What is Oak Flooring?
Oak is an attractive and popular timber that is native to Britain. It's a tall, strong, and impressive tree and, although conditions will affect the growth rate, it can reach impressive heights of around 60 to 100 feet.
There are hundreds of species, with approximately 25 native to Europe, and this includes deciduous and evergreen varieties. Oaks produce acorns that take between six and 18 months to mature and the trees themselves can live for hundreds of years.
The wood is a highly attractive, sought-after building material that works great as flooring.
Solid oak exudes a sense of strength, style, and beauty. Those looking to match the style and elegance of an oak tree with the same wood in their flooring can choose from a wide variety of products, offering a range of styles, shades, finishes, and plank widths.
The products vary in colour from very dark to pale white flooring. The varieties also include floors with few natural markings and those with a range of bands, lines, and knots. Solid oak floors come with a selection of finishes and edge detailing.
Engineered Oak Flooring
Comprises several wood layers stuck to one another under high pressure. This method of construction helps in creating wooden floors that boast higher strength and durability compared to solid oak floors, whilst retaining the same aesthetic quality.
Most solid floors have a tendency to shrink and expand. This happens because of room humidity changes, changing room temperature, and moisture in the subfloor. Oak Engineered Flooring is more resistant and can prevent such problems from occurring.
Oak Effect Laminate Flooring
Laminate flooring is a material that blends the synthetic with the natural, combining natural wood with synthetic fibres, making it a firm and solid flooring surface that can look just like hardwood or other surfaces like stone.
Oak is one of the most popular designs of laminate floors that reflects the current fashion for hardwoods in general and oak in particular. Those looking for the ideal design can choose between light, medium, or dark shades, wide or narrow planks, and smooth or bevelled edges.
Oak Effect Vinyl Flooring
Oak vinyl flooring comes in white, black, light, medium, and dark shades and mirrors the effect of real oak flooring but with the added benefit of being cheap, waterproof, and easy to clean.
Recent developments mean that vinyl can now offer even more durability while combining these practical features with a more striking appearance. When choosing oak effect vinyl floors there is a massive selection of styles reflecting the choice available in real oak floors, including the variety of shades and the grade of timber.
Because vinyl is so practical it is a common choice for kitchens and bathrooms where day-to-day spillages are easily dealt with, unlike other types of flooring which could be damaged.
This flooring is also very economical as it comes at very low prices and huge discounts mean that whatever size the room is, it can be covered cheaply. As it requires such limited care and maintenance, vinyl will also save you money in its upkeep.
