I'm looking at a company that uses 10-ply Russian Birch plywood for their engineered flooring, which they claim is very stable. The strips are 9/16" thick and 4.25" wide. It's also scored on the bottom side which they say reduces overall effects from expansion and contraction.

If all of their engineered products have the same basic structure, then does it matter what the top layer is? In other words, would their engineered Kempas have the same (or at least similar) stability as their engineered Mahogany?

Does anyone have any experience with Russian Birch? Is it a stable product to use for engineered flooring?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Given two pieces of engineered wood with the same core, the stability should not vary much, as the core is the same. Your differences will come in on the strength and durability of the surface wood and its resistance to impact and denting.

Eng. floors are designed to be more stable than their solid counterpart of course. Now as far as what is the most stable eng species I would have to say the diffrences you will find are minimal as long as the core is the same. The thing that I would want to know of those 10 plys how much of that is acually wear layer. Some of the floors I have seen with so many plys have a thin wear layer.

I am with Kevin on the wear layer. It should really be one of the most important factors when considering an engineered. Things to look for are how thick the wear layer is and the method in which the wood for the wear layer was cut. Whether it was roll cut or solid sawn. Solid sawn is structurally a better product and looks more like solid wood.

Thanks for the good feedback. I don't remember the exact thickness of the wear layer on the Kempas product, but I think it was 2.5 or 3mm, which I thought was pretty good.

I had hesitations on the Kempas because of stability, but it makes sense that this would be a stable product since the core is birch. I'm not sure if it was roll cut or solid sawn, but it looked nice.