Reclaimed Wood

GENUINE RECLAIMED ENGINEERED FLOORING

The Reclaimed Wood Flooring in this range has been taken from the very external face of the original timber. You are seeing the same face of the timber that your forbears of the 18th and 19th century would have seen, along with all the marks that the passage of time has endowed this beautiful, characterful range of flooring.

Our other ranges in this genuine reclaimed wood flooring collection are taken from ‘inside’ cuts of the same historic timbers. You see rich and unique dense grain patterns but with a smoother finish as these have been sawn after the external face of the timber has been removed. Notwithstanding the interesting knots and weathered grain.  You can also have the saw marks of a Victorian water driven sawmill, the distress marks where a sentry always stood to attention, or indentations where a gun carriage rolled across!  With reclaimed wood you own your own unique part of history.

These are exquisite in their own right because there is a limited supply of such timber in the world and when these old constructions have all been dismantled, there will be no more timber with such history, character and interest as reclaimed wood flooring.

‘Oakley products’ sell reclaimed timber as planks or as parquet blocks. Both have a timeless beauty and elegance. Reclaimed wood flooring is so easy to maintain for those of us with busy lifestyles as this is exactly the same as maintaining an oiled engineered wooden floor, either use Osmo cleaning products or a damp cloth, ensuring you don’t let the floor get too wet.

These boards have a tongue and groove fitting system and can either be floated on an underlay or secured to the subfloor with our Wakol Glue (we recommend gluing down reclaimed engineered wood flooring).

This reclaimed wood flooring is suitable for any room in the house, apart from a bathroom, it is a 15mm thick board with a 4mm top layer, giving you the opportunity to sand this board a number of times if require.  It is a oiled finish and we recommend maintaining the board with the Osmo Hard wax oils and the Osmo Cleaning Products.

Reclaimed wood flooring have a tight grain due to years of use. This makes reclaimed flooring extremely hard-wearing and durable. They are an ideal choice in high-traffic projects such as museums and hotel lobbies, or rooms like hallways and kitchens. With the correct care and maintenance, the durability of restored floors will last generations.

Here at Oakley, we offer free samples and are willing to make a site visit, so you can see large panel boards of the flooring. Also please call us for expert advice if you have any question about the flooring or installation process, we are available by phone, email, or visiting us at 11 Holborn Street, Plymouth, PL4 0NN.

The History of Reclaimed Wood Flooring

By reading this article, you are obviously a person that appreciates character, heritage, and the principle of re-using a product that has already demonstrated how well it weathers the passage of time.

When you buy Reclaimed Wood Flooring, you are buying something truly unique.  No one else will ever have the same markings, or character on their floorboards.  Markings created by the carpenters of another age, who used that same piece of wood as a door frame in a great barn. or as part of the decking of a schooner 300 years ago.

The reclaimed oaks that have been used in creating this product have all been sourced from buildings and ships constructed in the 18th and 19th centuries. The reclaimed pines are from early to mid-20th century.

The trees from which the timber was derived, grew in forests rich in biodiversity. They were felled when they reached maturity – often hundreds of years old – and possess features that cannot be seen in the new timbers of today: Denser grains, unmatched size and richer deeper colours. These features imbue the timber with an intrinsic beauty and durability that is unsurpassable by new timber.

What better way to impress your guests than to tell them that the floor they are standing on could have once been the deck of a Gondola in 19th century Venice, the roof beams of a Victorian workhouse, the stable doors of the Royal Mews or the pillars of a Brunel bridge!

When you buy reclaimed wood flooring,  you are helping the environment by re-purposing good timber thereby saving more trees from the chop and helping sustain the planet!

You hear a lot about recycling these days and you might have a preconceived idea that something recycled is not as good as the original product.

In this instance, we believe reclaimed wood flooring is far better. For example, new timber today is sourced mostly from forests that are constantly being replanted, hence it is called sustainable.  However, these trees are harvested when still relatively young. Their grain tends to be softer and less dense. Reclaimed wood flooring however is originally harvested from trees that have reached maturity and are often hundreds of years old. They have much harder, denser grain.  Their colours are richer and deeper.  You see other features in their grain that you rarely come across in new timber.

Reclaimed wood flooring has proven its stability overtime, is completely seasoned and therefore has less tendency to move under atmospheric change.

Also, our reclaimed wood flooring are compatible with under floor heating, our bespoke flooring is available in an array of widths, lengths and can be installed in a number of ways to match your requirements.