Timber flooring......tell me all you know, please!!!!!!!!

[Janie]

Thanks Bath! I wear slippers year round too, even with carpet (do you all think I'm a nana now??? LOL). I do get what you're saying about doing what works with little kids and then changing it later, but the reality is that if we spend a few thousand plus (?????just a ballpark figure) now, it will need to last us for probably 10 years. Unless we suddenly get rich LOL! So while I want what's practical, I'm trying to think medium term, and what will look really good. This will be a big feature, right from the minute you look in our front door, and I'm determined that it not look second rate. I really want it to improve the overall look of our (30 year old) house.

It is very hard making decisions like this!

[Bathsheba]

I think either way, floating or just polished... you will probably have to have them resealed every 5 years anyhow. We have been here for 6 years and these boards should have already been redone. So there is that to consider. There are also lots of cute slippers on the market... Jiffies ballet flats are a non-nana option LOL

[spooky]

Why don't you have a look at bamboo boards? I don't know much about them but a friend recently chose them for her renovation. They are very hard, so would be great for kids dropping things all the time. They just look like any other floating boards.

[melbel]

we have solid hardwood timber which is great and my brother has solid pine. Both have worn well....his floors are about ten years old and yes the floor does have some small dents because of rough kids but all timber can do that even ours has marks where furniture has scratched it a little bit. they key is in the finish....it HAS to be a two pack gloss finish if you want any sort of long term wearability.....stuff you do yourself is just not as hard if you get what I mean...a two pack finish cures to a rock hard seal on the floor unlike other readily available 'bunnings' style products....so definitely get a professional to seal it....it is well worth the extra money.

I also wouldnt give floating floors house room..even though the boards are sealed, the cracks in between are not and that is where you run into issues long term with floating floors..with a well sealed timber floor there are no unselaed bits for water to get in and damage your floor.

[helle]

Why don't you have a look at bamboo boards? I don't know much about them but a friend recently chose them for her renovation. They are very hard, so would be great for kids dropping things all the time. They just look like any other floating boards.

just stumbled across this thread and thought i'd subscribe. i LOVE wooden floors...

We looked into getting bamboo when we first did our reno's and our house is small - 165m2 worth of bamboo floor boards was going to cost us around the $5,000 mark - not including instalation. We ended up tiling (ourselves - never again! - for $1,100

[Freckles]

I sell floor coverings and I wouldn't recommend laminate floating floors. They're the cheaper option over the real timber but they also are a lot softer.
You do need to be careful with water damage (say your dishwasher/washing machine overflowed) The laminate is inexpensive but not necessarily long term.
I would suggest trying to use your own exisiting timber if possible
P.S Any other questions I'm happy to help.

[Cally]

We have floating floors over a concrete slab. I love them, so much warmer than tiles would be. DH put bits of felt over the bottom of all the furniture so it wouldn't scratch when it was moved. However we have been dragging the high chair (with wheels) across it and there are only a couple of little scratches there.

Ours has a gap all around the edges which has a timber skirting board over it to allow for the expansion of the boards, looks just like a standard skirting board.

We have it in the kitchen, family room and eating area. The family room has a big rug over it as well so there is somewhere a bit softer for DD to play on. The stuff in the kitchen has coped just fine with the extra bits of moisture that is dropped on it there.

My sister has some that are fairly new and she is still in the paranoid about scratches stage and only washes the floor monthly because she is worried about the moisture ruining them. I figure that something like a floating floor (rather than polished pine boards) is specifically designed to be used as flooring and if by walking across it with shoes on (rather than socks) scratches it then it was poor quality in the first place.

I'd recommed measuring the area you are looking at and going and talking to some flooring people. Have a look at the different ones you can get and find out how much they would be. Then call some floor polishing people and find out how much for that - might help make your minds up if you have an idea of the cost.

Also the nice thing about the floating floor is that it can go down in a day or two depending on the area - pollishing boards will be messy, smelly and have the areas out of actions for ages.

Also, our boards have coped so much better in the 6 years they have been down than the carpet has!!!

[Freckles]

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[Snowy Love]

The floating floor we've got is called Boral Silkwood and it retails for $70 to $150 a lineal metre depending on the style. (DH said he could supply, but I think the freight from Qld to Vic would add too much to the cost ) If you google it there's a brochure which includes installation instructions.

It does insulate a bit, so that is an advantage over polishing the pine.

I think polished floors are much better than carpet too! In fact we're buying a house with all polished floors. I'm gonna get some rugs so my DH doesn't complain about it being cold in winter.

[Janie]

LOL SL, I'm struggling to imagine it getting too cold in your 'winter'!!!! Here in Melbourne it really does get cold, so we do have to take that into consideration.

Thank you everyone SO MUCH for your wise words and suggestions, it is really very helpful. I think we will talk to some different people, and get some ideas on what can be done, cost etc. After reading all of this I think I'm leaning again to polishing the existing boards. Mel, I definitely agree with you about getting a super good professional in to do it. There are many things I'm happy to do ourselves, but this is not one of them, it's too big a feature, too important. And doing it ourselves would mean it's unlikely to happen before this baby is born . And that is one thing I'm set on, if we have to move out for a week etc, it HAS to happen before this baby joins us!

Still happy to hear other people's experiences, it's all helpful

[Snowy Love]

It doesn't get "too cold" IMO, but DH whinges anyway!

[anney]

Hi Janie, not sure where you are in melbourne but back 12 years ago I got my floorboards done by a guy. He was just a one man company and he did a great job and very down to earth. I am fairly sure he was Viking Floors and is in the yellow pages in balnarring.
ETA - a word of warning, even though they use a bag to catch the dust, there is still dust on everything. If you can, close and tape up the doors to the rooms taht are not being done otherwise you get a light coating of dust on everything!