Blog Archive | March 2012

Restoring that hidden gem

During the 1960s and 1970s many original features in homes were wickedly taken away by homeowners who thought they wanted to extol the virtues of modern living. Old sash windows were replaced with UPVC double glazing, cast iron fireplaces were treated as junk and beautiful wooden flooring was hidden beneath vinyl or carpet.

Luckily many people have now realised how important it is to restore the original features in a home and are spending their time putting back the features which were removed just a few decades ago. In many cases this might involve a visit to your local architectural salvage yard or a trawl of the internet to find what you are looking for. If you are lucky however you just might find an old fireplace which has been boxed in behind layers of hardboard or if you’re really fortunate, you might pull back the carpet to reveal a beautiful hardwood floor.

Hardwood flooring which has survived under your carpet or vinyl covering for a couple of decades might take a bit of work to restore it to its former glory, but with a little effort and a lot of floor sanding you will see amazing results.

Getting a professional finish on a floor that has been hidden for decades can be tricky unless you know what you are doing. But if you have a hardwood floor in Hampshire, Sussex or Surrey that needs a bit of work, you can rely on the hardwood flooring restoration experts to help you out. They will sand the floor and add a suitable coat of finish to make it shine once more.

Hardwood flooring maintenance tips

Everyone knows that adding a hardwood floor to a home can make a huge difference to the feel and the ambience of the surroundings. However, after a few years a hardwood floor may start to show signs of everyday wear and tear. And whilst most of the marks, scuffs and blemishes will do little more that to add to the floor’s character, there are some things you can do to give your floor a new lease of life or slow the aging process.

Hardwood flooring can get scratched with heavy use, so it is important to use castor cups under furniture and make sure heavy furniture items are always lifted instead of being dragged across the floor. Likewise regular vacuuming can help as this will remove the dirt and dust particles which can cause small scratches on the floor surface.

It’s also important to never wet mop a hardwood floor. If the floor needs to be mopped, the mop should be wrung out thoroughly before wiping across the floor.

Sometimes discolouration can occur on a solid wood floor. Most discolouration problems are due to constant exposure of sunlight. For this reason it is important to move furniture around the room occasionally, if you can, and make sure the rug in the centre of the room is lifted from time-to-time to give the centre of the floor some exposure to light.

It’s also worth mentioning that continual walking across the floor in shoes such as high heels can damage the floor surface. The one guaranteed way to stop shoe marks is to wear slippers when walking across the floor.

You can use deep cleaning techniques and buffing to restore the surface finish on a solid wood floor, but it’s best to leave this job to the professionals who have the right equipment and the knowhow to do the job properly.

How hard is a hardwood floor?

The relative hardness levels of a specific type of wood can be measured by either the Brinell or Janka hardness tests.

The type of wood floor you have in your home can dictate how often the floor will need to be refinished or will need replacing in its entirety. Some species of wood, such as pine are relatively soft so will mark much easier than types made from wood species such as oak.

The Brinell test measures the hardness of the wood by pushing a steel ball into the wood with a specific force. The ball has a predetermined diameter and the impression left by the ball is then used to measure the relative hardness of the wood. It follows then that the larger impression left by the ball the softer the wood. This is repeated at several areas across the wood surface and an average figure for hardness determined.

The other method used to measure relative wood hardness is called the Janka test. This method also uses a steel ball of a predetermined diameter.

However in this case the ball is pressed into the wood until half the ball’s diameter is sat within the wood’s surface. The force needed to do this is measured and it is this which is used to determine the relative hardness of the wood.

How to overcome the issue of uneven floor surfaces (Part 2)

In the previous blog post, we explained how the installation of hardwood flooring on a surface which is uneven can really cause issues further down the line. It is always recommended you go to the specialists to carry out the essential preparation work so that the floor will not require immediate maintenance or have to be re-fitted again soon.

By taking the time to make sure that the floor has been properly levelled before any work on it is begun, we can help to create the ideal surface for your new wooden flooring to be installed on.

Having an even surface is always preferable if you want to install new flooring in your home, so this is the first thing that the experts will address when it comes to approaching this work.

The engineer will usually identify where the problem surface areas are by using such things as a sturdy wood board or flat metal rule/straight edge to find these uneven places. They will check the entire floor and go about marking high spots to be ground down and lower areas in the surface of the subfloor which will need to be laytexed up.

In order to make the surface even, these low spots will be filled in using packing or laytex levelling compound and any high spots will be ground with a carborundum ring wheel or planed/sanded off to reduce the high spot. This can ensure that everything is ready for the installation to go ahead.

How to overcome the issue of uneven floor surfaces (Part 1)

Generally speaking, you will find that wood flooring planks are some of the sturdiest materials around when looking to cover the floor of a room. However, it is always necessary to have them installed in the right way and by the professionals as having them laid down on uneven surfaces can lead to a number of issues.

When hardwood flooring is installed on these surfaces which are far from being flat, there is the possibility that the panels could bend or even crack should a certain amount of weight be placed on them.

So, if you know that the surface of the room in your home where you wish to have wood flooring installed is uneven, you should speak to the specialists in the first instance.

Instead of going ahead with this yourself, the wood flooring experts could end up saving you time as well as money in ensuring the hardwood floor is laid correctly and will look great for many years to come.

In the next article, we will be going through some of the things you can do to avoid these kinds of problems and hopefully have a floor that you can truly be proud of.

Give your new wood floor time to settle down

When you have decided on hardwood flooring as your floor of choice for one or more rooms within your home, you should not forget that this is a living material and so needs to go through a natural process once installed.

However, this is nothing to worry about and is the way that the wood adapts to its new surroundings. You can expect the wood to respond in different ways to the humidity, temperature and light that enters the room.

As a general rule, you should allow for a minimum of the four seasons to take their course before the wooden flooring is settled into its environment.

During this time you might notice that the floor boards move around, with slight gaps being quite common due to these fluctuations in humidity and temperature throughout the year.

This is all part of the natural process that the wood has to go through and so all is needed is a little care and attention to keep the conditions as stable as possible. You need to use the heating within your home wisely to ensure that these changes are allowed to take place in the right way.

It is all worth it in the end when you are left with a beautiful floor that will remain that way for decades.

Using area rugs to protect your beautiful hardwood flooring

Although a complete floor covering placed over your wooden floor might adversely affect its ability to breathe, the usage of area rugs in specific parts of a room can really help to look after your precious floor.

When selecting the most appropriate rugs for the room, obviously you will want to consider the décor and how the covering fits in with the furniture and colour scheme in the setting, but you also need to consider the right type of rug.

For instance, rubber-backed and non-ventilated rugs can potentially damage a wooden floor as they prevent it from being able to breathe. Therefore, be careful when choosing a floor covering in this way.

The benefits to using these area rugs in the room are primarily centred on the protection of the floor, as they can prove to be especially useful in high traffic areas. If you have had the new floor installed in a part of your home which is used regularly, rugs can be laid on pathways and close to external doorways.

This can give you peace of mind that the floor is as well ventilated as it should be, but it has now also been given additional protection too.

Installing wood flooring in rooms where moisture is an issue

Due to the fact that it can take time for hardwood flooring to settle into a new environment, most householders decide that they prefer to have their new floor installed in the bedroom, dining room, living room or hallway. However, wooden flooring can actually be fitted in most settings.

If the room where the wood flooring is to go is in a kitchen or conservatory where there may be an issue with spillages, moisture or varying temperatures, we can supply and fit a multi-layer engineered floor and also use a damp proof underlay. This type of underlay can also help to level the subfloor, removing minor irregularities while offering a range of other benefits too.

There are different types of underlay available and you can expect that only those endorsed by the leading wood floor producers are utilised by the installation specialists.

If there is high moisture content in the subfloor a waterproof surface membrane will need to be smoothed out, before the right kind of adhesive or underlay is applied to it. Some of the latest surface products provide a dual moisture barrier and also offer good ventilation which is important. As they can be fitted quite easily, having an underlay is an excellent solution to this type of problem.

When you are considering having a new wooden floor fitted in your home, be sure to speak to the specialists today about any concerns you might have.

Bring life to your home through a hardwood flooring solution

If you are looking for ways to revitalise and refresh your abode then the installation of wooden flooring can really be used to great effect. This flooring solution has the ability to totally transform a property.

However, despite the many qualities it can bring to a home, it can be achieved relatively simply. For those in this situation where they are bored of their interiors and are seeking inspiration to give it a new feel.

When homeowners wish to alter the appearance of their property, this need not be such a dramatic change as something as straightforward as installing hardwood flooring can really alter the overall appearance of any room.

So why not consider having wood flooring installed in more than one room? This is certainly achievable and you can open up spaces in the home, bringing a certain ambience.

And once you have had the floor sorted out by professional installers, you can then move on to decorating the walls in new colours too.

This form of home styling can be incredibly therapeutic as you can easily get too used to the way your home looks. By just having fresh ideas you can make the floor the ideal starting point for your project.