Engineered wood floor fitting in Willenhall. Acclimatised first, fitted level, edges and thresholds finished properly, old floor taken away.
Engineered wood is real timber on a stable core. That is why it copes with a house where the heating goes on and off all winter. Solid wood would not. It still needs acclimatising in the room before it is cut, and that is the step people skip.
On the solid ground floors of the post-war Willenhall estates, the concrete has to be checked for damp before any wood goes near it. Moisture coming up through an old slab is what makes a timber floor cup. A damp reading first, a membrane where it is needed, and only then the boards.
The boards sit in the room for a few days before one is cut. Skip it and you get gaps in February.
Floated, glued or secret-nailed depending on what is underneath, not on what is quickest for us.
Beading or scotia matched to the floor, proper thresholds at every change of level.
Doors eased, skirtings undercut where that gives a neater edge than beading.
A moisture reading is taken on concrete before any timber goes down. Damp rising through an old slab is what makes a wood floor cup.
Photos of the room and of the floor underneath. Tell us if it is a concrete ground floor, and whether it has ever felt damp. That decides if a membrane is needed.
Timber moves with the humidity of the room it lives in. A few days acclimatising lets it settle before it is fixed, rather than shrinking afterwards and leaving gaps.
Engineered, in almost every Willenhall house. Solid moves too much where heating swings, and engineered gives the same surface without the arguments.
Engineered can, solid generally cannot. There are limits on board thickness and on how fast you bring the heat up, and we set that out before fitting.
Almost always moisture from below, and on a Willenhall concrete ground floor that usually means no membrane under the boards. It can sometimes be lifted, dried and relaid, but testing the slab and fitting a membrane first avoids it entirely.
It can, with care. Water left standing will mark it, so it suits a kitchen that is kept wiped rather than one with a leaking dishwasher. LVT is the safer choice if the room takes a lot of water.
A room takes about a day once the boards have settled in. A damp test and a membrane add a little time. The whole ground floor of a Willenhall semi is usually two to three days.
Send a photo or a quick video of the room on WhatsApp and we'll see if we can quote you over the phone, or fill in the form and it opens your email ready to send.
