Wood Flooring
Introduction
Wood is becoming ever more popular as a floor-covering these days, as the variety of colours, patterns and manufacturing methods widens. Wood can be used to create both contemporary and traditional schemes, that will always add warmth, character and class to a room.
Being such a flexible material, wood floorings are available in a variety of strips, planks, blocks, and small battens. These can then be laid as a single homogenous expanse, or combined together, or even possibly using more than one wood species, to create a floor surface that becomes a distinct feature of the room.
Wood is a natural material which inherently contains a considerable amount of water, so it is susceptible to swelling and shrinking as the surrounding's humidity and temperature change. With this is mind, it is imperative that wooden floors are protected from damp, so a concrete sub-floor must be covered with a damp-proof membrane and a wooden sub-floor must have sufficient ventilation beneath it (usually via air bricks) to keep the floor surface dry.
Wood floor terminology
A floor-covering that is physically fixed to the sub-floor beneath it, for example by nails or adhesive, is called a ‘fixed floor’, while one that has none of its components attached to the sub-floor during installation is known as a ‘floating floor’. The latter are usually easiest to install and repairs or replacements are relatively simple too.
Wooden floors are graded according to their appearance. The cheapest grade is termed ‘Rustic’ as it includes small knots and will have some colour variation, while the most expensive grade is called ‘Select’ as it has consistent colour and texture with no knots. The choice is not only one of budget, but also one of personal preference to best fit with the interior design scheme.
Developments in technology have generated a range of options for putting wood or ‘wood-look’ floorings down, which make this look achievable at a range of budgets. The various types of wood flooring are considered below, in order of increasing expense;
Sanded Floorboards
Where solid wood floorboards have been installed across the joists to form the floor of a room, these can be stripped and sanded back to a clean, sound surface. This can then be varnished, stained or painted to produce an attractive, practical and cost-effective flooring.
Laminate Flooring
Laminate flooring does not actually contain any solid wood, it is in fact made with a paper layer that is printed with a high-resolution photograph of wood, which is then laid on a core layer of high density fibreboard (HDF). A moisture-resistant sheet is then positioned on the underside and a hard-wearing clear topcoat of resin (melamine and aluminium oxide) is placed on the top. The whole sandwich is then bonded together under high pressure and temperature to give the finished product.
Engineered Wood flooring
Similar to laminate flooring, engineered wood is made from layers of material. However instead of a photograph of wood, a thin layer of real, solid wood is cross-laid onto a softwood backing.
As the grains of these two layers run perpendicular to one another, and because the softwood core is quite flexible, this makes this type of flooring the most resistant to dimensional changes - be they caused by heat or humidity. This property makes engineered wood ideal for kitchens and bathrooms, and allows it to be fitted with confidence above underfloor heating pipes.
Solid Hardwood Flooring
As the name suggests, these floors consist of solid tongue-and-groove planks, cut from various species of wood, to a range of sizes. Because these floors use a great deal of wood, it is important to ensure you are purchasing from an environmentally sustainable source.
Parquet Flooring
Parquet flooring is made of small battens of solid wood which are arranged, using a variety of species and colours, to create decorative patterns, rather like a mosaic.
The patterns made are generally geometric and angular as curved edges are expensive to produce and difficult to fit. These arrangements may be constructed a batten at a time when the floor is laid, or more often they are be pre-built into tongue-and-groove tiles, each of which carry the repeated pattern and can be interlocked to cover the floor area more quickly.
Wood flooring measuring tools and tips
All wood flooring is supplied in planks or tiles which each individually cover a small area and can be cut to cover a complex layout with very little wastage. That said, it can still be quite tricky to ascertain exactly how much floor area one needs to cover, especially if the room isn't a simple square or rectangle.
Further information and useful links
- Find a Wood Floor supplier near you
- Find a Wood Floor Fitter near you
- Find a Floor Sanding & Repair Specialist near you
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