Caring for an end-grain wood block floor
Care for an end-grain floor as you would any wood floor, with frequent dry cleaning, a barely damp mop and the finish maker's products, but…
Wood flooring guides
Practical, sourced guides to wood floor finishes, installation methods, underfloor heating, moisture, cleaning, sanding, hardness and flooring standards.
All guides
Cleaning and maintenance
Care for a wood floor with daily dry sweeping or dust mopping, vacuuming with the hard-floor setting, a well wrung-out damp mop and a…
Engineered vs solid wood flooring
Choosing between solid and engineered wood flooring depends on subfloor conditions, heating systems and expected lifespan. The National…
Fire and slip ratings for wood floors
In Europe a wood floor's reaction to fire is given as a class from Afl to Ffl; most coated wood floors are Cfl-s1 or Dfl-s1, which depends…
Herringbone vs chevron flooring
The fundamental distinction between herringbone and chevron parquet lies in how the board ends are cut and meet: herringbone uses…
Janka hardness explained
The Janka rating is the load needed to push an 11.28 mm (0.444 in) steel ball into wood to half its diameter, quoted in pounds-force (lbf)…
Moisture and acclimatisation
Wood settles at an equilibrium moisture content set by the surrounding relative humidity, roughly 6% at 30% RH and 9% at 50% RH at room…
Sanding and refinishing
Solid wood floors can be sanded and refinished numerous times, while engineered floors can be sanded only as often as their wear layer…
Usage classes 21 to 34 for wood floors
Usage classes are two-digit codes that rate a floor covering for an intensity of use: the tens digit gives the setting (2 domestic, 3…
Wood floor finishes
Wood floor finishes fall into two families: penetrating oils and hardwax oils, which keep the natural surface and are easy to spot-repair,…
Wood floor installation methods
Wood floors are fixed in three main ways: nailed or stapled to a wood subfloor, glued to the subfloor, or floated on an underlay. NWFA says…
Wood flooring and underfloor heating
Most wood flooring can go over underfloor heating if the surface temperature is capped, usually at 27 °C (80 °F), the whole build-up stays…
Wood flooring standards
In Europe, product standards from CEN define each type of wood floor: EN 13226 for solid parquet elements, EN 13629 for solid boards, EN…
These guides cover the decisions and jobs that come after choosing a species and a format: how the floor is finished, how it is fixed down, how it copes with heating and humidity, how to look after it, and which standards the products are made to.
Before installation
- Moisture and acclimatisation: why moisture causes most wood floor problems, and how subfloors and boards are checked before laying.
- Installation methods: floating, glue-down and nail-down, and which formats suit each.
- Underfloor heating: what makes a wood floor compatible, and the limits manufacturers set.
Finishing and living with it
- Wood floor finishes: oil, hardwax oil, lacquer and colour treatments compared.
- Cleaning and maintenance: routine care, and what to avoid.
- Sanding and refinishing: when a floor can be sanded, and how often.
Reference
- Janka hardness explained: what the test measures and what it doesn't. The hardness chart ranks every species we cover.
- Flooring standards: a plain-English map of the European, international and national standards behind wood flooring products and installation.
Every guide cites its sources, and technical terms are defined in the glossary.
How to use these guides
Each guide opens with a short answer, then explains the reasoning and gives the figures that published sources support. Manufacturers' instructions for a specific product always come first. Where a product's technical sheet differs from the general guidance here, follow the product sheet and the advice of a qualified installer.