Freshwater West – 20 x 140 Brushed & Golden Oiled Solid Oak Flooring – Sir Benfro Range  £42.00 ex VAT per m² (£50.40 inc VAT per m²)

Technical Specification

Machined from one piece of solid European Oak to very accurate dimensional tolerances for fast and simple fitting.

• 20mm Thick
• 140mm Wide
• Mixed Grade, so will contain natural grain and colour variance, sapwood, and various size knots (some filled and sanded). Grade details are explained below
• Lengths 2 @ 2000mm – 500 + 1500mm – 700mm + 1300mm – 1000mm + 1000mm
• Moisture Content 6 – 9%
• Micro Bevelled Sides & Ends
• TG4 End Matched
• 1.40m2 Per Carton
• 98.00m2 Per Pallet
• Extra Important Detail;
  • Sealed Underside for Improved Moisture Protection (reduces risk of ‘cupping’ after installation) – except for unfinished
  • Very Accurate Machining Tolerances for Fast & Simple Fitting (saves on fitting costs)
  • Angled T&G Joint for Excess Adhesive (reduces risk of adhesive reaching the surface)
• All our flooring products are machined to very accurate machining tolerances for fast and simple fitting.
• Length Tolerance: +/- 1.0mm
• Width tolerance: +/- 0.2mm
• Thickness Tolerance: +/- 0.5mm

Grades Explained 
Grade A

• Very few knots if any and no sapwood allowed
• Clear and consistent grain pattern
• Very few natural features
• Slight colour difference allowed

Grade B

• Small, live knots allowed up to 15mm
• More natural grain pattern and filled dead knots up to 15mm allowed
• More natural features allowed
• More natural colour difference allowed
• Sapwood allowed up to 10% of face area

Grade C

• Bigger knots allowed, some repaired with filler before being sanded
• More natural grain pattern allowed
• More natural features allowed
• More natural colour difference allowed
• Sapwood allowed up to 15% of face area

Grade D

• Large knots allowed, some repaired with filler before being sanded
• All natural grain pattern allowed
• Most natural features allowed
• Significant natural colour difference allowed
• Sapwood allowed up to 30% of face area

Celtic Character Rustic

• Contains all of the above grades and also some lower grades
• Lower grades allow open natural defects that are repaired with dark filler before being sanded
• All natural features allowed
• All colour differences allowed
• All sapwood variances allowed

Important:
We order our flooring in full containers, so the grade mix that you receive and see within your finished floor will obviously depend on the amount ordered, because being a natural product means that different batches of flooring will obviously contain varying amounts of each grade.

Maintenance Guide

Although our solid oak products are of high quality and are dried to provide excellent stability after installation, please understand that they’re constructed of a fully natural and hygroscopic material, so the conditions during installation should be maintained as consistently as possible thereafter for optimum performance and to minimise dimensional movement of each board within the finished floor.

For information on important, ongoing maintenance, please refer to our Care & Maintenance page but it may depend on what finish is applied ‘on-site’.

Weather, Humidity, Temperature…And The Ongoing Maintenance Of Your Flooring

Because oak is a natural, hygroscopic (water absorbent) material, and its dimensions are directly relative to its moisture content, we must control and maintain the relative humidity within our homes to enable the moisture content of our oak flooring to remain constant. This will ensure stability of each board within the finished floor, because failure to do this may force these boards to change dimensionally and structurally. This is not at all a fault of the flooring itself but all to do with the conditions that it’s being forced to endure.

Here’s an example of what can happen, when the outdoor temperature is 0°C

The maximum amount of water that a cubic metre of air can hold at this temperature is 5 grams, so when you bring this cubic metre of air inside and heat it to 25°C, the relative humidity drops to only 23%.

We actually recommend a minimum of 40% for optimum floor stability (incidentally, this is also the level that health experts recommend for our bodies too, so good for our floor and good for us).

But it gets worse as the temperature outside falls lower, and this is why the air inside any heated building in the winter can become too dry, which can obviously have an effect on our flooring (and our bodies).

When relative humidity is allowed to drop too low, our flooring is forced to lose moisture itself and will try to curl upwards towards the dry air (similar to a piece of bacon under a grill) in an effort to find moisture.

Any time the temperature outside is well below freezing, relative humidity inside will be below 20% unless you do something to increase it, and not increasing it can have a devastating effect on your oak floor.

Installation Options

We advise that our Solid Oak flooring is fixed down to the subfloor by either nailing or gluing down with flexible adhesive. We do not recommend installing solid oak above UFH.

Another method of installation is self-adhesive underlay.

Details of all these methods can be found in our Fitting Guidelines guide.