Engineered wood flooring
A real timber surface on a stable layered core. You get genuine oak underfoot — actual grain, not a printed pattern — on a board that does not move with the seasons the way a solid plank does.
That stability is why it is the only wood floor we will recommend close to the sea.
Finfloor
Our engineered wood supplier. The Fin Oak range is what we have laid most of, including in the coastal new build below.
Fin Oak
Real oak wear layer on an engineered core. Colours are named after South African places, which makes them easy to talk about and hard to confuse with anything else.
The Fin Oak range runs to more colours than this. Ask us and we will bring the samples out, or page through the range at the showroom in Gansbaai. Wear layer thickness and warranty vary by range — we will tell you exactly what yours carries, in writing on the quote.
Engineered wood, yes. Solid timber, no.
A solid plank is one piece of wood, so it expands and contracts across its width every time the humidity changes. On this coast that happens constantly, and the result is cupping and open joints within a season.
An engineered board is built in layers running in alternating directions, so the movement in one layer is held by the next. It stays flat through the same conditions that would ruin a solid floor, and the surface is still real timber.
If someone is quoting you solid timber for a house near the water, ask them what they expect it to do in year two. See the coastal job →
How it compares
Engineered wood is the most expensive floor we lay. Here is honestly what the money buys you, and where it is not worth it.
Our honest position: choose engineered wood because you want a real wood floor and you want the option of refinishing it in fifteen years. If what you actually want is the look at the lowest cost, a good vinyl will serve you better and we will say so.
Living with an engineered wood floor
Microfibre and water only
Sweep or vacuum, then spray lightly and go over it with a microfibre mop. Never a mop and bucket, never steam, no standing water.
Match the product to the finish
An oiled floor and a lacquered floor want different things, and an oiled floor needs re-oiling periodically. We tell you which yours is on the day.
It acclimatises first
Boards are delivered into the room a day or two before laying so they settle to the temperature and humidity of the house. Leave the packs flat and where they are.
Felt under everything
Pads under every furniture foot, lift rather than drag, and mats at the outside doors. Grit carried in on shoes does most of the wear we get called out for.
Natural variation is not a fault
Grain, tone, knots and mineral marking differ from board to board, and the floor will mellow with light over the years. That is the material, and manufacturers exclude it from warranty.
Full notes
Everything above, plus what to do when something goes wrong, is on our care and specifications page.