Premium Timber Flooring
Engineered Timber Flooring
Marri timber flooring costs from $239 per square metre supply only, in 130mm semi-gloss and 180mm satin, and it rates 7.1 kN on the Janka hardness scale. It grows nowhere in the world except the south-west of Western Australia.
That is the short answer. Here is everything else a Perth buyer asks, in the order they usually ask it.
What Marri costs
$239 a square metre for the 130mm semi-gloss. $259 for the 180mm satin. GST included, supply only — that is the boards delivered, not installed.
Marri and Jarrah both carry a $30 premium over our eastern-states species like Blackbutt and Spotted Gum. That premium is not a better board. It is raw material scarcity.
Western Australia's forestry industry shrank a long way after the 2024 native forest logging ban, so there are far fewer chances to buy Marri logs than there used to be. Farmers with logs available ask a premium for them. That is the whole story, and I would rather say it plainly than dress it up as a quality difference.
Installation and floor preparation are quoted separately, because they depend on your subfloor. The Lifewood price guide sets out what a Perth job costs end to end.
Is Marri hard enough for a family home?
Yes, for normal family living.
Marri is 7.1 kN on the Janka scale. Here is where that sits in our range: Spotted Gum about 11, Blackbutt 9.1, Jarrah 8.6, Marri 7.1, French oak about 6.5, American black walnut 4.5.
Marri is harder than French oak, which is the most popular flooring timber in the world, and we sell both. So when you read that Marri is too soft for flooring, that is a misunderstanding rather than a finding.
We have been laying Marri across Western Australia for over ten years. No floor has come back to us because it could not take everyday living.
What I do tell people: you can damage any timber floor by dropping something heavy on it, and large dogs playing indoors will leave marks. Over the last ten years customers have rung us about scratching and denting — usually in the kitchen, usually a dropped bottle or jar. That is normal for most floors.
Every floor we deliver ships with a care kit containing wax, a repair kit, and black wax for the gum veins. Most marks are something you can deal with yourself. A board past repair can be cut out and replaced, because the floor is prefinished.
And the part most suppliers would leave out: Blackbutt is harder than Marri, cheaper than Marri, and easier for us to get. If you have an active household or large dogs, it is the better floor. We see people come in wanting Marri and leave having chosen Blackbutt for exactly that reason.
A Marri floor, nine years on
The clearest answer to the durability question is a floor we laid in 2017.
Q Homes put Marri 130mm through their display home in Coolbinia — 230 square metres and fifteen steps, with curved walls, bookcases, open stairs and an unbroken transition from inside to out, professionally interior designed throughout. They wanted to create a lasting impression and stand out from other builders by using only premium finishes, and Marri represented something unique.
That floor is still down, and in nine years we have never been called back to sand it, polish it or repair it.
A display home takes more punishment than a family home — strangers in shoes, all day, for years. It is the test I would point a sceptical buyer to.
What Marri actually looks like
Honey, cream and deep brown, with black gum veins running through it.
It is the most varied floor we sell. Two boards from the same pack can look quite different, and a Marri floor is busier than an oak floor or a Blackbutt floor. Most people who choose Marri choose it for exactly that reason.
The gum veins are filled with black epoxy resin at our factory, by hand, before the boards reach you. That is what gives Marri its signature — dark veins against a warm floor, which no other Australian species does in the same way.
If you need a floor that is even in tone and stays that way, Marri is not it, and an oak would suit you better. I would rather say that now than have you unhappy in month three.
How the board is built
Three layers of hardwood, 15mm overall, with a 5mm Marri wearing surface on top. Boards run 1800 to 2200mm long. Direct stick to a concrete slab. Re-sandable a minimum of three times. Lifetime structural warranty.
No plywood, no pine, no rubberwood anywhere in it.
Almost always the timber is Marri from top to bottom. Occasionally, when we are short of Marri for the middle layer, we use another hardwood such as Blackbutt. It is rare, because a Marri log produces so much material we cannot use as a top layer that we usually have a surplus for the middle and the back.
It changes nothing you can feel. The core is always hardwood of matching or better stability, the wearing surface is always the same 5mm of Marri, and the warranty and sanding life are the same.
The board is Stabilised Solid®, which I invented.
Why Marri is hard to get
Open a Marri log on the saw and much of it cannot be used as a traditional floorboard. Cracks. Gum veins split open. Rot. Termite attack.
Conventional flooring recovery from a Marri log is less than 30%. That is the published reason Marri furniture and Marri flooring have always been rare, and it is why, for decades, the overwhelming majority of the Marri cut in this state went out as woodchips.
Stabilised Solid® recovers 65 to 75% of the same log. The pieces high in gum vein, or carrying insect holes, splits or a little discolouration from rot, go into the middle layer or the back to reinforce the top layer. Having a three-layered board is what lets us use the entire log.
It is basically the only flooring technology I have seen that responsibly uses the Marri log without discarding it to the waste pile or the chip pile.
Where our Marri comes from
Two sources, and the majority is the second one.
Some comes from mining clearing in the south-west, ahead of approved bauxite and rare-earth operations. Most comes from farmers — clearing fence lines to make them safe against fire, opening paddocks for grazing or a dam or avocados, and salvaging paddock trees blown over in storms. Very common practice for south-west farmers, and nothing to do with the timber industry.
A lot of those logs were historically pushed up and burnt, or sent to the chip. The trees are coming down anyway. We are salvaging them.
On the paperwork: in Western Australia no native tree can legally be felled or sold without a clearing permit from the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation and a private land supplier's licence from the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions. Both are held by the farmer, not by us, and a contractor cannot ship to us before the farmer holds them. Every consignment is inspected by a government official in Perth before it leaves.
Availability and lead time
Both widths are in stock now.
The rule of thumb is to give us three to six months lead time for any Marri you need for your project. Order early rather than late.
The range is changing. The 130mm is being discontinued and a wider range — 180mm and 220mm — is released in January 2027. If you are matching an existing 130mm floor, talk to us before January.
If you need to match a narrow existing floor, there are two answers and both work. Most customers upgrade to the 180mm Marri; it is not uncommon, it looks good, and it reads as an upgrade rather than a compromise. If you must stay at 130mm, we would put you in 130mm Rustic Blackbutt, which has a very similar appearance with a bit more colour, at $209 a square metre.
If Marri is what you want for a spring or summer job, now is the time to talk to us. Call the showroom or send an enquiry, and we will tell you honestly what we can deliver and when. Download the Lifewood price guide for current pricing across the whole range.
Living with a Marri floor
I would put Marri through an entire home. I would avoid laundries and bathrooms — anywhere likely to see standing water.
Marks and small dents become the patina of a natural timber floor. Most of our customers come to see them that way. The ones that bother you can be waxed out, or the board replaced.
Because Marri is so varied, we show you your own batch — the actual boards going into your home — before we install. No surprises on the day.
A Marri floor can be re-sanded a minimum of three times, on top of the original factory finish, because the wearing surface is a full 5mm of Marri. Floors are typically sanded back to new after fifteen or twenty years, so three sandings after that first fifteen years is something like sixty years of floor. That is my reasoning rather than a warranty term — the warranty is a lifetime structural warranty.
Can you lay Marri over existing tiles?
Yes, and we do it regularly.
The reason it needs proper preparation is counter-intuitive. Our boards are stiff enough that they will not bend to follow an uneven floor, and tiles rarely sit as flat as they look. So the tiled surface is flattened with levelling compounds first, then the boards are laid in a high-viscosity or semi-foaming glue that takes up the gaps underneath.
Skip that and the floor telegraphs every high tile.
Who should buy Marri
People who want a floor with character and are not looking for uniformity. People matching or extending an existing Marri floor. People who recognise Marri from furniture and want it underfoot.
Not people with large dogs and a hard-wearing brief, who are better served by Blackbutt. Not people who need an even, unchanging floor, who are better served by oak.
Come and stand on it at our Osborne Park showroom before you decide. Marri photographs badly and looks different under every light, so a screen is the worst possible way to choose it. Or call us and we will talk you through what suits your house.
Full specifications, current pricing and the rest of the range are on the Marri timber flooring page, and in the price guide.