Hello Stella In the flooring industry this type of flooring was called a floating floor, because it sits on an underlay. Now it is called an engineered floor (and stops the first question being about the noise underfoot).... but the noise remains depending on the level of the floor and the type of underlay. Engineered floors have a number of layers of timber/ply at right angles to allow the expansion/contraction of the grain to be controlled. The top layer is the prefinished or raw timber species that you want with the other layers in various ply. There are cheaper alternatives again that have particle board (chipboard) or mdf backing with a laminate printed pattern. These are, in my humble opinion not worth opening the box. A solid timber floor can be laid a multitude of ways. Over concrete, I waterproof the slab, level it and glue and nail a plywood sheet. The timber is then laid over it, sanded and flooded (gaps filled) then sealed with a finish being either oil or water/oil based polyurethane. It can also be stained before sealing. With the engineered floors, they come from all over the world. Some are made in China, some are made in Indonesia, some are made in Europe and so on. A major supplier to a lot of the flooring companies is a company called Premium Floors. They supply products to eg carpet shops inc Quick-step and have done for many many years. Their website is worth a look before you go out into retail outlets. As to your original question, when I built my first family home I installed a readyflor (premium floors as it happened) floating floor. The floor withstood some almighty parties (before kids) and still looks amazing 18 years later (it hasn't been sanded at all). Today, I only install solid timber floors in our work purely because of personal preference and the type of renovations we are doing, and when requested by a client we have sourced from Europe. Cheers

Thanks Siriuskey for your fotos.... beautiful Parquetry floors, beautiful home and stunning water views! I notice your parquetry floor transitions to grey tiles as well.... which is also very similar to what i will have happening. Im now very much leaning towards parquetry you'll be pleased to know. I collected some samples today, and noticed the store had them in a double formation which i'd never seen layed like that before. Its just 1 block of parquetry layed right next to another to make it seem thicker. I think it looks quite contemporary....check out the pic below from the timber showroom:(top half shows 2 blocks layed together in herringbone pattern) I placed a few of these on my floor as example No1, then i placed some in single herringbone as example No2 below. Which do you think looks better? - examples No1 double block herringbone - example No2 single block herringbone Thanks in advance for everyones input and feedback :-)

What sort of timber do you have ? Have you considered oiling ? It gives you a matte finish, smells so fresh and clean, and feels like timber underfoot (not plastic), and best bit- never sand again!!...just re-oil. Our floor guy hates liming. Said the results are too unpredictable. Depending on the species of timber, some are rich in tannins can cause liming to yellow over time. He told me about a place he did which had an extension out back with all same timber-species. But the older timber reacted differently to the newer timber so they ended up with a very odd result. I had semi-gloss polyeurothane previously. Never again!.

Gallifrey has hit it, if Bunnings stock it, do not put it on your timber. Cutek is good but is a petrochemical. I stick to natural oil as timber is natural and ease of maintaining is essential as I have 1000m2 to look after. I have been testing and trying most for years. Stick to Organoil or livos. Both are different carrying oil so will darken timber differently. Livos (linseed) will go ever so slightly darker. Organoil in red will give a pinker tinge to the timber.