HARDWOOD FLOORING Finishes & Textures
We are often asked “how do I choose a hardwood floor?”
To us at Northamptonshire Floors it is important for us to provide you with simple advice that allows you to select the hardwood floor that suits your desired taste but also is also practical and suitable for your everyday living environment.
Let’s start with the look and finish, in simple terms the question is what finish and texture to which there are many options to this question so to keep it simple this is our quick guide.
Lacquered Surface
This is the most popular surface finish of real wood floors sold in the UK; the board would be sanded and finished at a factory mill with an acrylic UV lacquer which is a relatively hard smooth surface coating.
Due to its application process, it can have between 5 and 10 layers of lacquer applied, depending on the range of products, making it a very hard-wearing and durable surface. A lacquered surface is normally smooth with either a dull matt sheen or a shiny gloss appearance.
Brush Lacquered
During the production process in a factory mill, the surface of the board is heavy brushed to remove the soft fibres from the grain leaving a textured surface, a matt lacquered surface gives the same impression as an oiled floor but has the added benefits of the reduced maintenance required from a lacquered floor.
Natural Oiled Surface
The application of natural oil to a floor deepens the natural colour of the wood as it brings out the natural beauty of the grain and soaks right into the wood, once installed to a natural oiled floor requires a top coat of hard-wax oil to give it a protective layer.
The beauty of using natural oils is that if the floor becomes scratched or bruised the damaged area can easily be touched by applying another coat of hard-wax oil.
Not too dissimilar to natural oiled is hard-wax oiled which have the same characteristics as natural oil but a less absorbent surface, hard-wax oil stays more on the surface as it has greater viscosity of wax. This floor can easily be touched in and when buffed restores itself to its original condition.
UV Oiled Surface
Like a natural oiled floor, a UV Oiled floor gives you a deepen natural colour of the wood bringing out the natural beauty of the grain, the difference is that a UV oiled floor does not require a final coat of oil and required little maintenance as opposed to that of a natural oiled floor.
Brush UV Oiled
During the production process in a factory mill the surface of the board is heavy brushed to remove the soft fibres from the grain leaving a textured surface finished with the UV oiled finish that does not require a final coat of oil and required little maintenance as oppose to natural oiled floors.
Hand Scraped
The surface of the board has been scraped manually by hand by master craftsmen which means that every plank is different giving you a unique look for your floor, hand distressing can give the flooring more character and a unique look than other more uniform looking hardwood floors with a look of a hardwood floor that has been in situ for many years which is aged and battered.
Distressed
Distressed Wood Flooring is the ideal choice if you want to create an aged/reclaimed feel. Each board has been individually manually scraped by hand and then the distressed look is achieved by an expert craftsman hitting, scraping and carving each plank with a number of different specialist objects.
If you want some more information on our contract flooring or to book a consultation with one of our Flooring Executives please call us on 0845 293 9374 or Click Here to fill out an online enquiry.
