When it comes to choosing flooring for your home or commercial space, the options seem endless. From type of hardwood to colour and everything in between, the myriad of choices can be a dizzying prospect to face.
That said, there are important decisions that you can make in the initial stages which will help narrow down your options. One such decision is to ask yourself whether you want your hardwood floor to be from a single origin.
It may not be something that you've considered, especially since it isn't offered by a great deal of suppliers. But for us, in our potentially bias opinion, you cannot overlook the incredible results you get from single-origin. It's why our French Oak flooring is single-origin guaranteed - we can even provide a certificate of origin!
What is Single-Origin Hardwood?
Single origin is exactly what it sounds like! It's wood that has been sourced from one place. For us, that place is the ancient forests of Burgundy. We have been working with one specific, family-owned mill in this northern corner of France for over a decade.
With single-origin products, they have generally been sourced for their quality which is why companies such as ours are so keen on working with single-origin producers. We know the soil in which our oak is grown, we know the traditional millwork techniques used, we know that no toxic products are used. Essentially, we know that our customers are getting the most incredible product that can be found on the market, and we're uncompromising when it comes to this.
What Are The Benefits of Single-Origin Flooring?
There are many benefits to choosing a single-origin flooring, namely that knowing where your hardwood comes from allows you to guarantee you will get exactly what you're purchasing.
Consistency
A huge part of single-origin is that consistency is guaranteed. Trees, grown in the same soil, in the same environment and milled by the same mill mean that each floorboard has few variations. Obviously, as a natural product, knots and other natural imperfections may be present but in comparison to hardwood from multiple origins, the variation is negligible.
It is important to note that other types of hardwood flooring also offer consistency, but this is often since they use engineered products which are manipulated and manufactured this way and therefore have a much lower degree of natural product within them.
Guaranteed Quality
With single-origin, you can guarantee that each batch of flooring will have the same high level of quality as the last. It's generally why hardwood flooring suppliers in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne such as Chêneoak opt to work with single-origin producers in Europe; we can guarantee that our customers will receive quality. In fact, we're so confident about it that we offer a lifetime guarantee on our French Oak.
Sustainability
If something is single-origin, it generally follows that it has been responsibly sourced, and that is certainly true for single-origin hardwood. Our French Oak, for example, is exclusively sourced from PEFC certified French forests. Simply put, this means that the Oak we source is protected by strict guidelines.
Every 15 to 20 years, the NFO (National Forests Office) inspects these oak forests, clearing away slow-growing oak so that only the fast-growing, straightest, and healthiest trees prosper, making it a renewable slow-growing resource.
Before the oak is cut down it must be a minimum size of 25 inches in diameter and with most oak trees grow approximately 2mm in diameter per year, you can see that these trees are well over 100 years old when they're cut down.
What's more, every tree cut down is replaced with at least one new tree and the French Oak is processed and graded under strict guidelines by the NFO (National Forests Office.
With this importance of sustainability and responsible sourcing increasing all the time, having peace of mind that you're doing your bit is usually a welcome surprise when choosing your floor.
History and Charm
Knowing where your hardwood comes from gives it a story too. With unique charm and a long history, single-origin oak means you're installing hardwood which gives more than just a beautiful aesthetic!
A Unique Product
Single-origin products also usually have a unique element to them too, and that certainly is true about our French Oak. Since our French Oak trees are only milled once they reach maturity, we're able to offer 220mm wide boards, which is generally unheard of with genuine solid hardwood floorboards, unless they are engineered products.