Oak Floor Replaces New Carpet After House Refurbishment

It’s natural to want to personalise a newly purchased home to reflect your own style and way of living.  This was certainly the case for one of our recent projects, when our clients bought a recently refurbished house which had been fitted with new carpets throughout.  As wood flooring is both a stylish and practical floor covering, one of their first jobs on moving in was to replace the carpets with a beautiful, new engineered quarter sawn oak floor.

Quarter sawn oak flooring is a really special floor with plenty of character. The sawing method cuts the log into quarters, which is then flipped round so the timber is cut across the grain. This means that the grain is much closer together and straighter than other cuts of oak, resulting in a very strong, stable material. The wood is characterised by beautiful flecking and medullary rays. To enhance the natural patterns, we laid the boards in the direction of the natural light, so it would pick up on the stunning markings. The pre-oiled finish enhances the colouring of the oak and adds to its natural appearance.

Our first job was to remove the carpets and prepare the subfloor by checking each board for cracks and loose fixings. Any damaged boards were replaced and a slatted underlay was fitted to cushion footfall noise. The new wood flooring was a hybrid installation between a floating and glued down floor. Fixing the boards prevents it from becoming too bouncy (which can happen with a floating system.)

The new hardwood flooring was fitted in all of the four bedrooms, the long hallway, and the master bedroom, with its walk-in wardrobe. The flooring for each level was aligned to ensure a perfect fit, without any threshold borders between the rooms. This meant that the wood flooring ran freely from one area to the next giving the impression of a much larger space.

We used a simple wooden moulding to connect the stair runner with the new wooden floor to provide a neat and consistent finish. The skirting boards were undercut, which meant that they did not have to be removed for us to fit the floor. We use a tried and tested method for this, which we have perfected over many years.

The end result is a hardwearing, practical and stylish floor which runs seamlessly throughout the home. We’ve got a feeling that this floor will remain in place for many years to come!

Location: SW19 Wimbledon, London