Talk to me about wooden flooring!

I put solid ash t&g down in our hall and living room a few years ago. It went down over the top of the existing floor boards (at 90 degrees) with a vapour membrane in between to keep draught down. So suspect if your existing floor is reasonably flat you should be ok to overboard so long as you are sensible with how you do it.

edit: probably also worth mentioning that the ash got finished with osmo polyx oil and is ageing much better than the varnished dining room floor despite getting the brunt of the dirty foot traffic in the house.

2nd edit: possibly also worth mentioning that if I was doing this again now I’d put the extra effort/money in to insulate at the same time. No chance of being able to do that now I have the floor finished without incurring much more cost  (would cause a lot of damage to get the floor back up and might possibly lead to needing a whole new finish layer to put down)

The problem with wood is it can be damaged and is susceptible to moisture.

I'd look at Kardean/Amtico and see if there's something thought would work for you.

You could put a ply down first to ensure a flat surface to lay it on.

We have Amtico in the hall that's been battered by us and the dogs coming in wet and muddy for the last 6 years. I normally clean it with a karcher hard floor cleaner and it's OK but I put the rotary scrubber on it the other day and it came up like new.

We have engineered oak as well and there's no chance it would look as good after this time.

We have karndean in the kitchen, friend has amtico, have to say both have been fantastic. Especially for hard wearing areas.

Our karndeans been down 20 years and no scuffs, scratches or colour fade.  I m having building work done so it's got to be replaced, builder says laying karndean is too specialist for him so he s getting someone in.  Probably go for the same again.

We have had two houses with solid wood floors, first house was a damp victorian hovel with a combo of solid oak Russwood boards and some original pine. Both were osmo'd with clear polyx. We had a dog, 20kg size. We had a shoes on/paws on policy, the finishes were very hard wearing and there was never any damp damage, or wear in the high traffic areas. Now and again I would scrub the hall floor with soap and water and it looked good.

Second house was solid reclaimed maple, again osmo'd. Same stinky dog and shoes on policy. again no damage or signs of wear over a five year period. I think I rewaxed the hall once, I cant remember.

Both houses we took the opportunity to put underfloor insulation in when we did the flooring, and it made a big difference. I would absolutely do this if your floor is up. We did recycled plastic wool held up by nets, between the joists. If you can't do a full insulate, definitely chase down every draught, it is surprising how much difference it will make

The russwood boards were about 28 quid a sqm, last time I looked I nearly fell over though!!! JFC. The maple was reclaimed and 10 quid a sqm, but the labour we put in to prep and lay was monstrous. Every board was cleaned, tg chased out, sanded through the grades, etc etc. Very messy. So if you get reclaimbed, factor in a lot of time unless they are in really top shape.

Also are you taking out skirting? Something to consider. A mate had new boards laid over exisitng but rather than lift the skirting the joiner put in a deep timber edging rather than a bead. It looked really smart as it replicated a slightly deeper and molded skirting, rather than a tacked on pokey bead.

Incidentally, the original pine boards we had, we thoroughly worked over, sanded and cleaned and they came up looking really nice and very in keeping with the house. Is there any chance you could renovate your existing floor? If they are fundamentally good quality timber I would consider it

Incidentally, the original pine boards we had, we thoroughly worked over, sanded and cleaned and they came up looking really nice and very in keeping with the house. Is there any chance you could renovate your existing floor? If they are fundamentally good quality timber I would consider it

Interested in this.  House built some 20 years ago with a wooden floor in the hall.  Sadly it's badly scratched and scuffed and am intending to get someone in to refurbish, does this sound feasible?  It's a lovely looking floor and am keen to keep it.  Thanks!

Interested in this.  House built some 20 years ago with a wooden floor in the hall.  Sadly it’s badly scratched and scuffed and am intending to get someone in to refurbish, does this sound feasible?  It’s a lovely looking floor and am keen to keep it.  Thanks!

Short answer is almost certainly yes. If it is scratched/scuffed then probably just needs sanding back, then re oiling using something like Osmo Polx oil which is a very hard wearing wax, or similar.

If you are vaguely diy-ish its an easy enough job. You could hire in a sander or in a pinch use a hand sander. Mask your skirting so you dont damage the paintwork. But mostly remeber you will be making more dust than a gale in the sahara so take everything out of the room and put plastic sheeting or similar over the door. Shutting it is not enough, trust me.

Thanks for that info @kormoran and have seen companies that do this.  Yes, am concerned about the dust and need to look into whether these companies have any gizmos that minimise it.  It does sound a nightmare!

Very little dust from professional floor renovators these days. We had ours done. Where we had especially bad areas of dents etc, they soaked the floor boards slightly after the first sanding to pop the dents out. It came up lovely ?

What are the downsides of engineered hardwood over solid hardwood aside from the reduction of the number of times you may be able to refinish?

I understand the appeal of a worry free floor, but wood look vinyl is a bit like vegan bacon.

Wood look vinyl is rubbish but karndean and similar are indistinguishable at eye height. We've engineered wood downstairs hall/living and putting karndean into the kitchen. Engineered wood doesn't really have any disadvantages compared to solid as you're really unlikely to strip it back more than once a decade, so it'll likely outlast you

What is the issue with engineered oak?

When we extended the kitchen we used this to give a level floor over the old concrete floor and the new extended bit where there was just a void. We went for some which had a 4-5mm top layer and it has been down for 15 years in the kitchen - high use, lots of spillages etc - without issue. It is cleaned with an electric mop because it is quite a big area and the electric mop washes and (almost) dries it in one go. The worse damage sustained has been a scratch as a washing machine was dragged across it which we mostly sanded out.

It is nicer than laminate to look at, stable across the two substrate, low maintenance and no dust or drafts.

Remind me of the disadvantages?

You could put a ply down first to ensure a flat surface to lay it on.

You absolutely *should* put ply down first - and have it pinned at around 150mm centres - to ensure the base is secure and free from any movement. Our Amtico has been down for around eight years (from the front door, through the open plan kitchen/diner and to the bi-fold doors leading to the garden). Apart from a couple of marks where something heavy/sharp have been dropped, it’s still almost like new. And that’s with 2/3 children growing up and using roller skates etc and two dogs.

We have engineered wood. I think it’s been in 11 years and we are brutal with it but it still looks like a great wood floor. The guy who fired it didn’t quite get the old floor flat so we have a few gaps if you look closely. It’s not varnished or laquered, it might be oiled. But it’s a matt finish

We had some off cuts that sat in a bucket in the garden. They sat in water for about 6 months. They were slimmy with algea but still structurally sound

For really good wood have a look at Ted Todd.

Had ours down for years no issues, engineered is less prone to warping, for good look make sure you replace the skirtings, cheap wood will come in shorter lengths and won’t look great in a big room.

Thanks all - maybe I shouldn't discount engineered flooring without a bit more research. 🙂

If you do go for real wood (engineered or solid), consider getting bare wood and sealing with Osmo Hard-Wax Oil (or whatever it is called now). Then, if you need to repair a section, you can sand and re-seal and the finish should match almost invisibly.

Same as some others -

- we did solid T&G oak at 90 degrees over existing victorian floor boards.  7 years of heavy use still looked great.  The 'less perfect'/character (ie lots of knots) was a lot cheaper and is a lot more 'forgiving' of damage/stains etc.

- engineered board with a decent top layer is theoretically more stable (but that wasn't an issue for our solid)

I'd definitely look to insulate under if doing it again.

Osmo polyx is great for floors.  One advantage of solid is it's easier to buy unfinished and osmo is not so good over the top of anything else and it's very hard to find out what 'pre finished' boards have actually been finished with (or be in any way certain that what you've been told is accurate - the 'oiled' finish on the floor in our current place is not like an oil you'd apply yourself)

Pretty sure our oak came from https://naturalwoodfloor.co.uk which seems ot have a good selection of unsealed engineered.

Also, if the room you are fitting in gets lots of sunlight, consider Osmo UV oil to stop fading. Don't try to put Poly-X over the top though. Guess how I know...

We have what I think is real wood (oak according to the quote). It was refinished (sanded but cannot remember if it was oil or varnish top coat) just under 3 years ago and in the kitchen is now worn again (water soaks in by sink and a couple of other places). I was hoping it would last a lot longer than that and I'm not sure it can be done again as the joints already look to be almost sanded away in some places. We had the hall done at the same time and that does not appear to have the same wear (different surface though still oak). Both however show marks from the dog's claws (25kg likes to run about when excited).

We have solid oak in the living room - not my idea but what can you do. Generally it is ok apart from; get a decent fitter to do it rather than the builder chucking it in, it's not great with ufh and it does show wear in areas of high traffic. Other than that it's great.

My hall way needs re-doing, the ronseal has worn off and it sounds like Osmo Polx oil is the way to go.

Anyone tried doing it whilst house cats are still in the house, will they stay off it or am I going to end up with footprints all over the house. Am I going to have to lock them in a room which might not be easy

StuF you want to keep your cats off the sanded floor before it's waxed too. If their paws are in any way damp it will be visible once you wax. I didn't realise and our pup walked all over before waxing, the wax went on and next morning the paw prints were visible!

Cheers Kormoran, they're indoor cats so hopefully not too many wet paws.

I'm still envisaging a sudocream-esc how do you get Polx Oil out of a fluffy cat thread