Engineered Timber

Why Choose an Engineered Floating Floor?

For those who have a concrete slab or are pressed for time, installing a timber floor is made easy. They are a popular alternative to solid floors as they are cheaper, quicker to install, easier to maintain, use less of the natural timber resource, yet still give the look of a genuine timber floor. Once it is ascertained that the concrete slab is level, an underlay is placed and then the engineered or “floating” timber floors are installed. Most homes can be installed in a day or two and depending on how handy you are, you can even install the floor yourself. There is no need to sand or polish as this is already done.

Fowles displays timbers from well known, reputable companies such as Boral, ReadyFlor, and Embelton.

Boral

Boral Silkwood is available in nine beautiful Australian species ranging from rich reds to deep browns and lighter shades to suit any décor from traditional to modern. Available in two popular single strip wide boards, 133mm x 15mm and 175mm x 18mm.

All Boral Silkwood floors are prefinished and treated with six coats of scratch resistant mid-gloss UV cured acrylic coating.Not only is Boral the only company that produces boards at 2, 2.2 and 2.4 metres long, every board in the box is the same length.

Boral Silkwood is designed with a quality multi-layer cross-ply construction, providing a stable timber floor with easy installation over many surfaces. The entire Boral Silkwood range is made in Australia, from Australian hardwood species for Australian conditions by an Australian company.

Embelton

Floating floors are a popular alternative to solid floors as they are cheaper, quicker to install, easier to maintain, use less of the natural timber resource, yet still give the look of a genuine timber floor.

The planks are typically 1.8 metres long, and are made up of three layers of different timber. The top surface layer (or veneer) is a premium quality hardwood face about 3-4mm thick, and comes in many different species and colours.

The veneer is pre-finished (meaning it can be walked on as soon as it is laid) with up to five scratch and stain resistant coatings, making it very durable against general wear and tear and stains. The top layer is adhered onto two cross-ply layers of plantation grade timber, giving the floor strength and dimensional stability.

Engineered floors can be one, two or three strips wide. Single strip is generally the most expensive, giving the closest look to a solid timber floor.

ReadyFlor

The term floating timber floor relates to a timber floor that is not directly stuck to the subfloor. Floating floors are glued together along the four tongue and groove interfaces and when knocked together, float as an interlocked sheet across the floor. The fact that Readyflor is not vertically adhered to the subfloor during the installation process gives it significant advantages over other timber flooring options like traditional floorboards or parquetry. These advantages include:

Easy to Install, Maintain & Repair Most floating floors are easy to install, easy to keep clean and maintain and easy to moderately easy to repair, should a board become damaged. In many cases, you can even replace a damaged board in the middle of a floor without disturbing adjoining boards!

Install Over Moist or Heated Concrete Subfloors By installing a plastic sheeting beneath the foam underlay, or by using Combi-Lay underlay, rising moisture is prevented, making Readyflor both easy and inexpensive to install over a moist subfloor. Installation over heated concrete subfloors is also a breeze with Readyflor. Please check the Installation Instructions Section for advice on installation over heated concrete subfloors.

Readyflor is a sandwich construction floating timber floor. The term sandwich construction relates to a floating floor with a thick core and a top surface about half as thick as the core. It is a three layer product and the layers are described below.

The Hardwood Top Layer The nominal 4mm top layer is solid hardwood. This is the wear layer of the product offering the decorative finish and hard wearing surface, equal to or better than the wear layer of a solid, traditional 19mm floorboard. The top layer is re-sandable 3 or 4 times, depending upon the skill of the floor sander and machinery used. The top layer of Readyflor is coated in the factory with 6 coats of UV lacquer leaving a subtle satin finish on the product. The top layer is adhered to the core using the highest quality heat cure adhesives.

The Hardwood Core The core is the middle layer of Readyflor and is 8mm thick. Unlike most of its competitors, Readyflor is manufactured with a plantation hardwood core. The use of the hardwood, Hevea Brasiliensis, gives the floor more stability than the use of softwood products. It is common knowledge that hardwood moves (shrinks and expands) less than softwood. The use of hardwood in the core also gives the floor slightly more indentation resistance as well as making the product easier and faster to install. In addition,hevea brasilliensis (commonly known as “rubberwood”) was once burned after its cycle of latex production had expired. Realising the value of this stable hardwood, we now use it both as a core in all products and as a top layer.

The Bottom Layer This “stabilising” layer is the final component of the sandwich construction. Made of plantation spruce, a softwood, this 2mm thick layer is adhered to the core using the same high quality heat cured adhesive.

The sandwich construction is the most popular construction type of all floating floors. Generally speaking it is the most stable of all floating floor construction types, even more so when hardwood is used as the core of the product. The stability offered by the sandwich construction comes from its cross ply construction. This means that the top layer’s grain runs north-south, the core’s grain runs east-west and the bottom layer’s grain runs north-south, limiting movement of any one layer.