Our bespoke European engineered oak flooring is created using modern and traditional techniques.

Created by craftspeople, engineered oak flooring is a solid oak lamella, bonded to a tongue and grooved birch plyboard base – producing a strong, stable oak floor. Planks are available from traditional sizes to the grandest of widths and lengths.

The great benefit of engineered flooring is that it can be laid using the traditional methods of nailing or screwing to battens/structural floors, it can be glued to a concrete floor in any width or it can be laid as a floating floor over an underlay sheet. Engineered boards are also suitable for laying over underfloor heating systems when fitted via the glue down method.

Due to the top layer of solid oak, equal quality engineered and solid oak floors are indistinguishable.

As a supplier of solid oak flooring, we were a little hesitant to supply engineered oak boards, but having seen an engineered floor laid, even we couldn't tell the difference!

STRUCTURE

There has been a fair amount of confusion over the difference between engineered flooring and laminate flooring.

Laminate flooring (or floating wood tile as it is known in Canada and the United States) is a synthetic flooring comprised of a printed plastic top bonded to a ply or fibreboard backing. The printed top layer can be made to "look" like a real wood floor, but we've yet to see one that does!

Due to their simplicity in design, laminate floors are one of the easiest types of DIY flooring which makes them popular with homeowners and developers needing a quick hard surfaced floor, however it is vital that laminate boards are not placed in areas of dampness and humidity as this can cause them to lift and warp. Laminate flooring products typically have a short life span (10 years or less).

PEAK OAK UNFINISHED ENGINEERED OAK FLOORING

Our 20mm unfinished engineered boards are made up of a 6mm top layer of European oak, bonded to a base board of 15mm Baltic Birch ply (11 layers of ply). The 16mm thick boards consist of 4mm solid European oak wear layer, bonded to a 12mm Baltic Birch plyboard base.

All of our engineered oak flooring boards are traditional long lengths of 2 metres plus – with no short lengths whatsoever. The solid oak top layer and the plyboard base is 100% European sourced and manufactured. At Peak Oak we pride ourselves in sourcing and manufacturing only the best materials.

Once laid, you cannot tell the difference between our unfinished engineered flooring and our unfinished solid oak flooring!

WHERE TO USE ENGINEERED OAK FLOORING

While traditional solid oak flooring is susceptible to movement caused by changes in humidity and temperature, an engineered oak board is much less prone to these changes.

This means that engineered oak flooring is more suited for areas such as kitchens, bathrooms, conservatories, restaurants, bars, public buildings as well as over underfloor heating systems.

FITTING ENGINEERED OAK FLOORING

Like all natural wood flooring, before you even think about fitting your engineered oak boards, they should first be left to fully acclimatise to their surroundings.

Engineered oak flooring boards should be left around 1-2 weeks to acclimatise in a natural living environment.

Your Sub-floor

Before fitting your floor, you should first check that the sub-floor is completely dry and completely flat. The moisture level of the subfloor should be 4% or below.

When fitting to timber joists or plywood sub-floors, check that these are completely free from rot and treated for woodworm.

Nailing Or Screwing Down Your Floor

Whilst traditionally oak boards were nailed through their top surface into the floor joists below, these days (thanks to the introduction of tongue and groove boards) a more discreet method is used.

Secret nailing or screwing, involves using a nail gun or power driver to drive the fixing through the tongue of each board into the sub-floor or joist.

As the tongues are hidden by the groove of the next board, the fixings are also hidden, producing a fixing free finish to the laid floor. These fixings should be made approximately 300 - 450mm apart.

For solid oak flooring, the maximum width of board that could be fitted via this method would be 140mm. Anything wider than this would require surface fixing as well. For engineered oak flooring this would not be the case.

Gluing Down Your Floor

When gluing down engineered oak flooring, it is vital to use an flexible adhesive specific to the job.

The glue has to be extremely strong yet also flexible enough to allow for some movement in the wood. For this, we would recommend glues such as MS Polymer adhesives.

If you use a rigid glue, your oak floor will most likely split or buckle and could even cause structural damage to your home.

Floating Floor

The floating floor method involves laying the engineered oak floor with no direct fixing to the subfloor. Instead the boards are laid over the top of an underlay - such as our sheep wool underlay - where the tongue and grooves of each board are glued together (using a D3 glue).

It is not recommend to float an engineered floor over underfloor heating.

Underfloor Heating

When laying over an underfloor heating system, the engineered oak planks need to be fixed down. Dependant on the type of system, this can be via the screw down method or by the glue down method.

MAINTAINING YOUR ENGINEERED OAK FLOOR

Engineered oak floors are as easy to maintain as solid oak floors.

Sweep or vacuum the floor regularly to keep dust and grit off the surface and a wipe with a damp mop will help to keep your boards looking as good as new.

For boards which have been finished with a hardwax oils, there are a number of wash and care products available, which have been specifically designed to clean and maintain the look of your oak flooring.