. The wear-resistant part of the composite floor is only 0.8 cm (0.8 mm), while the thickness of the solid wood floor is 18 mm, which is four times that of the composite floor. So if everyone wears it together, I don't think we know who lost in the end.
Another problem is the problem of edge cracking. Although the surface of the composite floor is quite wearable, its corners are the most vulnerable parts. This is the first place where the composite floor is damaged after long-term use. Therefore, this kind of wear resistance is conditional, just like the Qigong "iron cloth shirt" we have heard. The secret lies in the cutting method of the knife. It doesn't hurt at all if it's cut head-on, but if it's cut and dragged at the same time, then the person who was cut must be bloody.
3. Disputes about maintenance.
In fact, as I said before, solid wood flooring is a rather arrogant thing, while composite flooring is quite convenient. Just like we wear clothes, if you are a person who likes to wear cloth, you will never understand why some people spend money on a leather coat and often go to the dry cleaners for maintenance. So this argument has no practical significance. Because of the use of solid wood flooring, you have to spend some energy. Who made you like gorgeous and comfortable people? Moreover, many people do not have the knowledge of proper use and maintenance of solid wood floors, and often exaggerate the workload of maintenance. In fact, for the composite floor, it also needs maintenance, just in different forms.
4. Disputes about waterproofing.
Once upon a time, I went to the building materials market and saw a composite floor vendor soak the composite floor in water during the exhibition, saying that it would not deform, and then said something about solid wood floors. In fact, this statement is not accurate, because we all know that in ancient times, even in modern times, the hulls of many ships were made of wood, and the statement that wood is afraid of water itself does not quite conform to the universal principle of the five elements. In fact, if you want to make the solid wood floor waterproof, the method is very simple, that is, you only need to brush six sides when painting, and the whole board is wrapped in paint. Is it possible to be deformed by moisture? Unfortunately, the current merchants of solid wood flooring have not used their brains in this respect. Of course, if the whole floor structure is not afraid of water, the first choice is to be waterproof all the way, which involves the budget problem. At present, under the situation of price competition in the whole industry, no one wants to add another process, not to mention that the whole floor is soaked in water. As far as I know, there is a kind of floor called Dalbergia (dark color) on the market. Because it contains grease, even if it is put in water without any treatment 100 years, it is estimated that there will be no change, so the two hours of composite floor may be dwarfed by comparison.
5. Controversy about environmental protection.
At present, environmental protection issues are somewhat abused. We know that the meaning of environmental protection is very broad. The first environmental significance of the composite flooring factory is that it doesn't need to cut down too much wood and save resources. Another layer means less pollutants (this means that the composite floor competes with the composite floor, which has nothing to do with the solid wood floor, because the solid wood floor itself does not contain any pollutants. If I had, I should have fasted a long time ago, because I can't use chopsticks anymore. The third environmental significance of composite flooring is that a considerable part of its raw materials come from waste recycling. Therefore, it is meaningless to use whether to cut down wood as a statement of environmental protection, because wood is a raw material used by human beings, and how to cut it is environmentally friendly. In fact, there are still many problems with the proliferation of environmental protection words, including attacking the theory that marble contains harmful radiation. As a decoration practitioner, I really sympathize with marble, an ancient building material. As we all know, marble is a natural product, just like wood. Today's strong radiators, such as uranium, are not made of pure natural materials, but artificially refined. The auxiliary radiation of marble is far less than that of the sun, which is the largest radiator in the world, and its light and heat exist in the form of radiation. Therefore, it is really necessary for manufacturers to explain the content of environmental protection when promoting. 6. Disputes about price
I think it's a matter of personal endurance. In fact, it takes time and a lot of cultivation to plant the raw materials of solid wood flooring. The unit cost itself is much higher than the industrialized composite floor. So the question of price depends on one's budget.
7. The composite floor is a commercial floor.
Many manufacturers are preaching that composite flooring is a new product in xx century, a trend in Europe and America, and so on. Actually? In Europe and America, few people will use composite floors at home. The earliest use of composite floor is commercial floor, which is mainly used for the decoration of shopping malls and shops. Office decoration rarely uses composite floors, but carpets are used more. So, who created this trend in Europe and America? I believe only the first statues know. Perhaps too many people in China have never been abroad, and some people who go out to drink some salt water always like to talk nonsense, saying that the moon abroad is always rounder than at home. Of course, this does not mean that the composite floor cannot be used at home, it is just an appropriate problem. Just like when we talk about knives, we naturally think of knives, right? Quot The word "killing people with a knife", the knife here is completely a weapon, but we can also cut vegetables with a knife at home. The difference is that the two uses of knives are well understood, and the composite floor makes some people blow into the only things left in the sky. After reading what I said earlier, everyone seems to think that I am maintaining the solid wood floor, but it is not. Because the manufacturers of solid wood flooring rarely promote their own brands, there is no decent alliance to speak on behalf of solid wood flooring, and there are too few voices in this regard. Personally, I think that whether it is a composite floor or a solid wood floor, it is reasonable to exist. Everyone has his own strengths, but we must never belittle each other with insulting attacks, and we must not abuse some inexplicable data errors to guide consumers. When writing this article, a customer called and said that a company recommended solid wood flooring to him, saying that their flooring was insured by PICC. I asked, have you checked what insurance the insurance company covers? If the insurance is that the solid wood floor will not fly from the ground and hit people, I think this risk is not guaranteed. Anyone who really knows will know that for personal reasons, including price, beauty, maintenance, etc., choosing any floor is the owner's personal freedom and right. Providing accurate and objective data to consumers is the responsibility of manufacturers and the requirement of law. I think what I want to criticize most is not the right or wrong of these two floors, but the attitude of the manufacturers.
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