Today oak flooring comes in a wide variety of products, styles, shades and finishes. You can choose from solid oak flooring, engineered oak flooring, laminate oak or vinyl oak flooring solutions. Solid oak flooring is likely to be the most expensive and ranges in colour from quite dark to white and is likely to include natural markings including bands, lines and knots. A selection of finishes and a choice of beveled edges and flat edges are available.

Engineered oak flooring consists of several wood layers glued to each other under high pressure resulting in higher strength and durability compared to solid oak whilst retaining the same look and character. In addition, whilst solid oak flooring can shrink and expand due to room humidity and moisture from the sub-floor, engineered oak is not subject to this. Oak laminate flooring combines oak with synthetic fibres to create a solid flooring surface that is less susceptible to wear and tear and is easier to maintain. Vinyl oak flooring mirrors the effect of solid oak flooring but is made from vinyl meaning that it is inexpensive, waterproof and much easier to maintain.

Vinyl offers more durability with the same striking appearance as a real oak floor and is a great choice for kitchens, bathrooms and other high traffic areas where spillages are a commonplace. Today, if you want the natural beauty and elegance of an oak floor, there are a multitude of styles, colours, stains, finishes and looks to choose from. Whether you want a traditional solid oak floor or one of the new technologically advanced oak-like flooring materials, there is a wide selection and variety of flooring that will complement any home or office.

What we love about home exhibitions is the fact that the public can get ideas about improving their home (not to mention all sorts of other home themed exhibitions) – but getting ideas doe s not mean paying inflated prices.  The best thing to do is to get the ideas and replicate them in your home.  For instance oak flooring – look at the options, styles and colours and then look out for good deals.  Enjoy the exhibition, get your ideas and then get the best deal.

In order for the finish to look so distinctive the oak is brushed and then finished with Woca Oil.  Woca is high quality oil from Denmark and is excellent at preserving wood finishes whilst maintaining its natural appearance.  Woca oil is also extremely durable and helps maintain the finish of the wood for a long time.

During the lifetime of your wood floor there will be times when maintenance procedures will have to take place, for floors finished with Woca Oil there is a complete maintenance kit available too.  Bespoke flooring ranges are exceptional in terms of appearance and durability and a must for homes that cry out for beautiful, unique flooring.

An interesting story about the New Forest – home of many of England’s Oak trees that explains clearly the saying ‘from little acorns, oak trees grow’.  Each autumn as the oaks drop their acorns in the New Forest a huge clear up operation has to take place.

Pigs are brought into the forest to eat the majority of the acorns as they can be potentially poisonous to the wild ponies that roam the forest area.  It is usual for around 100 – 200 pigs to be left to snuffle through the forest in order for the clear up operation to take place.

This year however, the oak trees have dropped record number of acorns and the usual number of pigs would not be able to clear the excess.  It is amazing that a phenomenal number of pigs, around 400, are munching their way through the acorn laden forest.  This would obviously not happen in the managed forests that produce the timber for solid oak flooring – pigs are banned.

Way back when!

• People worshiped under oak trees believing they had sacred properties.

• Standing under an oak tree and making an agreement meant that the agreement became lawfully binding.

• Vast areas of the UK’s oak forests were cleared for building timber houses

• Solid oak was used to build magnificent warships during the invasion of the Spanish Armada in 1500’s

• In 1651 Charles II hides in an oak tree whilst fleeing from the roundheads at the battle of Worcester – the tree is now called the Royal Oak (The name for many a pub).

The more recent past!

• The Forestry Commission in the UK originates from the period of WWI and the Forestry Act came into being in September 1919.

Hope the information was interesting – just a bit of trivia for round the dinner table but more importantly, when selecting a solid oak floor you can be pretty certain today that the timber has come from a managed forest if you purchase from a reputable supplier.

Patina

Patina is the sheen produced by age, polishing and wearing on wooden floors and furniture.  It refers to the build up of alterations to the surface colour and texture of the wood through age and exposure and is a totally natural process.

Knots

There is lots of information about knots in wood but in hardwood flooring only the best boards are selected so the knots are for aesthetic appearance and interest.

Silviculture

Silviculture is the science of forestry and stems from the reign of Charles II in the 1600’s.  The science developed as Charles thought that England would run out of wood for his warships and asked the Royal Society to manage wood reserves.

Managed Forests

Managed forests ensure that the number of trees felled equal the number of surviving trees and replanted trees.  Hardwood floor specialists that confirm their timber is from managed forests have guarantees that supplies are not destroying the environment.

Solid wood is great for heavy usage areas of the home – but in kitchens and bathrooms, solid wood can become distorted due to the differences and alterations in moisture levels, heat levels and of course water spillage that can occur in both of these rooms.

The solution for kitchens and bathrooms is engineered hardwood flooring.  Engineered boards are the layered style board, usually 15mm thick, with a base layer, central layer and a 4mm thick top layer of your chosen wood finish.  The engineered boards are not prone to distortion when heat and moisture levels change in a room and therefore this makes engineered hardwood flooring perfect for kitchens and bathrooms.

What can effect the direction of laying hard wood flooring? Joists can play an important part in deciding the direction of hardwood flooring – with suggestion that boards should be laid at right angles to the joists.  If wooden floors are laid in the same direction of the joists they can be prone to sag.  This is not an issue for modern homes as they tend to be built with a concrete subfloor over the joists so the direction of laying a floor is not so much of an issue.

Note that by laying the floor down the length of the hallway and then following the rule to run boards in other rooms in the direction of the longest wall there could be a directional change in the lay.  Lay out the boards prior to fixing to get an idea of how the directional change will look.

If you cannot fix the squeaking board from beneath try nailing the floor into place from above.  The method is more straightforward if the floor is laid on a wooden subfloor – simply locate a joist and nail the board to it.  Remember to countersink the screw head and fill the hole with wood putty.  However, if your hardwood floor is laid over a concrete subfloor options for fixing squeaks are a little limited.  There is suggestion of using talcum powder to fill the gap between board and subfloor – but this is only temporary.  A good way to stop squeaks on a glued floating floor is to use an adhesive injection kit.  This involves drilling small holes and injecting adhesive directly under the board to re-fix to the subfloor.

It will be necessary to make sure that a small gap is left around the edges of the room even where the wood flooring joins existing door architrave.  It will require that the door architrave be sawn away to the height of the wood flooring board plus a little to again allow for the expansion of the wood.  To do this is simple.  Lay a piece of the flooring next to the architrave (remember if using underlay to put a piece under the board too – to get the exact and true height of the new flooring.  Then using a saw, cut away to the door trim to the height.  When fitting the flooring, slide the board under the cut away section – remember again to leave a 1/4in gap from the outside edge.