The Various Types of Timber Flooring

When it comes to building a new home, or renovating an old one, the choice of flooring is a very crucial decision to make. According to commercial and residential builders, the best option for you and/or your family depends on a number of factors, including mobility, comfort, budget, personal preferences and the number of children or pets. For the flooring options, we will for the moment discuss the various types of timber flooring.

Laminate Floors

Before we talk about laminate flooring, let's first list the benefits of using timber flooring. For starters, timber floors are easy to install, and are quite easy to clean as they don't accumulate debris, dirt and dust.

Second, timber floors have amazing aesthetics, they're durable and strong, and they help enhance the value of your home. Third, there are a lot of timber flooring options available today, and they offer enhanced natural acoustics and air quality. 

Laminate flooring is made in the same way as the laminate that's utilized in kitchen counters. These are also the most affordable option among timber floors, but these are not easy to repair, and that's according to most home builders.

Timber Laminate

Timber laminate is also called engineered flooring, and is nearly the same as the first one mentioned above. These can be installed over most structurally-sound floors, making them an affordable type of flooring to use in home renovations.  However, timber laminate (especially the cheaper ones) are often thinner and may not be as sturdy, and they can't be re-sanded too. 

Solid Timber Overlay Floors

These are the same as solid timber flooring and are just 12 mm thick, which means that they need to be installed over a solid base like concrete because they're too thin to be utilized over joists or bearers. However, these are usually cheaper than the others, and they are available in a wide selection of grains and colors too.

Solid Timber Boards

These variants are often found in much older houses, and are available in a wide assortment of colors too. These types provide full flexibility in terms of hardness, durability, grain and color, and they can also be installed on joists  or bearers over concrete.

One of the best things about using natural timber floors is that they are an eco-friendly option, as they're energy-efficient and use lesser energy during the production process. In fact, most timber floors sold in Australia are considered sustainable as they're sourced from carefully-managed forests Down Under.

In addition, timber also safely stores carbon for decades, because by catching carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, they help reduce climate change. And when compared to other building materials, the carbon emissions released during the production of timber flooring is less than 2 tons of CO2 equivalent.

Best of all, wood products in general naturally break down or decompose when disposed of, whereas other types of flooring like tile, vinyl or carpets do not. So, if you're looking for affordable, aesthetically-pleasing and eco-friendly flooring, look for timber flooring!