FAQ

FAQs on Choosing a Flooring

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You can grab a few samples of the flooring you are interested in before buying and test them for durability and resistance against moisture, impact, scratches and marking. For testing resistance against moisture, you can spill some water over it and observe how fast and much it swells.

Most of our flooring is manufactured in China, unless otherwise stated. This includes engineered and solid prefinished timbers, with the exceptions of the Formica® Decorative Flooring range, which are manufactured in Italy and greenearth™ engineered hardwood timber flooring, which are manufactured in Malaysia.

It will depends on the size of your pet and its nails. If you regularly trim your pet’s nails then you should have no problems in terms of getting huge white scratch marks. However, over time there will be markings. You will also have to keep in mind that your pet might urinate on the floor, and in some cases you might not notice, like in corners, until it is too late and the floor has swelled up.

Bamboo is a renewable resource. It is a sustainable material that grows a lot quicker than any other hardwood timber products. A bamboo field that has been harvested for manufacture will take around 6 years to grow back to its original state, compared to 40 to 60 years for other hardwood timbers.

FAQs on Maintaining Timber Flooring

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We recommend regular vacuuming and sweeping with a soft bristle broom. You can also use a slightly damp micro-fibre mop with a dash of dishwashing detergent and let it air dry. Please do not use steam or very wet mops as this will potential ruin your flooring and void the limited structural warranty.

This depends on which flooring you purchase. Our floating flooring products are covered by either a 15 years or 25 years limited structural warranty. This includes sudden cracking, splitting and delaminating of the floorboard. Normal wear and tear is not covered and that includes scratching and denting. Swelling from excessive moisture and water damage is also not covered.

• Laminate Floorboards can not be sanded.

• Engineered Timber Floorboards can be sanded or resanded once or twice.

• Strand Woven Bamboo Floorboards can be sanded or resanded twice or three times.

• Solid Timber can be resanded twice to four times.

Please keep in mind that this is just a very rough outline.

It also depends on how far down you sand back each time. If you require to remove minor scratching, you can usually opt for buffing the flooring instead.

FAQs on Installing Timber Flooring

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If you are installing a floating floor and you don’t want a noisy floor, you NEED underlay. When you skip on underlay and are installing floating flooring on top of either concrete or plywood, the floorboards will move and hit the subfloor, causing quite a bit of noise. For temporary installations such as trade shows, we still recommend you put down underlay first.

This depends on the type of flooring you will be installing.

With Floating Flooring:
The recommended allowance is generally no more than 4mm in height difference over 1 metre.

The easiest and most cost effective option is to cut a plastic sheet, measuring 1m by 1m, and place it over the subfloor, taping the edges. Do not interfere the plastic sheet for 24 hours. After 24 hours, you can peel back the plastic sheet and observe if there is any moisture collected on the plastic. If there is any sign of water, then there is too much moisture in the sub-floor.

You will need to use skirting board or scotia (concave mould) to cover the expansion gap between the walls and flooring. Please ensure the minimum thickness of the skirting board or scotia is 18mm. If you have existing skirting boards installed and it has enough clearance from the subfloor, you can leave the skirting boards in place. There is no need to remove them as you run the risk of damaging them and your wall. Other trims are used for places like joining tiles with the floorboards. Other trims include T-mould and L-cap. Near wet areas we recommend installing either plastic or aluminium trims. If the flooring is transitioning into another flooring area which is of a different height, you can use a trim called a reducer.

Yes, we install both floating and fixed flooring. Let us know if you have a preference for how you wish your flooring to be installed.

If you have an existing concrete slab subfloor, we prefer installing solid timber floors over plywood. We can also use batons. Batons are a cheaper option but it can make your floor sound hollower and it will raise the level quite a lot. Although plywood is pricier you get a more solid feel to your flooring.

Many people have installed timber flooring in the kitchen but you will have to be extra mindful of any liquid spillage. However, we do not recommend installing timber flooring products in the laundry. We suggest using either tiles or vinyl flooring instead. In the laundry, water spillage is highly likely, especially if the washing machine malfunctions and that there are chemicals and cleaners involved that could bleach your flooring. That being said, if you operate a dishwater in the kitchen we recommend you consider vinyl flooring or tiles.

You can apply a quick seal product during installation, but it is not required. If you are going to be doing this yourself then be really careful not to smear the quick seal where it is unwanted, which is pretty much anywhere that is not the joints. Please keep in mind that the seal will only increase water resistance and it will not make the floorboards water proof.

Please note that using such product is done so at your own risk and it will void the flooring’s warranty.

Our flooring usually sits in our warehouse for enough time to acclimatise. So, generally, unless you live in a drastically different climate to Sydney, there is no need to let the flooring acclimatise. You should leave a 12mm gap every 8m span around the perimeter of the floorboard for the expansion of the floorboards.