Types Of Wood Flooring
Wood flooring can be split into three main categories, which all have their own benefits. From solid and engineered to patterns such as parquet.
Solid wood flooring is essentially your wooden floor planks made of 100% pure wood. These are hardwearing and are an excellent choice to add some classic elegance to your room. While these are the more expensive wood floor options, they are easy to maintain and match any home style.
Engineered wood flooring is made up of various layers: a stabilising back layer, a core layer made of three options, HDF, plywood or softwood, the solid wood veneer, and a finish. These wooden floors come in a variety of options and are still very durable and easy to care for, but with the added benefits of being low-water and temperature resistant and compatible with underfloor heating, whereas real wood floors are not and can result in damage.
A wood flooring pattern, parquet flooring is a statement choice and adds character to your home. Our hardwood floors in this pattern are all engineered however you can also find real wood options on the market. These designs come in two beautiful options, from traditional herringbone flooring in a zig-zag pattern, to the modern ‘V’ shape of chevron flooring.
Wood Flooring Species
No matter what hardwood floor you choose, you can find a variety of wood types for your floor. Each species emits different tones and looks for your home, from rustic, vintage, prime, natural, or adding some unique character. Our wooden flooring can be found in oak, ash, beech, maple and walnut types.
- Oak wood flooring adds a soft yet warm aesthetic to your home. These are the most popular wood floors, featuring a honeyed tone with a distinct straight and swirling grain. You can find both engineered and solid options in this collection.
- Ash wood flooring features a bold, straight and open grain with distinctive patterns and offers a lighter-coloured tone to your home. Our range of these hardwood floors only contains engineered options.
- Beech wood flooring has a more regular but pale grain and features lightly speckled flecks and slight undertones of pink. This unique wood flooring comes in both solid and engineered options.
- Maple wood flooring has warm contrasts with light pale timber and darker soft graining. Choose from solid or engineered options with this durable wood floor.
- Walnut wood flooring offers striking grain patterns and a visual line to become the focal point and features a rich dark brown tone, with knots and attractive burrs. Only found in engineered options, this is a luxurious wooden flooring choice.
Wood Flooring Colours and Finishes
All of our wood flooring can be found in an array of wood colours, from traditional browns in light to dark tones to more modern hues such as white, grey or black.
Hardwood floors are often seen as the traditional brown wooden tones; these mostly depend on the type of wood species as you can find different saturations or even combined with other tones. The types of brown wood flooring you can find are:
- Light wood flooring brightens up a space and gives an airier feel. Great for smaller rooms, these wood floors come in both engineered and solid options as well as wood types like oak, ash, beech and maple.
- Dark wood flooring adds more warmth and depth to your home, creating a statement in your home. Great for creating contrast in larger rooms, you can find oak, walnut and maple types in engineered or solid floors.
- Medium wood flooring is the ideal happy middle, a natural wood flooring and can complement any interior size or colour scheme. Choose from engineered or solid oak, ash or beech floors.
For a more contemporary statement floor, white wood flooring is on-trend and can open up a space, found in engineered oak options only, it’s a beautiful choice. Grey wood flooring is another popular interior trend and acts as a subtle centerpiece, found in oak, ash, beech, and maple engineered or solid floors. And finally, black wood flooring can only be found in engineered oak options but are unique choice and transforms your floor into a mysterious yet striking statement.
Our wood flooring also comes with different surface types from textured, smooth and distressed which give your home either a classic wooden floor feel or a rustic tone. Wooden floors also come in different finishes from the glossy natural oil, satin or matt lacquer finish. Lacquer-finished wood flooring offers more protection than oil, but you can also choose a wood floor that is unfinished, ready for any finish of your choice or none at all.
What Rooms Are Suitable For Wood Flooring?
This solely depends on which type of wood floor you choose whether it be solid or engineered. Both types of wooden floors can be used in most rooms in your house and look great in high-traffic rooms. We offer living room wood flooring, bedroom, dining room, basement, conservatory and even stair and hallway wood flooring.
While real wood isn’t resistant to water or moisture as it can warp and damage the floor, our engineered options offer low-water resistance and are temperature resistant. Meaning only those wood flooring types can be used with under floor heating and rooms such as kitchens and bathrooms. But because it’s only low-water resistant, make sure to clean up any spills and be careful.
How To Lay Wood Flooring
All of our wood flooring is easy to fit and install and is DIY friendly. The majority of our hardwood floors offer a locking joint installation which just clicks and locks together when laying. Just double check on the specific product you are buying for in-depth explanations on how to fit wood flooring. But if you’re not sure you can always get a professional to fit your wooden floor.
How To Clean Wood Flooring
Wood flooring is a durable and hard-wearing option, which can resist dents and scratches as long as it’s cared for properly. Because of this, wooden floors are low maintenance and doesn’t collect dust and debris, so it doesn’t need much cleaning. To care for your wood flooring, just simply sweep or hoover regularly. Make sure you don’t use a steam cleaner, wet mop, or any bleach-based cleaning products however, as you will risk damaging your wooden floor.
Choosing The Best Wood Floor
With a lot of wood floor types, species, as well as colours and styles, it can be hard to find the best wood floor for you. To help you can always see how the wooden floor planks would look in your home with our Room Visualiser Tool. Or why not order free samples to see our hardwood flooring in person.
For more information, check out our Flooring Guides which have everything you need to know about our wood floors, including solid, engineered and parquet types. Or if you have any questions feel free to contact us, we’d love to help!