How to choose your floor?

Floorboards

As a natural material, floorboards have a number of positive properties: fully ecological, warm to the touch, good thermal insulating properties, adds a natural cosiness to the interior, can be finished in a wide range of shades, anti-static. Of course, given their natural origin, they also have some not-so-good qualities: the wear resistance of the floor surface is limited – it can only be protected with varnish or oil; the board changes its dimensions (swells or shrinks) depending on the humidity level in the room.

From the above characteristics, it can be concluded that the best use of floorboards is in living areas (bedrooms, living rooms, children’s rooms). The boards satisfy the basic human requirement for a natural living environment and their protective layer – varnish or oil – is sufficiently resistant to stress in domestic conditions. Of course, floorboards can also be used in more busy areas such as kitchens, corridors and public areas such as offices, etc., but more frequent maintenance and renewal of the protective coating is necessary in case of more intensive use. In addition, planks vary in hardness depending on the wood species. Pine and spruce boards are only suitable for use in domestic areas due to their low hardness, while harder woods such as oak, ash, etc. can also be used in public areas. Hardness has nothing to do with abrasion resistance, the former being the ability of wood to withstand the high pressure of an object (e.g. a high-heeled shoe) exerted on the floor, while the latter is merely a frictional load. It is therefore imperative to consider the conditions of the room in which it will be used when choosing boards.

Floor boards are installed on floor joists or directly on the “black” floor. The ‘black’ floor can be either plywood, OSB or concrete.For concrete floors it is necessary to make sure that the concrete has the right percentage of moisture and is hard enough. When installing on floor joists, it is important to note that the boards must be thick enough to prevent them from buckling under load.

If necessary, the floorboards can be refinished by sanding over the top layer. This should be done if the floorboards have dents in the surface or if the protective layer has not been restored in time and the floorboards have become dirty.

Floorboards are not suitable for use on underfloor heating .

Classic (plank) parquet

Classic parquet has all the same characteristics as floorboards (the construction is also the same), but the dimensions are smaller, so the application is the same. Classic parquet is traditionally made in Latvia from oak and ash, sometimes also from less hard birch and other wood species.

Due to its size, parquet is only installed on the ‘black floor’; it is best glued to the subfloor. When installing classic parquet, it is possible to create a variety of colourful patterns and mix wood species. The most common type of parquet is classic parquet laid in what is known as ‘herringbone’.

Three-layer parquet (shield parquet)

Three-layer parquet is designed to be used on underfloor heating. The parquet construction ensures minimal expansion/contraction of the wood due to changes in humidity and temperature. The overall thickness, typically 14 – 15 mm, is also adequate for good thermal transmission. It is also useful as a quick-lay wooden floor, as the top layer is already coated with a protective layer during the manufacturing process, so that no sanding or varnishing is required when the parquet is laid, and the floor can be created simply by joining the parquet planks together without having to fix them to the subfloor. Safer use on concrete floors and in rooms with high humidity. The top layer of hardwood in three-layer parquet is usually 4 mm thick, which is enough to refinish the parquet two to three times using a parquet sander. Of course, for smaller defects in the parquet surface, it is sufficient to renew the varnish/oil protective coating. Three-layer parquet can be installed using two methods:- 1) the “floating” installation method; 2) gluing to the subfloor. “Floating” means that the three-layer parquet is laid on a suitable underlay by joining the boards together. When laid in this way, the parquet expands and contracts freely, as space is left along the walls of the room. “The advantages of floating decking are: it can be used on all floors, including thin carpets; it is quick and easy to install and can be done by hand; the noise from footsteps remains in the room itself and does not penetrate into the rooms below; it is much easier to remove the parquet if the need arises. In the gluing method, the parquet is glued to the floor using glue. This method also has advantages: better heat transfer when parquet is used on underfloor heating; better noise absorption; parquet stability against high pressure from heavy furniture, pianos, etc.; slower exposure to relative humidity compared to floating parquet; design-wise, glued parquet is better as it does not require thresholds between rooms; easier to sand or repair than floating parquet; best installation method in public areas as well as large rooms

Double-layer parquet

Two-layer parquet consists of two layers. This is a modification of three-layer parquet, which results in a thinner wooden floor, with a significantly lower thermal resistance coefficient and a faster warming of the house with underfloor heating. The thickness of two-layer parquet is usually 10 millimetres. Sometimes, however, two-layer parquet is also 12-14 millimetres thick, but this has no advantage over three-layer parquet. Two-layer parquet is installed only by gluing it to the subfloor.

Cork floors

There are two types of cork flooring: 1)click flooring ; 2)cork parquet.

“Click cork flooring consists of three layers: the bottom layer is 1-2 mm thick pressed cork which serves as an underlay (no additional underlay is needed), the middle layer is a moisture-resistant HDF board (pressed wood fibre) with a click joint designed for joining glueless sheets, the top layer is about 3 mm thick cork covered with a varnish or other protective layer. The sheet dimensions are 300 mm wide, 900 mm long and 10-11 mm thick. Any flat, low-rigidity and dry subfloor works well as a substrate for this type of cork flooring. This type is laid as a ‘floating’ floor, leaving gaps to the walls.

Cork parquet is a square or rectangular sheet of cork, 4-6 mm thick, composed entirely of cork, which may be coated with a protective layer of varnish or vinyl. Cork parquet is to be installed only by gluing it to a subfloor, which can be concrete, OSB or plywood. Cork parquet is moisture-proof and can therefore be used in damp and even wet areas such as showers and bathrooms. Both cork parquet and Click cork flooring are ideal for bedrooms and children’s rooms, as well as other rooms that need to be cosy, as cork immediately gives off heat when walked on barefoot. It is also suitable for other living areas, but with a vinyl coating it can also be used in high-traffic public areas.

Cork is a completely natural and ecological, allergy-free floor covering. Due to its excellent thermal insulation properties, cork floors are not suitable for underfloor heating. Cork fades under direct sunlight.

Laminate

Laminate is a widely used floor covering consisting of four basic layers: 1) the bottom layer is a thin synthetic layer that acts as a stabiliser for the laminate boards and a moisture blocker for the bottom layer; 2) the middle layer is a moisture-resistant HDF board with a “click” joint for glueless joining of the sheets; 3) above the middle layer is a decorative paper that gives the laminate board its shade; 4) the top layer is transparent and provides abrasion resistance to the laminate. Laminate boards are 6 to 14 mm thick and rectangular or square in shape. They mostly imitate wooden floors, less often tiles, etc. Laminate has a high abrasion resistance, expressed in abrasion resistance classes. At present, it is only worth talking about wear classes 31, 32 and 33, which are intended for use in living rooms (class 31), corridors, kitchens and offices (class 32) and rooms with particularly heavy loads – shops and the like (class 33), respectively. In terms of wear resistance, laminate floors can be used in virtually any living or public space. In terms of appearance, laminate is also considered to be an excellent floor, as there are decors on the market today that perfectly imitate even the most traditional wooden planks, which would be difficult for a layman to distinguish from real planks. Provided that a quality laminate is chosen, installation is also quick and the floor lasts a long time if installed correctly. Moisture from washing, spillages, etc. can shorten the life of a laminate floor, but this does not affect all laminates in the same way, as each laminate manufacturer uses different densities and treatments of HDF boards. In addition, laminate has two other disadvantages related to its construction: it is noisy and has a cool finish. These two characteristics often discourage people from choosing laminate flooring for their homes. Given the above characteristics, laminate can be described as an excellent floor for shops, offices, hotel rooms, conference rooms, doctors’ surgeries, etc. It is also recommended for home use as a low-maintenance floor. However, the cheapest laminates are generally not very good. The most common of these is increased dust accumulation on the laminate surface caused by static charging of the laminate. To avoid this, make sure the laminate is anti-static and choose a natural material for the upholstery.

For use on underfloor heating. UV-resistant.

Vinyl flooring

Vinyl flooring is a material similar to linoleum which, unlike linoleum, is reinforced with a fibreglass interlayer, reinforced with a stabilising underlayer and top-coated with a special abrasion-resistant vinyl layer. Underneath, a decorative film is placed, similar to laminate, to give the sheets a visual appearance. The sheets come in a wide range of sizes and thicknesses from 2.5 to 4.5 mm.

The main characteristics of the materials are: resistance in wet environments, excellent abrasion resistance, chemical resistance, excellent noise absorption.

The best applications are shopping and sports centres, hotels, airports, shops, etc., with a lot of traffic, from a practical point of view, also in corridors and kitchens of private houses. Thanks to its practical and decorative properties, vinyl flooring has recently been installed on the ground floors of private houses.

Vinyl floors are ideal for use on underfloor heating due to their low thermal resistance. UV resistant.