Browse Forums Flooring & Floor Covering 1 Aug 17, 2010 10:00 pm Spotted this engineered timber flooring at Harvey Norman stores. It seems to be available only at HN. Has anyone used it or does anyone know how does it compare to Boral's much better known Silkwood range? What's the difference between these two products? My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Boral's "Naturally Australian" engineered flooring 2Aug 18, 2010 4:48 am Hi. Same machines. Same factory. Same wood. But the differences are in 2 things. 1st, each board is ALWAYS guaranteed to be 2.4 long, unlike some of the shortboards you get in Silkwood. 2nd, in order to guarantee this, Boral put factory head joins into the boards, thereby utilizing more timber than can be used if it were Silkwood. The head join is in the veneer only, not the strictural board. It's a great product, i sell truckloads of it. So from that point of view it's also greener than Silkwood. Increasing recovery rates on logging and maximizing the use of the resource is important. That's one the reasons that range is built this way. Hope that helps. You can buy the floor with confidence though. Re: Boral's "Naturally Australian" engineered flooring 3Aug 18, 2010 7:55 am Thanks, Anthony! Although, I still don't understand what is "factory head joins" or "head joins" Is that the top veneer part (2-3 mm)? So apart from the "green" thingy (and long boards), one of these products is not of better quality than the other? Is there a difference in grades b/w Silkwood and Nat Aus (are they both the "middle" grade)? Which species would you say is the lightest and most uniform in colour for each of the ranges (Tas oak excluded as it's soft timber)? Oh, and can they be made raw (not pre-coated)? My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Boral's "Naturally Australian" engineered flooring 4Aug 18, 2010 8:16 am Yes, the factory joins the veneers, but the long boards are all one continuous piece. It is pre-finished. Not available raw. No quality difference that I am aware of. The variations can be a bit though, in both ranges. Engineering timber is certainly a less fuss option, times cheaper to supply and install and better withstands humidity. 1 15886 Thanks Simon, I guess I'm no concerned with the volume of the noise rather that dead and hollow sound and feel that is associated with floating floors. But I'm not sure… 3 6113 1000000% definitely add insulation. I have in my home and it makes a big difference minimising sound transfer. Insulation is pretty cheap and definitely worth it 2 6174 |