The short answer: engineered. While there may be isolated times when a solid wood floor is the better choice, in 90+% of situations you are going to want an engineered floor.

So – what is the difference? As the name would suggest, a solid wood floor is composed of planks cut directly from a tree. There is a verity of ways to cut planks from a tree, the common being ‘plain sawn,’ ‘quater+rift,’ and ‘true quartersawn.’ The character, look, performance and practical uses of the wood depends on the wood species and how the wood is lumbered.

Engineered planks, on the other hand, are composed of a ‘finish’ or ‘wear’ layer laminated on a structural layer. The wear layer is formed of the wood that you will see – the finish. The structural layer is usually composed of plywood. The finer the product, the thicker the wear layer will be and the finer grade the plywood.

The biggest advantage of engineered flooring is it is stronger, more stable than solid wood flooring. The nature of the plywood structural layer is that resists bending, cupping, and curling significantly better than solid woods.

There are many myths and misconceptions about wood flooring. One being that solid wood flooring is more expensive and therefore better. For many common kinds of wood, solid wood flooring actually might be slightly less expensive, since the process of laminating the finish layer on the plywood and the plywood itself may be more expensive than the wood. For more precious woods, engineered it often less expensive because it uses less of the precious material. In short – there are expensive and inexpensive options in both engineered and solid woods. Typically, you can get engineered wood for less than solid wood, and the low end engineered wood can be very inexpensive.

Another myth is that an engineered floor can not be sanded and refinished or can not be refinished as many times as a solid wood floor. For most qualities engineered floors, you can refinish it as many times as a solid wood floor. Most floors are installed using a tongue and groove. This means, even if the floor is solid wood, you are not able to sand past the top layer above the groove. Engineered floors come in many kinds and qualities. A lot of this comes down to the thickness of the wear layer. High quality engineered floors will have a wear layer equal to that of a solid wood floor, usually +/- 7mm. Rule of thumb is that you get 1 sanding per millimeter, and floors need to be refinished about once every 7 to 10 years. So if you do that math – a quality engineered floor should last 50-70 years. Inexpensive options come with thinner wear layers that provide good options for people working on a tighter budget.

In closing – there are MANY options when it comes to flooring. Do not be turned off by engineered floors. They typically outperform their solid wood counterparts at every price point.

BIM stands for ‘Building Information Modeling.’ If you are going to hire an architect, you should be familiar with what this means. A common misconception is that it just means 3D model, but it is actualy much more. It is a revolutionarily way to document and deliver projects.

Back in the not so olden days, all architectural drafting was done by hand. You can think of this as analogous to writing a letter by hand. In the 1980s computer aided design or CAD started to become the new standard in architectural practice. These early systems were designed to recreate the hand drawings on the computer. You can think of this as the typewriter; faster, but you are not creating a fundamentally different ‘thing’ than a hand written letter. As computers became more powerful, and the CAD systems more capable, they started to expand on what the architect was able to document. This would be like computer word processing, which still is fundamentally letter writing but is much more powerful and allows for more bells-and-whistles when compared with a typewriter. We are now in the middle of the Building Information Modeling revolution, which – to torture a flawed metaphor – is like the internet, where the fundamental idea of a ‘letter’ is being redefined.

While every project is different and will employ BIM principals to different effects, the basic idea is that you build the project first digitally in the computer before building it in life.

With CAD, the architect draws 2D drawings which represent different views and ‘cuts’ of the building to describe the design to the client and contractor. With BIM, you build an information model that generates these views. The advantage of the latter is that everything is built off a “Single Source of Truth.” With CAD, drawings are not linked, and a change in one place does not affect the other 2D drawings where that change might have an affect. This leads to coordination errors that have to be worked out on site during construction, which can be costly.

When done correctly, a BIM model encounters those same errors first in the computer so they can be worked out during the design phase. The model also keeps track of the quantities of materials and fixtures which further cuts down on scheduling errors and leads to more accurate bidding.

These models then, in turn, serve as a ready device for the architect to communicate the design to the contractor and most importantly, to the client. Many architects are still in the process of transitioning to this new documentation method. If you are interviewing architects, make sure to ask if they employ Building Information Modeling in their practice.

Short answer – yes.  Long answer – maybe.

An expeditor is a consultant to who handles the permitting process with the Department of Buildings.  In New York City, you are required to have an expeditor to file a drawing.  Despite their name, they do not simply make things go faster; they are the only ones qualified and allowed to facilitate and interface with the New York City Department of Buildings.

In many other juristicitions, this is not the case, and the expiditor is an add-service luxury that may or may not be able to speed up the permitting process.

Filing in New York City is complicated.  Here is the picture of all the forms that needed to be signed for a recent small demo project: