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Which should I obtain Engineered Oak or maybe a Solid Oak Floor? Why should I choose European Oak?

By: john fanthorpe


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When customers read about an engineered oak flooring their major reaction is frequently, ‘ Its hardly the real thing! ’ I even get customers believing that engineered oak could be the same product that the large super merchants sell, which is not so as that is a laminate flooring. A high quality engineered oak flooring, just as we distribute, offers identical qualities as a solid oak floor and in many ways will be even better. This appears like a sweeping statement from an organization such as ours, who have been involved with solid oak flooring for the last thirty years and more, nevertheless non the less accurate.

Lets just try and cover a some of the reasons why: A SOLID OAK timber plank it a totally natural item. You know that wood moves with different climatic conditions, for example moisture/humidity, damp or heat. Timber is really a semi porous material which is effected by these different conditions. If an oak flooring takes up moisture it will swell. The floor board will always swell on the width of the board and a small amount of on its length. Because of this it will be always essential, when laying a solid oak floor, to allow and expansion gap round the outside perimeter of the floor; between the wall and the flooring. If a gap is NOT formed when laying your floor, and the floor boards do swell, the flooring has no where to go and will then most often buckle up in the centre area of the floor. The floor will become springy and never lay flat onto the under surface on which it was originally laid.

Lets just say your living area was 5. mtrs wide and you decided to use 170 mm wide flooring to policy that width. That would mean that you will have to lay 30 rows of boarding. If each board decided to swell by 2 mm in its individual width, it could result in up to a total of 60 mm of swelling. In every case it would be impossible to allow a gap of 30 mm every side of a room to allow for this. Generally the largest expansion gap you'd be able to achieve can be around 20 mm, which you'd then cover with a trim or simply skirting. But if the flooring was laid in a property that had lately been plastered and was still drying out, a 2 mm of expansion on your board can be very possible. But if the sub floor was still drying out the situation will be even worse with the flooring capturing the moisture beneath it and resulting severe damage to the conservatively laid floor.

In ALL cases the property should be dry and free from humidity after restoration work and be equal to the atmosphere that you would expect in normal, warm living conditions.

An ENGINEERED OAK hardwood board might be slightly different but is just as attractive in appearance, providing you purchase the right type of material. It will wear just as long as a solid oak floor and is an infinitely more forgiving as well as structurally stable floor. The reason behind the above is that a layer of solid oak is glued on top of a multi laminate plywood. The European Oak is the same quality as the oak used in the solid oak boards we provide, thus giving an equivalent beauty along with its natural grain as well as figuring.

The engineered flooring that JFJ Flooring provide has a multi laminate plywood produced from 10 layers of a birch faced plywood 15 mm thick. Each layer is glued in opposite directions, as a result producing a plywood structure that's very stable and withstands movement. We would like to make you conscious that a great many plywoods, which are used in the production of engineered flooring offered by so many companies, isn't as thick and contains less layers. Less layers of ply will make it a less stable item. Using our engineered flooring a 6 mm layer of solid oak is then bonded/glued onto the 10 layer plywood. The glues used today can be very effective and when the correct adhesives are used the boarding is sometimes stronger the wood itself. The solid oak we use is a single piece of European oak between 6 and 7mm thick, creating a 190 mm wide board. Many companies will once again cut back, glueing several narrower widths together, giving the unpleasing appearance of a multiple strip floor. It is most crucial that the layer of solid oak is between 6 and7 mm thick, as this is the layer that takes all the wear and tear of everyday life. The result of our engineered flooring is a 22 mm thick board(15 mm multi laminate ply+ 7 mm of Solid European Oak) , 190 mm wide, that make up long lengths of 1900 mm and tongued and grooved all around the board.

This type of floor holds a number advantages: -
1. An exceedingly stable product that has much less movement then a solid oak floor.

2. The top layer of oak, on top of the plywood, is all you can see, providing the beauty that you simply would expect from a solid European oak floor.

3. An infinitely more stable product for under floor heating systems, which have become seriously popular.

4. A product that should last and wear just as long as a solid oak floor. If a solid European oak floor was regularly sanded down over time it could only be sanded down about 6 mm until you are on the tongue between the boards. Our engineered oak board has identical 6 to 7 mm thickness of wear.

5. The 22 mm thick board is much stronger than the solid oak board, not only because of its thickness, but also because of the multi laminate plywood. Plywood is about the strongest timber material you can purchase for this requirement.

6. Engineered oak flooring is much more environmentally friendly. The plywood consists of fast growing softwoods, which are plentiful, therefore using up far less of the valued solid oak that has taken centuries to develop.

7. A much faster floor to lay as you will be using longer and wider boards, which makes it less expensive.

8. Many of our purchasers will tell you that the flooring looks far superior with a longer, wider board and that it does not move like a solid oak floor will.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

At Jfj flooring and jf joinery we have been supplying joinery and flooring to private clients and the trade dateing back to 1853 as a family buisness. We are happy to help you with any aspect of your flooring or joinery requirements. Please visit our web site for more details and special offers. Tel 01598740197 www.jfjflooring.co.uk | www.jfjoinery.co.uk | www.devonbriquettes.co.uk)">(free articles | keyword one | keyword two | keyword three | keyword four)

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