Introduction

As the name suggests, these floors consist of 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.

Not only do the assorted types of wood provide colour and grain choices, they also have inherent levels of hardness, as indicated by the Brinell Value. This measure is assessed by looking at the indentation left by a steel ball, pressed into the surface of the wood, under a known force. The harder the wood, the higher the Brinell value, where pine is a soft wood and species such as Birch, Iroko, Oak, Beech and Rosewood are increasingly hard.

• High traffic areas, such as hallways, should always be covered in the hardest wood you can afford.
• This type of floor will react considerably to changes in humidity since there is no other stabilising material in its construction. It is not, therefore, suitable for kitchens.

Types of hardwood flooring

Solid flooring is available in two distinct forms; unfinished or 'raw', and pre-finished.

Unfinished or 'raw' planks have simply been cut to size and then tongue-and-grooved, meaning they will need to be sanded to a smooth surface and finished with varnish or oiled once laid. This type of flooring is most commonly used by professional builders during renovation projects as they are cheaper, can be soiled after laying and are easy for them to finish in one go once other work is completed.

Pre-finished woord boards are where sanding and sealing has already been done, thus requiring simply a swift final coat of varnish or oil once laid to complete the job. Although a little more expensive, finished boards can save a lot of time if covering a large floor area.

At a glance

• Damage can be repaired by sanding and refinishing
• Usually fitted beneath skirting boards to avoid finishing accessories

• Colour will change in sunlight
• Should not be exposed to humidity of kitchen or bathroom
• Requires insulating from a concrete sub-floor
• Solid boards without proprietary fitting system cannot form floating floors
• Expensive
• Professional fitter recommended

Tools for fitting hardwood flooring

To fit a hardwood floor, you will need the following;

• Find a Tool Hire Centre near you

Fitting hardwood flooring

• Allow boards to acclimatise to the temperature of the room (which should be at least 15 degrees) for 24 hours prior to fitting.
• Hardwood flooring can be laid directly onto, and perpendicular to, floor joists, or they can be laid in any direction across an existing set of floorboards or plywood boards. Either way, ensure that this sub-floor is sound, clean, dry and flat.
• Draw a straight line 12mm (½in) from the wall you wish to start against. Lay the first board with its grooved edge against this line and nail it through the face.
• Alternatively, you can drill countersunk holes into the first board so that it can be screwed down, with a little woodfiller added to the countersink to hide the fixing.
• Place the next row of wood against the first and hammer it into place via a scrap piece of flooring; never hammer the good planks directly as you will damage the surface. Then fix it in place with a nail into the tongue every 200mm (8in) along its length and up to 35mm (1½in) from each end. If you are using a manual hammer, drive the nail head below the surface using a nail punch.
• Be sure to offset the end-to-end joints of each row.
• Cut planks that meet the edges of the room such that there is a 12mm (½in) gap that will allow the floor to expand with changes in humidity and temperature, without becoming buckled.
• Create a cardboard template that fits around tricky shapes and corners. Draw around this template on the plank and jigsaw this line.
• To accommodate a moulded architrave of a doorframe, use a handsaw to cut a thin layer of the doorframe off from the bottom, which will allow the flooring to slide beneath it.
• The final row should be fitted to achieve a 12mm (½in) gap to the end wall. This board should be fixed to the floor in the same way as the first; i.e. directly through the plank.
• Having cut and fitted all planks, cover the 12mm gap at the walls with matching edge moulding which should be fixed to the skirting board, not the engineered boards, with adhesive. Use mitred corners at joints of moulding.
• Alternatively, to avoid using edge moulding, remove skirting boards before laying the boards and then replace them.
• Finally finish the floor with varnish or oil.

• Be sure to check that any doors opening over the newly laid floor can still swing freely. If not, take them off their hinges and plane the bottom of the doors, repainting and re-hanging them afterwards.

Further information and useful links

• Stripped floorboards
• Laminate flooring
• Engineered wood flooring
• Parquet flooring
• Measuring up for a wooden floor
• More floors topics

• Find a Wood Floor supplier near you
• Find a Wood Floor Fitter near you
• Find a Floor Sanding & Repair Specialist near you