An analysis
of compatibility - the 3 layers, 15 mm thick, prefinished engineered
hardwood flooring plank versus the solid unfinished border (or medallions)
inlays.
In the above image left side there is a hardwood floor border inlay
piece, manufactured from solid wood, top-to-bottom, at a 10 mm thickness.
Borders can be produced in thicknesses that start from 6 mm (1/4 in.) up to
10-11 mm maximum. Only exceptionally they can be thicker (14 mm that
means 0,55 in). This border inlay is naturally
compatible with the solid hardwood flooring or with parquet flooring that are delivered as unfinished (no finish applied to the
surface). The installation of the hardwood flooring or parquet flooring with the
inlays are used with is done the traditional way: glue
down-sanding-finishing.
In the right side of the image we have a 3 layers
prefinished engineered hardwood flooring plank with 15 mm (3/5 in.)
thickness and a 189 mm width (cca. 7 1/2 in). This type of hardwood
flooring is composed from a sandwich of three layers: -at the top a 3,5 mm
(0,13 in.) layer made of Oak, in the middle there is a core of softwood
arranged transversally with reference to the top layer wood fiber direction - this accounts
for 9,5 mm (approx. 3/8 in.) and at the botton a layer of softwood 2 mm thick.
This flooring comes factory prefinished (with a layer of factory-applied
urethane/lacquer). Leaving outside any other considerations to install this
thin top layer with inlays is not feasible especially for reasons of the
thickness of the top layer. Our conclusion: incompatible with the inlays.