Summary
• Wood floors are still aspirational.
• There is a trend towards wide boards up to 200mm.
• There have been advances in staining and colouring techniques.
• Click system laminated flooring remains a top seller in the DIY market.

“Wooden floors are in – with a capital ‘I’!” So says John Bagshaw, managing director of International Decorative Surfaces. And he’s not alone. While there’s a general recognition that the spectacular sales figures of wood flooring witnessed in the mid to late 90s have subsided, the market is still buoyant and sales are still growing.

“There continues to be a high level of interest from consumers and specifiers alike,” said Harvey Booth, UK sales manager for Kährs (UK) Ltd, although he admits the market is not increasing at the same rate as previous years. “Wood flooring continues to be seen as a floor to aspire to as it adds value to the home.”

In fact, the economic climate is playing into the hands of wood flooring suppliers. People are staying put and doing their houses up, spending proportionally more money on quality products. “Even with the current talk of recession I think that wood flooring sales will still perform well, not least because the industry is selling it too cheaply and it therefore represents such a bargain compared to laminate, for example,” said Mr Bagshaw.

The market also continues to be polarised: at the lower end, it is price-driven; at the upper end, demand continues for products with strong brands and added values.

Peter Keane, managing director of The Natural Wood Floor Company, believes the increasing popularity of wood flooring means the market has opened up significantly and is flooded with low-grade wood or imitation wood floors at budget prices. This, in turn, is driving the consumer to look for something a little different and become more adventurous in their choice of wood.

Exotic species

“As part of this market trend, we are experiencing higher demand for our more exotic woods such as walnut, panga panga and wenge and wider boards are selling well too,” he said. In response to the demand for different coloured wood, the Natural Wood Floor Company is about to launch a new collection of different colours and finishes in its engineered range. This new range will include ebony oak, a steamed white oiled oak and a baked oak finished with clear oil.

Junckers technical and marketing manager Steve Maltby agrees that darker, more exotic woods are gaining in popularity. “If you look at the sports market, the main species is still primarily beech – it always will be – but in the commercial market, we are still seeing a trend towards darker woods like black oak, jatoba or jarrah, and architects and specifiers are asking for these more and more,” he explained. “Some of the more traditional light-coloured woods like beech and ash are not as popular as they were in the commercial market. However, in the residential market, oak is still the leading species.”

Another key trend, said John Bagshaw, is towards wide boards that look like floorboards, in widths of 150, 180 and 200mm and especially in brushed and oiled finishes. “People like the honesty and back-to-nature authenticity they offer,” he said. “Wide boards also enhance the feeling of spaciousness within an interior.”

There’s no doubt that one of the biggest technical developments over the last couple of years has been in the staining and colouring of wood. “We have been experimenting with staining various species of wood to change their appearance to meet the demand for darker, ‘trendier’ woods,” Steve Maltby told TTJ.

Dark pigmented oak, brushed and distressed finishes and bevelled edges are all gaining in popularity, highlighting the natural texture of real wood. Atkinson & Kirby Ltd, for example, is finding its solid pre-finished antique oak (stained, handcarved and distressed) increasingly popular, and has recently added naval oak and extra antique to its range.

“Oiled and brushed products are increasingly popular,” said sales and marketing director David Ellams. The company was involved in the £800m restoration project of the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras, supplying 6,000m³ of FSC-certified jatoba block flooring.

Kährs’ technical developments have also centred on this area during the past 18 months, with the introduction of numerous new finishes and stains. Its new Heritage Collection includes a range of oak floors, which have been distressed and brushed to give an aged look.

Meanwhile, price factors continue to play a role. The strong downward pressure on price is a continuing feature of the UK market and it applies particularly to solid wood floors, more so than engineered at the moment. “What’s worrying,” said John Bagshaw, “is that there is huge market growth potential for engineered flooring and we are in danger of trading the value out of it just like we have solid wood, and laminate before it.”

In volume terms, the laminate market continues to dominate, mainly down to its cheaper cost. “V-groove laminate systems are in demand because the bevelled edges are so effective at mimicking real wood flooring and easy-to-install click systems are still top sellers amongst DIY-ers,” said Zubda Hussain, flooring product manager, Richard Burbidge Ltd.

She said rustic-effect laminates that give the appearance of solid wood flooring are also especially popular within the home, where consumers are looking to mimic the effect of aged, textured flooring.

Renovating and upgrading

However, a proportion of consumers are slowly moving towards engineered and solid wood flooring, in part because more people are renovating or extending their existing home, rather than moving. The wood flooring market is split between 65% engineered and 35% solid wood, although it does vary from segment to segment: in the sports market, for example, it’s 90% solid, but in the residential, it’s probably 70-80% engineered.

“The request for solid timber from consumers seems to have reached a peak as they become more conscious of the obvious environmental and technical benefits of multi-layer products,” said Kährs’ Harvey Booth.

For suppliers, finding the right routes to market for their products continues to be important. “We work at the top end of the flooring market and have had an unbelievably busy start to 2008,” said David Gunton, of the Parquet and General Flooring Co Ltd. “And yet, at the same time, I am receiving calls from other contractors asking for work to be put their way because they are very quiet.” He believes there is a noticeable lack of expertise among flooring contractors. “I take many calls for advice from joiners, carpenters and flooring specialists who have taken on contracts, only to discover that, what appears to be very simple, is in fact complex and requires skill and knowledge to get it right.”

With big wood flooring suppliers now relying on approved flooring contractors for distribution, making sure third parties meet the suppliers’ high standards is critical. “We very rarely sell to members of the general public now,” said Steve Maltby. “We sell through our main approved flooring contractors and through big distributors like Havwoods. You need to have good distribution routes.”