ST. LOUIS, July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- During the past few years, many
 environmentally conscious consumers have been looking for ways to increase
 the environmental friendliness of the choices they make for their homes.
 One of the most eco-friendly flooring options available is engineered wood
 flooring.
     Engineered wood floors are real wood floors that are manufactured using
 three to five layers of different wood veneers. The layers are referred to
 as face ply for the top layer, core ply for the middle layers, and back ply
 for the bottom layer. Each of the layers can be of the same species, or of
 different species, but the face ply of engineered wood flooring always
 consists of high-quality wood. The grain of each individual layer runs in
 different directions, which is called a cross-ply construction process.
 This process makes engineered wood flooring very dimensionally stable,
 meaning that the wood will expand and contract less than solid wood
 flooring during normal seasonal fluctuations in humidity and temperature.
     Engineered floors can be nailed or stapled to a wood subfloor, or glued
 down to a wood subfloor or concrete slab. This makes engineered wood floors
 ideal for slab and basement installations, but they can be used in any room
 in the home.
     One of the best benefits of engineered wood flooring is that it
 requires less lumber to produce the final product. In addition, because the
 core and back ply layers can include any species, there is less overall
 waste.
     To learn more about the benefits of wood floors, visit the NWFA's
 consumer web site at http://www.woodfloors.org, and click on the "All About
 Wood Floors" link. You also can find a wood flooring professional in your
 area by visiting the "Find a Professional or Product" link.
     The National Wood Flooring Association is a not-for-profit trade
 organization of more than 4,100 wood flooring professionals working
 worldwide to educate consumers, architects, designers, and builders in the
 uses and benefits of wood flooring. The NWFA can be contacted at 111
 Chesterfield Industrial Blvd., Chesterfield, MO 63005, or at 800-422-4556
 (USA), 800-848-8824 (Canada), or 636-519-9663 (international).
     Contact: Anita Howard
     Communications Director
     anitah@nwfa.org
 
 

SOURCE The National Wood Flooring Association