FREE DELIVERY ON ALL ORDERS OVER £350 What are solid wood floors and how should they be installed
Solid wood floors are as the description suggests a piece of flooring cut from a single piece of wood and usually have a tongue and groove on all four sides of the board they will be either unfinished allowing you to apply your own finish or pre-finished with a lacquer or oil. Solid wood floors can either be fully glued to the floor or nailed down with a porta-nailer which drives a nail through the groove at an angle into a wooden subfloor or batten. Installation over concrete should be fully bonded using an adhesive such as Rewmar MS Polymer (To view a wood floor installation video over a concrete subfloor using Rewmar MS Polymer adhesive click here). Solid wood floors can be sanded and resealed numerous time over the years but once you have sanded to the tounge and groove the floor will need to be replaced (if done professionally this should not occur in your lifetime).
The elegance of a hardwood floor adds character to any room in a home or work place. The natural characteristics of wood add a dimension to the room that many try to duplicate but because each floor is of natures own making it is unique and as such uncopiable. With the demand for hardwood flooring growing manufacturer's are increasing their product ranges with better quality finishes though the choice of wood in the UK is mainly Oak.
Hardwood floors come in a species, colours, widths and thickness. Besides the classic hardwoods (like red oak, white oak, maple and ash) many manufacturers now offer exotic hardwood species from all over the World and are increasingly trying to ensure that the wood is sourced from sustainable forestry. Exotic hardwoods give you the chance to install woods with deep rich colours that provide you with an end result that will be the envy of your friends, familly and neighbours. With so many different types of hardwood flooring now available it can be difficult to make a choice so it may be worth bearing in mand that Oak is the favoured choice fo flooring in the UK.
All solid wood floors will react to the presence of moisture so it is important to ensure that you guard against moisture ingress and follow the installation instructions (click here to see a guide to installing solid wood floors over concrete). In the winter months with heating systems working flat out the flooring will begin to lose moisture which causes contraction of the wood which create gaps between the planks. Then in the summer months the humidity rises and the wood expands closing the gaps. This is simply nature at work on one of its own products, and it is because of this that important when installing a solid wood floor to leave the proper expansion area around the perimeter and to acclimatise the wood prior to installation. However, if there is too much moisture it may cause the wood planks to cup, or buckle.
To see a selection of solid oak wood flooring available from Wood2 take a look at the Tuscan and Warwick Collections. The Warwick collection all the oak wood floors are 20mm solid floors that can be laid as structural flooring directly onto joists. Beware claims that this can be done with 18mm Chinese flooring that is availble at many other internet shops. The industry standard is 20mm minimum and to suggest that 18mm is suitable is misleading and quite simply incorrect.
Tuscan Solid Wood Flooring Collection
The Warwick Collection
To view an wood floor installation video over a concrete subfloor using Rewmar MS Polymer adhesive click here
Click Here to see details of Rewmar MS Polymer adhesive