Herringbone Floors - Classic And Timeless

Today Herringbone floors are a popular choice if you are looking for something timeless and stylish Plus it’s something a little different to the more obvious straight lay block or plank. Oakwill Flooring have lots of experience in laying herringbone floors for homes and businesses across North Wales and the North West of England. There are lots of materials to choose from when considering a herringbone floor with a vast array of colours and finishes. Today we will take a look in depth and try to help you decide if a herringbone floor would be a good choice for you!

Karndean in Storm Oak

A Bit Of History

The distinctive herringbone zigzag pattern comes from the resemblance of the skeleton of a herring fish. As well as being great to look at the structure is also very strong.

For those that are curios let’s delve back into history to see where this style and technique originated. The herringbone pattern was originally used for roads by the Ancient Romans. Then in the middle ages used in the gothic period mainly bricks and tiles. It wasn’t until the renaissance era the herringbone pattern became popular for wooded parquet floors, but at this period it was mainly seen in big palaces and manor houses. In modern times the herringbone pattern is used in residential and commercial buildings across the world, for its great looks and ability to make spaces appear larger than they actually are!

What Types of Herringbone floor do Oakwill install?

Oakwill Flooring install solid wood, engineered wood and LVT (Luxury Vinyl Tile ) herringbone floors .

Solid and engineered come finished in a variety of colours and finishes. We tend to fit mostly oak but blocks can come in maple, walnut, ash to name a few.

LVT ( Luxury Vinyl Tile) is also a very popular and affordable option. Very hardwearing and great for spill prone areas such as kitchens and bathrooms. LVT can emulate wood and stone finishes extremely realistically and give your home a classic look for an affordable price. The vinyl tile can also come in a much larger size, like the floor shown in the photos below which can be very effective. These are a Karndean LVT in ‘Studio Oak’ laid in herringbone at a customers house in Glan Conwy, North Wales.

Preparation needed before fitting a herringbone floor

To install a herringbone floor the subfloor needs to be smooth, flat, dry and structurally sound. Dependent on the subfloor and its condition - if needed we would either apply a smoothing compound latex or fix down plywood which would then be feather finished.

Installing herringbone floors

Wood herringbone floors tend to be T&G  blocks which are fixed down using a flexible wood glue. Our skilled team then carefully lay the first 2 rows down the centre of the room making sure that the line is perfectly straight. This is then the base to work outwards either side across the room. Herringbone wood floors do tend to take longer to fit than straight lay due to the blocks generally being smaller, resulting in more cuts (which are all on angels) around the edges of the rooms. Like any wood floor a 10mm gap is needed around the perimeter which is covered by either skirting or beading for a neat finish. We undercut all door architraves so the flooring disappears underneath nicely.

A similar process is used when installing LVT - But with LVT there is a click system where the board lock together at the sides or a glue down version. The glue down version requires trowling down a vinyl glue and when tacky the vinyl planks are butted up to one another and pressed down into the glue.

Do you have a flooring project in mind?

All our products and processes have excellent finished results that will transform your home or business property. The quality flooring products that we supply along with our skilled fitters will leave you feeling over the moon with your new floor.

If you would like more advice about having a herringbone floor fitted, please contact our professional and friendly team today!

Oakwill Flooring Donates Carpet Tiles for Ysgol Bryn Elian's Library

Oakwill recently had the pleasure of being able to give back to the high school Gary attended -Ysgol Bryn Elian. Caretaker Duncan Ellis reached out to Oakwill’s director Gary Hughes as the school were refurbishing the library and wondered if Oakwill were able to help out.

Gary attended Ysgol Bryn Elian between 1995 and 2000, was more than happy to donate enough carpet tiles to refurb their library floor. Gary said it was great to be able to give back a little to his school and supplied them with a range of coloured carpet tiles. Duncan and his colleague Kev went on to fitting the floor and the Oakwill team think they have done a fabulous Job!

Carpet Tiles In Ysgol Bryn Elian Library

Artwork On Library Wall By Tracy Watt

Bryn Elian’s put a post on their facebook and Instagram pages thanking everyone involvement in the library’s refurbishment. Including artist Tracey Watt for her fantastic work on the library walls and friends of Bryn Elian donating towards restocking the books.

We at Oakwill think the Library looks fabulous and hope everyone who uses the library will enjoy the new look!

Oakwill Flooring supply and install flooring to all sorts of busy working buildings including hospitals, police stations, fire stations and schools to name a few. We also provide and install high quality flooring to domestic properties across North Wales and the North West of England. If you have a project in mind please use the contact form or give us a call today!

Flooring for the Excalibur Ship in Holyhead

From lighthouses to hospitals and now flooring for a ship! The types of projects Oakwill work on can be very varied, and this one was no exception. The Oakwill team recently installed some vinyl flooring to The Fugro, Excalibur Ship which was docked in Holyhead.

Excalibur takes the crown as the biggest jack-up barge in Fugro's lineup, proudly meeting Germanischer Lloyd standards. Sporting eight legs, it can comfortably handle water depths up to 40 meters. It's been a go-to for setting up foundations in offshore wind farm projects and, another bonus, it even has an integral foundation drilling unit.

We were awarded the project by the fantastic Mod Pods Of Conwy and had the task of installing Vinyl flooring to their storage room.

The first task was to fill and smooth the ply joints using Ardex Feather Finish to get a perfect subfloor ready to install the Vinyl flooring. Once completed we then fitted Altro Walkway in the colour of ‘Streetlight’ - a great hard wearing and bright flooring perfect for a busy ship!

To find out find out the many flooring solutions we offer for all sorts of environments, please message or call our friendly team using the buttons below.

High-Quality Solid Wood Flooring for Mochdre Village Hall, North Wales

Another busy month for the Oakwill Flooring team and this time we feature a project we have completed in Mochdre, North Wales. Putting new wood flooring into a room can really transform a space. This flooring project in Mochdre Village hall was no exception . This time it was 150 square meters of beautiful solid oak boards which were pre finished with a hardwearing UV lacquered natural finish.

Old Damaged floor

Uplifting The Old Floor & Fixing The Subfloor

Uplifting the tired old flooring was our first big task, and like with any flooring project ensuring the sub floor is dry and structurally sound is a must. Firstly we had to repair the existing floorboards and when this was complete it was onto laying the underlay. To lay a solid wood floor it is crucial that the subfloor is not damp so to be extra sure we first laid a Serenity Underwood Stamina which is a rubber crumb underlay developed to enhance the performance of wood and laminate flooring by providing resilience, durability, moisture resistance, and superior impact sound insulation.

Fitting The Solid New Wood Floor

Then it was onto fitting the solid oak flooring. With the floor being laid on a cushioned underlay the floor was laid in a floating floor technique. A floating wood floor is a type of flooring installation method where the individual wood planks or boards are not directly attached to the subfloor or the floor beneath them. After setting out a line we began from one side of the room- We used Gorilla wood glue to fix the boards together on the tongue and grooves of the planks and clamped the first few rows to keep the boards nice and straight. Making sure all joints were together tightly and planks staggered we continued across the floor. We also allowed a 15mm expansion gap around the perimeter of the room to allow for expansion. I’m sure you’ll agree the final result was stunning!

To learn more about the wood flooring we provide and install head over to our ‘Real Wood Flooring’ page on our website. If you would like to arrange a free measure click the button below or call our friendly team for more information.