How Much Weight on an Engineered Floor?

Engineered Flooring Basics

• Engineered flooring has a veneer of hardwood glued onto a core of hardwood, plywood or high-density fiberwood (HDF). The flooring has the appearance and load-bearing characteristics of the veneer. Engineered flooring with a veneer of flexible wood with a high MOR tends to bend under weight. Flooring with a veneer of brittle wood with low MOR will break under lighter loads.

Engineered Flooring MOR

• The lightest MOR of the four hardwoods typically used to make engineered flooring is maple at 10,700 psi. The MOR of white oak is 15,200 psi and cherry is 12,330 psi. The strongest, red oak, has a MOR of 14,300 psi.

Other Engineered Flooring

• If your engineered flooring is made with another hardwood veneer, check the MOR ratings of the hardwood to find how much weight the flooring will bear. Some hardwoods that may be used to make engineered flooring are royal mahogany with a MOR of 11,100 psi; Douglas fir, 12,400 psi; cambara, 12,800 psi; bloodwood, 12,900, birch, 15,570 psi; acacia, 17,500 psi; kempas, 17,700 psi; Brazilian cherry, 19,400 psi; and tigerwood, 20,120 psi. Engineered flooring made of woods with high MOR ratings are generally more expensive than those with a lower MOR because they cost more to manufacture.

Janka Test

• A measure of engineered flooring toughness that is in some ways similar and other ways different than MOR is the Janka test, which measures the ability of a hardwood to withstand dents and wearing. The Janka hardness rating is the amount of force needed to drive a 0.444-inch ball half its width into the surface of wood. Douglas fir, the easiest to dent, has a Janka rating of 600. Brazilian cherry, the most difficult to dent, has a Jankaa rating of 2,350. Of hardwoods typically used for engineered flooring, cherry is the softest with a Janka rating of 950, followed by red oak at 1,290, white oak at 1,360 and maple at 1,450.