Solid wood flooring is popular and widely desired as it helps create a luxurious appeal to your home. Most solid wood flooring has a distinct look, mainly because the boards are usually random lengths. Shorter pieces of wood are not as wide as most engineered floors; however, still as beautiful!

Solid hardwood flooring is simply made from a solid piece of hardwood. The wood is cut straight from the tree trunk and it is nothing but hardwood. A homogeneous product from top to bottom and side to side is then made into a plank of flooring by a machine. In comparison to other wood flooring, nothing quite feels like real, solid wood flooring. It is sturdy, feels significant under foot and it maintains its value. This means solid wood flooring is also suitable for areas of very high traffic because it is generally thicker than engineered wood flooring, it can be re-sanded many times during its lifetime.

Variety of Solid Wood Flooring

Solid wood Flooring is available in a huge variety of different wood species that vary in colour, grain, pattern, strength and cost. You will be able to find solid wood flooring with different species of wood, varying plank sizes and a choice of finish or you could opt for unfinished solid wood flooring.

Wood species refers to the type of wood – oak, maple etc and the wood flooring falls into either domestic or exotic species. Domestic species, such as oak, maple, or beech tend to be cheaper and have milder colouring.

Exotic hardwood flooring, anything Brazilian, may have dramatically contrasting colours and be harder woods.

Installing Solid Wood Flooring

With an unmistakable and completely irresistible feel and character, solid wood flooring can bring something very special to your home, though it does require special care and attention installing.

It’s a natural living product, as your room changes temperature and as humidity rises and falls, solid wood will shrink and expand. Therefore, really careful attention has to be paid to installation to make sure that the planks are given sufficient room to move.

Solid wood flooring is laid with planks or blocks which are milled from a single piece of timber, usually a hardwood. The process is relatively simple.

In Europe, where almost all of our solid wood flooring is milled, the log is usually live sawn, which means that it is cut straight across to guarantee a nice variety of grain. It is then planed, profiled and sanded and may be bought unfinished, for completion on site, or pre-finished with either an oil or lacquer. After the cutting process is complete, the material is put into a kiln for drying and then finished.

Advantages of Solid Wood Flooring:

• It is the most traditional and luxurious type of wooden flooring, and solid wood flooring looks fantastic and can add real character and warmth to your home.

• The planks are made from just one solid piece of hardwood.

• Your solid wood flooring has a long-life expectancy, offering a timeless and charismatic appeal.

• You can find solid wood flooring in a wide variety of species of wood, ranging from light to dark with different patterns and grains.

• The planks of solid flooring can be found in random lengths and different widths so that you can choose something which suits your surroundings.

• The tongue and groove fitting system is the most traditional and well-established method of installation.

• You have the choice of either unfinished or pre-finished planks of solid wood flooring.

• Solid wood floors are incredibly durable, especially when compared with carpet, which can often require frequent repairs, cleaning and in some cases replacing.

• This type of floor can last a lifetime without having to be replaced. Real wood flooring also attracts less dust, allergens and mould than its alternates.

• Installing real wood flooring isn’t an overly complex task. However, if you have any doubts, then we would recommend hiring a floor fitter to do it for you. If you do want to install it yourself, it is best to fix the planks down as opposed to leaving them floating, as this can cause the flooring to be lifted.

• Solid wood flooring is seen as a great way to give your home or office a warm, rustic and natural feel.

• You have the option of sanding and re-finishing your flooring a number of times if and when required.