BLACKBUTT TIMBER FLOORING PERTH

Blackbutt starts at $179 per m², supply only. That is our Nature’s Steel® Blackbutt — a genuine Blackbutt surface on a bamboo core, which can be re-sanded. Stabilised Solid® Blackbutt, hardwood the whole way through, sits above it.

Supply only means the boards, not the installation. Installation is quoted separately, because it depends on your subfloor, the room sizes and whether anything has to come up first. The price guide sets out every board and finish with its own price.

Yes. Blackbutt (Eucalyptus pilularis) is an Australian hardwood. It rates 9.1kN on the Janka hardness scale (dry), which puts it in the hard band, above Jarrah at about 8.5kN. Its natural durability is Class 1 above ground, the top band.

Lifewood supplies it at 15mm thick in 130mm and 180mm widths, tongue and groove, in our Stabilised Solid® construction.

No floor is scratch-proof, and any supplier who tells you otherwise is setting up a disappointment. What matters is a distinction the Australasian Timber Flooring Association draws clearly: denting comes down to how hard the timber is, and scratching comes down to the coating on top of it.

Blackbutt handles the first at 9.1kN Janka. For the second, we apply nine layers of coating. And because our boards are hardwood the whole way through, a worn coating can be sanded back and recoated rather than replaced.

These are the three questions our showroom hears most, and the office chair is the one people underestimate. A castor concentrates weight on a small point and drags grit across the surface, so it wears the coating rather than the timber.

Use a hard-floor castor set or a mat under the chair, felt pads under furniture, and a dust mat at every external door. Blackbutt’s 9.1kN hardness handles the dog and the children. If a coating does wear through in a traffic path, a Lifewood Blackbutt floor can be sanded back and recoated in place.

Sweep or vacuum regularly, because grit is what actually abrades a finish. Mop occasionally with a barely damp mop and a cleaner recommended for coated timber floors. Avoid steam mops, never flood the boards, and wipe spills as they happen.

Dust mats at external doors and felt pads under furniture will do more for how the floor looks in ten years than anything else on this list.

They are three different products that photograph the same way.

A hybrid or laminate board has a rigid core and a printed decorative layer. The Blackbutt you can see is an image of Blackbutt, and it cannot be sanded.

Nature’s Steel® Blackbutt, our entry product at $179 per m² supply only, has a genuine Blackbutt surface on a bamboo core, and can be re-sanded.

Stabilised Solid® Blackbutt is hardwood from top to bottom across three cross-bonded layers, sands like a solid floor, and carries a lifetime structural warranty.

If you are weighing a fitted price against ours, check which of the three you are being quoted.

None of them is a species. They are trade descriptions, and suppliers use them to mean different things. Several of the products sold in Australia as Natural Blackbutt are hybrids, with a printed surface rather than timber.

Lifewood sells Blackbutt under three names: Stabilised Solid® Blackbutt; Rustic Blackbutt, which is the same timber selected for more pronounced grain and feature; and Nature’s Steel® Blackbutt, a Blackbutt surface on a bamboo core.

If a quote uses any other Blackbutt name, ask what the core is made of and whether the surface is real timber.

Blackbutt is on the Australasian Timber Flooring Association’s list of termite-resistant species, alongside Spotted Gum, Tallowwood, Ironbark and Turpentine. Jarrah, Tasmanian Oak and Victorian Ash are not on it.

Blackbutt is also one of the few hardwoods not susceptible to Lyctus (powderpost) borer, the one borer that can infest dry floorboards. American and European oak are susceptible.

Resistance is not immunity, and it is not a substitute for a termite management plan for the building.

Both make a beautiful floor, so the honest answer depends on what you want from it.

Blackbutt is an Australian hardwood at 9.1kN Janka (dry), durability Class 1, pale straw to light brown, with a straight and fairly even grain. It is termite resistant and not susceptible to Lyctus borer.

Oak has a more open grain with visible ray figure and takes stains and limed finishes more readily. In untreated solid form it is Lyctus-susceptible, which is why AS 2796 requires susceptible sapwood to be treated. Ask for the Janka rating of the specific oak you are comparing, because it varies by species and origin.

If you want an Australian timber from Australian forests, Blackbutt is the answer. If you want a pale grey or limed floor, oak gets there more easily.

Lifewood Blackbutt is finished in semi-gloss or satin, depending on board width. We do not offer a matte or a high-gloss Blackbutt: on a pale timber, matte shows footmarks and cleaning marks readily, and high gloss shows every scratch.

Because the boards are hardwood throughout, the finish can be sanded back and recoated later if you want to change the sheen.

Our Blackbutt is grown on farm forestry properties in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland. The New South Wales timber is harvested under a Private Native Forestry Plan approved by NSW Local Land Services, and the Queensland timber under that state’s self-assessable native forest practice code.

The Code of Practice those New South Wales plans work to sets a legal minimum of 14 square metres of basal area per hectare left standing, protects habitat trees, and requires regeneration checks at two, six and ten years.

It is thinning, not clearing. The forest is still a forest afterwards.