Who is The Natural Flooring Company?

Waste percentages are applied to flooring installations to ensure there is enough flooring for the installation after cutting the flooring to fit.

Some rooms with a lot of shape require more waste added than rooms that have little shape.

Curves and angles are the biggest creator of waste.

A waste factor of 15% is common for most solid timber flooring with waste factors of 20% for the less stable timbers.

During acclimatization solid timber planks twist, cup and crack so this wood has to be discarded which accounts for the higher waste percentages required than enginnered timber planks

Our timber flooring uses waste levels half that of traditional tung & grove timber floor

A pinch point is caused by inadequate expansion gaps. Timber or bamboo based flooring will expand in summer due to the warmer air carrying moisture vapour into the home.

This will cause the flooring to expand and press against any fixed perimeter where expansion gaps are not installed. The absence of correct expansion gaps will causing cupping in glued floors and peaking in floating floors.

The resident humidity of a room (RH) will affect the timber floorings moisture content (MC) causing it to expand or contract.

In modern low moisture homes (RH<45% = MC <10%) high moisture flooring will be under stress and eventually fail due to shrinkage caused by moisture loss drying it out

Moisture loss in solid wood flooring causes cell collapse (cracking and checking) this is why Unilin developed dimensionally stable timber flooring which can handle RH down to 30% = MC 6-7%

Flooring that gaps is no longer allowed in Kitchens, Toilets, Laudries, Bathrooms ann Ensuites under the new weat area compliance codes 2022

Natural seasonal moisture variations cause a certain amount of movement (expansion and contraction) in natural floors and buildings.

The required expansion gaps specified by all manufactures and BRANZ for timber, laminate and bamboo flooring are below.
Note: If the sub floor is timber, then the expansion gap is also accounting for its seasonal movement as well

Our Laminate Flooring = 5mm – 8mm

Our Timber Flooring = 8mm-10mm

Our Bamboo = 8mm-10mm

Solid 19-21mm Tung & Grove flooring = 12-15mm

The expansion gaps are hidden by either your skirting boards or specialized floor trims.

10 or 12mm skirting boards do not provide adequate cover for the perimeter gap.

Expansion gaps manage expansion they do not manage shrinkage in timber floors.