Solid investment on your Flooring

Solid Wood Flooring is almost certainly a solid investment.

It creates character, value and warmth to your home and if it’s properly cared for, you can be sure that it will get better with age.

But as we said, it is an investment. Take your time when choosing, collect samples to see how different woods and shades look and feel in your home. Also, get as much advice as possible, to ensure you get the very best for your home. Our Maiden Bradley branch are the kings of flooring, and would be happy to answer any questions you may have, or even pop in and take a look at the flooring they have to offer in their showroom!

But in the meantime, here are our answers to some frequently asked questions, when it comes down to the knots of solid wood!

Places to avoid solid wood floor

We love wood, but we do know that solid wood is not made for everyone or everywhere.

We would never recommend putting down a solid wood floor in environments that are exposed to excess moisture, heat or condensation like a Bathroom or Kitchen.

If it is, the flooring may expand and warp, a suitable Luxury Vinyl or floor tiles would be far better for this type of area.

The finishes available

As well as different shades, Solid wood can also have a variety of finishes - lacquer, oil, or hard wax oil. These are all used to enhance the solid wood, and of course offer different levels of protection, something that’s so important in the in the modern day home.

The lacquer is a plastic coating that provides a durable surface so may be slightly more hardwearing if it’s an area where you will have a high amount of footfall like a hallway or doorway.

Oil gives you a far more natural-looking finish but please be aware that it does require the most maintenance – so if you’re not in it for the long haul we would recommend going for an alternative like Hard Wax Oil.

Hard wax oil again is a natural looking finish and looks far more natural than lacquer, but also requires less maintenance than oil.

Take a look at the Oils & Lacquers that we offer to give your floor that final WOW factor.

Looking after your new floor

And finally your floor is laid, you have chosen your finish so, to ensure no damage comes to your solid wood floor, we would advise using cloth furniture protectors under any legs of your furniture to stop the floor from marking.

Wood Grades

Wood grades refer to the amount and size of visible knots, or other natural marks, on the wood. The rule is, the smaller the knots and more uniform in colour, the higher the grade of wood, however, the higher the grade of wood means the higher the price!

There are four types of wood grades: Prime, Select, Natural and Rustic. And yes, you’ve guessed it - Prime has the lowest knot content and Rustic the highest.

Solid wood shrinkage and expansion

Wood is a living material, which means it reacts to the temperature of your home. To give you an example, in winter when your doors and windows are shut and the heating is turned up this will have an effect on your floor – the heating will cause the humidity of the air to drop, and your wooden floors will lose moisture and possibly shrink.

As the air temperature gets a bit warmer and the heating is turned off and windows and doors are perhaps opened, the wood then absorbs the moisture and expands.

Providing the increase is not too extreme, your floor will then return to its original size.

When cleaning just use some slightly warm water, and a damp mop or microfiber cloth - limit the amount of water used on your floor, to ensure it’s not subjected to soaking up any excess water – however most of the time just a vacuum or sweep will keep it looking great! We offer a range of Accessories that will help you to keep your floor looking its best.

To view our full range of Flooring including Laminate and Engineered Flooring then take a visit over to the Flooring section of our website