Solid Wood Flooring in Coventry

A solid oak board in Coventry means Earlsdon, Chapelfields and the surviving Victorian terraces around Far Gosford Street, the older stock inside the conservation areas, on suspended timber over a ventilated void. There the original board is often still down and repairable, which is a more faithful answer than a new floor; where consent allows a replacement, a Windsor board goes tongue and groove over the joists after its fortnight in the room.

Across the rest of the city the slab rules a solid board out: a solid floor over concrete needs conditions an inter-war semi in Cheylesmore or a post-war house in Tile Hill rarely gives, and the heated screed at City Centre South and Friargate is the wrong place for it altogether. The engineered range takes both, and a household that wants the solid look on a slab is pointed to the engineered planks with a wear layer thick enough to sand.

Terraced houses are 40% of the homes in the Coventry district, and a terrace is where solid oak is at home: the original floor was solid timber on joists, and a new solid board is fixed the same way, nailed or screwed through the tongue into the joists or a ply overlay. The 90 mm Windsor Narrow boards suit the proportions of a terraced front room. What the terrace needs first is a dry, ventilated void underneath, because solid timber follows the moisture of the air around it.

Private renting is 25% of households in Coventry, and solid oak is a landlord's choice only where the property is held for the long term: the floor costs more to fit than it does to buy, and its advantage, that it can be refinished for decades, pays off over tenancies rather than within one. For a portfolio with a shorter horizon, the engineered range is the usual specification.