Douglas Natural Engineered Douglas Fir Flooring

Douglas Natural is the board before anything is added to it: Canadian Douglas fir, sanded flat at the mill and delivered raw so the finish is chosen in the room rather than in a catalogue. The grain is the reason people choose fir over oak — fast growth gives it broad, flame-like figure with a warm honey ground, and a clear oil or hardwax will pull that colour forward within minutes of going down.

Supplied in 260mm boards at random lengths up to three metres, with at least 80% of every pack between 1.7m and 3.0m. Manufactured in the United Kingdom rather than imported, and rated for underfloor heating. Laid board by board by our own installation team across London and the South East.

Finishing on site has a practical benefit as well as an aesthetic one. Every board, every fill and every joint is sealed in one continuous pass, so there are no factory-finished edges catching the light differently, and any adjustment to sheen or tone can be made after you have seen the floor in the actual daylight of the room. It is the route we recommend where the floor runs through several spaces and has to read as one surface.

The board itself Two-layer engineered construction: a 3.7mm Douglas fir wear layer over 12mm hardwood plywood, 15.5mm in total, tongue and groove on four sides with a bevelled long edge and square ends. A heavier 20.5mm build with a 5.7mm wear layer can be ordered where screed has already set the floor height, and 200mm widths are available to order alongside the standard 260mm.

Living with it Once finished, care depends on what goes on it — a hardwax-oiled fir is refreshed in patches and re-oiled every few years in traffic routes; a lacquered fir is vacuumed and damp-mopped and left alone. Douglas fir is a softwood and will take dents that oak would shrug off — we say this before every fir order, not after it.

Matching the rest of the house Because the boards are made in Britain, matching herringbone, chevron and bespoke stair treads can be cut from the same batch, so the staircase and the floor are the same floor. Douglas Natural belongs to the Douglas Fir Collection; if you are shortlisting, put Kielder Ember and Dunkeld Smoke beside it.

Before anything is ordered, see it at home — a free sample of Douglas Natural is the reliable test. Fir shifts more between daylight and lamplight than oak does.