Wood You Like F.A.Q. & News

Showroom closed for short break

Our Charing showroom will be closed for 4 days from

Friday 16 May till Monday 19 May

(annual short break)

Business as usual from Tuesday 20 May 9.30 am on - emails, comments on this blog and submitted questions will be answered as soon as possible.

Wood Floor Fact Sheet - now available

Do you know how to IMMEDIATELY increase

the value of your house and the comfort of your home? 

Adding new or restored natural wooden flooring will definitely increase the value and comfort to any house and home immediately. Yours included.

It's a known fact - even before the 'credit-crunch' effect on the housing market.

FACT:

According to WoodCare adding wooden features to your home will increase its value between 5 to 15%.

From stripping down wooden banisters and exposing their natural character, re-instating real wood doors and especially installing real wooden floors in the main areas - it will all have an instant positive effect.

And it's not just that you can ask more for your house than your neighbour - estate agents and existing clients tell us again and again that homes with wooden floors sell quicker!

Read more....

Wood You Like, the wooden flooring specialist - Guardian Magazine

In March we reported we had received a request from the editor of the Guardian Magazine - Space Solves - to advice one of their readers on how to take care of a poor parquet floor and of course we did this to the best of our ability as we do with every request for advice.

We are happy to report that in the publication of our advice (Guardian Magazine - Saturday 3 May) we are labeled wooden flooring specialists:

Pity our poor parquet

Our 28-year-old parquet flooring is black where it has been trodden on heavily, while other parts are stained and faded. How can I lift the stains? I clean it with a damp, soapy mop.

'I'm afraid the black areas are a result of not treating the floor soon enough when the finish had worn off,' says Karin Hermans of wooden flooring specialist Wood You Like (01233 713725, woodyoulike).

Read more............

At your service, as always. And while we're on the subject of maintaining a valuable parquet floor properly - read our "3 Easy Steps to Clean and Maintain Your Parquet Floor" to make sure your own parquet floor doesn't need the 'drastic' steps of resanding - or worse, being covered up with carpet!

Testimonial on Eco-friendliness from a very young nature lover

Earlier this year we gifted, through the post, a little miracle of nature – a beautiful, locally handpicked, acorn to many of our contacts (perhaps even you).

We hope they all have given it a honourable spot in their garden and that they will undoubtedly get many years of pleasure from this most magnificent of trees as it matures over the next 40 years.

Now it’s time to share ‘the story’ behind our unusual gift.

In September last year we received an Oak sapling from one of our clients together with a mind-provoking letter:

The letter goes on to thank us for the installation, but of course we gratefully accepted Tom’s gift (see picture right) and have given it a good home.

All our wooden flooring, from Basic Oak to Bespoke, come from sustainable sources, be it FSC or PEFC certified. Thanks to sustainable forest management more trees are planted than are harvested.  In fact, European re-forestation grows by an area the size of Cyprus every year!

You can, just as our little nature-loving son of our client, rest assured that purchasing your wooden floor from Wood You Like will be an eco-friendly purchase – one with a delivery time of 4 weeks, not 40 years!

Ps: all our clients who buy a natural wooden floor during our 5th Anniversary Celebrating year will receive our very popular ‘Walking with Wood’ comfy clog-style slippers – 1 pair for free for every purchase of 10 sq m or more.

Introduction offer: Triplank Mammoet Oak Smoked & Aged

Our most popular wood-engineered floor - The Basic Oak Rustic with 4mm solid Oak top layer, brushed & oiled - has been joined with its 'Great-Uncle' as we like to call this new addition to the Triplank family:

Basic (Triplank) Mammoet Oak Smoked & Aged wood-engineered 1-strip floorboards - finished with a natural oil and with micro-bevels on the long sides.

This floor has normal (high quality) T&G construction for easy installation, can be installed floating or glued-down and is suitable for underfloor heating.

Measurements: 15 x 189 x 1860mm, 2.81 sq m per pack.

Our introduction price: £ 49.97 ex VAT per sq m.

Add natural age and beauty to your home in a simple but value adding way, wooden features do add on average 5 - 10% value to your home (or buy-to-let property), is easy to clean, anti-allergic and becomes more beautiful the longer it's down.

Buy it now through our webshop: see article 1WE-OAK-5 (3rd product on the page).

From little Acorns....

"From little Acorns mighty Oaks will grow"

How to ‘Grow your own floor’ - a special gift of natural wonder, from us to you.

On this special occasion of our 5th Anniversary we are gifting you a little ‘miracle of nature’, a beautiful acorn, hand collected from a natural forest locally, so you too can start growing your very own ‘genuine oak flooring’. (Request to have a little miracle of nature send to you by filling the form below, sorry, none left!)

Estimated delivery time for your oak floor - approx 40 years.

Meanwhile, the oak in your garden will provide you with many years of pleasure – and guaranteed, you will get so fond of it you won’t want to chop it down.  So, perhaps a quicker, more reliable way of getting your ‘genuine oak flooring’ is to give Wood You Like, the wood flooring specialists, a call on 01233 713725.

Revised delivery time for your oak flooring - within 4 weeks!

What you need to know about growing your own floor:

• The Oak is part of the Beech family - its Latin name is Quercus.
• Your Oak tree can easily live 200 years and more - the oldest known Oak tree in the UK is said to be about 1,000 years old.
• Only after about 25 years will your Oak start to produce its own acorns.
• It takes, on average, up to 35 years for an Oak tree to reach maturity (approx height of 25 – 30 metres).
• A mature Oak tree can draw up 190 litres of water a day from your garden.
• After felling your tree, it will need to go through various drying processes (lumber stacks, turning, dry-sheds, kiln drying, and more, taking up to 3 years) to reduce its moisture content, in a gentle and natural manner to prevent it splitting, before it can eventually be cut into timber or floor boards – and then dried further before you can lay them, with pride, in your home.
• From 1 cubic metre of tree you might get 20 sq metres of 21mm thick solid boards, or up to 90 sq metres of precision Wood-Engineered floorboards.

5th Anniversary Wood You Like

Happy New Year !

And what a new year it will be: a whole year with special offers to celebrate Wood You Like's 5th Anniversary.

We'll start with a very special gift to every client purchasing our quality natural wooden flooring:

Browse our website and online shop to select your own high quality natural wooden flooring and stay tuned for more special offers, attractions and celebrations.

Pre-view of Interior Design pictures of our flooring

Our policy on sending out small samples of wood is known - it will never show you the full character of the wood and/or grade of any wood type. In order to help you select the best suited floor for your taste or existing/new Interior Design we have created a whole file of 58 High Resolution Interior Design Pictures of the Duoplank an Solid Range.

For a very small fee - of which 75% will be donated by us to a local Nature and Educational Project called The Green Gang - you can download the file (also containing our Duoplank and Solid range leaflet) from our E-booklet and leaflet page.

For a pre-view of the pictures, start the 'video' below.
(If your browser doesn't show the video - try here - stand alone page)

                    

all 58 Pictures to help you choose your unique Natural Wooden Flooring from Wood You Like

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Lieverdink PGN Supplier of the Year

This month another of our trusted suppliers won an award: Lieverdink Parketfabriek (design – bespoke parquet).
Yearly the PGN (Parket Groep Nederland, 40 independent wood flooring retailers working together under the slogan “Our Craftsmanship is Your Guarantee”) selects three suppliers in wooden flooring and/or wooden flooring accessories who, according to all the PGN members deliver the best quality in products and service.
Jan Stigter, chairman of PGN, explained the reasoning behind awarding Lieverdink the first price this year:

“Perseverance in quality production, utmost believe and trust in their own products and the ability to pass on this message in a simple way to their clients made Lieverdink the worthy winner this year.”

A slightly surprised Gerben Lieverdink accepted the award during the annual End-of-Year reception of PGN in Baarn.
Lieverdink also won the price in 2001 and 2004.

(parquet flooring based on traditional craftsmanship)

News source Parketplein/PGN 27.11.07

Latin American Trade Award 2007: our Duoplank manufacturer

Inpa Parket bv has been awarded first price of The Latin American Trade Award 2007. This award is an initiative of the Dutch Department of Economical Affairs, ABN-Amro, The Netherlands-Latin America Business Council (NLABC) and KPMG.

A pre-selection placed four Dutch companies together in the race for this award and on Thursday 15 November Inpa was announced the winner. During the award ceremony - at the Head-Office of ABN-Amro - the award was handed over by Drs Chris Buijink, secretary-general of the Dutch Department of Economical Affairs, to Arthur Hoetelmans of Inpa Parket.

The ceremony followed after various presentations and talks on "changes and opportunities in trading with/in Latin America."

"Our ongoing involvement, in a sustainable and responsible way, in South America's forestry combined with assisting the local community with development and employment has contributed greatly to us winning the award."

(Renier Hoetelmans, Inpa)

Inpa Parket owns a FSC-certified forest in Bolivia and is involved in reforestation projects in Paraguay.

(News source: Inpa, Parketplein)

Chapel Parket Uk presents more Hertog

Chapel Parket UK has extended its Original Hertog Aged & Destressed Oak floorboard range. And of course, the place to see new samples of the various natural smoked and oiled natural or in popular colours (like White, Red, Grey and Gothic) is in our showroom in the lovely village of Charing, Kent.

The boards (Solid 160 - 180mm wide, thick engineered 180 - 260mm wide) are either aged or scraped (without damaging the Tongue and Groove construction, very important!) and are all pre-finished.

Solid Aged 160 - 180mm natural oiled or oiled white
Wood-Engineered Aged 180mm natural oiled or oiled white

Solid Aged 160 - 180mm smoked natural or white, double smoked natural or white
Wood-Engineered Aged 180mm in same colours

Solid Scraped 160 - 180mm Red, Grey, Gothic or Red-Black oiled
Wood-Engineered 18mm same colours

Wider Wood-Engineered boards available at a surcharge.

Also available in matching colours are flat beading, skirting boards and stair-nosing to finish your whole room in the same style.

'Real Wood' Campaign gains more support

Dutch participation in ‘Real Wood’ Campaign

The following Dutch manufacturers have affiliated themselves with the ‘Real Wood’ Campaign of the European Federation of Parquet Industry:

• Albers Parket fabrieken
• Dekora Parket
• Inpa Parket
• M.J.D. Parket
• Parketfabriek Lieverdink
• Van Kesteren Parketfabriek
• Grönloh Parket
• and Beter Hout.

The participation of the eight Dutch parquet manufacturers is the result of talks between the FEP and Parket Alliance.

The list of participants on www.realwood.eu already mentions 40 manufacturers who fully support the campaign (and carry the ‘Real Wood’ logo).

(News source: Parketplein/BWD/FEP, 15.10.07)

Ranges: From Basic Oak to real Bespoke

Our Charing showroom is home to around 117 large samples of different wood flooring types, or as we like to say: From Basic Oak to Bespoke. Ample choice for you, from simple wood-engineered Oak Rustic 3-strip, flamy Tropical (FSC) Tarrara Amarillo Duoplank or Solid floorboard to Prime Oak Design Parquet in many patterns.

Our bespoke parquet design comes in at least 25 different 'standard' patterns - in many combinations of wood types - and even then our manufacturer (Lieverdink Parket) can make bespoke even more bespoke by altering the chosen pattern at the request of our clients (when possible of course).

Below is an 'adapted' Versailles panel (or adapted "Hackfort") - a whole block in the middle instead of the 'standard' two wood strips -  in Prime Oak and this is the story we received from our delighted client:

"Hi Karin,

Having trawled the timber suppliers in the UK and Europe, plus the so called timber floor experts in the South my wife and I were on the brink of giving up on finding a supplier who could help.
Having spoken to Karin on the phone we decided to drive down to Wood You Like's premises in the wilds of Kent. We decided if she couldn't help we would give up. Our aim was to find a supplier that knew what a Versailles panel was, at a reasonable price, and a short delivery.

Karin knew exactly what we wanted, spoke to her factory in Holland whilst we were there, in Dutch (of course). Stated that it would be no problem, gave us a very competitive price and confirmed delivery would be about 10 days.
At last, so within 10 minutes of meeting we placed our order. Had confirmation the next day, and hey presto a very large lorry showed up 10 days later with our beautiful Premium Oak panels, exactly as promised.

Many thanks Karin for your excellent service from start to finish. A real pleasure, the photographs do not do the floor justice."

Kind regards

Kevin Beasant
(Senior Manager The Wilton Carpet Factory Limited, Wilton Wiltshire)

Black = back! Wenge versus Thermo Treated Oak

Black is the new... black
Designers are looking for warm and dark colours, also in wooden flooring. Staining an Oak floor will just be that: Oak with a darker colour where the grains will stand-out darker than the surrounding wood. Tropical wood comes in many colours, from red-brown to pitch black (like Wenge or Panga Panga), but comes with a price.

Our Wenge Duoplank (6mm Solid Wenge top layer on 15mm water-resistant-plywood) is black, in natures own variations of black and comes with a price tag of £ 99.47 (ex VAT) per sq m, pre-oiled.

But there is an alternative: Duoplank Thermo Heated Oak - black without pronouncing only the grain. It's a through and through 'stain', nothing superficial about it. Placed next to our Wenge sample board you can see the similarity in colour:

Price wise, a complete difference: only £ 58.97 (ex VAT) per sq m pre-oiled.

Ask us for more details, availability and accessories for your own warm, dark, sustainable wooden floor. You can call us (01233 - 713725), email us, or visit our showroom in Charing, Kent.

Wicanders WicCork on DIY-SOS

BBC's DIY-SOS team will show - in two of their new programs - how Wicanders WicCork can help to create your dream room.
Not just once, but twice have they used this versatile and available in many colours, designs and textures to help out desperate DIY-ers. The first program will be aired on Wednesday 26 September from 8.00pm on BBC1.

For  preview of the Wicanders WicCork see our "Colours and Design" page.

Personal and dedicated service, the proof is in the pudding

On this blog and on our websites (Supply and Install 'division' - "DIY with a Difference" division) our aim to supply quality products and service is frequently mentioned. And we pride ourselves that our clients frequently acknowledge this fact by sending us testimonials and feedback.

One of the promises "Why You Know Wood You Like Provides the Greatest Value in Wooden Flooring" is:

The personal and dedicated service you receive will continue for as long as you need us. Our growing band of delighted clients, with their glowing testimonials and feed back are your confirmation and assurance of the quality and service you will receive of Wood You Like, THE natural wooden flooring specialists in the UK.

Recently, after we installed a Duoplank Oak Rustic, brushed & oiled natural our client remarked that the doors (trimmed to the new height of the floor and wooden threshold) seem to be scraping over the threshold. Our job is only finished when our client is happy. The following (email) conversation is our 'proof in the pudding' of this week:

Dear Jay

As discussed with you yesterday I mentioned to Ton that the doors in your home touch the thresholds etc. Before he left he checked all of them, but he believes the doors (hardwood) are a bit too heavy for the little screws in the hinges. We have no problem whatsoever to come round again, but removing more material from the bottom of the doors, while the cause is the screws might not be the way forward (the door will 'drop' again and in the end you might end up with a gap between the top of the door and door post.)
Please advice. If needed Ton can come round later tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon.

Kind Regards
Wood You Like Ltd
Karin Hermans

Karin,

I will come back you on this. I may be able to get my father (who hung the doors) to replace the screws with longer ones if this is the case. I have a feeling that one of the doors may still need a trim but we'll try longer screws first - as we don't want them falling off in the long run.

Can I take this opportunity to thank you and Ton for a fantastic job. The floors look superb and Ton has finished the fitting to a very high standard. My Father commented that it was a very tidy job - and as a carpenter he is hard to please!!! We appreciate your patience with our fussiness too - we can be awkward clients I am aware.

Please feel free to use any of these comments on your customer comments section of your website etc if you wish.

Many thanks,

Jay & Lorraine

We are awaiting the news if replacing the short screws with longer ones has resolved the problem. If not, we're on our way - as promised.

'Old-fashion' wood mosaic available on-line

Renovating/restoring an old property and in need of renewing, replacing, adding on Old-Fashion wood mosaic tiles? The so-called 5-finger blocks of thin strips of wood in easy to install tiles?

We now have various wood-types available from our Charing Showroom and on-line for you to finally complete any project. The wood-types are the most 'commonly' used in the old days.

All wood-types are unfinished, so you can use your own matching colour or leave it natural with HardWaxOil, and come with mesh or felt-backing for easy installation with normal parquet adhesive (like Lecol5500 or F.Ball B92 - Stycobond)

Oak Natural £ 25.00 per sq m (ex VAT)

Genuine Teak £ 27.50 per sq m (ex VAT)

Rhodesian Teak £ 27.50 per sq m (ex VAT)

Merbau £ 27.50 per sq m (ex VAT)

All our products now available to buy on-line (securely)

Since today you are able to buy all of our products: natural wooden flooring either solid or engineered, fitting & finishing materials, underlayment and maintenance products on-line.
(Two categories are still in process for this: Design parquet patterns in various wood-types and thresholds/beading - we expect these to be available soon)

Buying on-line from Wood You Like's online shop is secure, we are using Secure Hosting, and simple.

(We did notice that some browsers don't show the freight costs at once, only after going to the check-out - no need to complete the whole process - and to click on the 'next' button. This will generate the appropriate 'cookie' and the freight costs will show from then on in cart total and check-out.)
The freight costs for delivery anywhere on mainland UK are between minimum £ 15.00 and maximum £ 175.00 - most orders will be shipped directly from our manufacturers (mainland Europe) to your doorstep. This to avoid damage by having to re-load your order constantly from one delivery truck to the other.

We also have created the posibility for you to browse our online shop, download a quotation form and receive a specified no-obligations best price quote from us (these quotations will be written 'manually' on a one-to-one base and during our normal working hours, so please allow maximum 36 - 48 hours for this.

Of course, you always more than welcome to visit our showroom to see, touch, feel our over 100 different floors for yourself, send us an email with your requirements or give us a call.

After all, we here to provide you with the greatest value in natural wooden flooring and service!

Fitting & Finishing materials: BUY ON-LINE

Wood You Like is working hard to have all high quality products from the (online) showroom available for buying on-line.

The first range of products available are our Fitting and Finishing Materials (from HardWaxOil to Wood-Filler).

See our "on-line" showroom Fitting and Finishing page for more details.

More products from our ranges will be available to BUY ON-LINE as soon as possible.

More sustained success in Bolivia

Beginning this year our Duoplank Manufacturer Inpa Parket started a very special project in Bolivia: together with thirty Indian families the company owns and runs over 26.000 hectare of FSC-certified forest. In the just released newsletter "Good News!" from FSC-The Netherlands Inpa director Arthur Hoetelmans explains more about this unique joint-venture:

"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."

Inpa Parket now also works together with two other Indian communities and the certifying of the project will be ready end of 2008.

(news sources: Inpa, FSC-The Netherlands, Parketplein)

Download to Nature

In our April newsletter we explained our sample policy: Samples, why not. Because of the rich characteristics in natural wood we know that a tiny sample of any wood-type will never show you nature's variety in full.
This tiny sample (even larger than most companies do send out), is supposed to be a sample of Oak Smoked and Oiled natural. If you are able to see the whole spectrum of an Oak Smoked and Oiled natural floor you will see this (picture right):

A very wide variety in colours, from very dark (like the tiny sample) to lighter and very light. Some boards have many knots, some none at all, some boards might even have medullary rays ('flecks' or 'mirrors'). At Wood You Like we feel strongly that the best way to select the natural wooden floor most suited for your unique interior design is by looking at very large samples in our showroom or for us to present you with high resolution Interior Design Pictures to show off the rich characteristics of natural wooden flooring.

And that's what we have launched just now: a first batch of 58 high resolution Interior Design Pictures from our Duoplank and Solid Flooring range downloadable from our website. More ranges will follow very soon.

We use a secure server for the downloads and have to ask you a very small donation for this. In keeping with our sustainable sources policy we will however donate 75% of all revenue from the downloads to a local nature group: The Charing Alderbed and Wetland Meadow Conservation Group. (You can find more details about this nature project on our website.)

Special offer on Wicanders WiCCork series 100

Our cork range flooring comes in many colours and designs (not just 'boring' brown). And until the end of June 2007 all 4 'Collections' in the Series 100 are reduced in price to £ 27.50 per sq m (ex VAT)

Series 100: cork floorboards (10.5 x 295 x 900mm) with cork-lock, Extreme WRT (Wear-Resistant-Technology) finish and built-in thermal insulation and built-in acoustic insulation (the natural characteristics of cork).

In our showroom we have 12 of the 30 different colours and desing on show for you. (Please note, on small orders we might have to charge a little bit extra for freight-costs - maximum £ 40,00, but this depends on how quickly you would like your cork flooring delivered)

New Range: Antique Hand scraped and Hand destressed Oak

Wood You Like is happy to announce the addition of Hertog's Antique Handmade Oak wood-engineered range into their Charing showroom:

Hand scraped Oak Rustic and Hand destressed Oak Rustic, both pre-oiled in 4 colours:
Oiled Natural, Oiled White, Smoked and Smoked White oiled.

The Antique Hand destressed boards have a character of timelessness that fits with nearly every interior design style; the Antique Hand scraped boards add that rough texture you expect from floors centuries old.

Both types are 15mm thick with a 4mm Solid Oak top layer, bevelled on the long sides and are pre-finished oiled for quick and problem free installation in any room. The construction of the wood-engineered boards make this range also suitable to be installed in kitchens and conservatories.

Visit our showroom in Charing to see and feel the newest innovation from The Netherlands or see our online showroom for prices and other details.

Managing 60,000 football pitches

We recently reported on our (Dutch) Duoplank manufacturer's involvement with Forest Stewardship Council and reforestation in South America.

FSC and creating sustainable forests is on ongoing business. Life is 'give and take'. This rule applies more than ever in the 30,000 hectare FSC forest owned and managed by Inpa in Bolivia.

"Put everything back into the forest what you have taken out. Call upon the services of the local inhabitants, but give them their due. Show respect for all forms of life in and around the forest."

This is the philosophy which J. Roosenboom, founder of the Dutch company, believed in 20 years ago and implemented his philosophy with reforestation projects in Paraguay.

In 2001 the company bought its own forest in Bolivia, South America. Sustainable management of the forest by the company is also the key to long-term operational management - in and around the forest. A fully self-supporting micro-economy has been created: the forest has its own road infrastructure, its own water and energy suppliers, not only benefiting the company and the forest but also the local residents, who are closely involved in the project.

FSC in practice
Managing a forest of 30,000 hectare is no sinecure. The surface area is roughly the same amount as 60,000 football pitches. The management procedure in itself is impressive:

• The forest engineer and helpers search the depths of the forest for trees and gradually make a map of the whole area
• An (ongoing) inventory of the forest is drawn up
• The FSC has to grant permission for tree-felling, requested per 'block' of forest
• In each block trees are cut selectively - the block is then closed for at least a quarter of a century and is only accessible to scientist who carry out research.
• Every cut tree bears a permanent accompanying FSC label.

The 'harvested' trees are then processed in one of the 4 company's own sawmills in Bolivia. The equipment of these sawmills are the state of the art: a modern saw, a self-grinding machine for saw-blades and an adjustable 'intelligent' decision-maker, The Opticut, which decides how each plank must be sawn.
The wood is pre-dried in the drying-sheds before it's transported further to the company's parquet factory in Paraguay and from there finds its way to final destinations all over the world.

To our showroom in Charing for instance. Wood You Like has a whole range of Duoplanks on show, from the Oak range to - of course - most of the FSC wood species.

Wicanders WicCork colour palet

Wicanders "The Natural Choice for Environmental Floors"

On our website you can now find all colours and designs available in the following WicCork ranges:

• Originals
• Identity
• Personality
• Nuance

Chose Natural Cork flooring for any of the following benefits:

• Built-in thermal insulation
• Built-in acoustic insulation
• Comfortable to walk and stand on
• Extremely wear resistant
• Increased slide resistance
• Enhances natural features
• Easy maintenance
• Healthy and hygienic
• Environmental friendly
• Fast and easy installation

For more information on Natural Cork, visit our showroom (24 large samples) or our speciality page

Samples, why not

Wood is a wonderful product of nature, very versatile in species.

But nature also 'dictates' very versatile characteristics in every species, making everything individual (like human beings, we're all different in shape, looks, colour and character).

Wood is no different, every individual board has its own colour, look, character. One piece of Oak Rustic can have many knots, sapwood areas and even some medullary rays. Another piece of Oak Rustic (even cut from the same tree) can have a completely different appearance: tiny knots perhaps, slightly darker in colour than its 'neighbouring' board and no medullary rays at all.

That's what makes a wooden floor so natural, but also makes it hard to choose a floor from a tiny sample send out to you. It can never show you all its natural variety.
That's why Wood You Like has large sample boards in the showroom, containing at least three different pieces (single boards) in the sample to give you the correct best impression of how that type of flooring, that type of wood in that type of grade and colour can look like.
That's why Wood You Like websites and online showroom shows interior design pictures, not pictures of a piece of wood. We want to 'show-off' the richness of nature's varied character.

That's why Wood You Like doesn't easily send out tiny samples, it will never give you the best impression. You might receive a dark piece, not matching your style or colour idea at all, while in the total floor it would 'blend' in seamlessly between all other varied in character boards.
There is another reason for not sending samples: all wood-types 'mature' once exposed to light (and not just sun light). Some wood types start pale and get darker or honey-coloured (like Oak), some start light brown and turn brown-reddish over time (specially tropical wood types) and some turn from vaguely dark to deep dark (Jatabo amongst others). A 'fresh' sample send out for a colour match with your design will not show you the ultimate matured appearance of your natural wooden floor.

Nature is too varied to have your choice in wood dictated by a small - tiny sample. Come and see it in situ in our showroom or download our Interior Design Pictures of many wood-types in our various ranges.

The Mighty Oak - wood at work

Yesterday the Mighty, Majestic Oak featured in BBC2's "The Trees That Made Britain". Tony Kirkham and Jon Hammerton, both familiar faces from the Kew-Garden programs, showed and experienced the 'work-horse' among trees.

The Oak has been around for ages, surrounded with folklore, tradition, history and is nature's source for many trades and products.

The Oak, not just in the U.K. - all over mainland Europe also, is used for grand structures (Salisbury Cathedral's Spire is just one, but excellent, example), many historic ships, galleons, barges and simple tugs depended on the strength of the Oak, the bark of the tree (the tanned-acid) was/is an essential product to keep hides in prime and flexible condition and Oak barrels make Whiskey what Whiskey is.

Oak, the majestic tree is the most popular choice in wooden flooring (85% of all wooden flooring bought), its variety in grades and natural colours, its strength, durability and value is renowned by all and sundry.
The tanned-acid in the wood is still used to create that typical dark, golden brown, smoked colour old Oak boards or beams in stables and cattle-wagons have (the ammonia in the cattle pee reacting with the tanned-acid changes the wood colour - nowadays ammonium-vapours are used - in a 'smoke-room' - to create the same effect).

Mighty Oak, the versatile, grandest work-horse among all trees, who wouldn't want to have a majestic floor from you?

Shouldn't cork be boring brown?

Eh, no, definitely not.

WicCork (Wicanders): "The Natural Choice for Environmental Floors" comes in many colours, designs and textures. The pictures above show only a small selection of all the colours nature's own insulator comes in, in total there are over 30 available (even brown).
Go wild and create your own design mixing various colours and textures together; stay cool/calm and create your own 'hide-away' with one soothing colour.

Cork, environmentally and eco-friendly harvested from the Cork Oak tree, absorbs sound and is warm, comfortable and soft under foot.
Ideal hygienic and anti-allergic floorcovering in children's playrooms and bedrooms. Or to liven up your heavy traffic reception area, or waiting room and office.

WicCork comes in floorboards (10.5 x 295 x 900mm) with corkloc T&G or in glue-down tiles (3.2 x 300 x 300mm/600 x 300mm) all with Extreme WRT (Wear-Resistant-Technology) finish and with built-in thermal insulation and built-in acoustic insulation (the natural characteristics of cork).

In our showroom in Charing we have 24 large sample boards to give you the best starting point in visualising what/how cork floorcovering can do/mix with your unique interior design at home or in your office.
Just another example of Wood You Like's specialities

Forest Stewardship Council and reforestation.

Reforestation should be on everyone's mind who is dealing/working with wood. Sustained forests are the only way forward, economically and environmentally. More and more governments, producers and organisations realise that a "Forest that pays, stays", and not just tropical forests. Examples: The Netherlands and Belgium combined have 115,000 ha of FSC certified forests and plantations (production forests), The U.K. 1,693,000 ha beginning 2007.
And more and more organisations/customers demand that wood used in projects (building projects, flooring projects) comes from sustained forests.

Our Dutch 'Duoplank' and Solid wooden flooring manufacturer owns 30,000 ha of FSC certified tropical forest in Bolivia and has been involved with reforestation projects in Paraguay for many, many years.

The founder/owner started with sustained forestry even before FSC was 'born' (1990) and without any help from local (South America) governments (who have been known to point out the huge forest to him asking: whatever for do we need to replant?).
The sustained plantation is now the only forest around for miles.

The birch plywood backing of the Duoplank also comes from sustained forests, making it one complete product from nature - with nature's future in mind.

(Did you know that the Oak, Merbau, Walnut and Iroco Duoplank range is guaranteed on underfloor heating? This product has been tested by TNO  - world wide renowned Dutch Technology and Test Institute - to ensure that it's a perfectly suitable product to be installed over underfloor heating - correctly installed and used according to the heating system manufacturer's specifications of course)

Restoration projects - bespoke blocks

Wood You like has been called upon to source wooden blocks for a restoration project in East Kent. The client needed herringbone blocks in a very specific width and length in order to fill in and extent from an existing herringbone floor, but was unable to find a exact duplicate until, of course, Wood You Like got involved.

Our bespoke Design Parquet Manufacturer (named in the top 3 of "Best Supplier of the Year 2006" The Netherlands) made 'easy' work of the order and also created a perfect (left and right) tongue and groove to the 13.5mm thick solid blocks. Two weeks after the first enquiry from our client the wood blocks were delivered to site.

Just one small sample of Wood You Like's specialities.

Design Parquet Manufacturer in Top 3

We're proud to announce that our (bespoke) Design Parquet Manufacturer (Parketfabriek Lieverdink BV) had been named in the top 3 of
"Best Supplier of the Year 2006"
(yearly event in The Netherlands) together with Plinten & Profielen Centrale and Kährs Benelux.

Climate Change: From Parish to Planet

CEPS (Chilham Environmental Protection Society) is inviting everyone to their workshop:

"From Parish to Planet"

on Saturday 10 February (2pm to 5pm) in Chilham (Kent, near Ashford and Canterbury) Large Village Hall (entree free)

"Come and hear what the experts have to say and discuss practical ways that communities like ours can make a difference"

Children are welcome, there will be supervised play activities in the small village hall.

For more information, contact details are on the CEPS workshop website

New in collection: Oak Rustic Wide-Board Oiled

Just in:
Wood-Engineered 'Triplank' Oak Rustic wide-board brushed and oiled natural (micro-bevelled)
4mm Solid Oak top layer on high quality pine-backing, standard T&G fixing.

Only £ 39.95 (ex VAT) per sq m.

Also available lacquered or brushed and oiled white or mocca.

New Interior Design Pictures in online showroom

Thanks to our supplier - manufacturer we have updated our online showroom with Interior Design pictures of most of the Duoplank Range (from Oak in various grades to FSC Tropical wood-species)