Choosing the right floor for you can be difficult at the best of times, but if you factor in the main purpose of the floor you can narrow the field of choice.
A good example of this is a floor recently completed by Connollys Timber and Flooring at the Botanical Gardens in Melbourne.
The customer had certain criteria that had to be met. They wanted a dark floor that could stand up to high levels of traffic including tables and chairs being constantly moved around the floor.
It had been suggested to them by someone else to perhaps use a Vic Ash and apply a stain to get the desired colour. This was an impractical option as the Vic Ash is only a soft timber and would never stand up to the punishment the floor will take over the upcoming years, also the stain would have chipped away leaving white spots all over the floor.
The solution was Grey Ironbark. Grey Ironbark is naturally dark in appearance and has a nice variation of colours across the board. The Janka rating is 14. This is one of the hard timber available in flooring.
The boards have been laid over a concrete slab on a 12mm NZ Plywood and finished with a Feast Watson Satin coating. The result is a floor that looks amazing and will stand up to the punishment it will receive over the upcoming years.
When choosing a floor, where possible try not to start at the price and work from there. Rather start with the visual then ask is it fit for purpose and then look at the price. You will quite often find that the one you choose will be below or within your budget.
There are also different grades in each timber, so make sure you ask for the price of each grade, you could possibly make as much as a 50 % saving just buy changing the grade.