Wood You Like F.A.Q. & News

Wood Floor Guides: how to, which products and more

Over the last months we've compiled various Wood Floor Guides on various subjects and the list is growing.
Most guides contain easy steps on how to...., based on our own experiences and there for you. From "How to install your floor like a professional" to Case study on water damage. Many also contain a list of products we highly recommend, because we use them ourselves for the best results.

Why Wooden Flooring: beats your kids Asthma

Beats your kids Asthma

In 2006 Dispatches on Channel 4 dedicated a two-part program to this increasing problem ("How to beat your kids Asthma") and all specialist consulted strongly advised to rip out carpets and vinyl - a major source of toxic and sometimes persistent substances in the environment, known to trigger attacks - and to replace it with wooden floors immediately. Like ceramic tiles wooden flooring is a hard floor covering, any dust or dirt will stay on top of the flooring and will not penetrated in the layers beneath.

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“57 Reasons Why Natural Wooden Flooring Outperforms, Outlasts and Always Looks Better, than Any Other Floor Covering Available”

Why Wooden Flooring: adaptable to design changes

Adaptable to design changes

Wood on its own has tremendous character. It will always show its best side, no matter what time of day. It even seems to change colour and displays softer tones in the evening when you switch on your lighting features.

It also reflects the colour of your walls. So if you want a subtle change in design without having to change everything in a room: colour your walls differently and your wooden floor will change gently/subtle with it.

Just note the difference between the Oak Rustic floor in the picture above reflecting the red wall - where the same Oak Rustic floor in this "dining room to be" reflects the green walls in the picture below.

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“57 Reasons Why Natural Wooden Flooring Outperforms, Outlasts and Always Looks Better, than Any Other Floor Covering Available”

Why Wooden Flooring: FSC and PEFC certification sustains world forests

FSC and PEFC certification sustains world forests

Using tropical wood also helps in the fight against tropical deforestation, as long as the wood comes from well-managed sources. However, if there were no markets for wood, forests would be cleared to grow other cash crops. For these societies, often desperate for income, a forest that pays is a forest that stays.

Wood You Like's tropical Duoplank comes from FSC certified forests and Oak used by most quality manufacturers is sourced from PEFC sources in Europe.
FSC = Forest Stewardship Council (1993)
PEFC: Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (1999)

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“57 Reasons Why Natural Wooden Flooring Outperforms, Outlasts and Always Looks Better, than Any Other Floor Covering Available”

"BroadOak" Wood-Engineered flooring in 5 colours

From our "Aged & Distressed" flooring supplier we received 5 large new samples and we are happy to introduce to you this new range:

"BroadOak" brushed & oiled wood-engineered Oak 235mm wide

The boards are 20mm thick, have a Solid Oak top layer of 6mm on top of water-resistant-plywood (like our Duoplank range) and is available in 5 brushed and oiled versions:

1. Brushed & oiled Natural
2. Brushed & Oiled Chocolate
3. Brushed & Oiled White
4. Brushed & Oiled Grey
5. Brushed & Oiled Brown

Available from our showroom in Charing or order now in our secure webshop, minimum order = 15 sq m.

Add width and colour to your home and benefit from all the advantages wood-engineered flooring gives you:

• Adds value to any home
• Much more stable than solid floors this wide, so can be installed in almost any area of your home, including kitchens and conservatories
• Load-bearing, can be installed 'floating', glued down or secretly nailed directly onto joists
• Suitable for Underfloor Heating
• Anti-allergic
• Easy to maintain - will even get more beautiful over time!
• Eco-friendly

Call us for more information (01233-713725 during normal working hours) or drop by in our showroom in Charing to admire the large samples for yourself.

Why Wooden Flooring: DIY restoring (with some help) is really feasible

DIY restoring (with some help) is really feasible

As mentioned above, hidden treasures can be restored to its old glory and beauty. Sometimes only some rigorous TLC is required, removing sticky rubber backing from old carpet underlayment or cleaning off layers of old wax.
If more work needs to be done and you enjoy DIY projects you could even consider to do the restoration yourself. Take your time and do consider it a labour of love, the rewards are plenty!

Wood You Like has created various guides to help you restore your valuable floor covering so you too can enjoy its lustre and elegance for many decades to come.

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“57 Reasons Why Natural Wooden Flooring Outperforms, Outlasts and Always Looks Better, than Any Other Floor Covering Available”

Why Wooden Flooring: dealing with pets

Dealing with pets

Wooden flooring is an ideal floor covering when you have pets, as one of our clients discovered:

"I still don't know how I coped before with the moulding periods of my cats and dogs when we had carpets! Since we have wooden floors it takes no effort at all, just one simple sweep of a broom."

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“57 Reasons Why Natural Wooden Flooring Outperforms, Outlasts and Always Looks Better, than Any Other Floor Covering Available”

The Colours of Ageing Wood Concept

Restore the original patina of your original Oak parquet floor

(RE)Discovering an original Parquet floor is a true find. Most times a bit of TLC is needed to bring it back to its authentic grandeur. When this involves sanding your floor to remove blemishes and old layers of wax or - if you are unlucky - old layers of paint, dirt from carpet underlayment etc, you also remove its original patina. Applying a new finish (natural or a colour oil) will not bring it back.

Wood You Like - in cooperation with Renotec Duo - can help you with this through the "Ageing Wood Concept" (see our special AWC page/leaflet for more information about this unique non-toxic process). The combinations between the three available Sprays, Euku Oil HS and OilFresh provides you with a tremendous choice in original patinas. You will definitely find the one your floor had before and enable you to restore it to its authentic grandeur.

And of course there is nothing to stop you applying this concept to any brand new unfinished Oak flooring, be it solid floorboards, wood-engineered boards or Design Parquet patterns.

Underneath you can find 11 examples of these combinations, all of which can be applied by any reasonable handy DIY-er and professional floor restorer in just 1 day! (The Ageing Wood Concept only works on unfinished Oak - other wood types don't have the tannin acid that reacts with the non-toxic natural ingredients of the Ageing Spray.)

Ageing Spray Double Smoked on floorboards

The left side of this board (1) is treated with:
Ageing Spray: Double Smoked
Euku colour Oil 1HS Antique
OilFresh Natural

The right side of the board (2) is treated with:
Ageing Spray: Double Smoked
Euku colour Oil 1HS Grey
OilFresh Grey

Design Pattern 'Molencate' Ageing Spray Single Smoked

Read and see more samples of combinations here.

Easy application

Any of the combinations can be applied very simple in 4 steps:
Spray on the Ageing Wood Spray, fixate the Spray, apply the (colour) oil and apply the OilFresh.
All done in 1 single day! (Depending on the sq meters - on average up to 50 sq meters can be done in 1 day.)
See our special AWC page for images of this easy application process.

Call us for information on how much of each product you need, the tools available, prices and delivery times.
Tel: 01233 - 713725 or email us on info@woodyoulike.co.uk (we've already filled in the subject line).

Why Wooden Flooring: cooking and washing has no damaging effect

Cooking and washing has no damaging effect

Kitchens are known to be the "engine-room" of a home: cooking, washing all take place there - keeping your family fed with warm food from clean plates and in clean clothes.
Those activities do cause moist.

Nothing a wood-engineered floor can't handle. As mentioned above, the same dirt and moist repellent character of this wood flooring type makes it a highly suitable and durable floor covering in this 'engine room' too.

From an interior design point of view, selecting wooden flooring for your kitchen can complement your kitchen units and kitchen furniture to create a truly homely feel.

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“57 Reasons Why Natural Wooden Flooring Outperforms, Outlasts and Always Looks Better, than Any Other Floor Covering Available”

Why Wooden Flooring: Profitable spot on improvements

Home and property owners/managers who have edged into negative equity can reverse the downward slide with home improvements, which can raise the sale price and protect against a reduced valuation from the mortgage lender.

But...... Abbey National recently asked 100 Estate Agents “which home improvements” do they consider “add most to the value of a home?” What was surprising is that it's not the large projects like extensions or expensive kitchens that add the most value - in fact, they said, often these tend to lose money - as much as 50% on their cost! On average, a home extension costs £ 33.800 but adds only £ 13.568 to the value of a home: that's a loss of over £20.000!

One of the more quicker and simpler to realise improvements decorating, like replacing carpet with wooden flooring, turns out to add the most value. Based on the calculations above, every £ 1.000 spend on quality decorating adds more than 265% to the value of your home/property (1330 x 2.65 = £ 3,524.50)
(Of course there is a common sense limit in spending: spending £ 10.000 on decorating one or two rooms will not increase the value of your home with £ 26.500).

Installing a quality wooden floor in an average sized room of 4.5 by 4 meters (20 sq m including saw-waste) will costs you around £1,150.00 including VAT for materials = wood floor, underlayment, adhesive and beading included! Based on the results of Abbeys survey it adds around £ 3.000 to the value of your home! (Not bad for 1 or 2 days work as DIY-er)

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“57 Reasons Why Natural Wooden Flooring Outperforms, Outlasts and Always Looks Better, than Any Other Floor Covering Available”

Why Wooden Flooring: DIY repair

DIY repair

We've indicated it before: wooden floors can be installed, restored and repaired not only by professionals but also by those comfortable with DIY-projects.

Small damages to the surface or finish of your wooden floor can sometimes be repaired even without the need of sanding - a job preferably left to professionals who have the better equipment for this. And when your floor is maintained regularly the need for major maintenance = resanding and applying a new finish won't hardly ever be needed. Most modern maintenance products will take care of that.

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“57 Reasons Why Natural Wooden Flooring Outperforms, Outlasts and Always Looks Better, than Any Other Floor Covering Available”

Why Wooden Flooring: FSC and PEFC certification supports local communities

FSC and PEFC certification supports local communities

One of the demands from the FSC and PEFC organisation is not just to sustain the forest, but also the local communities in or around these forests. Duoplank manufacturer Inpa does just that:

"We support the Indian community, named Cururu, of thirty families intensely. For instance, we teach them how to use machinery and felling of trees. Based on a sustainable method of course, in order for them to create an income from the forest without destroying it. The wood they sell from it is sub-tropical and can be used for furniture and flooring. The standard FSC-regulations are for this project adjusted on one point: the Indians are still allowed to hunt in the forest."

Inpa Parket joint FSC-The Netherlands in 1998 and has been active in Bolivia for longer.

"It has always been our desire to do something more for the local community. When we were offered a PSOM-subsidy for investments in developing countries we decided to start this project."

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“57 Reasons Why Natural Wooden Flooring Outperforms, Outlasts and Always Looks Better, than Any Other Floor Covering Available”

Why Wooden Flooring: Clean is Clean

Everyone likes to spend most of their free time on activities they love: spending time with family, sport or hobby activities and socialising. Homework rates very low on the scale of favourite past-times. But home work still needs to be done, and everything that can make this worker lighter will contribute to your happiness.

Reason 28 - clean is clean

Wooden flooring belongs to the 'hard' floor coverings, no dust or dirt will penetrate the surface.

A soft broom is all it takes for normal day to day care - easier done than dragging your (sometimes smelling of dust) vacuum cleaner out of the cupboard. And: clean is clean - no hidden dust or dirt like you can have with carpets.

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“57 Reasons Why Natural Wooden Flooring Outperforms, Outlasts and Always Looks Better, than Any Other Floor Covering Available”

Why Wooden Flooring: - easy to DIY = more savings and still increased value

Easy to DIY = more savings and still increased value

High quality products in wooden flooring and accessories enable most who enjoy DIY-projects to install the floor themselves.
It's mostly down to the correct preparations, the correct products and the correct - simple - tools to make light work of this. Installing a wood floor yourself isn't rocket-science. However: it is a known fact that the better quality you buy, the quicker and easier the installation is. We think that's obvious.

So, again no rocket-science: the choice is yours:
Buy lesser quality and struggle - or have a professional install your floor which could still turn it into a reasonable result
Buy better quality and install the floor like a professional yourself, the quality of the product will be your highly valued assistant!

Wood You Like has created a "Comprehensive Installation Guide" filled with many tricks of the trade to give you a helping hand in installing your own natural wooden floor like a pro. See our Wood Guides section of our website: www.wood-you-like.co.uk

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“57 Reasons Why Natural Wooden Flooring Outperforms, Outlasts and Always Looks Better, than Any Other Floor Covering Available”

Why Wooden Flooring: 'lifestyle' features

Adding 'lifestyle' features

Colin and Justin, property experts (and tv-presenters) frequently state:

"Most people envy, and like to buy into, those signals of ‘success’ so effortlessly portrayed by lifestyle ‘visuals’."

Features, such as wooden flooring - which is light and hygienic, provides a sense of space and elegance, wonderfully easy to keep clean and dust free, and exceptionally robust and long lasting – can make a huge difference to the value of your home.

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“57 Reasons Why Natural Wooden Flooring Outperforms, Outlasts and Always Looks Better, than Any Other Floor Covering Available”

Difference between HardWaxOil and Oil and Wax

Last week we received an interesting question, of which the answer is long overdue to be turned into a new article. This, we hope, will make amends to it.

Question:
What is the difference between Eukoil and Hardwax oil? I am particularly interested in finding a very 'natural' non-chemical product. Thanks.

Answer
HardWaxOil is a two-in-one product: oil - which penetrates the wood - for long term protection, wax for the wear and tear layer to protect the wood from dirt and drips

Euku Oil: oil for long term protection, which needs a second product - like StepStop wax-polish - to create the wear and tear layer to protect the wood from dirt and drips.

Like HardWaxOil the Euku Oil contains natural ingredients.

In earlier days it was quite normal to finish a floor with a deep sealer and then to apply two coats of carnabaux wax. Because of changing VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) regulations this sealer is no longer allowed.
Manufacturers, like Osmo and Blanchon, have created HardWaxOil with natural ingredients to replace the old method, to save the environment and time for installers.

HardWaxOil on tropical wood species can very easily give a patchy result due to the fact the wood itself is 'oily'. Although HardWaxOil manufacturers used to mention that their product was not very suitable on tropical woods, this statement disappeared from most of the instructions in recent years - simply because every company wants to sell as much as possible of their own products for as many as possible applications.

Our experience with both finish types on tropical wood species shows that Euku Oil and StepStop does tend to give a better result than HardWaxOil.

It is for that reason we recommend to use HardWaxOil natural or any of the available colours in this range on Oak and other non-tropical wood-species and Euku Oil (followed with StepStop) for tropical wood species to get the best results.

Although Euku Oil is also available with colour pigments, why would you want to colour a tropical wood? Tropical wood is often chosen for its own rich and warm in colour appearance, and in our eyes changing this would be a shame. But that just our opinion of course.

Why Wooden Flooring: sound proof apartments

Sound proof apartments

Adding the correct underlayment underneath your natural wooden floor will not only improve the sound acoustics in your own home, it will also improve the sound insulation between floors.

So even if your property is a second floor flat or apartment, there is absolutely no reason why you couldn't benefit and profit from adding value to your home with wooden flooring too.

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“57 Reasons Why Natural Wooden Flooring Outperforms, Outlasts and Always Looks Better, than Any Other Floor Covering Available”

Why Wooden Flooring: FSC Retailer's guarantee

FSC Retailer's guarantee

FSC certified products have become a kind of "buzz word" for many retailers. However, genuine retailers selling genuine FSC products in their outlets need to be recognised among those who "talk the talk" but don't "walk the talk".
You need a guarantee the FSC labeled product you buy is genuine labeled.

This recognised guarantee can only be had by means of receiving an unique ID code for retailers from FSC UK.
In July 2008 Wood You Like received its unique code: FSC-GBR-1019

This unique ID-code guarantees you that the products we label FSC certified are genuine FSC certified and authorises Wood You Like to use the FSC-trademark. In order to receive this unique code any retailer selling to domestic clients has to prove their purchases really do come directly from a FSC-certified company/manufacturer.

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“57 Reasons Why Natural Wooden Flooring Outperforms, Outlasts and Always Looks Better, than Any Other Floor Covering Available”

Basic Wood-Engineered now available in random widths

We're happy to introduce a new product in our basic range to you:

Basic Wood-Engineered Oak Rustic, Random Width:

• 14mm total thickness,
• 3.5mm Solid Oak top layer (100 % PEFC),
• plywood backing
• bevelled,
• 2 meter long boards with standard Tongue & Groove for simple installation.
• Supplied unfinished, so you can select your own preferred natural or coloured finish - not sure which colour, order a small tin or two of testers here, product code1WF-3B.

Instead of one single width this floor comes standard in two widths: 140mm and 180mm. Plus.... on special request and with a longer lead time, you can even add boards of 160mm and 200mm to your order.

All widths have the same price per sq m.

How to calculate the sq meters per width to create your random width floor? Based on the standard 140 and 180mm combination: 60% of the total sq meters needed as 180mm, 40% as 140mm. Example: 20 sq m (including saw-waste) means 12 sq m 180mm wide and 8 sq m 140mm wide.

(It is recommended for random width floors to add 10% saw-waste instead of 5- 7%.)

Why Wooden Flooring: homes with wooden floors sell quicker

Homes with wooden floors sell quicker

A recent national survey organised by Woodfloor.org among Estate Agents testifies:

46% agreed that homes with wooden floors sell more quickly than those without.

Potential buyers know the many benefits wooden flooring has as well as you do, so when offered the choice between a house that already has (professionally) installed real wooden floors and a similar house without wooden flooring, which one do you think will sell quicker and for more? It's an obvious answer of course.

Natural hardwood flooring has become so popular over the last years that since February 2009 is it included in the Retail Price Index (Consumer Price Index).

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“57 Reasons Why Natural Wooden Flooring Outperforms, Outlasts and Always Looks Better, than Any Other Floor Covering Available”

Why Wooden Flooring: homes with wooden floors sell for more

Homes with wooden floors sell for more

A recent national survey organised by Woodfloor.org among Estate Agents testifies:

90% of estate agents said that houses with wooden flooring are more marketable, 58% agreed that homes with wooden floors sell for more money.

Potential buyers know the many benefits wooden flooring has as well as you do, so when offered the choice between a house that already has (professionally) installed real wooden floors and a similar house without wooden flooring, which one do you think will sell quicker and for more? It's an obvious answer of course.

Natural hardwood flooring has become so popular over the last years that since February 2009 it is included in the Retail Price Index (Consumer Price Index).

Request to full report

“57 Reasons Why Natural Wooden Flooring Outperforms, Outlasts and Always Looks Better, than Any Other Floor Covering Available”