Wide plank oak floor running the length of an open room toward tall windows
Floor layers since 2011 · Ashford

Hardwood and stone floors,
laid by hand.

Grainhouse supplies and lays hardwood, engineered board, luxury vinyl, tile and stone. We prepare the ground first, rack the boards by figure, and finish on site so the whole floor reads as one surface.

Scroll for the surfaces ↓
The Surfaces

Four surfaces. One standard of fit.

Each of these behaves differently underfoot, in heat, and around water. Here is where we would put each one, and what it asks of the room below it.

Solid oak floorboards laid tight, seen from directly above
Solid

Hardwood

Full thickness oak, ash and walnut. Sandable four or five times over its life, so it can be reset rather than replaced.

18 to 20 mmSite finishedNot over underfloor heat
Wide engineered oak planks laid tight, seen from directly above
Layered

Engineered board

A real timber wear layer on a cross bonded ply core. Holds its shape through a heating cycle, which is why it takes the widest boards.

14 to 21 mm4 to 6 mm wearUnderfloor safe
Luxury vinyl plank flooring with embossed grain, seen from directly above
Resilient

Luxury vinyl

Rigid core planks that shrug off spills and pet claws. The one we fit in utility rooms, bathrooms and busy family kitchens.

Rigid coreWaterproofGlue or click
Honed limestone floor tiles with fine grout joints, seen from directly above
Fired and quarried

Tile and stone

Porcelain, limestone and marble on a decoupling membrane. Dense, cool and the best partner for underfloor heating.

PorcelainLimestoneHoned marble
Layout

The way the boards fall.

Pattern changes how big a room feels more than color does. Narrow blocks busy a floor and shorten it. Wide planks running toward the light stretch it. We set out every room on paper before a board is cut.

Widths we stock120 mm150 mm180 mm220 mm260 mm300 mmRandom lengthFixed lengthMicro bevelSquare edge
Hallway floor laid in oak herringbone parquet with a border block
Pattern 01

Herringbone

Blocks set at a right angle with a double border running the walls. It suits halls and older rooms, and it hides a wall that is out of square better than any straight run.

Living room floor laid in a chevron pattern with a continuous point line
Pattern 02

Chevron

Every block mitred at forty five degrees so the points meet in one unbroken line. More cutting, more waste, and the sharpest floor we lay.

Very wide plank floor with cathedral figure in a plain white room
Pattern 03

Wide plank

Boards from 220 mm up, racked so no two joints line up and the strongest figure lands where you walk in. Quiet, modern, and the fastest to lay.

Doorway detail where oak boards meet limestone tiles with a flush brass threshold strip

A floor is judged at the doorways, where one surface has to meet another dead level.Ellis Bray · Founder

Levelling screed and acoustic underlayment part laid in an empty room with a straight edge and level
A fitter tapping an oak board home with a tapping block and mallet, half the room laid
Groundwork

Most floor faults start underneath.

Cupping, creaking and gapping almost always trace back to what was under the boards, not the boards themselves. Grainhouse spends the first day of every job on the ground you never see again.

01

Survey and moisture test

We probe the screed or timber deck for moisture, check level across the full span with a six foot straight edge, and log the readings before anything is ordered.

02

Level and stabilise

Dips are filled with a latex levelling compound, loose boards are screwed down, and old adhesive is scraped back. A floor is only as flat as the deck under it.

03

Acclimatise

Timber sits in the room it will live in for seven to ten days, stacked and stickered, so it settles at the humidity of the house rather than the warehouse.

04

Underlay and lay

Acoustic underlayment or full bond adhesive depending on the build up, then boards racked by figure and length, expansion gaps set, and every cut scribed to the skirting.

Existing Floors

You may already own the floor you want.

Under most tired carpet in a house built before 1940 there is a timber floor worth saving. Sanding back and refinishing costs a fraction of a new floor and keeps a hundred years of wear in the room.

01

Lift and punch down

Carpet, grippers and old tacks come out, loose boards are refixed, and every nail head is punched below the surface so it never meets an abrasive.

02

Three passes and an edger

Coarse, medium and fine belts across the field, then an edging sander and a hand scraper into the corners and around the hearth. Dust goes to a sealed extractor.

03

Fill, stain, finish

Gaps filled with a resin and sanding dust slurry, color matched on a test patch you sign off, then hardwax oil or a commercial lacquer built up in coats.

Most refinishing jobs run two to four days on site. Timings are illustrative for this fictional company.

Old timber floor part sanded back to raw wood against remaining dark varnish
Hardwax oil spread across a sanded oak floor, the oiled half darker than the raw half
Rooms Completed

Floors we have laid and walked away from.

Three recent jobs across the county. Names and towns are illustrative for this concept.

Wide rift oak boards running continuously from a hallway through into a kitchen

The Marlowe Residence

Ashford · 96 m2 · 260 mm rift oak
Whole ground floor
Tea room floored in dark walnut herringbone parquet between marble tables

Fenwick Tea Rooms

Maplewood · 41 m2 · Walnut herringbone
Commercial
Honed limestone tile floor running from an open kitchen into a hall in a mill conversion

Cornmill Loft

Holt Marsh · 58 m2 · Honed limestone
Underfloor heating
Rates

What a floor costs by the square foot.

Supplied and fitted, including underlayment, shoe molding and waste. Groundwork is quoted separately because it depends entirely on what we find under the old floor.

Surface
Supplied and fitted
Typical room
Luxury vinylRigid core plank, glued or clicked over a prepared deck
$5 to $9Per sq ft
$1,300190 sq ft kitchen
Engineered board14 to 21 mm, wear layer 4 to 6 mm, floating or bonded
$8 to $14Per sq ft
$3,500320 sq ft living room
Solid hardwood3/4 inch oak or ash, blind nailed, finished on site, finished on site
$11 to $18Per sq ft
$7,800540 sq ft main floor
Herringbone or chevronBlock parquet with a double border, cutting and waste included
$16 to $24Per sq ft
$3,800190 sq ft hallway
Tile and stonePorcelain or limestone on a decoupling membrane, grouted
$10 to $18Per sq ft
$3,700270 sq ft kitchen and hall
Sanding and refinishingExisting timber floor, three passes, filled and hardwax oiled
$3 to $6Per sq ft
$1,700380 sq ft two rooms

Every figure on this page is illustrative and written for a fictional company. A real quotation would follow a site survey, moisture readings, and a look at the deck under the existing floor.

Afterwards

Living on it, year after year.

A hardwax oiled floor is meant to be maintained rather than protected. Three habits keep one looking right for a decade.

Weekly

Sweep before you mop

Grit is what dulls a floor, not water. Vacuum on a hard floor setting, then damp mop with a wrung cloth and a pH neutral soap made for oiled timber. Never let water stand on a seam.

Year one

Expect a little movement

Timber takes up and gives off moisture with the seasons. Fine gaps open in a dry winter and close again by summer. Keeping the house between 40 and 60 percent humidity keeps that movement small.

Every five years

Refresh, do not strip

A maintenance oil buffed over a clean floor takes a day and resets the surface. Full sanding is for damage, not for wear. Felt pads under every chair leg buy you years.

Client Words

Said once the dust had settled.

They spent a whole day levelling a floor we were about to cover up, and then explained why. Three winters later there is not a single creak in the hall.
Ground floor renovation · Ashford
We had written the old boards off and budgeted for new. Grainhouse sanded them back, matched the color to a sample we chose, and it cost a third of the quote we were bracing for.
1920s Colonial · Maplewood

Quotations are illustrative and written for a fictional company.

Common Questions

Asked at the showroom most weeks.

Can we stay in the house while you work?
Usually yes, room by room. Laying is quiet and clean. Sanding is neither, so we seal the doorways with taped sheeting and run the sanders on a sealed extractor, but the dust and the fumes from a solvent finish mean most people move out of that room for two nights.
Will a wood floor work over underfloor heating?
Engineered board will, at up to 27 degrees surface temperature, laid fully bonded so the heat transfers. Solid hardwood will not, because it cups and gaps as the heat cycles. Tile and stone are the best conductors of the four, and the ones we recommend if the heating is your main source.
How long from order to a finished floor?
Stock lines are two to three weeks. Anything cut and finished to order runs six to eight. Add seven to ten days of acclimatisation in the room, and one to four days of fitting depending on area and pattern. We give you a fitting week when you order, and a fitting day two weeks out.
Do you take up the old floor and take it away?
Yes. Lifting, disposal and skip hire are itemised in the quotation rather than buried in the rate. Old carpet, laminate and screed all price differently, so we measure and price that after the survey.
What happens if a board is damaged later?
We keep a labelled offcut box from your job for five years. A single damaged board in a nailed or bonded floor can be cut out and replaced in an afternoon, then blended into the surrounding finish.
Do you work on commercial floors?
We do, mostly cafes, shops and small offices where the floor is part of the room rather than a backdrop. Commercial work is quoted with a hard wearing commercial lacquer and usually laid out of hours.
Flooring showroom with sample panels along the wall and walk on floor decks
The Showroom

Come and stand on it.

A 60 mm sample tells you almost nothing. We keep three full floor decks laid on the shop floor so you can walk them barefoot, and full length boards you can hold up to the window and turn in the light.

Showroom
14 Kiln Yard, Ashford
Open
Tuesday to Saturday, 9 to 5
Survey
Free within 20 miles
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