Blog | Hardwood Flooring

Safety tips for sanding wood floors

If your wood floors have seen better days and are covered in scratches and scuffs, it might be time to get it re-sanded. That’s the great thing about wood floors – that they can be re-sanded time and time again so that your floor ultimately lasts for years before needing to be replaced.

It is possible to sand your wood floors yourself, as you can hire equipment specially designed for floor sanding. However, if you aren’t confident in your DIY abilities or you simply want to ensure a professional job is done, it may be best to get an experienced floor sanding company such as Justwood in to do the work.

Still want to sand your floors yourself? If so, it is vital that you follow these safety tips:

• Equip yourself with a dust mask, goggles and ear protectors – floor sanding can be a loud, dusty and messy business (especially with the poor quality hire sanding machines), and you don’t want to damage your ears or eyes or breathe in any dust.
• Properly ventilate the room – this means opening all windows and doors, as well as maybe getting specialist ventilation equipment in
• Read all instructions and do some research before you start – you need to know how to use your sanding equipment safely.

Belgian college reinvents student housing thanks to Quick-Step floors

From an architectural and design standpoint, student halls and housing aren’t usually the most inspiring places. However, one university college in Belgium is doing its best to reinvent the concept of student housing, with a little help from Quick-Step floors.

Some time ago, the KATHO university college in Kortrijk launched a project to re-think the idea of student housing. It has now created a mobile housing terminal called HUB-01 to showcase its innovative ideas. The hub features a number of moveable units connected to a central hub, which houses living areas as well as the kitchen, shower room and other communal spaces. All of these units are self-sufficient, as they have their own solar panels and heat pumps.

Around the central hub are personalised, themed rooms, including one very special space – the Back 2 Basics room. In this space, which celebrates nature and ecology, all the walls and the floor are made from premium Quick-Step flooring. The floor, a laminate rather than solid wood floor, is laid in a chequered pattern for a warm, modern and very inviting finish.

The KATHO project, along with Quick-Step flooring, hopes to inspire other colleges and universities across the world to use design to innovate their learning processes, and hopefully it will succeed.

New floor or re-sanding – what’s the best option for old wood floors?

Has your wood floor seen better days? Or maybe you’ve moved into a new house which has old scratched and faded floors? Whichever is the case, you need to decide whether to have the old floor replaced or simply refurbished.

Before you do anything, you need to get the floor properly checked out by a wood flooring expert such as justwood. It may be that the old floor has already been re-sanded many times. As solid wood floors can only be sanded so many times, this means that your floor may not be re-sanded again and will need to be replaced with a new floor, depending on how much of the wear layer has been previously sanded off.

A wood flooring expert may also be able to tell you about any serious problems or defects with the floor or sub-floor, such as warping, buckling or rotting, which may be expensive to fix. If this is the case, you might want to think about getting a new floor to replace the old one. It may work out more cost-effective than fixing the defects.

Of course, you may simply fancy a change from your old wood floor and want to pick out a new style. If this is the case, it will be worth the expense to get the old floor taken up and a new floor fitted.

What you need to know about the EU Timber Regulation

On 3rd March 2013, a new EU regulation came into effect to prevent the illegal harvesting of timber used to make a range of wood products, including wood floors.

This new regulation, known as the Regulation (EU) No 995/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council or the (Illegal) Timber Regulation, was drawn up on 20th October 2010 but only came into effect in the last few months. This was to give operators and timber producers sufficient time to prepare.

There are three key things you need to know about the new EU Timber Regulation:

1. The new regulation prohibits illegally harvested timber and timber products to be placed on the EU market.
2. It requires traders in the EU to exercise ‘due diligence’ when placing timber products on the market. This means they must minimise the risk of putting illegally harvested timber on the EU market by carrying out a risk management exercise.
3. It requires operators in all parts of the supply chain to keep records of their suppliers and customers can be traced.

The introduction of the new EU regulation is good news for manufacturers, traders and customers alike, as it means that all timber products, including those used to make wood flooring, come from a sustainable, properly managed source. Hopefully, it will also mean that illegal harvesting, which is irresponsible and damaging to the environment, can be stamped out.

Tips for looking after your wood floors this summer

Compared to other floor coverings, wood floors require relatively little maintenance. However, you should still take certain steps to clean and maintain your floors, paying particular attention to how different seasons may affect them.

In summer, there are extra things you need to do to take care of your wood floors. We may not have seen much hot weather so far this year, but when temperatures rise and the sun comes out, your floor may need extra protection.

Follow these summer wood floor tips:

1. Shield your wood floors from the sun’s rays by drawing blinds and curtains over windows when you aren’t using the room. The sun can cause premature oxidisation and aging of the wood, which can lead to surface discolouration.

2. Relocate your rugs. Moving any large area rugs around from time to time not only ensures that the floor wears evenly, particularly in areas which see a lot of foot traffic, but it also ensures that any fading or discolouration caused by the sun’s rays (which can’t be avoided all the time) is even too.

3. Manage humidity in rooms where wood floors are installed by getting a de-humidifier. This will prevent humidity levels getting too high when temperatures rise, preventing warping, expansion and irregularities in the wood.

5 things to check before installing a Woodpecker floating floor

When installing any floating floor, it is very important to carry out the proper preparation to avoid problems later on. Woodpecker floating floors are amongst the easiest to fit, in a wide range of different spaces, but there are still a few crucial things to do before installation.

Before getting your Woodpecker floor fitted, make sure you check the following:

1. Is the sub-floor level? When fitting any wood floor, you must make sure that the subfloor is level to within 3mm over a radius of 2 metres, to avoid bouncy areas.

2. Sub-floor moisture levels. Using a moisture meter, the moisture levels in the sub-floor can be tested. Cement-based sub-floors should have a reading of less than 70% (depending on the type of meter used), whilst wood-based sub-floors should have between 7% and 11% Wood Moisture Equivalent (WME). 

3. Atmospheric relative humidity (RH) levels. This is the level of humidity in the air, in the room where wooden flooring is to be installed. Ideally, atmospheric RH levels should be between 40% and 60%.

4. Have you tested the underfloor heating? If you have underfloor heating, you must make sure it is properly tested by a qualified engineer before installing a floating wood floor over it. You must also make sure the heating is turned off at least 48 hours before floor installation, and then slowly turned back up 48 hours after completion of the floor.

5. Have you acclimatised the wood? Before installation, you need to leave solid wood flooring out in the room where it will be fitted (out of its packaging) for the amount of time recommended by the manufacturer, to allow it to acclimatise to humidity levels in the room.

Latest wood flooring trends

Like with all home décor, trends in wood flooring change all the time. Right now, the following are the most popular looks, finishes and designs in the wood flooring world:

1. Continuous flooring. No longer is hardwood flooring limited to dining rooms and living rooms; due to its versatility, it is increasingly being fitted throughout entire properties for a seamless, continuous look.

2. Solid and engineered wood flooring. It may be more expensive, but solid wood flooring, along with engineered flooring, seems to be the most popular choice in homes and businesses at the moment. Not only does it offer more of an authentic look, but solid wood and engineered floors also last longer than laminate as they can be re-sanded many times.

3. Dark and light. Rather than classic warm or traditional red-toned hardwood floors, the trend in homes and commercial properties right now is for very dark fumed or very light wood floors, along with pale grey/white toned floors, which offer a chic and very modern minimalist look.

4. Hand-scraped finishes. The timeworn, rustic look in wood floors is huge right now, particularly when achieved using hand-scraping finishing techniques, Just Wood have produced, supplied and fitted many of these floors over the years.

Managing moisture levels when installing wood floors

When installing wood floors, one of the most crucial things to remember is moisture management. Timber naturally contains a lot of moisture, and this moisture continues to affect the wood from when it is first processed until it ends up being laid in your living room (kiln drying reduces moisture content, to a level suitable for flooring).

If you fail to manage moisture correctly, you could end up with a floor that has noticeable gaps, crowns and maybe even buckling and warping. In extreme cases, your floor could start to rot.

To properly manage moisture levels in your wood floor, you need to:

• Ensure the wood is moisture tested before installation. This should be done by the wood floor manufacturer using a moisture meter, to determine whether moisture in the wood is within an acceptable range.
• Give the wood plenty of time to acclimatise (solid floors). This means leaving the wood floor planks out of their packaging in the room where they are to be installed for at least a couple of days to 2 weeks. Before installing, use a moisture meter to check the levels again.
• Control the temperature in your home. You need to keep indoor relative humidity levels in your home between 35% and 60%, which means an indoor temperature of between 60 and 80 degrees. You should also ensure the property is adequately ventilated.
• Allow room for movement. Your wood floor will move over the years, but not so much that you’ll notice it (providing all the above has been adhered to). However, you need to leave an adequate expansion gap to give the floor some breathing room.

Ted Todd floors feature in Prince’s House at Ideal Home 2013

At this year’s Ideal Homes show, the wood flooring manufacturer Ted Todd was chosen to provide the floors for The Prince’s House, a project in sustainable design run by the Prince’s Trust.

The Prince’s House is a popular feature every year at the Ideal Homes show, which this year was held between 15th March and 1st April at Earl’s Court London. The house was designed by the winners of the first ever Young Designers Competition, which saw entries flooding in from all over the country.

The winning entry was chosen by a panel chaired by HRH The Prince of Wales, who steered the judges towards a design incorporating energy saving systems and sustainable, natural materials. One of these natural materials was a floor provided by the leading wood floor company Ted Todd, who provided more than 130 square metres of its wide plank Classic Yardley Chase flooring to the project’s house flat and shop.

Ted Todd seemed to be an ideal choice for the Prince’s House, as it is a project which aims to show how UK manufactured, sustainable and affordable products can help to create beautiful spaces that virtually anyone would want to live in. Justwood can supply and fit the entire range of floors the leading manufacture Tedd Todd offer.