INSTALLATIONS
Vanguard Timber Flooring are able to provide you with first class quality Timber and Cork Flooring installations in any system required by the many products available in the industry.
Traditional Floorboards
Although floorboards can be installed directly over a cement surface it is strongly recommend to have the flooring installed over a Plywood Sub Flooring or a Batten Systems, to ensure the best results. Floorboards can come in a variety of thicknesses from 13mm to 25mm thick and 50mm-300mm wide. However 19mm thick x 85mm wide is the most standard size used these days.
Staircases
Hybrid Pre-Finished Timber Flooring
Hybrid Pre-Finished Flooring is available in tongue and grooved or click in panels with one, two or three rows of flooring glued onto them in various widths. Although you will pay a little more a single plank style is your best choice for a quality look.
Some of these Hybrid Timber Flooring products can be safely installed directly to a cement surface or timber sub flooring without the use of nails by using a special direct stick expanding glue adhesive to take up any tiny dips in the concrete so the floor does not move and make noise when walked on. Another method that is quicker and less expensive than using a Traditional Solid Timber Flooring System is to use a Floating Timber Flooring Product, installed over a 2mm foam underlay. The floating method relies on the weight of the timber product to keep everything in place. Keep in mind this system makes it harder to replace individual panels properly if down the track repair work is required, and can sound noisy and a bit cheap to some people.
Laminate Flooring
A Laminated Flooring Product with a raised grain effect will look more realistic, and having only one or two rows of timber printed on each panel is also best.
Like with any engineered product there are differences that should be considered such as the cardboard like Medium Density Fiberboard locking systems on the ends and edges for durability, ease of installation, quality of surface finish and the availability of the product pattern in years to come in case repairs are required.
The advantage of Laminated Timber Flooring products is that there are no secrets to what the final result will look like, they are very affordable to almost any budget and there are no delays with acclimatisation, subfloor installations, height issues and sanding and finishing.
The negative things to consider are that the sub flooring has to be very flat or the locking parts will break easily and some repairs are not easy or possible to do as the floors are floating and can not be sanded and polished like real timber can be.
Bamboo Flooring
Bamboo Flooring Products can be sanded and polished using a coating better than applied in the Chinese Factories. It is important to remember that Bamboo Flooring Products react to moisture a lot more than timber does so it is not suitable for many locations.
Boarders
Another subtle effect is to use a narrow 20mm wide inlay strip or pin stripe cut into the floor after the main parts of the installation has taken place. The options for boarder designs in timber and cork flooring are almost endless with some prefabricated products available to cut down on labor time.
With parquetry floors the options to consider really depend on the floor pattern in the Middle of the Floor Body. However, most of the time a simple two or three brick bond border or a short soldier border looks best in the same or similar coloured species.
With Cork Flooring a different shade or style of Cork Tile cut to thirty-percent width looks smart. The other option that looks great for cork is to use a coloured timber species 20mm wide as an inlayed boarder strip or pinstripe once the cork field has been laid.
Inlays
Block Parquetry
The most common patterns that are installed tend to be Staggered Brick Bond, Herringbone and Square on Square. However, there are many more patterns to consider using shown in our list below.
• Haddon Hall
• Abbott
• Heritage
• Parallel
• Ashlar
• Random Brick Bond
• Single Herringbone
• Triple Herringbone
• Gothic
• Basket weave
Mosaic Parquetry
Cork Flooring
If you are considering having kids or already have little ones crawling around the house, then cork flooring is definitely the best flooring option for your family, as it easy to keep clean, is very soft, reduces noise, breakages and vibration. Cork flooring is also much healthier than carpets and cheaper than timber flooring.
Cork Flooring is warm in winter and cool in summer.
With everyone trying to be environmentally friendly it’s worth acknowledging that Cork is a bark from a tree, however the trees cork comes from is the only tree that after every harvest it fully regenerates itself. Normally coming from Portugal, Cork Oak has a protective, thin layer of inner bark that gives it the ability to regenerate, thus it can survive the debarking process without any harm being done to the tree.
Trims, Beading and Skirting Boards
For laminated flooring and staircases metal trims made of aluminum are normally used, and are available in gold, silver and bronze.
The trims, beading, skirting and stair nosing for Traditional Solid Timber Flooring and some Hybrid Timber Flooring can all be supplied in natural timber that also looks amazing when polished or oiled to match your timber flooring.
Flooring Ramps and Reducer Strips
Laminated Flooring Ramps are normally made of aluminum and coloured gold, silver or bronze.