Our FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
Just as the name suggests, solid wood floors are made from one solid piece of wood throughout.
Real wood floors will age and mature with your property. This means that over time they will mark and dent more easily than laminate, but this is part of the character of real wood floors and should not be viewed as a fault of the product.
The shade of the wood surface will change with exposure to sunlight. Depending on the species, the wood will either lighten or darken with age. The shade variation will only go on to a certain level and then cease. Any unexposed surface areas will eventually catch up with the colour differences once exposed.
Depending on the type of real wood floor chosen, it can be sanded and re-lacquered a number of times to prolong the life of the floor. At Stockbridge Flooring we can carry out this task for you.
Each type of flooring has its specific use and choosing one over the other should be driven by your lifestyle and needs. Solid wood should be fitted in a moisture-controlled environment. Solid wood (strip or plank effect) should be nailed down only and requires a wood sub floor. Solid wood can be glued to a variety of sub floor materials.
Engineered wood flooring consists of a multi-plied, cross-stacked backing with a real wood veneer top. Engineered wood flooring can be used on grade, above and below grade.
Engineered wood flooring is more dimensionally stable so it can be installed in areas where solid wood is not compatible due to moisture. Engineered wood (strip or plank effect) can be glued down over various sub floor. Some engineered woods (strip and plank) can be nailed down which requires a wood sub floor. Engineered wood can also be layed as a floating floor where the tongue and groove are glued together, but the floor is not anchored to the sub floor.
A floating flooring is a flooring system laid down over a layer of underlay. While the individual planks are glued together, they are not nailed or glued into the permanent floor. Instead, the planks form a system that “floats” over the layer of underlay. The underlay can be laid down over existing floors.
When gluing a real wood to the subfloor an expansion gap of 15mm towards the walls is sufficient.
With floating floor installations, for every metre of installation width the flooring requires a distance to the wall of at least 5mm. Lengthwise, an expansion gap of 15mm is sufficient.
For a natural, harmonious looking installation, it is recommended to work with approximately five open packs of flooring and sort/choose the boards individually by colour.
Generally, we recommend adding 5% to the room’s sq m total for cutting scrap.
Despite our strict sorting criteria and thorough quality control, there may be certain material-specific peculiarities that customers come across during the on-site selection and installation process, which may need to be cut out.
Generally, we recommend adding 5% to the room’s sq m total for cutting scrap.
The range of choices is huge. According to personal taste and character of the room you can choose between different wood types, board sizes, surface finishes (lacquer-finish or oil-impregnation), surface structures (Antique, Distressed, Brushed), impressions (Block or Wideplank) and styles.
Ask our expert team for advice on choosing the perfect real wood floor for your home.
With very large loads (e.g. pianos, aquariums, storage heaters etc) we recommend gluing down as the installation method of choice.
Yes, but be aware that every sanding process will take off about 1mm of the flooring’s wear-layer. Try not to use very heavy sanding machinery as the big weight of these machines may lead to the creation of “sanding waves”
Use wood floor soap for regular maintenance cleaning. Use a vacuum cleaner for lacquer-finished floors and damp-wipe only if needed.
You should install the flooring under kitchen appliances, but be very careful when you slide the appliances over the floor. We recommend covering the flooring with something like a spare rug to protect the flooring when you’re moving the appliances.
Ideally, real wood flooring would go under the cabinets. You can, however, cut around the cabinets if removing them would cause undue complications. Keep in mind, though, that if you were ever to change the cabinets, you could have a problem if the new cabinets weren’t the same size.
Most stains don’t penetrate more than the sanding will remove. However, if you have a severe water stain, you may not be able to remove it. Our expert team will be able to advise.
You can have a drop or rise up to 4mm over 2 linear metres.
Real wood flooring can be installed on stairs, however it can be slippery. You can install our floating real wood flooring over linoleum if the linoleum remains sound and tightly glued to the original sub floor.
We recommend that any cracks in concrete be filled with concrete filler and sealed prior to installation. If it’s just a hairline crack you can simply cover the crack with duct tape. Keep in mind that underlay with a DPM must be installed prior to laying down the floor.
Real wood flooring is designed precisely for this kind of application. It requires an underlay with a DPM over the concrete floor. The floating floor system can go directly over that.
Real woods floors are recognised as one of the highest quality floors available and can increase the value of your home.
Important note prior to installation:
Relative Humidity should be maintained a 40-55% prior to installation and throughout the life span of the floor.
15mm expansion gap must be maintained around the perimeter of the floor.
