Luxury Flooring at Forrest Furnishing
Karndean
In 1973, Karndean started life as a small family business. Now they are one of the world's most renowned and respected luxury flooring companies. To this day they remain family owned - allowing them to stay true to their roots and utterly focused on customers.
Karndean has certainly come a very long way, and as they've grown they've always stuck to their core values. Their passion is for developing imaginative, innovative products - versatile, luxury vinyl flooring with the look of simply beautiful, natural floors.
We're here to share what we know about flooring. Visit our flooring specialists for professional advice.
KARNDEAN VS HARDWOOD
- Karndean Designflooring gives you the unique grain and knot details, but without the practical difficulties.
- Real wood flooring products come in varying quality and can expand, warp and shrink in reaction to temperature changes and moisture. Karndean Designflooring maintains its shape throughout its lifetime and is water resistant.
- In order to keep real wood flooring looking like new it requires frequent maintenance including sanding, staining and lacquering. With Karndean, there's no sanding, staining or lacquering required - it's easy to maintain and keep clean.
KARNDEAN VS STONE AND CERAMIC
- Natural stone and ceramic flooring can be hard to manage and weight is often a problem, especially if you're looking to install in a room upstairs. Karndean is much lighter, flexible and easier to install.
- The cold touch of stone and marble can be a bit off-putting first thing in the morning or in cold weather. Karndean flooring is much warmer underfoot and is also compatible with underfloor heating.
- Natural stone and ceramic tiles can be slippery when wet. Karndean flooring is fully slip tested and its textured surfaces are suitable for commercial and domestic use, even in areas which get wet, like the bathroom, kitchen, hall or utility room.
KARNDEAN VS CARPET
- Our floors do not harbour dust mites or bacteria - unlike carpets.
- Karndean is easy and simple to keep clean, especially if you are busy, have children or pets to clean up after.
- Our residential guarantee covers the lifetime of your floor for up to 35 years.
- Unlike carpets, Karndean can be laid over underfloor heating systems.
- In the unlikely event of damage it is possible to replace a plank or tile of Karndean, a huge advantage over carpet which would need to be completely replaced.
KARNDEAN VS LAMINATE AND ENGINEERED WOOD
- Laminates and Engineered Woods are known for looking manufactured and unrealistic in comparison to real wood flooring. Karndean's product designers beautifully replicate the look and feel of real wood products using advanced manufacturing techniques giving you the look of natural timber without the practical difficulties of maintaining wood flooring.
- Many man made materials, including laminate, can curl or shrink whereas our floors maintain their shape throughout their lifetime.
- If water gets inside a Laminate or Engineered Hardwood floor, it can cause the top layer of the product to de-laminate and peel making it less suitable for wet areas such as kitchens and bathrooms. Karndean Designflooring is water resistant and perfect to use in any room of your home, including kitchens and bathrooms.
Woodpecker
The Woodpecker way. Woodpecker is a family-run business with a heritage in the timber industry that goes back three generations. The company was founded by Bruce Ker in 1975. He was a skilled craftsman who loved teaching people how to work with wood. His son Nelson carried on the tradition, focusing the business on woodworking machinery. In 2003, Nelson Ker took that huge reserve of woodworking and mechanical experience, and applied it to manufacturing high quality flooring. Understanding the different tree species, honing the grading process, and using centuries old techniques to expertly finish every floor – these are all skills Woodpecker has worked hard to perfect over the years.
NATURALLY INSPIRED FLOORING
Timeless, elegant, unique. Nothing gives a space that warm, comfortable feeling quite like natural wood flooring. It’s something that can remind you of time spent outdoors admiring a woodland scene, or a barefoot walk among the trees with their scent on the air and soft foliage under your feet. At Woodpecker, we love the sense of being close to nature that wood flooring brings to the home.
SUSTAINABLE AND BEAUTIFUL
Nothing proves our love for wood floors more than how we source our wood. We select the trees we use before they are felled, paying close attention to how they’re sawn, stacked and dried. Looking after nature is as important to us as it is to you. As a result, we only bring you sustainably harvested wood with full FSC® and PEFC certifications.
Woodpecker freshly sawn wood is air dried for over twelve months. Then we kiln it twice, to bring out any residual moisture. These careful processes ensure that maximum stability is achieved in every example of Woodpecker oak flooring.
AN EXCITING FINISH
We love inspecting the grain patterns, colour variations and knots as we choose which wood will best suit the different finishes of our wood flooring types. The natural aspects of timber are what make our different types of wood flooring unique and exciting, and we grade and machine each board to an exacting standard that makes the most of these features.
Woodpecker’s outstanding finishing aims to augment the natural feel. We continue to use a range of traditional hand-finishing techniques that have been perfected over several centuries. Lacquering, oiling and antiquing the wood, our craftsmen give it the attention it deserves, achieving that special finish.