Engineered Wood Flooring in Glasgow

Listed interiors and the original boards

Among 10 towns compared on Category A listings, Glasgow comes 2nd with 279 entries, against a median of 35.5. In a listed building the interior is protected too, so taking out original boards to lay engineered oak may need consent.

In 2019 Historic Environment Scotland reported original wooden flooring among the features of the Garment Factory, a Category B listed former warehouse. With a building like that, the conversation with the conservation officer comes first and the order for new boards second.

New City Centre flats on a screed

For the City Centre, the proposed development plan sees room for new homes on the capacity of the sites it has identified. Where a new flat sits on a screed, the underlay guide gives the build-up for engineered oak: floated over an underlay chosen for wood, with a moisture barrier where the subfloor is a screed.

Glasgow's January mean is 4.6 degrees in the town centre, a shade under the 4.8 of the median town, and winter is heating season. The oak top layer of an engineered board dries out a little in that heated air and fine joints can show until summer, when they close again. Real wood does this in a new flat as much as in an old one.

Lets, families, dogs and a bigger house

For the 16.9% of households who rent privately (Scotland: 12.9%), engineered oak sits where the rentals guide puts it: in lets at the upper end, where tenants pay partly for the finish.

Households with dependent children number 21.3%, 149th of 151 towns (Scotland: 23.5%). In those homes a matt, textured board with plenty of grain hides the everyday scuffs that a smooth, plain board would show. Dogs are fewer here, a median of 0.21 per household across 12 of Glasgow's postcode districts (modelled, 2015) against 0.41 for the median of 2,737 districts in Great Britain, but where the floor has to be timber and there is a dog, the dogs guide's answer is engineered wood, brushed and oiled.

Homes with four or more bedrooms are scarce, 8.1% of households and 150th of 150 towns (Scotland: 17.2%). If you have one, buy the thinner wear layer for the bedrooms and spend what it saves on the hall, which takes the traffic.