About Exotics The allure of exotic hardwood lies not only in its beauty, but in the value it adds to the home. Read More  Collections Elegant Exotic Sonoma American Heartland Artistic French Patina  Installation & Care Floor Care Tips  Instructions Solid Engineered  Warranty Click to view Warranty

Choosing Your Perfect Hardwood Floor Ark offers two different hardwood flooring constructions... Engineered and Solid. While much ado is made about the advantages of one over the other, the fact is that both are equally beautiful, and in most situations, equally long lasting. We offer a lifetime structural guarantee and a 25 year finish guarantee on both constructions (see warranty for details). Here is an quick overview of the key differences between the two constructions. Solid Construction This is just what it sounds like. Each plank is a single 3/4” thick, solid piece of your chosen species of wood, topped with multiple layers of our protective polyurethane finish. Solid construction can be sanded and refinished if necessary and for this reason is often the preferred choice of homeowners particularly worried about long-term damage to their flooring. Engineered Construction Here each plank is created using five layers of natural hardwood laminated “cross-grained” to each other. This base is then topped with a premium layer of your chosen hardwood species and multiple coats of our protective polyurethane finish. This construction counters wood’s natural tendency to expand and contract with seasonal temperature changes. It also gives our floors unusual resistance to warping and buckling (we guarantee it). Engineered flooring is your best choice for any area at risk for moisture, particularly installations over concrete or “below grade” (ground level). Engineered floors are also generally thinner than solid. This has little impact on floor life, but it can minimize the height differential between your new floor and the other floors around it.