sales@oakfloorsonline.co.uk

Solid v Engineered

Solid Oak Floors laid centuries ago are still keeping very good shape, colour, and strength today and will go on doing so for centuries to come.

Oak Flooring is easy to clean and maintain irrespective of its colour, and is the perfect complement to a modern-day lifestyle as it can take the rough and tumble of the daily grind. You need not worry about careless guests or children, or playful and active pets because Oak Flooring is hardwearing and robust whilst being simple and easy to maintain.

Oak Flooring is looked upon by many as the flooring option that lends a sense of permanence and belonging to an interior. Whether it’s a residential family home or an office installation, Oak Flooring adds an air of class, as well as structural strength.

For these reasons and many others, Oak Flooring remains to be the classic and preferred choice. However, although production methods are still relatively similar to what they’ve always been, we have progressed into now also supplying an engineered board that not only ‘behaves’ a lot better after installation but also uses less oak and yet still gives the appearance of solid oak.

There are now two forms of natural Oak Flooring available, Solid and Engineered…
 

The difference is simple; Solid Oak Flooring is machined from one solid board and Engineered Oak Flooring is produced by bonding together a layer of solid wood (the face or wear layer) to a plywood base. (Avoid the softwood based boards if possible).

Each layer is stacked in a cross-grain configuration and bonded together under heat and pressure. As a result, Engineered Oak Flooring is far less likely to be affected by changes in humidity and can be installed at virtually all levels of the home as long as the correct procedures are followed and maintained.

Solid Oak Flooring:
Made from one piece of solid oak
T&G 4 sides
Micro-bevelled 2 sides
Available in a variety of finishes, the standard stock items usually being a variation of Lacquered, Brushed & Oiled, Double Brushed & Dark Oiled or Unfinished.

Fitting/Installation:
Recommended for installation by an experienced floor fitter because it requires being secret nailed or glued to the subfloor.

Wider boards may also require face fixing to prevent the boards from ‘cupping’.

Advantages:
Available in many different finishes.
Hard wearing and robust.
Effective in reducing dust within the home.
Always looks beautiful.

Disadvantages:
Solid wood is a natural product and is susceptible to dimensional changes when subjected to varying levels of heat, humidity, and moisture. That’s why we only supply a maximum width of 150mm in our range of solid oak.

When being glued down as a method of installation, flexible adhesive MUST be used, which is more expensive than rigid adhesive.

Wider boards over 150mm are more susceptible to ‘cupping’ unless the thickness is increased from 18mm, which obviously increases cost and requires more depth on your floor.

Engineered Oak Flooring:
T&G 4 sides
Micro-bevelled 4 sides
Available in a variety of finishes, the standard stock items usually being Lacquered, Brushed & Oiled, Double Brushed & Dark Oiled and Unfinished.
Normally constructed in 3 layers, consisting of a Solid Oak face or wear layer of between 3mm – 6mm, with a plywood backing that forms the T&G, and a balancing veneer to the underside.

Because of this construction, Engineered Oak Flooring offers greater stability than Solid Oak when subjected to varying levels of heat, humidity, and moisture.

This stability allows the floor to be installed as a floating floor where conditions permit, directly onto concrete or timber subfloors, making it ideal for installation by a good DIY’er.

Certain sizes of Engineered Oak can also be fitted above underfloor heating when the correct installation guidelines are followed and the necessary levels of heat, humidity and moisture are maintained (see full spec sheet about underfloor heating).

Fitting/Installation:
Can be installed secret nailed, glued, or floated (not fixed to the subfloor).

Advantages:
The extra stability provided by Engineered Oak Flooring over Solid Oak allows it to be fitted in situations where solid is not suitable.

Looks exactly like a solid floor when fitted but requires much less dimensional movement allowance.

Can be glued down with a rigid adhesive, which costs less than a flexible adhesive (flexible adhesive only for solid).

Can be installed by a competant DIY’er as long as the fitting guidelines are followed and adhered to.

Can be much cheaper to fit than Solid Oak because it can be ‘edge-glued’ and floated.

Engineered Oak can be installed as wider boards without any ‘cupping’effect and without the need for face fixing.

Usually the boards are clearer than a solid board.

3 times as many Engineered Boards can be provided from one oak log when compared with solid oak of the same size.

Available in many different finishes.
Hard wearing and robust.
Effective in reducing dust within the home.
Always looks beautiful.

Disadvantages:

Usually more expensive than Solid Oak (which may seem strange to the less experienced wood floor customer) but when the advantages and construction method are explained properly, the reasons become understandable and acceptable.

Sometimes when using the floating method for installation, the thinner 15mm board can ‘give’ a little when walked on, which sometimes makes the floor feel unlike an oak floor. However, this can be overcome by using the heavier structural 21mm board when floating, which always feels like solid oak no matter how it’s fixed.

Things to Look Out For When Choosing an Oak Floor

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.

I call this pointless because when it arrives on site and you the paying customer is not happy, 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.

Some 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.
   

• 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 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’ 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 thickness the wear layer of oak is on any board you enquire about. Some companies will keep emphasising that their 10mm board is much 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 thickness is most likely to be less than half! If you can avoid it budget wise, try to buy nothing less than a 4mm wear layer.

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.

The softwood core board is not as strong as the plywood backed version and is certainly not of structural grade, so 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 always remember... biggest is not always best...

Many of the big named companies increase their prices simply because they’re well known. Some like B&Q, Floors2Go and Next have a captive market of customers, so they ‘up’ their prices by massive margins, just because they can get away with it.

For an example, the exact same 18 x 120 Solid Lacquered product that we sell for under £25.00 per M², B&Q sell for £48.00 per M².

Most of the major retailers do not supply flooring that’s any better quality than the smaller company that imports 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 guarantee. Buy from us and you get a Lifetime Guarantee!

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