Traditional timber flooring has been a classic floor material for centuries. When done right it is stunning, but using real timber for floors can have it’s low points, and we’ll look at a few of those pitfalls in this post.
It’s Expensive
To build a floor out of quality timber the traditional way; buying up lengths of wood that are nice and straight and flat, cutting them up, hammering them in place to the joists or gluing them to a concrete base, sanding the timber back, then staining it, oiling it, or coating it in a clear gloss is a long and rather costly process. While the results can be magnificent, it’s possibly one of the most expensive flooring options there is. The costs involved and the maintenance costs often have home-owners looking at options such as laminates, engineered timbers, Hybrids and vinyl planks.
Timber Flooring Requires Maintenance
While all floors require cleaning and some maintenance, timber floors can scratch up quite easily if those occupying the home are not always careful. Dragging a piece of furniture across the floor could cause gouge lines. The same with sliding chairs in and out from under the dining table. With traditional timber flooring you could find yourself having to resurface every room on a regular basis to maintain its appearance. This applies to the cheaper engineered timbers as well.
Timber Flooring Doesn’t Like Moisture
Think rooms like kitchens, laundries and bathrooms.
Not only does water and other liquids tend to get spilled on the floor in these rooms, these are also very moist environments in general – particularly bathrooms when people are taking hot showers and steaming the room up. Timber flooring and moisture just don’t work well together. Your floors could just buckle and swell and rot, needing replacing much sooner than planned.
Timber does not like the sun
Direct sun can dry out an expensive timber floor, causing splitting, gapping and warping. Fading and yellowing is also unavoidable, and the surfaces require recoating more often.
Long Installation Process
As touched on earlier, it’s a long and arduous process to install traditional timber flooring. After a 14 day acclimatisation in your home, you need professional carpenters or floor layers to do the install, as the task is beyond most DIY enthusiasts. With all that sawing and nailing it can be a very messy and noisy process as well.
There Are Alternatives
There are alternatives to traditional timber flooring that are a fraction of the price and installation is a breeze in comparison. Vinyl flooring with a timber look finish can be just as stunning as the real thing, and there are so many fantastic options. Vinyl flooring is perfect for the home DIY enthusiast, too.
At ID Flooring in Helensvale on the Gold Coast, we supply a vast array of vinyl flooring options, including:
- Loose lay vinyl flooring
- Glue down vinyl flooring
- Click together Hybrid vinyl flooring
- Self adhesive vinyl flooring
Our range is huge, so there is something to suit everyone’s tastes and individual projects. Timber is great, but there are alternatives that look just as good. Yes, we sell timber floors as well.