Long & Wide Flooring Planks. A Trend That’s Here To Stay?

Follow any quality interior design blogger, or pick up the latest home magazine and you are going to see them. Long, wide flooring planks. They are fever-pitch hot right now and they look so good that we know this trend is here to stay.

Why are they so on-trend?

They play a visual trick, making a room more elongated and therefore giving it space and scale. Combine the two and you have an area that might actually not be all that big, but it feels generous. The sparsity of this approach compared to more traditional installations helps achieve a calming, more clutter-free impression. There tends to be fewer joints used and sometimes they can be eliminated entirely, making for an extra clean and ‘clear’ space.

The beauty is they will work for a small apartment right through to a big family home.

What kind of finish are long wide planks available in?

Just because you’ve decided on this type of surface for your home doesn’t mean you have to now restrict your choices. There are plenty of options available.

• Solid wood flooring.

The real thing, there is nothing quite like authentic and solid timber flooring. Laying a room in solid wood will make your floor an incredible, inimitable space. Sigh – this is the king of flooring!

• Engineered wood flooring.

This can go by many other names including man-made wood, composite wood, manufactured board, etc. It is the term used for derivative wood products that are combined to form a composite material. Engineered wooden flooring doesn’t require a tree to be a certain shape or length, so it’s a lot easier to provide what you’re asking for.

• Laminate flooring.

More cost-effective than the real thing, but still looking every bit as authentic, laminate flooring  is available in a range of options resembling natural oaks and walnuts, and ranging in colour from coppers, to ashen, limestone to deep brown.

• LVT Flooring

Luxury Vinyl Tiles are a particularly great option for high traffic areas and/or wet rooms in the home as it’s both hard-wearing and water-resistant. However perhaps its greatest selling point, and rightly so, is the ease and flexibility of installation. Essentially this product features a quick-lay locking mechanism that can be installed over the underlay or even the underfloor heating of a room.

What is the size of a long, wide plank?

There is already a lot of diversity in the length and width of the flooring world. On average it’s reasonable to say that a plank will commonly range from 1.2m up to 2.4m in length. Widths are generally between 160mm and 300mm. The solid wood option tends to be just that bit shorter and narrower. This is because wood floor can naturally warp. The longer and wider a piece of solid wood is, the more it can warp. Because engineered flooring commonly uses a plywood base, it remains a more stable shape, allowing for longer and wider planks.

Are they easy to install?

It’s not so much the size of the flooring, but the material used that will dictate how easy it is to install. Something like laminate flooring can be installed by a competent DIYer, whereas with solid or engineered wood, we recommend are installed by a professional.

Do they cost more?

If you’re considering them in solid timber then yes, they will cost more. This is because you require a seamless cut from a tree without imperfections. Generally they will be cut lower / shorter so as to cut around defects, which are common. This means that only trees of the highest quality can be used for this type of flooring. When it comes to engineered wood, laminate and LVT flooring however, there is minimal cost difference.

Most of us are unlikely to rip up our flooring each season and go for whatever the rage is that month. For this reason alone it always bodes well to select a finish that you are confident will look amazing now, and in future years. You don’t want your floors to feel ‘last year’ before the grout has even set! Looking at this finish you can see it has timeless appeal; long, wide planks are a trend that will look after your home today and tomorrow, so install with confidence!