# Solid hardwood

**Flooring milled from a single piece of wood, typically 3/4" (19 mm), with a generational wear layer and high sensitivity to humidity swings.**

Solid hardwood is one material all the way through, which is both its advantage and its constraint. The advantage is a wear layer that supports many refinishing cycles. The constraint is that there is no cross-ply construction resisting seasonal movement.

It is correct over a plywood subfloor, nailed down, in a home with a controlled humidity range. It is not correct over concrete or radiant heat, and no budget argument changes that.

## Related terms

- [Engineered hardwood](https://ecowoods.ca/glossary/engineered-hardwood)
- [Wear layer](https://ecowoods.ca/glossary/wear-layer)
- [Nail-down](https://ecowoods.ca/glossary/nail-down)
- [Subfloor](https://ecowoods.ca/glossary/subfloor)
- [Strip, plank and wide plank](https://ecowoods.ca/glossary/strip-plank-wide-plank)


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## Provenance

- Canonical URL: https://ecowoods.ca/glossary/solid-hardwood
- Publisher: Ecowoods Inc., Toronto & the GTA
- Contact: (647) 244-5156 · services@ecowoods.ca
- Defined in: https://ecowoods.ca/papers/toronto-hardwood-climate-moisture-protocol#solid-vs-engineered
- Citation guide: https://ecowoods.ca/ai.txt

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