The tongue & groove system has proven itself for centuries. Since the beginning of the year 2000, “click”-system floors have become fashionable. The industry was looking for innovations to avoid losing market share to laminates and other imitations. This, however, at a high price ? that of quality. In glue-down installations, these products do not represent any advantage whatsoever against t&g products. When installed floating, click wood flooring tend to start producing extremely unpleasant creaking sounds when walked on after a certain period of time.

We focus on quality, not price. We carefully select the wood processed by us and carefully dry it. We know the origin of our raw material, usually also the suppliers and their families, and respect the nature that gives us this wonderful raw material.

Oil is not the same as oil, and varnish is not the same as varnish. Our oils are carefully selected and are exclusively plants-base. Nevertheless, an oiled floor requires regular maintenance. In the private sector, therefore, we offer you our Velvet surface which is absolutely maintenance-free – now also available in our Art de France collection. Their insensitivity to virtually all liquids used and to be found in the household is unsurpassed. Even if you drop a bottle of olive oil, Velvet won’t have a problem with that, nor will it if your dog “spills” a few drops because of all the excitement.

Our coatings are not cheap UV coatings that look “old” after a very short period of time and have a strong tendency to fade. We not only apply about 35-60 grams of varnish, as it is customary in the industry, but apply about 180 grams per m2. Each layer is air-dried, the elasticity is maintained and you will enjoy your floor for many years without the need of expensive and time-consuming maintenance.

Velvet is not an industrial UV finish, which only benefits the industry during processing (fast drying), but does not last long and is visually not very appealing. Make the comparison. Touching its surface says more than a thousand words.

Most houses are now equipped with underfloor heating. To make it work optimally, the flooring used should be as compact as possible and not insulate too much. Otherwise the heat would only reach a small part of where it is needed ? on the surface. For Duo-X, we use only high quality birch plywood as baseboard material. This has the advantage that it is much heavier than the baseboard material of 3-layer parquet, which consists mostly of spruce or even cheap poplar wood. These products include many air pockets and air is known to be an excellent insulator. Compare the weight of a The Oak Factory plank with that of a 3-layer plank and you will immediately understand what we mean.

In some countries, e.g. also in Austria, it is mandatory to glue parquet floors to the subfloor over their entire surface. Floating installation is not permitted. This has now proven itself for over 20 years, so we advise against floating installation, on underfloor heating it is prohibited for technical reasons. The heat transmission resistance would be massively worsened and thus unnecessarily increase heating costs.

Fuming and reactive stains are substances that react to the tannins contained in the wood. No pigments are used in this process. Since each tree has a different amount of tannins, which can vary greatly even within the tree, natural color differences are generated. This creates the special character of these products and it is a desired effect. Traditional stains based on pigments will never achieve a look as natural as reactive stains do.

Some of our products, e.g. all products of the “Velvet” and “Art-de-France” collection, are completely maintenance-free. Apart from vacuuming and cleaning with a damp cloth, you do not need to do anything else. Of course you can also use care products, if you wish. Oiled and oil-sealed surfaces can be treated with wood floor soap, maintenance oil or even maintenance products for lacquered floors.

We recommend glue down installation, as glued-down floors last much longer and are not subjected to constant mechanical stress due to a flexible subfloor. This also has aesthetic advantages, as the floor does not “vibrate” and therefore the construction is not exposed to unnecessary mechanical loads.

As already mentioned above “underfloor heating”, a floating installation on underfloor heating is not permitted in many countries and is therefore excluded by us.

Velvet is completely insensitive to liquids. Oiled floors must be wiped up immediately to avoid stains.

All products in the Velvet and Art-de-France collection can also be used in the bathroom without hesitation, provided that you ensure that water does not enter the subfloor from the wall. We recommend to treat the short sides of the boards once again with care oil before installing. Contact your dealer for more information.