Refurbishment and Restore Issue 19 2020 | Page 34

choosing the right wooden floor for your property Founder of En Masse Bespoke Interiors, David Conlon, offers his advice of choosing the right wooden floor for your property. There are two main types of wooden floors, solid plank floors and engineered wooden floors. Solid wood however does work well if used for herringbone or parquet. This method can then be sanded and sealed and that’s your finished floor. This is generally done once the floor is laid which adds to the amount of time needed to lay the floor. Smaller planks also mean shrinkage is less likely. Engineered wooden floors comprise of planks of wooden flooring with a solid top layer of wood and the engineered part is the part it’s laminated to. This can often be plywood or the same wood as the top layer but cross laminated to make it more stable Engineered floors are generally prefinished, so you can choose what finish you want, lay the floor and it’s done with no added sanding, or polishing. This means the time taken to lay the floor is less, it also means there’s less mess and labour time involved. One of the main considerations when choosing your wooden floor is how you plan to heat the room? If you’re looking to install underfloor heating an engineered wooden floor, in most cases, not all, is the way to go. With a wooden floor of any description, you need to allow a tolerance around the perimeter for the floor to expand and contract. In the past, people would lay a floating floor on a foam membrane, but this means the floor can bounce underfoot and feel synthetic and unnatural. With a solid wooden floor, it’s not recommended to have underfloor heating due to the timber directions which can warp or shrink due to the heat. An engineered wooden floor works better with underfloor heating as it won’t shrink or split with the heat. 34 - www.refurbandrestore.co.uk If you’re installing a wooden floor upstairs, you can secret fix the flooring to a joist or a substrate. Or, if chipboard, you can also bond it to the wooden floor. Downstairs, you can bond the wooden floor to a concrete slab. The best way to do this is to use a specific wooden floor adhesive which offers elasticated adhesion. This allows the floor to expand and contract, but it will still feel solid underfoot. If installing an unfinished floor, you can engineer your desired finish using stains, lacquers and pigmented oils. But remember to do samples you’ll always need to do at least two coats. Don’t scrimp here, even though it takes time, if the floor isn’t finished well, you’ll end up with areas of wear which change the look of the floor. The beauty of a wooden floor is you can also sand them down and then re lacquer and stain over time. This can also be done with an engineered floor. Meaning it’s adaptive and can be changed with different coloured stain or left natural for a natural grain finish once treated. The amount of times you can sand the floor will be less as the top layer of wooden is thinner, but you’ll still get a lifetime of wear out of it as long as it’s treated. With engineered floors, you need to check how thick the final lamination is as to how many times you can re-sand.