Understanding Wood

All timber flooring moves!

• It moves as a new building dries out.
• It moves as the relative humidity rises and falls, following seasonal climatic changes.
• It moves as heating is turned on and off and as the occupancy of the building changes.

We lay our floors as a fully glued floating plate. This allows it to move slightly throughout the year. Remember! Flooring expands in summer and shrinks in winter in keeping with the relative humidity.

We accept that timber moves, but we are able to limit the movement to a very small amount (0.015%) through our unique engineering process. So, if the moisture content of the floor increases by 5% (which is quite a lot) a room 5m long by 5m wide will expand by 4mm along its length and width, that is, 2mm at each edge.

The core of the floor is 100% birch throughout plywood manufactured to Finply standards.

• The components of Temperate Engineered Flooring are all conditioned in our kilns in London to a harmonised moisture content and then bonded together.
• Temperate Engineered Flooring is supplied at about 8% moisture content; this is reduced to 6% if the floor is to be laid over underfloor heating.
• Our floors require only light sanding on site then finishing to the client’s desired sheen.