Frequently Asked Questions

The Floorsave FAQ page is designed to give you quick, short fire answers to the most popular of flooring questions. Most questions are answered in more detail through our expert advice section.

What is acclimatisation?

Acclimatisation is getting your wood comfortable in its final destination; by comfortable we mean its water content is at equilibrium to its surroundings. If the air is too moist your wood will take on water, if the air is too dry the wood will crack so we recommend at least a 72-hour period for letting the wood acclimatise in the room in which it will be laid. The flooring comes from our warehouse which is generally colder than your average house, even in summer!

Click here to find out more about acclimatisation.

What is a damp proof membrane?

A damp proof memebrane (DPM) is used on concrete or slightly damp floors. It is designed to stop damp from penetrating into wood or laminate floors. To validate your guarantee, you will always require a DPM on concrete floors.

Why do I need an underlay when fitting engineered or laminate flooring?

Generally you need underlay to help with sound reduction, to act as an insulation buffer between the hard surface of your subfloor and hard flooring. Underlay is used when "floating" a floor, as opposed to fully sticking it down when an adhesive or other method is used to fully adhere the flooring to the subfloor.

Underlay, of whatever thickness, is not designed to help with any irregularities in your subfloor, these should be addressed before you start laying the floor.

The better subfloor you have, in terms of evenness and smoothness, the better result you will have with your flooring.

For a deeper delve into the world of underlays check out our guide here.

What type of wood flooring is suitable for under floor heating?

All of the engineered flooring and laminate can be laid over a water based underfloor heating system; we do not guarantee our products over electrical underfloor heating systems as these can sometimes create hot spots that may result in excessive expansion which can lead to problems. We always recommend fully adhering your flooring over these systems, but please check all guarantees with the UFH supplier too.

For more detailed information please see our underfloor heating guide.

What does mixer grade wood mean?

Most of our woods are either rustic, classic or prime grade. Rustic and classic grades are very similar and have sapwood, colour variation and knots. Prime will be much “cleaner”, with pin knots and minimal variation. Country rustic is often a way of bringing down the price a little, this is because these boards will have more variation, larger, filled knots and some split end boards. Mixer grade is a pack of wood flooring that contains a mixture ofwood grades. Your pack will contain the same boards, some boards will have no imperfections, some will have filled knots and include a variation in colour. Please ask us to clarify the grading with any flooring you are interested in purchasing.

What does random length mean?

Wood floors come in two types of length. Random length boards are usually the narrower boards, generally 125mm to 150mm wide. There is a minimum length and a maximum length, the boards will be between these two sizes. Please be aware that there will be more shorter lengths than longer in these packs.
Generally, 190mm and wider boards are fixed length, often 1900mm long, in each pack you would normally receive one cut board, and the rest will be full length.
All of our solid woods are random length planks. Again, please ask if you need any clarification.

What is the difference between an engineered wood floor and a multiply wood floor?

This question can be a bit confusing because multiply flooring is still engineered. The simple difference is the thickness of the board and how many layers it has, multiply will have a few layers including the top "wear" layer and some boards can be 3 ply so have three layers in each board rather than more.

Do you fill knots? Will I, as the customer, have to fill knots?

All of our solid and engineered wood floors come finished to a high enough standard so that you will not have knots to fill. Unless it is an unfinished board, all of our boards come ready to lay, unfinished flooring will need finishing with an oil, stain or lacquer to protect it but knots will not need filling before laying. Some larger knots will be filled, especially in the more rustic, semi antique and distressed graded wood.

Why do I need an expansion gap around the perimeter?

You need an expansion gap because wood will expand and contract according to the temperature and humidity of the room. Expansion occurs cross grain, so it’s the width that expands not the length and more details can be found in our cupping and guide to caring fitting your wood floor.

What special precautions do I need to take when laying my floor on concrete?

When installing wood, engineered or solid, on concrete flooring please insure you use a correct Liquid Damp Proof Membrane.

How much should I allow for wastage?

With all grades of wood there will be a percentage of flooring which customers may decide to discard, depending on grade and wastage for cuts. The lower the grade of the wood the higher the percentage should be allowed.

We recommend 5-10% for boards and 10-15% for herringbone, but it does depend on your grade of wood.

Take a look at our 'how to measure a floor' guide for more information on how to work out allowances for wastage.

Can I fit wood flooring myself?

Yes, you can is the short answer. But ask yourself: Can you measure accurately? (most people can’t); Can you cut wood in a straight line? (I can't); and do you have a finishers eye? (I certainly don't) If the answer is yes to those questions, then you should be able to fit your flooring yourself.