Four floors, four conditions.

In 2025 we went back to four oak floors the studio specified between 1996 and 2004: two apartments, a bookshop, and a family house. All four were twenty-millimeter solid boards, oiled rather than lacquered, and all four are still in service.

The variable we had not accounted for was traffic. The bookshop floor has worn through to bare wood along one three-meter line, and the apartments show almost no wear outside the kitchens.

What the oil did.

Oiled oak darkens, and it darkens unevenly. Boards under a south window in the family house are two shades lighter than boards under the sofa, which the owners had expected to be the other way around. Direct sun bleaches faster than it ambers.

Maintenance has been modest. Three of the four have been re-oiled once, at between eleven and eighteen years, and the bookshop has been done four times.

What we changed.

We now specify a twenty-two-millimeter board rather than twenty, which buys one more sanding over the life of the floor. In commercial work we lay the boards across the main line of travel so wear spreads over more joints.

We have kept the oil. A lacquered floor fails all at once and has to be stripped, while an oiled floor fails slowly and in one place, which an owner can live with and repair.