A Complete Guide to Your Home’s Timber Flooring

Timber flooring always strikes the right note in almost any style of home. It looks warm, natural, and rustic in a contemporary setting and a country cottage. Also, it can create an organic feel with a tinge of texture. Further, in period and modern homes, different laminated and vinyl versions can give you a practical and excellent choice.

Timber or wooden flooring is under continuous technical development. Gaps between boards are not an issue here; the systems encapsulating click-and-lock mean your task can be done by an experienced person, although many suppliers also offer an installation service.

All kinds of timber flooring can be laid over sub-floor, including concrete, floorboards, old tiles, or a boarded surface, as far as the surface is dry, sound, and flat.

Reclaimed timber flooring is a bit different proposition. You cannot cut it neatly to size while it’s also tough to judge how it will appear once it has been finished. You can seek advice from a seasoned metal buffering machine supplier on how much to procure and which flooring finishes to choose. Always ensure you have purchased enough as it will be tiresome to find similar boards elsewhere. Also, it’s worth experimenting with via cleaning and finishes on a free board before installation.

Because it is such a crucial component of the room and color scheme, you should select your timber floor at the start of the redecorating or refurbishment project. The appearance of paint and paper colors can be influenced by how light or dark the floor is. Although some timber flooring, such as parquet, solid hardwood, and reclaimed boards, can be darkened or lightened by sanding and re-varnishing, it’s not a job you’ll want to do on a daily basis.

Timber Flooring Types

Solid Wood

It is made up of named timbers and they remain solid all the way through. A few types are ideal for installation as the structural floor needs a sub-floor underneath.

Reclaimed Timber

This flooring type can be bought as bundles of boards, planks, or panels from salvage yards and reclamation, or as whole floors from timber-flooring experts. Before installation, reclaimed timber flooring can appear uninspiring. However, once it’s done, it can look astonishing.

Engineered or Multi-Layered

A veneered or plywood base, structured with multiple layers of softwood boards or crisscrossed hard, and finished with a layer of engineered timber. The construction of multi-layered flooring gives it stability and strength; thus, it’s an excellent alternative to solid wood flooring.

Laminate

Structured by producing an image of wood on a plastic layer that is laminated to the back of the board. Quality versions offer convincing textured finishes while they are tough and hardwearing as well.

Cheap DIY-store versions might look lifeless and flat and the “wood” finish might chip or flake at the edges of the boards.

Vinyl

Vinyl flooring in timber patterns is widely available. Luxury sheet vinyl is an excellent choice for the kitchen or bathroom, and it is significantly less expensive than solid wood. Vinyl plank or block flooring feels harder underfoot, but because each floor is unique, it must always be professionally installed.

Suitability

You have to bear noisy environment with timber flooring, especially in rooms with stairs. Thus, you can use rugs to flatten the sound produced by people walking in busy areas while the insulation advised by the installers is always an option.

Typically, reclaimed timber flooring is well-worn while it is tough at the same time for most living areas. However, you should avoid using them in washrooms and kitchens.

Engineered or solid wood flooring is best suited for

• dining rooms,
• living rooms,
• halls, and
• bedrooms

You can use laminates in bedrooms and living areas but avoid using them in rooms with water, as seepage can cause planks to discolor or swell.

Look-alikes of vinyl are decent choices for kitchens and washrooms, utility and conservatory rooms, as well as for central living areas.

Grades and Styles

Timber flooring is offered as planks (also renowned as boards). Each plank can be built of several strips. A plank having a three-strip design contains three narrow strips running the length of the plank. The floor will get a random strip pattern when you lay it.

Planks vary in thickness with each depth being quite suitable for particular bases. For instance, the thickest planks, (about 22 mm), can be placed over joists as structural floorboards. Also, thinner planks, (about 7 mm to 15 mm thick) are placed as overlay floors onto an existing dry and smooth sub-floor.

Timber flooring’s surface finish is also subject to grading. Select or premium grades are uniform, smooth, and knot-free. Moving downward, grades are referred to as “rustic” or “natural” are less uniform and more realistic and appealing in many cases.

You should order flooring when you are satisfied with a sample of the exact plank – color, grade, strip, and finish.

Wooden Floors and the Environment

Timber floorings are widely acknowledged to be ecologically sound, provided it is manufactured through timber from sustainable forests. Many reputed rotary mirror polishing machine suppliers only deal with manufacturers who apply wood from certified sources.

Trends

Currently, the trend is a move away from pale and narrow woods, towards reclaimed flooring and dark wood. Oak is an everlasting favorite, possibly because of its middle-range hue options, and the fact it can be blended with virtually any style or color scheme.

Planks along with extra-wide boards (in some cases, up to 76 cm wide) are becoming favorites with distressed finishes like “smoked” effects. For Champion Floor St. Louis Flooring Store with laminate, select designs with V-grooves along the short and long edges of the boards with textured surfaces that look more realistic than entirely smooth surfaces.

Upkeep and Longevity

Solid hardwood flooring is hard-wearing that can last for many years. You can sand it down and resurface after every five to seven years. On the other hand, engineered flooring will usually withstand one or two sandings, but not more than that.

Real wood flooring solutions wellington ages gracefully, and the signals of wear and tear are quite acceptable as timber furniture ages and picks up the occasional mark or dent, so will timber flooring. Also, you cannot laminate flooring with damaged, chipped, or scratched sand, although the quality ones are hardwearing and scratch-resistant in the first place.

Prevent grit, dust, and dirt from scratching timber floors by sweeping with a soft brush or vacuuming them regularly. Also, once a week or so, mop the floor with a well-wrung mop. Depending on whether the floor is hard (varnished or lacquered) or soft (waxed or oiled), a detergent can be added to the water. Hard finishes act as a protective barrier for the wood and provide a high level of protection, but they are more difficult to repair if damaged.

Important Note

A serious dent or scratch in a lacquered finish typically means the entire floor has to be sanded back and revarnished or relacquered again. Oiled or waxed finishes are soft and prevent the surface by immersing into the wood itself. Also, they’re among the successful finishes if you need to nurture a worn and aged look for your timber floor. If oiled or waxed woods get harmed, the entire floor will not require to be redone, as sand backing and re-waxing or re-oiling an isolated area will be possible.