|
Choosing your Floor An Oak floor is a beautiful natural product and will grace your home if looked after according to their finish. Oak floors will repay you with many years service. Choose a finish which suits the age of your property along with your style of decoration, and your floor will look as if it has always belonged to the property. A rustic Oak floor contains a larger degree of knots and colour variation. This is the most popular choice of Oak floor. A rustic Oak floor has more character, and is more forgiving of scratches and marks. A select Oak floor has very little knots and small grain variation, making for a more modern and also less forgiving finish.
The sub floor is the surface onto which your
new floor will be installed - this will be concrete or joist. Solid Oak boards can be laid onto concrete or joist sub floors. The maximum width of the board glued directly onto concrete should be 130mm. Any wider, and the power which is present in solid Oak boards will cause them to cup and warp. If you choose a solid Oak board over 130mm in width, your sub floor will need to be battened with wood. This in effect creates a joist system. The Oak boards are then secret nailed (hard fixed) to the battens. Engineered Oak floor boards have a 5 or 6mm solid Oak wear layer on top of 14mm birch ply backing. The construction of Engineered boards make them extremely stable and versatile. They can be glued directly to a concrete sub floor or secret nailed to joist. They can also be floated over underlay. Engineered boards usually come in widths of 150mm to 300mm. Engineered flooring is used over under floor heating to a maximum heat of 27 degrees. There is a much life in an engineered floor as there is in a solid Oak floor because you can only sand down to the tongue of the board with both sold and engineered flooring.
This is another issue you should take into consideration when making your choice. Making the wrong decision here could lead to problems later on. First consider the location and environment of your floor. For example it would be ill-advised to use an oiled finish in a kitchen or bathroom. For these areas the only sensible option is a lacquer for oil modified lacquer finish as this provides protection from damp, humid conditions and spills. Another factor is the level of use your floor will receive. In areas of high traffic a more hardy finish is a better choice, whereas in low traffic areas a wide range of options is available to you. If you install an Oak floor into a hallway, you would be well advised to consider having a mat or mat well, as this will help prolong the life expectancy of you floor.
Oak floors are bought unfinished, pre-oiled or pre-lacquered. Resistance to things like ladies stiletto heels is dependent upon the frequency this happens. Solid Oak floors are more resistant to this than engineered. Oak floors are a natural product and should be treated as such.
Unfinished floors are sanded and sealed on
site once they have been installed. The beauty of choosing an
unfinished floor is that you can achieve any colour and finish you
desire by applying a wood dye before the oil, lacquer or oil
modified lacquer seal is applied. The down side to this is the
amount of work involved in finishing your floor to a good standard.
All About Floors Shop, 50 Trench Road, Trench, Telford, Shropshire, Midlands. TF2 6PF.
Birmingham Websites Cannock Websites Coventry Websites Dudley Websites Kidderminster Websites Sandwell Websites Shrewsbury Websites Solihull Websites Stafford Websites Stoke on Trent Websites |
Please Click on the
Red Envelope to email All About Floors at;
 |
Copyright 2010 All About Floors. All rights reserved |