Maximising Space: Less is More with Home Designers

engineered hardwood flooring

engineered hardwood flooring

Decreased housing budgets reflects a general trend to increase a home’s efficiency, reduce excess waste and maximise space, Maryland’s Baltimore Sun reports.

According to a survey conducted by the NAHB:

average size of an American house shrank about 100 square feet last year to about 2,400 square feet…the percentage of homes with three or more bathrooms fell for the first time since 1992, while homes with four or more bedrooms declined for the third year in a row.

Ridding your home of needless extras such as game rooms, large en-suite bathrooms and outdoor swimming pools can not only help reduce initial outlay costs, but also cut utility bills and save energy. Concentrating on making better use of the essentials, such as better insulation in windows and doors, smart ways of heating and more modern and effecient appliances, can help save even more money. Also, choosing a good engineered wood floor can be a key factor in the overall appearance of your home. The colour, style and species all help to shape the look you are trying to create.

However, going ‘green’ isn’t always the cheapest option since innovative technology generally comes at a premium and can scare some consumers away, even if they will save money in the long run.

Making smart choices about the essential aspects of your home will always reap the benefits and there hasn’t been a better time to start than now, with Real Oak Floors offering engineered hardwood flooring at reduced prices yet sourcing woods only from sustainable forests.

Available in a range of styles, engineered hardwood flooring can be oiled, lacuqered or even unfinished. Its stability stems from the fact that a top layer of real wood compliments a strong ply-board backing. This helps when installing a wood floor in a difficult area such as over concrete and is also resillient against expansion, shrinking and warping.

Underfloor heating also helps to keep your home warm for less by spreading heating elements strategically across your home.

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Real Oak Floors News Update

square-listingHave you ever thought of having your own coffee table designed exactly to your requirements? Well now you can!

Real Oak Floors now offer a huge selection of bespoke furniture – all made to your personal size, style and finish. If you need an extra large table made – no problem, just send over your measurements, type of wood required and finish and Real Oak Floors will do the rest.

There is a large range of timbers to choose from – the most common ones being European white oak, American white oak, Walnut and Maple, however there is also a range of hardwoods and softwoods including Scandinavian redwood, tulipwood, Ash, Maple, Meranti, Iroko, sapele, beech, cherry and the very exotic Wenge.

Real Oak Floors Started out 5 years ago supplying flooring to the trade and public but over the years they have seen the range grow to incorporate customers demands. Now, after their recent move to much larger premises the variety of products and services has doubled with a large amount of timber products available from stock.

A full range of rough sawn timber is now available with window boards, skirting boards, door casings, architraves and profiles ready to take away.

Solid wood worktops including a cutting service for sinks, breakfast bars is now also available.

Recent additions to the range also include the Karndean vinyl range which has a full wood effect range with Kersaint & Cobb rugs and stair runners. Real Oak Floors are also authorised distributors of the Woca, Osmo, Saicos and Bona ranges of seals and maintenance products.

The flooring range has also expanded recently with the addition of a full range of real smoked and smoked look boards – available with distressing as an additional extra. These boards give the perfect “original” look to complement your room. With trends changing all the time Real Oak Floors have managed to expand the range to adapt. All boards in the best selling range “The Creative Collection” now come in a UV oiled finish option to give a much more durable finish.
In the Majestic Collection range there is a new “rough sawn” selection of engineered oak floors – these have a mill worn appearance with a rough textured finish to give a perfect rustic style flooring – available in a choice of colours to suit.

Real Oak Floors source all their floors from sustainable sources around the world – most coming with the FSC or PEFC certificate. There is a large range of solid wooden floors available to suit all styles, sizes, colours and budgets. The engineerd wooden floor selection has equally as large a choice and with most of these wooden floors on display in the new 2000sq foot showroom, you will be spoilt for choice!!!

Real Oak Floors new showroom is open 6 days per week – Monday – Thursday 9am – 5pm, Friday 9am – 4pm and Saturday 10am – 2pm.

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Creative Floor Collection – Updated and New Images

We’ve been busy this Christmas updating our wood flooring ranges, and we can proudly present our updated Creative Engineered Flooring Collection.

Our Creative Floor Collection is a bespoke range of engineered wood flooring that aims to give customers a wide choice of extremely high quality engineered boards in finishes that will suit almost any taste. To give you a true picture of the creative flooring we offer we’ve gone to some lengths to make sure the images you see on our site are the closest in colour and texture you will get to the real thing.

Of course, it’s impossible to replicate the style of wood completely, but the following chart should give you a breathtaking overview of the diverse range of engineered wood flooring we offer.

Oiled Creative Floor Collection

Oiled Creative Floor Collection

The creative oak flooring distressed collection reveals the contrasts and vibrancy of the real wood layer and is available in a range of contrasting dark and light tones.

Discover the depth of a smoked wood floor with dark tones of Campana oak flooring or the contrasting grains of Maranello. If you’re looking to retain the natural tones of the wood then our unfinished floor collection is the right choice. Trevisio is more akin to natural oak while Soleto is richer, almost red in colour.

Distressed, Smoked and Unfinished Oak Flooring

Distressed, Smoked and Unfinished Oak Flooring

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Interior Design Trends of the Noughties

Taking a look back over the past decade, we have put much more effort into personalising our living spaces yet maintaining a chic minimalism made popular during the 2000s.

interior-design-inspiration-linea-italia

Image Credit: Trendir Modern Interiors 2009

With the rise of interior design reality shows, more and more people are considering their living interiors much more carefully. The Guardian’s Huma Quershi sums up the decade nicely:

While we may never entirely tire of whitewashed brick walls teamed with wooden floors, interiors styles have grown more individual and less prescriptive.

Indeed, once a staple of many modern homes, real wood flooring has diversified and broken new ground with ever increasing ranges of new colours and styles and a widening array of wood species. Exotic woods have appeared, from the rich red tones of Doussie to the striking contrasting brown grains of Iroko, and have even inspired people to make their floors a centre peice of a home.

Of course, a balance needs to be kept between individuality and good taste. No one wants sensory overload as soon as they walk into a room so choosing subtle colours from our diverse engineered flooring collection may just be the perfect addition to your home.

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Range of Karndean Vinyl Flooring Updated

vinyl-flooring-swatchAs well as the Art Select range, Real Oak Floors now stock the following ranges of vinyl wood flooring:

  • Van Gough
  • Renoir
  • Knight Tile

Within each of these ranges there are a wide variety of styles and colours to suite every taste. The great thing about vinyl flooring is that it is laid in strips just like real wood flooring but with the ease of simply gluing and laying. Enjoy a high quality vinyl floor with a 2.5-3mm layer of thickness.

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A New Range of Karndean Vinyl Flooring at Real Oak Floors

Vinyl wood flooring can give you that great wood flooring effect without the effort of having to lay real wood floor. It is also the safe option when there may be a risk of the wood buckling, contracting or expanding too much. Choosing the most durable and high quality vinyl floor is extremely important if it is to last and deliver the look you want.

Luckily, we have one word for you: Karndean.

Karndean vinyl flooring excels in all respects – both in the home and in a commercial environment. Real Oak Floors is also proud to announce it is now stocking many different types of Karndeanvinyl flooring. The hickory range aims to maintain a rugged look with varying textures and grains to achieve a real wood floor effect. The Oak range on the other hand is more traditional in its appearance but sitll retains that edge with some breathtaking tones.

Our range of vinyl flooring is still growing and will soon offer a diverse range of real wood effect vinyl floors.

Stay tuned for more info on how to lay and maintain a vinyl floor!

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How to Lay Wood Flooring Underlay

Wood flooring underlay is seen more of a necessity than an ‘optional’ purchase these days. Not only does it provide significant sound dampening qualities on hardwood floors but also helps to insulate the surrounding area. In addition, the physical barrier created by the underlay provides comprehensive protection from dampness rising from your subfloor to your wood floor.

So, now you know the benefits of flooring underlay, how do you install it?

Step 1

1-copySweep/vacuum any dirt, dust or other loose contaminants from the area where you are laying your underlay. Also, any loose floorboards must be nailed down and protruding nails should be replaced or hammered in properly. Not doing so will create unevenness when laying the underlay and reduce its effectiveness.

Step 2

2-copyWhen measuring and laying your underlay, you must make sure you leave a 5mm excess to run up the wall. Remember you can cut down, but you can’t add on once you start taping your underlay.

Step 3

3-copyOnce the underlay covers the desired area, use single-sided carpet tape to secure all the joints and press firmly into place.

Step 4

4-copyLay your wood flooring. Trim the underlay to the top of the wood floor and fit any accessories such as oak skirting.

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Wood Floor Care with Bona

Bona-Care-RangeFurther to our post on our full range of Bona flooring care products we thought it would be a good idea to give you some tips on keeping your wood floor maintained, clean and well-protected during these cold winter months.

Keep your wood floor free from dirt and grime

Cleaning your floor at least once a week will stop the build up of dirt, minimising the risk of scratching or dulling your hardwood floor or engineered floor. Our Bona Care Mop will get rid of any loose dirt or grime and covers large areas at once.

Remove stains and grime with a Wood Floor Cleaner

Our Bona wood floor cleaner is specially formulated to remove stubborn marks with minimal effort. Simply spray on the affected area , leave for a few minutes and wipe clean with the Bona Care Mop. There’s no need to use a water-soluble cleaning solution either, which is ideal for wood floors since water generally isn’t welcome! In fact, using traditional household cleaning products can dull your wood floor and make refinishing difficult.

Other Tips and Advice

Avoid having to sand your floor to the bare wood – Simply sand down the existing finish leaving it slightly rough (called abrading). Refinish your wood floor by applying your lacquer, oil or stain on top of the old abraded finish. Make sure you use the same finish to ensure consistent results.

Reduce the hassle of finishing your wood floor - Bona Waterborne finishes are both environmentally sound and safe to use. This takes away the inconvenience of staying clear of the room while it is drying. It also offers peace of mind for when children are playing on your newly finished floor.

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Real Oak Floors Branches Out

rof-relocate1To Coincide with the opening of their new 2000sq ft showroom Real Oak Floors have introduced a new range of products to complement their current massive range of wooden floors, accessories and timber products.

Already brimming with solid wood floors and engineered wooden floors, there is a new range of finishes available exclusively from Real Oak Floors.

The Creative Collection of engineered wood floors has proved a tremendous hit with customers and so to complement this range, their new range will be unveiled to include all types of finishes on both solid wood and engineered floors – not to mention a full range of exotic wood floors available in wide boards from 189mm upwards.

A full range of timber is now available from stock and a full bespoke milling service is in house.
Timber ranges include rough sawn beams in Oak, rough sawn timber in Oak, Walnut, Maple, Sapele, Ash plus many more hardwood timber species.
All these timbers can be milled to be a planed finish or can be cut to your specification and can include a specialised service for design, manufacture and installation of a range of solid wood furniture.
Projects can include solid oak tables, chairs, benches, picture frames, bookcases, doors and staircases.

A finishing service for all products is available for both an oiled and lacquered finish – in house finishing will be available shortly.

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New Bona Flooring Products Range Added

bona-complete-range

Real Oak Floors has announced a new range of wood flooring care products, flooring primers and complete wood floor care systems. You can check out the Bona Flooring Products range on the Real Oak Floors website.

We have also added some new video guides to our Real Oak Floors Youtube Channel. Here you can find videos on how to repair a damanged wood floor with the Bona Naturale Repair Kit. There are additional tips on how to look after your wood floors.

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