If you’re thinking about installing wood flooring in a conservatory there are a few things you’d benefit from bearing in mind. Conservatories are great spaces for relaxing, enjoying some time with friends or even to use as an inspiring office or study. That said, choosing wood floor for your conservatory means that you need to make your flooring decisions just a tiny bit more carefully than you might in some of the other rooms in the home.
By it’s very nature, a conservatory is normally constructed principally in glass on at least three sides (and quite often overhead as well), which means that part of its pleasure is that it can be a real sun trap. While being a suntrap is a huge plus for its owners, the fact that conservatories are real suntraps can pose real challenges when it comes to wood flooring.
Why? Because suntraps mean high temperatures at certain times of day and (often) the lack of insulation offered by glass can mean that temperatures can drop dramatically overnight. It is this fluctuation in temperature which poses the greatest problem for wood flooring rather than either the highs or the lows themselves.
When temperatures in your conservatory rise, the air becomes drier, which means that wood floors naturally give up moisture into the atmosphere. When temperatures drop again, that same floor will take in moisture. While normal humidity levels don’t in themselves cause a major problem, extreme humidity fluctuations can cause damage. One of the things you’ll notice at a very basic level is that your floor, as it expands and contracts (due to the temperature and humidity changes) will develop gaps between the boards. These gaps will appear and disappear at different times.
It is in order to minimise these problems that we recommend engineered wood flooring for installation in conservatories. Just to clarify, these are the essential differences between engineered and solid wood flooring. Engineered wooden floorboards are made up of layers of different types of wood and are topped by hardwood. They’re not made of solid wood. Typically they are constructed using a combination of plywood, softwood and hardwood. Solid wood or real wood (as it’s sometimes called) on the other hand, as the name suggests is made from solid wood. It’s made entirely from hard wood and reacts more strongly to fluctuations in temperature and humidity than engineered wood flooring. It is for this reason that we recommend installing engineered rather than solid wood flooring in conservatories.
Apart from choosing engineered wood flooring for stability reasons in your conservatory, it is also well worth introducing an ultra violet (UV) finish to your flooring equation to minimise the harm caused by the strong sunlight it will come up against.
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FAQ
Q1: Why should I be careful when choosing wood flooring for my conservatory?
Due to the nature of a conservatory’s construction, it experiences significant fluctuations in temperature, becoming a suntrap during the day and often cooling dramatically overnight. This temperature variation can pose challenges for wood flooring, as it can cause the wood to expand and contract, leading to gaps between the boards.
Q2: What issues does fluctuating temperature cause for wood flooring?
When temperatures in your conservatory rise, the air becomes drier, causing wood floors to give up moisture into the atmosphere. When temperatures drop again, that same floor will take in moisture. These extreme humidity fluctuations can cause damage to the wood, often resulting in gaps appearing and disappearing between the boards at different times.
Q3: What type of wood flooring is best for a conservatory?
Engineered wood flooring is recommended for conservatories due to its stability in the face of temperature and humidity changes which are likely to take place in a conservatory . Unlike solid wood flooring, which is made from 100% hardwood, engineered wooden floorboards are made up of layers of different types of materials (Ply and MDF in most cases), topped by hardwood top layer. This construction makes them less reactive to temperature and humidity fluctuations.
Q4: What are the essential differences between engineered and solid wood flooring?
Engineered wooden floorboards are made up of layers of plywood, softwood, MDF and top layer of hardwood. On the other hand, solid wood flooring is made entirely from 100% hardwood and reacts more strongly to fluctuations in temperature and humidity. The two look the same when fitted with the only difference being the core of the board.
Q5: Is there anything else I should consider for conservatory wood flooring?
It is recommended to introduce an ultra-violet (UV) finish to your engineered wood flooring in the conservatory. This will help to minimise the harm caused by the strong sunlight that the floor will be exposed to.