Wood Floor Fitting & Installation London | Supply & Fit

Supply & Fit

Boards You've Held, Not Just Seen

We supply and install engineered oak from Staki, the range we trust enough to put our name next to, alongside premium boards from the London trade suppliers we've bought from for years. Before anything is ordered you get samples in your hands: real boards, in your room, in your light. If you want to walk on whole floors first, we'll point you at the showrooms we use ourselves.

You can also see any of the 21 Staki colours on your own room before deciding: upload a photo to the floor visualiser and it will lay the floor for you, planks or herringbone, before a single board is bought. Weighing up board types first? Start with our engineered wood flooring page: what a wear layer really means, where engineered beats solid, and where it doesn't.

Real samples before any decision, always
Straight advice on grade, width and finish for your actual room
One firm responsible for supply, fit and finish
Already bought your flooring? We'll fit that too

A newly supplied and fitted engineered oak floor, sanded and finished on site in a South London period home by Howard Naish

Old floorboards stripped out and a breathable membrane laid between the joists during a South London floor renovation by Howard Naish

The Part Nobody Sees

A Floor Is Only As Good As Its Subfloor

The glamour is in the top layer. The lifespan is underneath. Before the first board goes down, the subfloor is levelled and checked for moisture, the right underlay or adhesive is chosen for the build-up, and the boards sit in the room to acclimatise, sealed packs for a day or two with engineered, longer for solid, so they've settled to your home before they're fixed into it.

Both photos on this page are ours, taken mid-job. Skip this stage and the floor tells on you within a year: squeaks, movement, joints opening up. We've been called in to rescue enough rushed installations to know it's the cheapest corner to cut and the most expensive one to fix.

Wondering about money? The real rates, a genuine worked quote and what moves the total are in our installation cost guide. And the questions every client asks at the site visit, from acclimatisation to skirting, are answered in Fitting a Wooden Floor: 10 Questions.

Planks, Herringbone or Chevron

The Pattern Changes Everything

The same oak reads completely differently laid straight, in herringbone or in chevron. Straight planks calm a room and stretch it; herringbone brings movement and a period feel; chevron points the whole floor like an arrow and suits a bolder scheme. Pattern work costs more to fit, because nearly every board is cut at least once, and it's worth every cut.

The clip here is exactly that work: one of our fitters, Joe, laying a herringbone block by block. Planning a pattern floor of your own? The full story, block sizes, borders, chevron against herringbone, is on our herringbone and parquet floor fitting page. For finished pattern floors, see the white chevron we supplied and fitted on the Camberwell page, or the herringbone installation on the Purley page.

And if the new floor is replacing a tired old one, we'll give you an honest verdict on it first. A lifted-and-relaid old floor never behaves like a new one: reclaimed boards can move, gap and show their history. Sometimes that's the charm; sometimes new boards are the right call. We'll price what's worth pricing and tell you which we'd choose in our own house.

Joe laying the herringbone, block by block. More of our work on Instagram.

Repairs, Board by Board

One Board, Not the Whole Floor

Not every damaged floor needs machines in the house. When a single board is beyond saving in a fitted, finished floor, we can cut it out without disturbing its neighbours and fit a matched new board into the gap: colour, grain and finish chosen so the repair melts into the floor around it. No sanding afterwards, no refinishing, no upheaval. That's Dean in the clip, doing exactly that on a finished oak floor.

Dean fitting a replacement board into an already finished oak floor: matched, fitted, done. No sanding needed afterwards. More of our work on Instagram.

No Obligation

Tell us what you're planning and one of us will come and measure up. Free visit, fixed written quote.

Book a Free Site Visit

Before and After

What a New Floor Does to a Room

A renovation mid-project on the left, the same room with its new engineered oak floor on the right. The floor is the biggest single surface in any room; change it and everything above it looks more expensive.

Straight Answers

Installation Questions, Answered

Do you supply the flooring or do I find it myself?

Either. Most clients have us supply and fit: we work with trade suppliers we've used for years, you get real samples in your hands before deciding, and one firm is responsible for the whole job. If you've already bought your flooring, we're happy to fit it, and we'll tell you honestly if what you've bought isn't right for the room.

Engineered or solid wood, which should I choose?

For most modern homes, engineered: a real oak wear layer on a stable base that copes far better with central heating and changing humidity, and it can still be sanded in future. Solid boards earn their place in period restorations where like-for-like matters. We'll give you a straight recommendation for your actual room, not a catalogue answer.

Can a new wood floor go over underfloor heating?

Yes, with engineered boards: that's exactly what they're built for. Solid timber isn't recommended over heating. Every product has its own temperature limits, so we check the specific board against your system before anything is ordered.

What happens before the first board goes down?

The unglamorous part that decides how long the floor lasts: the subfloor is levelled and checked for moisture, the right underlay or adhesive is chosen for the build-up, and the boards sit in the room to acclimatise before fitting: a day or two in sealed packs for engineered, longer for solid. Skip any of that and the floor tells on you within a year: squeaks, movement, open joints.

How long does an installation take?

A straight-lay room is usually days, not weeks; pattern floors take longer because nearly every board is cut at least once. The part people forget is acclimatisation: engineered boards spend a day or two in your home in their sealed packs before fitting, solid spends longer, and we build that into the schedule rather than rushing it. You get a fixed timeline with the quote, so the answer for your job is a date, not a guess.

Will you fit beading and deal with the skirting?

Yes. Depending on the room we either undercut door frames and skirting so the floor runs beneath them, or finish the edge with matching beading. We'll agree which on the site visit, before anything is priced.

From Our Google Reviews

★★★★★

"The best floormen in the business. They passionately care and it shows in the results. Luke, Joe and Frank painstakingly renewed 100m2 of oak flooring at our house this December. Moving furniture (incl heavy piano), fixing pre-existing gouges in our floor and working the weekend to get the job done. Prices bang in line with the other quotes we received - no extras. An absolute pleasure to have in our house for a week. Cannot recommend them highly enough!"

John Collis · Google review

Luke Howard laying an oak herringbone floor in his Howard Naish work shirt

Luke on the tools. One of us, Dean or Luke, is on every installation.

Thirty Seconds, Five Boxes

Tell Us About Your Project

Leave your details and we'll ring you back to arrange your free site visit.

We're booking about three months ahead at the moment, and a deposit holds your place in the queue. Dates tight? Ring us anyway, cancellations happen and smaller jobs can often be slotted in.

Every job is backed by the Howard Naish Workmanship Promise: 2 years on installation, 12 months on sanding and refinishing. If our work fails, we fix it.

We supply and fit new floors across South London. Find your local page: Balham, Clapham, Dulwich, Wimbledon, Southfields, Tooting, Brixton, Streatham Hill, Crystal Palace, Gipsy Hill, Kensington, Purley, Sutton and Camberwell.

Wood Floor Fitting and Installation in London