All floorboards are made of Softwood or Hardwood. Softwood floors are normally made from Radiata Pine (mainly in newer buildings), Kauri Pine (Queensland or New Zealand) and Baltic Pine (most common). Hardwood floors are normally made from Mountain Ash, Oak (Tasmanian), Jarrah (W.A) and Red Kauri (W.A).

In a single skin floor as used in Australia, the boards are fixed at right angles to the joists that support them, and may be nailed or screwed in place. The cut ends of the boards are arranged to coincide with the joists, so that they are well supported and can be secured to them to prevent warping and lifting.

Floorboards are traditionally fitted before skirtings are fixed, so that any uneven cut ends round the perimeter of the room are concealed.

Floorboards fall into two basic types: square edged (Note, this type of board is very rare and only found in pre-1850’s buildings) and tongue and grooved.

Tongued and grooved (T &G) boards and their derivatives are designed to eliminate draughty gaps but are more difficult to take up than their square edged counterparts.

If you are in any doubt which of the two types is used for your flooring, choose two boards with a slight gap between them and slide a knife blade in as far as possible, compacted grime or draught proofing in the gap may have to be scratched out first. If the blade only goes to a depth of around 10 – 12 mm, the boards are either tongued or rebated. If the blade passes right through they are square edge boards.