We are often asked to choose the best oak flooring for your home.

Many people react immediately to the idea of engineered oak flooring. Clients often believe engineered oak is the same product as the big superstores sell. This is not true because it is a laminate flooring. We supply high-quality engineered oak flooring. It has the same quality as solid oak floors, and uk skirting board can be made in many other ways. This is a big statement for a company like ours who has been in solid oak flooring since the 1970s. However, it is not the least true.

Let’s take a look at some reasons why.

This board is made of solid oak timber and it is completely natural. Wood is sensitive to temperature and humidity. Timber is semi porous, so it is susceptible to these conditions. Oak flooring can expand when it is exposed to moisture. The floorboard will swell according to its width, but not on its length. This is why it is crucial to allow an expansion gap around the perimeter of a solid oak flooring. It should be between the wall of the flooring and the floor. If there is no gap, your floor will not be able to support the floor. The flooring will buckle up in the centre of the floor. The floor will then become springy, and it will not lay flat on its original surface.

Let’s say you had a room measuring 5.0 metres in width. To cover this area, you used 170mm wide flooring. It would take you 30 rows to lay the boarding. The boards could rise up to 60mm in total swelling if they each swelled 2mm in their individual widths. You would need to leave a gap of at least 30 mm in each direction of your room for this to work. Normally, you can only expand your room by 20 mm. After that, you will cover the gap with trims or skirtings. Your flooring could expand by 2mm if placed on property that was recently plastered, but is still drying. If the subfloor is still drying, the flooring could trap water and cause damage to the new floor. All cases should see the property dry and free of humidity following renovations.

The ENGINEERED OAK Timber Board is a little different from the traditional oak timber boards, but it’s just as beautiful if you use the right type. It will last just as long and be as durable as a solid-oak floor.

The reason is that solid oak is glued onto multi-laminate plywood. European Oak is made from the same oak as the oak used to make the solid oak boards that we sell. This gives it the same beauty and natural grain.

The engineered flooring we offer is made up of 10 layers of birch-faced plywood plywood 15mm thick. Each layer of plywood is glued in different directions to create a plywood structure which is very stable and resists moving. We are aware that not all plywood is the same thickness and that there are fewer layers in engineered flooring. The product will be more stable if there are fewer layers. A 6 mm layer solid oak is then added to our engineered flooring. Today’s glues work well and are often more durable than the wood. A single piece of European oak between 6 mm and 7 mm thick is used to make the solid oak. This will create a 190 mm board. Many companies will reduce and glue several narrower widths together. This creates the unsightly appearance of multiple strip floors. It is vital that the solid oak layer be between 6-7 mm thick. This layer will take all the wear of daily life. Our engineered flooring consists of a 22 mm thick board (15.5 mm multi laminate plywood + 7 mm Solid European Oak), that is 190 mm wide. It has long lengths up to 1900 mm, and is tongued and grooved around its edges.

This floor has many advantages:

  1. This product is very stable and has much less movement that a solid oak flooring.
  2. The plywood covering the top layer of oak is the only visible part of the oak floor. This gives it the beauty you would expect from a solid European Oak floor.
  3. This product is much more stable and has become extremely popular for underfloor heating systems.
  4. A product that is as durable and as wear-resistant as solid oak floors. It would be impossible for a solid European oak flooring to last as long if it was continually sanded over time. It can only be sanded to a thickness of 6 mm between the boards. Our engineered oak board also has the same 6- to 7-mm thickness of wear.
  5. The 22 mm thick board outperforms the solid oak board. It is not only stronger because of its thickness but also due to the multi laminate plywood. Plywood is probably the most strong timber material you could purchase to meet this need.
  6. Engineered oak flooring can be more sustainable. The plywood is made of fast growing softwoods and uses far less of the solid oak that took hundreds of years to develop.
  7. The longer and wider boards make it faster to lay the floor, which is also more economical.
  8. Many of our clients agree that the flooring looks much better with a longer, more expansive board. Also, it doesn’t move like solid oak flooring.