Engineered Flooring from Low-Density Plantation Hardwood: Evaluation of Long-Term In-Service Trials

Abstract

The use of short-rotation hardwood plantation species has been perceived to be unsuitable for flooring until recently, due to the lower densities. This study assesses the performance of a low-density plantation hardwood species, Eucalyptus nitens in engineered flooring applications. The selection of a suitable timber species for flooring has conventionally been based on its market acceptance or value and on its hardness to ensure minimal indentations or damages. While both of these reasons have determined flooring species selection, this is becoming more difficult as popular species are less available due to increasing flooring demand and the diminishing supply of native timbers due to government regulations on harvesting and conservation. Typically, the species hardness is determined by static tests in the laboratory. Although these tests can compare species hardness, they might not reliably indicate an end product’s performance, especially with engineered flooring. Despite the global interest on timber flooring manufacturing, investigations on the assessment of alternative testing methods to static hardness, methods to replicate in-service behaviour, timber flooring quality determination and characterisation of timber properties for flooring applications are still scarce. In this study, in-service trials were conducted on solid E. nitens boards and engineered flooring prototypes with E. nitens top layers to better understand the products’ behaviour when exposed to moderate traffic with distinct temperature and relative humidity variations. Dynamic impact hardness tests using the falling ball indentation method adapted from ASTM D 2394 were conducted to assess the surface hardness of the tested prototypes. The results showed E. nitens engineered prototypes’ performance to be comparable with the existing market products used as controls. This demonstrates the potential to use plantation grown E. nitens in engineered flooring applications in domestic dwellings.