Technical

Finish and Floorcare

The wide variety of available options – varnish, lacquer, wax and oil – can be quite confusing. Element7 firmly favours natural oil finishes. The look of an oiled wood floor is unrivalled, as is its tactile feel. A penetrating oil finish does not sit on the surface of the wood but rather sinks into the grain. Consequently, when you walk barefoot on an oil-finished floor, your feet are in direct contact with the wood. If you chose a surface treatment, on the other hand, there would always be a layer of plastic between you and the wood.

Oil finishes never have to be sanded. Avoiding the need to re-sand considerably extends the life of a floor – from perhaps ten years to a lifetime. Oiled floors are also easy to clean: pH neutral wood floor soap and water are all you need. Unlike a cured lacquer or varnish, an oil finish is also surprisingly resistant to shock – witness the ability of linseed oil to protect a cricket bat that is called upon to withstand the impact of a solid ball bowled at 75mph or more.

Element7 oils are applied in the factory and again immediately after installation. The oiled boards can also be polished, enabling you to achieve the sheen of your choice, from matt to a lustrous shine. Last but not least, it’s the green option: a natural oil finish is of course the best for you, your family and the environment.

Radiant Under-Floor Heating

As well as being the best wide-plank option for use with conventional heating systems, and being able to withstand the rigours of climate-control and air-conditioning systems, our floors are fully compatible with under-floor heating. Not only are Element7’s engineered wide-planks specifically constructed for use with radiant under-floor heating, but our fully bonded installations, when combined with the thermal conductivity of our planks, maximise the system’s efficiency.

Owing to its inherent characteristics, any type of wood flooring, wherever it is to be used, must be carefully specified, selected and installed. This is never more critical than when it is to be installed over a radiant under-floor heating system. The close proximity of the heating source and the use, in effect, of the floor as a large radiator can give rise to serious problems. Because floor planks expand and contract dramatically across their grain with corresponding increases and decreases in moisture content, they are liable to distortion and can generate enormous compressive forces; and the wider and longer the plank, the greater the distortion proportionally.

As any well-informed architect or contractor will tell you, radiant under-floor heating tests a wood floor to its limits. In such conditions both non-engineered solid wood and poor-quality engineered wood flooring variants regularly fail. The technical supremacy of an Element7 engineered wide-plank wood floor provides the dimensional integrity necessary for a wood floor to withstand the extreme humidity and temperature changes caused by radiant under-floor heating.

Floating floors (not bonding them to the sub-floor) above radiant under-floor heating is inadvisable: the resulting small air gap acts as an insulator and inhibits heat transfer. Instead, to maximise heat transfer, floors should be fully adhered on their under-surface to the sub-floor.

The exceptionally engineered “balanced and blocked” Element7 wide-plank construction has been the informed choice for use above radiant under-floor heating for more than forty years worldwide.

Installation

If you want a wide-plank wood floor to be installed properly, there really are no shortcuts: time, expertise and unstinting meticulousness are essential ingredients in achieving a top-class installation. Nothing less than the skills of a fully trained cabinetmaker will suffice to get it absolutely right – which is why, at Element7, we employ cabinetmakers as opposed to floor installers: they are two quite different trades, with quite different mindsets. The result is that an Element7 installation guarantees excellence, whereas the installations of many others frequently aim at best to hastily achieve an acceptable standard.

Some installers are simply not aware of the correct methodology and refinements necessary to install a floor to the highest of standards. It is possible that in some cases their clients may well not notice a lack of finesse. If clients are not told that the floor could have run seamlessly from one room to another without door thresholds, or that the planks at each side of the same room should be of identical widths for aesthetic balance, or that the floor should be inserted beneath a door frame, not cut around it, or that an inlaid electrical floor socket should be grain-end-matched, or that the cheaper glue option is not the right one given the circumstances, or that a large gap between planks is unacceptable – the list of such refinements goes on – their clients might remain unaware of the imperfections in an installation.

The average Element7 client however, would notice the imperfections. At Element7 our philosophy does not distinguish between more and less observant clients. Our customers come to us expecting installation excellence. Our cabinetmakers deliver a first-class, exemplary installation every time.

As we have done for many years, we continue to provide an uncompromising installation service to the world’s most discerning clientele internationally. The difference between an Element7 installation and that of many others is often commented upon. Quite simply, it is the difference between excellent and average.

It is possible to obtain a cheaper installation quote, but it is not possible to get a better installation. Element7 always implements both the best installation methodology and refinements, our installations are fully guaranteed. We do not however guarantee floors installed by others.

Floor Protection

Protect your investment. Once installed, wood floors need to be temporarily protected, from the damage that they will almost certainly incur as other trades complete their works. Not doing so is a false economy: the cost of replacing, repairing or refinishing a floor after it has been damaged far outweighs the cost of protection.

Sub-Floors

Sub-floors are the wide-plank wood floor’s foundation. If a sub-floor is in any way compromised, it can seriously affect both the look and structural integrity of the wide-plank wood floor above. It is therefore essential to ensure that the sub-floor has been properly prepared prior to beginning installation of the floor. As you would expect, Element7 ensures that sub-floors are correctly prepared. Liaising with the main contractor and overseeing the correct preparation of the sub-floor is part of our installation procedures.

The flatness and levels of the sub-floor must be measured. Screeds must be tested with a BS 8203 hygrometer for equilibrium relative humidity (ERH) to make sure that they are within the required moisture tolerances. Sub-floor sheeting such as plywood and chipboard must be properly staggered. If the wood floor is being installed above a radiant under-floor heating system, the system must be correctly cycled prior to installation of the final floor at the correct daily increments. Incorrect measurement or poor implementation of any of the above will compromise an installation.

[Download detailed sub floor requirements: Sub Floors (700)]

Noise Control

When you carry out refurbishment or new-build work, there are a number of building regulations governing the minimisation of airborne and impact noise. Element7 has considerable expertise in this area. We can guide you around the pitfalls to ensure that you comply with the regulations and achieve the most practical and aesthetically harmonious solution.

The two most popular options are, first, to use acoustic sub-floor panels which are sound and impact noise-rated: in this case, the wood floor is bonded to the sub-floor in the normal way. Second is to float the floor: this involves gluing only the tongue-and-groove of the floor, not its under-surface, in order to form a single raft of wood. Specified decibel-rated acoustic insulation is then laid between the wood floor-raft and the sub-floor.