The Project

An impossible brief?

This project was one of our best projects from 2024.

The client’s brief was to provide a wide, long plank, in the cleanest of grades (so very few knots). The planks also had to be the lightest possible, with “no yellow”. Finally, the client had a young family, so the floor had to be easy to maintain.

On a standard engineered oak platform, this brief is possible, but very expensive. Clean grade, wide plank engineered floors are now incredibly expensive, due to the scarcity of raw materials. Also, at Kite, we do not recommend that white oiled floors are used in busy family environments, unless they are stained (so the oils sit within the veneer, rather than a surface UV treatment). Cheap white oiled or lacquered floors often leads to people saying “their floor marks easily”. Finally, yellow is one of the hardest colours to remove from timber, unless the floor is bleached.

Fortunately, at Kite, we have started working with Hardened Wood products. Rather than being an engineered construction, these have a very thin, real wood veneer. You can read about the advantages (and disadvantages) of these products – Hardened Wood Blog.

Our favourite Hardened Wood option is this Ash floor. You simply cannot get a wider plank, cleaner grade, better performing (it has a super strong lacquer), for this price anywhere else on the market (between £70 to £80 + vat per m2). The floors aren’t perfect, and if you go down this route, there are fitting tips you need to follow, but for this client we were able to fulfill their seemingly impossible brief. At Kite, we are the only business in the UK, that supplies and fits these products, so have plenty of tips on when they are appropriate, and when an engineered floor is better.

If you’re interested in this floor, we would recommend you come and see our wide planks in our showroom. You can book online here – Book Online

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