Complete flooring finish options from Ironwood - The smarter choice

In this months newsletter I have attached a piece of detailed research that we have completed on flooring finish options.

The information is regrettably in the form of a pdf file in order that we protect our copyright, so please don't hesitate to open the attachment. Most architects and people I have already shown this article to, find it very informative and useful. It covers a range of technical aspects and contains some simple and practical advice for those people who do not want to get too involved with this subject.

It has been written to provide a layman's understanding why certain floor finishing products are best suited to different Australian hardwood species - and makes a few 'Ironwood recommendations'. It also gives a rough indication of how durable the different flooring finishes are in a household situation and an indication of how the different types of product are likely to age.

I believe this type of flooring advice is long overdue. A lot of people who visit our showrooms focus an inordinate amount of time and effort in selecting the colour of their floor, yet most of them seem totally oblivious to the nature of their flooring finish options and what they mean to the end result. Put simply, different finishes and different manufacturer products totally change the colour of a floor.

Some finishes are very complimentary to certain timbers, yet they can totally wash out and / or ruin the natural colours of another species. We have dark timbers that are pink when coated with a certain product, yet are dark red when coated with another. Blackbutts are golden when coated with most polyurethanes, yet remain a clear white floor when coated with an acid cure system - and so it goes on.We have therefore completed this research to cover this void and help our cl ients with their selections.

We have also expanded our showroom to show-off the alternative finishes and now have a number of different timber flooring finishes on display. (I think our displays are unique in that regard.) It's therefore not so important for our showroom customers to understand all the technical aspects - because they now have an option to just look at the end finished product, tell us what they like and we will tell you how to achieve 'the look'. Shopping for floors has never been this easy.

Keith Mackenzie
Managing Director