Oak Flooring Samples

Purchasing oak flooring online can be difficult. With so many different suppliers on the market and so many different types of oak flooring available it can be hard to know exactly what oak flooring to choose. No matter how many images you see online, nothing quite beats being able to see the boards in person. This is why our showroom is so popular - you can see, touch and walk on each and every grade of timber.

Showroom Floor

For those who live further afield this however is not always an option - meaning samples are required. This is why many online retailers choose to offer samples, with many broadcasting their “free samples”. This allows you to see the grade in your own home to help influence your decision right?

Sadly not. These so called "free samples" are often small minuscule offcuts which cannot possibly give a true representation of the quality or the grading of the board. Being a natural product every section of an oak board is different.

Take a look at the image below…

Barn Grade Oak Board Length

Here we have what is known as our barn grade oak flooring. You can see the knots that are present in the board.

Barn Grade Close Up Board

These knots however are not completely continuous along the length of the board. This is the beauty of a natural product - every piece is different. If you were to cut this board into a number of small 15cm offcuts, you can quite easily have a range of different grades in each offcut. Some offcuts could be mistaken for a Prime board.

Prime Grade Close Up Board

Choose another section and you have the characteristics of a Select board...

Select Grade Close Up Board

and another a Character board...

Character Grade Close Up Board

A reminder - these characteristics are all present on the same barn grade oak flooring board.

In the image below we can see this same scenario on a larger scale. This floor area is a barn grade engineered oak floor but with filled knots.

differentgradeswholefloorclear

Whilst there are the heavier knots of the barn grade, there are sections which can quite easily be mistaken for other grades.

differentgradeswholefloor

This is why small offcuts cannot possibly give a true representation of an oak flooring grade. Many suppliers will even admit this themselves - with small disclaimers on the back of the board.

"Due to the size of this sample, this piece should not be taken as a true representation of the whole product"

These disclaimers and these offcuts make "free samples" completely pointless…

Here at Peak Oak we like to provide full transparency to ensure that you know exactly what you are getting when you order an oak floor from us.

For our own "oak flooring samples" we will send out full length boards. This means when ordering something from our 20mm solid oak flooring, 20mm engineered oak flooring or 15mm engineered oak flooring range - you will receive a board which is a full 2 metres in length or longer. For our 14mm solid oak flooring range the board will be no less than 1.5 metres. These long lengths are the best way and only way to get a true representation of the both the grading and the quality of the board. This is the perfect sample of what you will receive because the boards come straight from our graded stock.

For these solid oak flooring samples / engineered oak flooring samples we simply charge for the cost of the board and the cost of delivery.

To order a true oak flooring sample from us, give us a call on 01538 304584.

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