What are the benefits of oak flooring?

Natural European oak wood flooring is renowned for its unparalleled beauty and premium look, coming in a large palette of colours to suit your interior design. It’s an engineered timber thats often selected by leading architects and designers. Aside from aesthetics, there is also an entire range of functional benefits of engineered flooring. Engineered plywood core allows greater dimensional stability i.e. more resistance to swelling from moisture and spills. Next-generation engineered oak floors i.e HydroPro Oak Flooring uses a 100% waterproof composite core. This makes the boards immune to warping or delamination even when exposed to moisture. Can be installed in apartments and unit blocks because engineered floors don’t require loud nail banging, which strata policies do not allow. They are cheaper than solid timber or even solid oak to purchase and install because they use less real wood (expensive stuff) and the engineered boards don’t always need glue and nails. Looks just the same once installed! Engineered oak timber flooring is pre-finished, but maintains natural tones that complements any style in a residential or commercial space. Oak floors provide a gorgeous flooring solution for virtually any room.

What is oak flooring and is engineered oak flooring durable?

Oak is a type of timber that’s slow-growing and durable. European Oak and American Oak are often favoured over local Australian hardwood timbers because they exhibit a unique grain pattern and variability. Oak flooring primarily comes primarily as an engineered floor with 2 – 6mm of oak timber on top of a plywood base. Engineered oak flooring is a quality flooring and is relatively durable and scratch resistant, but cannot match the durability of laminate and hybrid flooring. Advantages of Oak Engineered Flooring: Variety – European Oaks offer a much larger selection of colours and designs than native Australian timber-engineered flooring. Classy – European Oak flooring styles are considered more elegant and are sometimes favoured due to their ‘beauty’ over the ‘rustic’ Australian timbers. Disadvantages of Oak Engineered Flooring: Less Durable – Most European Oak species tend to be slightly less hardwearing than native Australian and local overseas hardwoods, even with the pre-finished wear layer. Not Waterproof – HydroPro Timber is an innovative engineered floor with a fully waterproof core and surface. These are available in our favourite Aussie hardwoods like Blackbutt and Spotted Gum. If you want to learn more about engineered timber flooring and get expert advice, our Guide to Engineered Flooring can help you out!

Do engineered oak floors scratch easily?

The scratch resistance of engineered timber flooring depends on two factors; the timber surface layer and the coatings or finish of the floor. European oak timbers tend to be naturally softer than hardwoods which makes them less durable. However, proper maintenance and care will keep your floors beautiful. Pro Tips for Maintaining & Caring for Oak Timber Flooring: Furniture Leg Padding – Placing felt padding on the legs of furniture is the easiest way to minimise scratches. This is a very low-cost and low-effort solution which you’ll thank yourself for – or regret not doing in the future! Entrance Door Mats – Yet another simple solution to keeping out dirt and water. This is especially important for keeping your floors gorgeous. Trim Pet Nails – Cats and dogs may accidentally (or purposely) scratch your floors over time, and the easiest way to avoid this problem altogether is by clipping your pets’ nails periodically. Finally, you can sand and polish thicker engineered oak floors from 3mm timber veneers or greater at least once. This refreshes the authentic beauty by ridding the floors of scuff and wear accumulated over the years! If you want to learn more about engineered oak flooring, our Ultimate Guide to Engineered Timber Flooring can help you out.

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What Is Engineered Oak Timber Flooring?

Engineered oak flooring is a high-quality flooring consisting of real oak timber attached to a plywood or waterproof core board. The gorgeous timber is sourced from the finest plantations in Europe, France and America where only the highest-grade, premium-quality timber with minimal defects and blemishes are hand-picked.

The surface layer of real oak wood flooring is pre-finished and coated with multiple layers of water-sealing lacquer for added moisture and scratch resistance. This is then fused to the coreboard base which forms a dimensionally stable floor solution, built with beauty to last decades.

Natural European oak wood flooring is renowned for its unparalleled beauty and premium look, coming in a large palette of colours to suit your interior design. It’s an engineered timber thats often selected by leading architects and designers.

Aside from aesthetics, there is also an entire range of functional benefits of engineered flooring.

Engineered plywood core allows greater dimensional stability i.e. more resistance to swelling from moisture and spills.
Next-generation engineered oak floors i.e HydroPro Oak Flooring uses a 100% waterproof composite core. This makes the boards immune to warping or delamination even when exposed to moisture.
Can be installed in apartments and unit blocks because engineered floors don’t require loud nail banging, which strata policies do not allow.
They are cheaper than solid timber or even solid oak to purchase and install because they use less real wood (expensive stuff) and the engineered boards don’t always need glue and nails. Looks just the same once installed!

Engineered oak timber flooring is pre-finished, but maintains natural tones that complements any style in a residential or commercial space. Oak floors provide a gorgeous flooring solution for virtually any room.

Oak is a type of timber that’s slow-growing and durable. European Oak and American Oak are often favoured over local Australian hardwood timbers because they exhibit a unique grain pattern and variability. Oak flooring primarily comes primarily as an engineered floor with 2 – 6mm of oak timber on top of a plywood base.

Engineered oak flooring is a quality flooring and is relatively durable and scratch resistant, but cannot match the durability of laminate and hybrid flooring.

Advantages of Oak Engineered Flooring:

Variety – European Oaks offer a much larger selection of colours and designs than native Australian timber-engineered flooring.
Classy – European Oak flooring styles are considered more elegant and are sometimes favoured due to their ‘beauty’ over the ‘rustic’ Australian timbers.

Disadvantages of Oak Engineered Flooring:

Less Durable – Most European Oak species tend to be slightly less hardwearing than native Australian and local overseas hardwoods, even with the pre-finished wear layer.
Not Waterproof – HydroPro Timber is an innovative engineered floor with a fully waterproof core and surface. These are available in our favourite Aussie hardwoods like Blackbutt and Spotted Gum.

If you want to learn more about engineered timber flooring and get expert advice, our Guide to Engineered Flooring can help you out!

The quality of engineered timber flooring will have a huge impact on the price per square metre. Factors include the thickness of the plank and real timber veneer, whether it uses a waterproof or plywood core, and the grading of the oak timber (how many knots and features) to only mention a few.

Installation of Engineered Oak:

Installation costs will vary depending on the method. Floating floor installations are the most common since they are cheaper and quicker, however sometimes it may be necessary to direct-stick the floorboards with nails and glue.

Floating Installation: $30 – $40 per square metre
Strip Glue Down Installation: $45 – $60 per square metre
Full Trowel Glue Down Installation: $70 – $80 per square metre

The cost of engineered timber flooring usually depends on the thickness of the veneer and quality of the timber species. At FloorVenue, we are 100% able to beat any quote for our customers on the same quality engineered flooring – see why here.

Floating floors are flooring that can be installed on top of a subfloor without nails or glue. This makes floating timber floors suitable for apartments and units and reduces the time and cost of installation.

Engineered timber flooring is a type of floating floor and a way of getting real timber flooring into your apartment. It is manufactured and pre-finished with a protective wear layer that isn’t easily susceptible to wear and tear.

This combined with the lighter price tag makes it one of the best choices on the market for any residential room floor or commercial space in Australia.

Advantages of Floating Floors:

Floating floors are quicker to install than direct-stick counterparts.
Floating floors are cheaper to install than direct-stick counterparts.
Floating floor installations are more suited for apartments as it does not require loud banging of nails into the floor.
Floating floors are much easier to repair than direct-stick counterparts.

We have an entire Guide to Floating Floors here to help you decide whether or not it’s for you.

The scratch resistance of engineered timber flooring depends on two factors; the timber surface layer and the coatings or finish of the floor. European oak timbers tend to be naturally softer than hardwoods which makes them less durable. However, proper maintenance and care will keep your floors beautiful.

Pro Tips for Maintaining & Caring for Oak Timber Flooring:

Furniture Leg Padding – Placing felt padding on the legs of furniture is the easiest way to minimise scratches. This is a very low-cost and low-effort solution which you’ll thank yourself for – or regret not doing in the future!
Entrance Door Mats – Yet another simple solution to keeping out dirt and water. This is especially important for keeping your floors gorgeous.
Trim Pet Nails – Cats and dogs may accidentally (or purposely) scratch your floors over time, and the easiest way to avoid this problem altogether is by clipping your pets’ nails periodically.

Finally, you can sand and polish thicker engineered oak floors from 3mm timber veneers or greater at least once. This refreshes the authentic beauty by ridding the floors of scuff and wear accumulated over the years!

If you want to learn more about engineered oak flooring, our Ultimate Guide to Engineered Timber Flooring can help you out.

As engineered oak timber floors have a layer of real timber on the surface, they can certainly be sanded and polished back. However, they can be sanded less times (0 – 3 times) as compared to solid timber flooring (5 – 7 times) because the top timber layer is thinner.

General rule of thumb for sanding and polishing:

0mm – 2mm timber veneer: Do not resand, or you’ll risk seeing the plywood base.
2mm – 4mm timber veneer: Only resand and polish once.
4mm – 6mm timber veneer: Only resand and polish twice.

European oak wood is softer than natural Australian hardwood flooring and hence loses more material every sand and polish. This reduces the number of times the floor and each plank can be resanded.

It is important to be aware that you may need to restain your oak flooring after sanding and polishing. This is because sanding not only takes away scratches and marks but also the surface colour and tones that would have been applied during manufacturing.

Furthermore, if your timber flooring has a woodgrain surface, it will have a smooth matt finish after sanding and polishing as the original texture will also be sanded away.

FloorVenue has a large collection of natural and engineered or manufactured floor options. We produce amazing results with our variety of different floors, now including even waterproof real timber!

Create the space you’ve dreamed of with a range of flooring options to choose from. Get in touch with us now to find out more.

We Supply And Install Oak Timber Flooring In Sydney & NSW

FloorVenue has specialised in supplying and installing oak timber flooring for almost 20 years. We guarantee quality standards with a full-time and fully licensed installation team.

Our engineered oak floors come in hundreds of different colours and styles. Whether it’s a select-grade and seamless American oak or rustic darker brown, we’ll definitely have something for you.

FloorVenue’s newest range of HydroPro Oak timbers will come with a waterproof composite core instead of traditional plywood. This makes them virtually impervious to moisture ingress or swelling.