Special
Colouring wooden floors: a summary of the various techniques
EACH WOOD SORT HAS ITS OWN COLOUR, BUT … OIL IS THE ONLY SOLUTION WHICH BOTH COLOURS AND PROTECTS
Photo – Blanchon
It is phenomenal to note how preferences in taste and styles develop over the years. It is even more phenomenal to see how that development is almost always shaped by a common shift. Today, we all like colour and then, tomorrow, that’s no longer the case. A few years ago, the world took on a greater shade of ‘yellow’ than ever before. It was the top trend; yellow in various shades gave our homes a certain sphere indoors, but also outdoors as well. Today, shades of white, grey, and black are taking over, but colour has never gone away!
Does colouring really make sense? Wood is a natural material ‘created’ by trees on a base of water, CO², and sunlight. It is a compact and fairly hard substance which is formed by the vessels through which the sap flows. Wood usually consists of 50% carbon, 42% oxygen, 6% hydrogen, 1% nitrogen, and 1% of other elements. If we consider the various types of wood, we see a huge variety not only of textures, but also of colours.
Colourful ‘tropics’ The colours of wood range from black to white and anything in between. Each type of wood has its own colour and that is affected by the age of the wood and the characteristics of the location where the tree has grown. The latter says a lot about the huge variations in colour of tropical wood sorts. Indeed, don’t tropical forests conceal a huge
10
Floor Forum International 108
variety of locations which are determined by the climate conditions? One thing is certain: We don’t need to colour tropical wood because the choice is infinite. Just think of the for many unaffordable ‘black’ of wenge, an African wood sort which charms us with its high design content. Or the red shades of wood sorts such as afzelia or merbau. Or the scintillating brown-red of panga-panga and the startling brown colour shades in jatoba.
Oak is a different story Oak plays a special part in this story. Oak is still the most coveted and best-selling type of wood for parquet. Throughout history, oak has always been the most readily accessible type of wood in our regions and it has also offered the advantage of being extremely stable and suitable for building applications. We can be brief in this debate: Oak has a serene and gorgeous grain texture, but is limited in terms of colour. Some people think that the natural shade of oak is the ‘pinnacle’, whilst others see the limited choice of colour between ‘light or dark’ as a serious drawback. However, the colour options below lend themselves ideally to colouring oak and certain light softwood sorts.
Let’s add some colour! We turn immediately to the star players in the world of parquet colour, namely stains and colour oil. Or perhaps a brief word about those other methods?
