Solid Hardwood Timber floor in Canberra?

After 17 years and heavy traffic the hardwood floors in our living room were weathered and worn.
Paul Gaunt, who assessed the job, was outstanding with his knowledge and professionalism. He provided a large sample so we knew the colour our floors would be after restoration.
Nathan and Nathaniel, his workers, also displayed a professional attitude and were punctual, clean and worked tirelessly all week. We are delighted with the result – it exceeded our
expectations.
Kate and Roger

We recommend Better Timber Flooring without any reservation at all.

Snarky said :

Paul Gaunt at Better Flooring on 02 6284 4567 or 0414 716 806 for laying the floor. Not the cheapest, but one of the best. He may also be able to supply the timber you’re after (not sure about that bit).

Bringing up an old thread but another vote for Paul Gaunt and Better Timber Flooring.

I recently had solid Blackbutt floors supplied and installed direct on the concrete slab by Better Timber Flooring. Only caveat is that, at about 50% more per sqm than an engineered blackbutt, I wouldn’t say it was cheap. The floor looks great, with none of the hollow sound/feel you seem to get with engineered.

rosscoact said :

Old thread I know but after reading this and wanting the best, I tried to offer this guy a project. Unfortunately he doesn’t answer or return phone calls, hopeless customer service in one aspect of business generally reflects in other aspects of business.

Avoid.

I found Paul to be extremely responsive and helpful, and it was less than two weeks between when I first made contact and completion of the job. I got the impression they are pretty busy and I was lucky to get in before a couple of big jobs were due to start. Try not to judge too harshly.

An old thread, but one I used recently researching timber flooring in my new home.

After speaking with a couple of companies, decided on Paul Gaunt and his team at Better Timber Flooring. Paul talked me through the various options from floating to solid. Went ahead with a solid Blackbutt floor and the Acoustaply subfloor.

I’m extremely pleased with the results, and the care, skill and attention to detail of the installation. The feel of the floor underfoot with the Acoustaply is amazing. Since being installed a couple of weeks ago, have received many comments on how beautiful the floor looks and feels.

Snarky said :

Paul Gaunt at Better Flooring on 02 6284 4567 or 0414 716 806 for laying the floor. Not the cheapest, but one of the best. He may also be able to supply the timber you’re after (not sure about that bit).

Old thread I know but after reading this and wanting the best, I tried to offer this guy a project. Unfortunately he doesn’t answer or return phone calls, hopeless customer service in one aspect of business generally reflects in other aspects of business.

Avoid.

Don’t get pre-finished flooring. Looks inferior.

Whatever you do, DON’T go for a tung oil finish. That’s what I did, and it only lasted a year and it never looked any good. If you’ve got children and pets, go for a protective poly finish – it may crack as the timber settles, but you get good use out of it for a longer period, and in 5-10 years you can still get it sanded and resealed.

Thanks for everyone’s comments. In the end we did a lot of research and ended up getting timber from Northern Rivers Timber. AMAZING! Mixed species, recycled timber. Fantastic quality, half the price of anywhere else and staff really great to deal with. The only issue was that they only had 2 colours Reds and Creams. tough decision, as there is no assurance of what exact colour or species you will receive. In saying that, the timber was AMAZING! If anyone is interested I can provide photos. The flooring is layed, however we haven’t had them sanded and finished yet. Used Nelson based on recommendations from RiotAct. Nelson’s number is 0422 258 641. Looks great so far, can provide photos of the finish if required. Tell him Duncan sent you.

We had flooring ripped up and new hardwood flooring installed by a local – I won’t name and shame (yet) – but we were pretty disappointed. Asked for scratch resistant, selected Tassie Oak … couldn’t get that so we settled for “equivalent” English Oak and the floors were scratched all to hell within two weeks.

Complained to him, to the distributor who supplied him and the company above them in the supply chain (not quite the manufacturer but the owner of the brand who market the product). No resolution or re-mediation offered.

Not $14,000 well spent. Not even close.

So while recommendations to “don’t go cheap” have some merit, you can still spent a lot of money and get a pretty ordinary product.

I’ll second the recommendations for Paul Gaunt and Thor’s Hammer. We used reclaimed Blackbutt supplied by Thor’s and sourced from demolished houses in the Blue Mountains. The timber was around 80 years old and thoroughly seasoned. Thor’s remills the timber and removes most of the defects.

Paul Gaunt laid the floor and did an excellent job. As it was laid on a concrete floor, he used rubber backed plywood sheeting for the base which eliminated that hollow sound you can get with timber on concrete.

Went through this exercise about 10 years ago.

After a great deal of study, ended up purchasing 3 packs of ‘forest red’ timber from a major supplier (sorry, total brain fade, cannot remember the name) out of Victoria. We stacked this timber in the house to acclimatise it, on instructions from the floor layer. The acclimatisation period was about 4 weeks (possibly to fit in with the layers Christmas holidays).

Laying of the floor (over an existing pine floor) was exceptional. After final sanding, we did have a bit of a buggerup with the gloss level, and ended up with a low sheen/high sheen finish which works well.

However, the drying out period was overdone, and the timber has now acclimatised to the more normal Canberra climate, expanded, and resulted in ‘cupping’ throughout. We will have to have a resand and refinish.

Timber floors are a timeless addition to a property. They look and feel great. Unfortunately, finding the right tradesman to lay them is a pig in a poke. We went with one of the highly recommended floor layers, but sorry, I’m not going to recommend them.