MARRI TIMBER FLOORING IN PERTH

Lifewood Marri flooring is $239 per square metre for the 130mm semi-gloss and $259 for the 180mm satin, GST included, supply only — the boards delivered, not installed. Marri and Jarrah both carry a $30 premium over our eastern-states species, and that premium is raw-material scarcity rather than a better board: Western Australia's forestry industry shrank after the 2024 native forest logging ban, so farmers with logs available ask more for them. Installation and floor preparation are quoted separately, and the price guide sets out what a Perth job costs end to end.

Yes, for normal family living. Marri is 7.1 kN on the Janka scale — harder than French oak at about 6.5 kN, softer than our Blackbutt at 9.1 and Spotted Gum at about 11. We have installed Marri in living rooms, kitchens and bedrooms across Western Australia for over ten years without a floor coming back because it could not take everyday wear. The Australasian Timber Flooring Association is clear that moderately hard species suit most domestic use, and that no coating makes a timber harder. If you have large dogs or a particularly active household, Blackbutt is harder, cheaper and easier for us to get, and we will tell you so in the showroom.

Three, honestly. It is the softest of the three Australian species we sell at 7.1 kN, so a dropped bottle or a large dog can mark it. It is the most varied floor in our range — a lot of gum vein and a lot of colour movement, which is character to most people and busy to some. And the black epoxy filling a gum vein can, rarely, come out over time; the care kit includes black wax for exactly that. What we do about each: nine coats over a 5mm Marri wearing surface, every gum vein hand-filled with two-pack epoxy cured over days at our own factory, a care kit with wax and repair kits, a minimum of three re-sandings, and individual boards that can be cut out and replaced because the floor is prefinished.

Because of what is inside the log. Marri grows only in Western Australia and is high in gum, so a Marri log carries cracks, split gum veins, rot and termite attack, and less than 30% of it can be used as conventional flooring. That is why most of the Marri cut in this state historically went out as woodchips. Lifewood's Stabilised Solid® process recovers 65 to 75% of the same log, because the gum-veined, insect-marked, split and discoloured pieces go into the middle layer and the back of a three-layer board. It is the reason we can sell a Marri floor at all.

They cost the same, so it is a design decision with one practical exception. Jarrah is 8.6 kN against Marri's 7.1, so at identical money Jarrah buys hardness and Marri buys character. On feel, Jarrah is a much more regal red and Marri is a much more rustic, country floor. Jarrah is darker, so it needs the interior design built around it and will make a small room read smaller. Marri is varied, honey through deep brown, with black gum veins. Both are heritage Western Australian species. Jarrah is also far harder for us to source — we can buy Jarrah logs once or twice a year, where Marri comes up more regularly.

Yes, and we do it regularly — the same way we lay Blackbutt or oak over tiles. The reason it needs proper preparation is that 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 under the tiles. Skip that and the floor telegraphs every high tile.

Often, yes, and it is one of the most common reasons people come to us for Marri. Board width matters as much as the species, so bring us the width. If your existing floor is 130mm, note that the 130mm Marri is being discontinued and replaced by a 220mm from January 2027 — most customers upgrade the whole floor to 180mm Marri, which reads as an upgrade rather than a compromise, and if you must stay at 130mm we would recommend 130mm Rustic Blackbutt, which has a very similar appearance with a bit more colour. Because Marri is so varied we show you your own batch before installation.

A minimum of three times over its lifetime, on top of the original factory finish, because the wearing surface is a full 5mm of Marri. Individual boards can also be replaced, since the floor is prefinished. Mark Hutchison's way of thinking about it: 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 his reasoning rather than a warranty term — the warranty is a lifetime structural warranty.

Yes. Western Australia ended commercial native forest logging on public land on 1 January 2024 under the Forest Management Plan 2024–2033, which covers about 2.5 million hectares of State forest and reserves. That plan applies to public land. Private land was never included — so this is not an exemption or a loophole, the ban simply never applied there. Our Marri is salvaged from private-land clearing in the south-west: farmers making fence lines safe against fire, opening paddocks for grazing or dams or avocados, and clearing storm-felled paddock trees, plus clearing ahead of approved bauxite and rare-earth mining. Felling a native tree in WA requires a clearing permit from the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation, and selling it requires a private land supplier's licence from the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions. Both are held by the farmer, a contractor cannot ship without them, and every consignment is inspected by a government official in Perth before it leaves.