Choosing Oak Floor

Choosing An Oak Flooring Supplier

Here’s some important advice about how to select the best supplier and the best product for your installation...

It’s very difficult to visualise your finished floor from a small sample and you can’t always define the true quality from a piece that’s only about 100mm long.

You see, as pointless as it may seem, some companies who send out samples actually choose and select the samples they send out in an effort to make the product appear better.

The reason I call this pointless is because when it arrives on site and you the paying customer realises that the sample was a selected piece rather than a true portrayal of the product, it simply costs everyone involved time and money, and the only person happy at the end of it is the haulage contractor or courier who’s been paid for delivering it and then returning it. Worst of all, you’re now back at square 1 again, without a supplier and searching for an oak floor (but because of your recent bad experience, now you have negative feelings about the product, which should not be the case).

There are many suppliers out there, some who are really good and some that are not, so here’s some brief advice on selecting a good product and a good, reliable supplier;

•  If a Free Sample is available, always take advantage of this service so you can actually touch and feel what you’re about to spend your hard earned money on. A picture on a website really isn’t enough because that picture could be of someone else’s product. 
• Ask them what Guarantees they give? When you speak to them, try to get a feeling for how much confidence they have in their product. How forthcoming are they with information – this will usually tell you if they’re hiding something or not telling you something they should. 
• Always remember that oak is a natural product and that it will show some marks and scratches, so don’t discount a supplier just because the sample they’ve sent has a little scratch on it. Your floor will become scratched when it’s installed anyway. 
• Ask the supplier for a photo of the product when installed to see what it looks like when fitted because this will enable you to get an idea of what it will look like when installed in your own room. If they don’t have one available online, ask them to post you one.  
• Ask the supplier for a full SPEC SHEET for the product and if they don’t have one, beware. If they do have one, MAKE SURE YOU TAKE NOTE OF THE DIMENSION TOLERANCE allowed. This is vital because the small sample that you’re holding may look and feel beautiful but if when it arrives the planks are varying in width by 2 or 3mm or tapering at the ends by sometimes as much as 4mm, your floor will not only end up looking second rate but it will also end up costing you a lot more to put it right. 
• All in all, you can usually tell what the company is like by the way they start dealing with you. If they make it difficult for you to get information from them before you’ve ordered, what will they be like if something goes wrong after they have your money in their bank? 
• Oak is a beautiful natural product and ideally you really want to be dealing with people who have a passion for it. If someone has a passion for their product or service, they’ll usually do everything they can to make sure that it’s of good quality and the finished appearance is something that both buyer and seller can be proud of.

Re: Engineered Oak Flooring

Always make sure you know what construction the Engineered board is and what thickness the wear layer of oak is on any board you enquire about. Some companies will keep emphasising that their 14mm board is cheaper than another company’s 15mm board and yet “both have the same grade of oak on the face”.

Well yes, both boards may well have the same grade of oak on the face but the oak is most likely to be 3mm instead of 4mm! If you can afford it ‘budget-wise’, try to buy nothing less than a 4mm wear layer of Oak on any Engineered board.

Please try to understand that the thinner the Engineered Oak is, the thinner the wear layer of oak is too. Having said that, if a company is trying to compete on price alone, they may well be offering you a similar thickness product but with a thinner wear layer of oak.

EG: 21mm Engineered Oak can have a 6mm wear layer on 15mm backing, or it can have a 2mm wear layer on a 19mm backing. ALWAYS CHECK THE THICKNESS OF THE WEAR LAYER WHEN COMPARING PRODUCTS AND PRICES.

Another important point to be aware of about the engineered construction is the softwood backed board shown below. Again, if your budget allows you to do so, avoid this and always go for the plywood backed product, which provides much greater strength and stability after installation.



The softwood core board is not as strong as the plywood backed version, and is certainly not of structural grade, so even the 21mm is not suitable for spanning and fixing directly to floor joists. Nor is it suitable for secret nailing because the core simply isn’t strong enough.
Some companies will try to impress upon you that this construction is every bit as good as the plywood version, but let’s face it... it’s not and it’s pretty obvious that it’s not.

And always remember... biggest is not always best...

Many of the big named companies increase their prices simply because they’re well known. Some like to think they have a captive market of customers, so they ‘up’ their prices by massive margins, just because they can get away with it. In our opinion this is nothing less than taking advantage of their loyal customers.

For an example, a similar 18 x 120 Solid Lacquered product that we sell for under £25.00 per M2, sells for £48.00 per M2 in a well known DIY store.

Most of the major retailers do not supply flooring that’s any better quality than the smaller company that may import far less flooring every year. In fact in most cases, it’s the other way around. Don’t be fooled by these big names and end up paying more for exactly the same product as you could buy down the road from a smaller company, and with the same or better guarantee. Buy from us and you get a Lifetime Quality Guarantee! Ask your current supplier or the local DIY store what guarantee they offer on the quality of their products, and see what answer you get.

Remember, just because it costs more doesn’t always mean it’s better quality.