Dark wooden floors.

T

TillyD

Registered User
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Hi,

I love dark woods and I am looking to put dark solid wood floors in my hall and sitting room. I just love walnut but I’ve read and heard it is a very soft wood and marks easily. Can anyone recommend a more hardwearing solid floor but it must be dark wood?

Thanks… Tilly.
 
TillyD said:
Hi,

I love dark woods and I am looking to put dark solid wood floors in my hall and sitting room. I just love walnut but I’ve read and heard it is a very soft wood and marks easily. Can anyone recommend a more hardwearing solid floor but it must be dark wood?

Thanks… Tilly.
Click to expand...

Hi TIllyD,Like you, I also love walnut flooring but we were put off by the softness (4 out of 10) you know you will regret it eventually. We actually found a commercial grade laminate (laminate I hear you shriek! ), Yes I know, until we found this I would never have even considered laminate, but I tell you, you would be hard pushed to tell the difference. We will be glueing it directly to concrete, thus hopefully eliminating any bounce...have seen it down and it really is lovely.(I have no connection with this product or its seller) Won't scratch (unlike the sample of the eng solid we got, I gave it a few gentle whacks and the marks left were really terrible) Let me know if you want me to PM you the details....
 
Hi Bobbins,
I am considering laminate too, mainly for bedrooms. We have undefloor heating and I was wondering if it was OK to glue to floor. Looks like you are going this route and have determined that glueing laminate to concrete is OK. I would be interested in knowing if you received advice to this effect. I have seen some laminates which state that they must not be glued to floor !
Thanks
 
ennisjim said:
Hi Bobbins,
I am considering laminate too, mainly for bedrooms. We have undefloor heating and I was wondering if it was OK to glue to floor. Looks like you are going this route and have determined that glueing laminate to concrete is OK. I would be interested in knowing if you received advice to this effect. I have seen some laminates which state that they must not be glued to floor !
Thanks
Click to expand...

Hi EnnisJim, Yes, we have been advised that glueing directly to concrete is perfectly ok (using a flexible adhesive, we have UFH also). This supplier also guarantees their fitting service (they do not recommend fitters, they do it in-house) which was the deal clincher in the end. It does bump up the cost (maybe not worth it if the laminate is very inexpensive) but it seems to me that if you are going to the bother of installing UFH why put unnecessary layers over the concrete, surely this would affect the efficiency of the heat transmission?! Can't speak for the type of laminate you are looking at....as I said this is a commercial grade, so perhaps the quality could differ and glue may not be suitable for some laminates. I found that the advice from shop to shop varied wildly and in the end we determined that most ppl don't seem to know what is best...try and get a supplier that fits their own product and offers a guarantee...Good luck!!! It's a mine field out there!!!! Bobbins
 
Hi Bobbins, I'd love to know some more about the commercial grade laminate. Is this the stuff used on shop floors?
 
Thanks Bobbins. Do you mind telling us how much the laminate and fitting is costing ?
One of our reasons for considering laminate is cost reduction but some of the nicer laminates can be pretty pricy and not very much behind semi-solid timber flooring (which we will probably opt for), eg. €40sq.m +
 
Hi, I am considering parquet flooring for a livingroom as I understand it can be glued to a concrete floor, which is not the case with solid wood. Am I correct in thinking it is next best thing to solid, and nicer than laminate?
 
back to the original question.
A friend of mine has Yatoba floors. It is a dark wood and harder than oak.
After 3 years, her floors look new and the colour is nice and warm.
 
Bobbins... can you PM details. Thanks!

Still interested to hear about dark solid floors though.

Yatoba floors never heard of them. I'll google them now. Thanks Huskerdu.
 
Hi TillyD, Huskerdo's spelling is incorrect...it is Jatoba...you'll get lots of information on google.
 
ennisjim said:
Thanks Bobbins. Do you mind telling us how much the laminate and fitting is costing ?
One of our reasons for considering laminate is cost reduction but some of the nicer laminates can be pretty pricy and not very much behind semi-solid timber flooring (which we will probably opt for), eg. €40sq.m +
Click to expand...

Yes, this laminate is pretty much on a par with some semi solids we've seen. We are putting this down on a total area of 123.97 sq yds (i think its sq yds anyway!!), the total cost inc fitting is €7600.00; fitting cost: €2629.00; supply cost: 4971.00 for 66 packs. Before you freak out, we could have done it cheaper had we chosen not to glue it down plus it looks a lot better than any semi-solid we have seen. Keep in mind that I hate (or used to anyway) laminate flooring :) Will PM you the details TillyD...
 
Hi Bobbins,

Can you include me on that PM please ?

We were sold on Walnut but will have to reconsider.

Cheers,

Metal
 
Thanks for your mail Bobbins.

Metal... I was sold on the walnut wooden floors too. That was until I got a solid walnut kitchen worktop and it's marks so easy. Can't imagine what a floor would be like after a year or so especially with a toddler in the house!
 
Hi,

Can I suggest a hardwood floor called acacia. It is darker than Walnut but looks lovely. It is on the same hardness scale as White Oak which is 1360. Black walnut is 1010. Otherwise the hardess wood on the scale is actually Brazilian walnut but not sure if this is easilty available. Acacia can be bought in Noyek Newmans. Looked at floors today and it was reduced to 39€ a sq yard. Worth a look anyway. The scale is called Janka Wood Floor Hardness Scale in case you want to check out the internet on this.

Janka Wood Floor Hardness Scale
WOOD SPECIESRATINGDouglas Fir 660 S. Yellow Pine, Shortleaf690S. Yellow Pine, Longleaf890Black Cherry950Teak1000Black Walnut1010Heartpine1225Yellow Birch1260Red Oak, Northern1290American Beech1300Ash1320White Oak1360Australian Cypress1375Hard Maple1450Wenge1620African Pedauk1725Hickory1820Pecan1820Purpleheart1860Jarrah1910Merbau1925Santos Mahogany2200Mesquite2345Brazilian Cherry2350Brazilian Walnut3800

Also Jatoba is also called Brazilian Cherry so is 2350 on the scale i.e. very hard flooring
 
JJ... thanks a million for that link. I love the look of it on the web. I was looking for the Brazilian walnut but like you said it's hard to get and no doubt cost a fortune too. It looks like a trip to Dublin for me the weekend. Which store did you see it in?

Has anyone put acacia down in their homes??
 
There website is www.noyeksnewmans.com

Contact info is
Finglas
North Road, Finglas,
Dublin 11

T: (353 1) 844 3500
Fax: (353 1) 844 3555
e-mail: finglas@noyeks.ie



You basically get on the M50 and take the Finglas exit towards finglas direction down the north road. Its on the left shortly after Joe Duffys big BMW garage. Stay in left lane and keep an eye out for it. can be easy to miss. Any other questions PM me

Ps my mate has it and I prefer it to Walnut darker and absolutly beautiful. Well worth the trip and at €39sq yd not a bad price. Until of course you have to put it down ie tradesman,ply,nails etc or elastilon!

Hope all this helps

JJ

Ps Picture of it on noyeks site does not do it justice
 
JJ... do you happen to know what tradesmen are charging to put down solid wooden floors?
I rang the shop to make sure they have what I need and they do. So I will be taking a trip to Dublin in the monring. I'll let you know if I purchase or not!
 
Was in Noyeks today and they were charging around €30 a square yd to put down but if you went with elastilon under the wood, a little bit more than the €30. Am going to give the elastilon a go myself. Looks ok to do going by the website. I hope you like the acacia after making the trip.

Ps they have a place just off the red cow roundabout in Ballymount Ind estate if that is handier for ya.
 
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