Engineered wood floor fitting in Smethwick. Acclimatised first, fitted level, edges and thresholds finished properly, old floor taken away.
Engineered wood is real timber on a stable core. It copes with the swings in heat and humidity in a Victorian Smethwick terrace better than solid wood does. It still has to be acclimatised in the room before it goes down, and that is the step people skip.
The bay-fronted Edwardian houses toward Bearwood are where engineered wood gets chosen most, usually through a knocked-through lounge. Two rooms joined into one means two floors at slightly different heights. Levelling that join before the boards go down lets the floor run through without a threshold strip across the middle.
Timber moves with the humidity of the room it lives in. A few days acclimatising means it settles before it is fixed, rather than shrinking afterwards and leaving gaps. It is the most commonly skipped step in the trade.
In the older Smethwick terraces, engineered every time. Solid wood moves too much where heating and humidity swing, and engineered gives you the same surface without the arguments.
Engineered can, solid generally cannot. There are limits on thickness and on how fast you bring the heat up, and we will set that out before fitting.
Yes, if the floor is level across the old dividing wall and the run is not too long for the board. Very long runs need an expansion break, and where one is needed it goes in a doorway rather than across the middle of a room.
It will mark, like any real wood. A brushed or oiled finish hides scratches far better than a smooth lacquer, and small marks can be touched in. A dog in the hall is a good reason to choose the finish carefully.
A single room takes about a day once the boards have settled in the room. A knocked-through lounge takes two days because of the levelling at the join. The settling time is agreed before the fit.
The boards you choose, the area, how the floor is fixed and how much levelling is needed. Floating is quicker than gluing or nailing. A level subfloor saves time. The fitting is quoted separately from the boards.
01Acclimatised before fitting | The boards sit in the room for a few days before a single one is cut. Skip it and you get gaps in February. |
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02Fitted to suit the subfloor | Floated, glued or secret-nailed depending on what is underneath, not on what is quickest for us. |
03Edges and thresholds | Beading or scotia matched to the floor, proper thresholds at every change. |
04Doors and skirtings | Doors eased, skirtings undercut where it gives a neater edge than beading would. |
05Knocked-through rooms | The join where two rooms became one is levelled before fitting, so the boards run straight through without a strip across the middle. |
06Send these first | Photos of each room and of the doorway between them. Tell us the floor underneath if you know it, and whether the heating is radiators or underfloor. A rough measurement of each room is enough for a first price. |
Send a photo or a quick video of the room on WhatsApp and we'll see if we can quote you over the phone, or fill in the form and it opens your email ready to send.
