What Is The Best Wood Flooring For Conservatory?

Wood flooring is a great flooring idea to be fitted in a conservatory. It’s not only highly practical, but also stylish, and above all looks natural – it will perfectly harmonise with the plants, creating an exceptional atmosphere of peace and tranquillity. However, you need to execute your flooring project the right way and therefore there are several tips and tricks to remember. You need to take some serious decisions and think all the relevant aspects carefully through – in this way you will avoid disappointment with the final result and perhaps even the costs of repairs or modifications.

Conservatory is a perfect place to let your hair down and spend some time alone, reading a book, chatting with friends or organising a family dinner. Typically, a conservatory is made of glass and this means that you get plenty of sun exposure. In general, conservatories, thanks to their abundance of glass and often lack of insulation, usually get really hot at certain times of day and then cool down fast. While all this is a real advantage for the owners, it can be quite challenging in terms of the flooring. As we all know, exposure to sun, high humidity and temperature fluctuations can cause serious problems for wood flooring.

The rise in temperatures means that the air gets dry, and the wood flooring contracts – it can split, warp or crack, if a bad flooring choice was made. When temperatures go up again, the floor takes in moisture, which can cause comparably serious damage. Normal humidity levels are not a problem, however, large humidity fluctuations can cause damage. You will probably notice gaps between individual boards, which occur due to fluctuations in temperature and humidity levels. These gaps will appear and then disappear again, depending on ambient conditions.

Therefore, we would recommend you to use engineered wood flooring for a conservatory, as this will reduce the risk of the problems we’ve mentioned above. Thanks to the crucial differences between engineered and solid wood flooring, they are suitable for different purposes. In the case of engineered wood flooring, the boards are made up of layers of different kinds of wood with a hardwood layer on top. These boards aren’t made of solid wood. They are usually constructed with the use of a combination of plywood, softwood and hardwood. And solid wood flooring is made from hardwood and is more vulnerable to temperature and humidity level variations as compared to engineered wood flooring. This is why we usually recommend fitting engineered rather than solid wood flooring in a conservatory.

HOT TIP

A floor in a conservatory, which is an area strongly exposed to sun, also requires special protection. This can be achieved by introducing a UV finish to your flooring, which will reduce the possible damage caused by strong sunlight.