Oak is arguably one of the most popular choices of wood species for solid wood flooring. The choice of a whole host of stately home and chateaux owners in the past, there are plenty of oak floors both in the UK and across the whole of Europe that have been in place for hundreds of years. It’s for this reason that people have confidence when they choose an oak floor that they’re making a very good choice. However, thanks to the broad choice of solid oak floors on the market these days, choosing the best solid oak floor for your project can be a tough call.
In this article, we want to help you make the right choice, no matter which room in your home you’re planning to re-floor. That said, if you prefer the human touch to reading a blog post – of course we’re here for you and we’d love to talk you through your options! Here are the things you need to take into consideration:
When wood is lumbered it is graded into one of four categories: Prime, Select, Natural or Rustic. Wood is graded according to: the number and size of knots; its colour variation and the amount of sap present. Although you can’t normally see sap, it’s there. Generally speaking, the smaller the knots, the lower the sap content and the more uniform the colour, the higher the grade of wood and, of course the higher the price. So as you can imagine, the best solid oak flooring is often determined by the price, because for most people, their budget is one of the driving forces behind their decision.
A great advantage of choosing solid oak flooring is that you can be as conservative or as creative as you wish with colour. Coming in almost white tones, through warm honey shades to reasonably dark, solid oak flooring even comes in greys and
coffee colours to enhance any interior style or colour scheme. So, when you are shopping around for the best solid oak flooring, shop with an open mind and embrace all the colour possibilities that could work with your planned or existing interior.
The best solid oak flooring finish will depend to a large extent on the look you want to achieve as well as your actual or anticipated footfall. If you want a highly natural look for your floor, then there is no getting away from the fact that your best option is likely to be a brushed and oiled finish. However, if you have high or heavy footfall and find your floor in need of regular cleaning or subject to severe natural light, it may well be that the likes of a UV lacquer is your best solution. Either way, you know that whichever you choose, one great advantage of solid oak flooring is that you can resand and refinish it a number of times so you can get it back to looking its best – there aren’t many flooring options you can say that about!
Long boards, short boards, thick boards, thin boards. They’re all available in solid oak. It may be that you go into your project assuming that you need a certain style of board because your room is big, small, wide or narrow – but if that sounds familiar, take time and think again. Getting creative with wide or long boards in small rooms can create stunning visual effects, as can going wild with unexpected board sizes in big rooms. So don’t just assume that if you have a small room that you need to choose short, narrow boards. You might just surprise yourself if you try long, wide boards!
Vintage anything is hot right now and flooring is no different. There are two types of old or vintage when it comes to anything from jeans to leather goods to flooring. One is genuinely old and the other is made to look old. While genuinely old is highly sought after, it can be a tough call to get right and it can mean long waits for exactly what you want to come along. The ageing process applied to everything from denim, to leather to wood has come a long way since it started. Hand distressed or hand aged solid oak flooring is tough to identify as not being genuinely old. So if you’re in the search of a genuinely old solid oak floor, don’t discount the new, but made to look old alternatives. We think you might be surprised at how stunningly good looking they really are.
As with most things in life, there will be solid oak flooring options you can afford and those you can’t. The secret of getting the best option for you is to shop around carefully both on the High Street and online and to select a supplier that has a great combination of price, quality and service…and a great peace-of-mind guarantee.
If you’re struggling to identify the best solid oak flooring for your project, why not get in touch and let us help you make the very best choice.