The floor is the largest piece of furniture in the room, which is why it is important to choose the right floor for the right environment. At the same time, it has become more difficult to choose the most appropriate floor for a particular room. One of the reasons is that we at Bjelin are developing new floor categories, such as hardened wood floors and rigid core, whose unique properties are not always known.
We hope that our floor guide can help you decide which floor to install in a kitchen, hall or bedroom, for example. And which is the best choice from an environmental perspective?
Hardened Wood flooring
Our hardened wood floors are available in residential brushed, residential matte and commercial matte finishes. A hardened wood floor is three times more impact-resistant than traditional engineered floors. Hardened wood floors can be installed in all areas of the home, except bathrooms. The floors are also suitable for public spaces with heavy levels of traffic.
A hardened wood floor is the perfect floor for those who are looking for a genuine wood floor produced in a fair and climate-smart way, at a good price.
Our resilient and water-resistant Rigid Core floors feature the patented Liteback technology by Bjelin’s sister company, Välinge Innovation. Through this innovative solution, material is removed from the backside of the stone plastic composite (SPC) flooring panels – this makes them up to 20% lighter, which in turn makes them easier to handle, more sound-absorbent, and creates a reduction of CO2 emissions through reduced material consumption and transport efficiency.
Available in large format panels, Rigid Core is the ideal choice for a heavy-traffic area or a busy household that desires a durable floor that still looks and feels like stylish wood flooring. It’s perfect for areas prone to moisture or temperature changes, such as laundry rooms, entrances, basements and kitchens.
We love flooring, that's all there is to it. At Bjelin we only sell wood-based flooring, though the market also offers laminate flooring, vinyl flooring, ceramic flooring and much more.
As a world leader in flooring innovation, we also want to highlight other flooring types and their properties.
It goes without saying that we all compare prices. But what are the real differences between expensive and inexpensive wood floors and how much does a floor installation cost? Can a wood floor be both affordable and high-quality? And what determines if a wood floor is made of high quality materials?
We want to help you sort out questions you may have and questions you should ask.
Bjelin offers wood-based floors. They store the carbon dioxide that trees have absorbed from the air during their growth. These floors are thus carbon negative and environmentally positive. Thanks to new manufacturing technology, we can make use of the entire log and waste material, such as sawdust, which we use as filler material when we manufacture new floors. Even old floors that are replaced can be ground into wood powder and reused in floor manufacturing or as biofuel.
The raw wood material we use, especially hardwood in the form of oak, comes from sustainably managed FSC-certified forests close to our factories. We can therefore ensure that forest management takes place in accordance with current FSC requirements.
FSC stands for Forest Stewardship Council and is an independent, international membership organization (sp. corrected) that promotes environmentally appropriate, socially responsible and economically viable use of the world's forests through its own certification system.
We have deliberately chosen not to produce conventional ceramic floors and nylon carpets, which are less environmentally friendly options as they contribute to large carbon dioxide emissions and are difficult to recycle.
If you buy a wood floor, you are helping to reduce the carbon dioxide level in the air. A wood floor is also easy to recycle and the click joint allows the floor to be removed without being damaged and re-laid in another area.
Oiled or matte finish?
Wood floors are usually available in two finishes, matte finish and oiled. But what is really the big difference? Both options will give you a beautiful and durable floor and the choice really comes down to taste and style.
An oiled wood floor has a natural structure that gives you a wonderful feeling of wood, but it also requires a little more maintenance. Approximately once a year, the floor must be maintenance oiled in order to maintain its character. If you get a scratch, it is often possible to treat it by adding a little oil. We recommend oiled wood floors in less busy areas of the home, such as bedrooms and living rooms. In environments with heavy traffic, the floor requires more maintenance but works equally well.
A matte finished wood floor has a more even and durable surface, which requires less periodic maintenance. The matte finished surface provides hard protection that is easy to keep clean. A matte finished wood floor requires less maintenance than an oiled floor, but is more difficult to repair if the finish is damaged. We generally recommend matte finished wood floors in more busy areas such as kitchens, halls and public spaces with normal humidity levels.
The strongest click lock on the market
All modern floors on the market that are installed as floating floors without gluing are so-called click floors. These have a mechanical locking system that makes installation easier, reduces installation costs and ensures that floors do not slide apart and that damaged floor boards can easily be replaced.
You should therefore choose a click floor, but not all floors are the same and there are both good and bad click floors. The most advanced floors have 5G locking system. The locking strip with its locking pin (as shown in the animation) must also be robust and manufactured with great precision in order for the floor to be easy to install by angling it into place in one movement, and to ensure high durability.
If you choose a floor from Bjelin, you always get a click floor with the most advanced 5G locking system on the market, developed by our sister company Välinge, inventor of the click floor.
General information about choosing floor appearance
Unlike performance and price, the appearance of the floor is of great importance when choosing a floor, and this is largely a matter of personal preference and taste. However, some general advice can help you in your choice of floor design. This advice is useful for all our flooring types, which have been specially designed for different environments in the home and public buildings. Our range includes several hundred different floors, all with different appearances.
Room size
In large rooms and spaces, you should choose a floor in a large plank format, for example floor planks in XXL size with a width and length of at least 10.6 x 93.6 in. A size XL floors are best suited to smaller rooms such as bedrooms and home offices.
Floor color
The color of the floor plays a major part in how a room is perceived. It should be adapted to the style chosen for the entire room environment, i.e. color choices, furniture and interior design. The floor is an important part of the room, but usually you don't want it to be too dominant. A darker floor can provide a warm and cosy environment and is therefore often suitable for basements, libraries, home offices, etc., while a light floor helps make a room feel larger and is therefore suitable for living rooms, kitchens and bedrooms.
Calm or rustic?
Pure wood patterns with a calm and harmonious appearance, without excessive knots, cracks and color nuances are often suitable for living rooms, kitchens and bedrooms – especially in modern interiors.
More rustic floors are appropriate for a more classic style and often work well in holiday homes, attics and older buildings.
