Wooden floors are floors whose visible or load-bearing surface consists of wood. The term covers two things: the load-bearing structure of a wooden joist floor (a joist layer with floorboards on top) and the wooden finish floor that you lay over it, such as parquet, solid planks, engineered wood or laminate. Wood gives a warm, resilient floor that you can often sand and refinish.
Load-bearing floor and finish floor
- Load-bearing wooden floor — a joist layer (main and secondary beams or single joists) with a floor of boards or sheet material on top; the classic upper-floor slab in older houses
- Wooden finish floor — parquet, wood-block flooring, plank floor or laminate, laid on the subfloor or on battens
Types of wooden finish floors
- Solid parquet / planks — full wood, can be sanded several times
- Engineered (ready-made) parquet — a top layer of wood on a stable base layer
- Laminate — a photo layer on a carrier; not real wood, but a wood look
Points to note
Wood moves with the humidity: let the floor acclimatise and, with solid wood, leave room for shrinkage and swelling. With a load-bearing wooden floor, the deflection, the resilience (vibrations) and the sound insulation between storeys are important. In wet rooms wood is less suitable.
Related terms
- Floor
- Joist floor
- Parquet floor
- Laminate
- Wood movement
- Batten
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