Wood flooring is a very popular floor covering - besides being easy to clean and anti-allergic, it enhances your home and can even increase the value of it.
But.... being popular has its own down-sides: many are jumping on the 'band-wagon' of its success to make a profit. Nothing wrong with this when quality products are offered for what they are worth, we all know and understand the logic of 'value for money'.
'Value for money' not only means supplying decent products but also supplying decent information, correct and honest. And that is sometimes the biggest problem with 'Solid Offers' - too little information on what the 'offer' really contains.
This pictures was kindly supplied to us by one of DIYnot.com forum members. Besides problems with the pre-oiled finish and installation errors by the fitter (not the forum-member) the floor has many very short lengths and hardly any longer lengths.
Products like these (most with a proper finish) are sold as Solid Oak floorboards - Oak strip flooring - in random lengths between 300 - 1200mm.
The correct and honest information missing in the shop and on the packaging is the amount of short lengths a pack contains. Sometimes as much as 50% of the contents of a pack is shorter than 500mm and only 1 or 2 boards - if your lucky - are the full 1200mm long.
Since it is recommended to prevent a pattern of joins and to space the joins of connecting rows at least 300mm apart with this amount of short lengths it is very hard to do - creating
not only an unstable, prone to movement, floor - see picture on the right - but also giving your solid Oak real wood floor a very hectic appearance, specially if all 4 sides are bevelled. This pronounces the many joins in the floor even more.
Value for money: if the information on the packs leaves you in doubt ask the supplier for specifications - he/she ought to know what he/she is selling you in the first place!
Don't end up with the 'short end of the stick' or in these cases 'short end of the boards'!