NATURALE OAK
FLOORING PERTH

Natural Oak starts at $179 per m², supply only. That is our Nature's Steel® Natural Oak — a genuine French Oak surface on a bamboo core, which can be re-sanded. Stabilised Solid® Naturale, oak the whole way through, sits above it at $209 per m² supply only. 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.

Natural Oak is the rawest colourway in our French Oak range: wide 220mm boards, brushed matte finish, no heavy stain — just the grain and the pale, warm tone of the oak itself. We make it in two constructions. Naturale is Stabilised Solid®, 100% oak through all three layers. Natural Oak on Nature's Steel® puts the same oak surface on a bamboo core, which is how it starts at $179 per m² supply only.

Both give you the same 220mm-wide French Oak surface and the same look underfoot. Choose Stabilised Solid® (Naturale) if you want oak in every layer, a 5mm wear layer that re-sands three to four times, and our lifetime structural warranty — it is our flagship construction. Choose Nature's Steel® if you want the Natural Oak look at a lower price: a real oak wear layer on a cross-engineered bamboo core, still a floor you sand back rather than replace, with a shorter re-sanding life and warranty to match. The showroom has both laid side by side, and the honest answer is that most people can't tell them apart by eye.

Engineered — deliberately. A 220mm-wide board in solid oak would cup and gap through a Perth summer, which is why nobody warrants wide solid oak the way we warrant Naturale. Stabilised Solid® cross-bonds three layers of solid oak so the board stays flat; Nature's Steel® does the same job with a bamboo core under the oak. Both are engineered timber floors, not veneers on plywood and not hybrid.

No — they are different products that photograph the same way. A hybrid or laminate board has a rigid core and a printed decorative layer: the oak you can see is an image of oak, and it cannot be sanded. Nature's Steel® Natural Oak, our entry product at $179 per m² supply only, has a genuine French Oak surface on a bamboo core, and can be re-sanded. Stabilised Solid® Naturale is oak 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.

Oak is a hardwood. French Oak measures 6.5kN on the Janka scale — mid-range for flooring, harder than American Black Walnut (4.5kN) and softer than Australian species like Blackbutt (9.1kN) and Spotted Gum (11kN). Any timber floor scratches; what matters day to day is the finish and whether you can sand it back. Natural Oak's brushed matte surface hides fine marks better than gloss or dark boards, and both constructions re-sand when the wear finally builds up — Stabilised Solid® three to four times over its life, Nature's Steel® fewer, because its oak wear layer is thinner.

>French Oak is a European white oak — the same broad family as American white oak, but a different species with finer, tighter grain and softer colour, grown slowly in managed French forests. 'European oak' on a quote can mean oak from anywhere in Europe, at any growth rate. Ours is French, and we'll tell you where it comes from. If a quote just says 'European oak', ask which country.

A little, and you should expect it. Oak warms gently in daylight over the first year or two, so rooms with big north-facing windows will mellow faster than a hallway. Rugs moved after a year can leave a lighter patch that evens out once it's exposed. What Natural Oak won't do is fail structurally — that's what the warranty covers. We'd rather tell you what to expect before you buy than afte

Both make a beautiful floor, so the honest answer depends on what you want from it. Natural Oak is French Oak at 6.5kN Janka, pale and warm, with the open grain and visible ray figure oak is known for, in a 220mm board; it takes limed and pale looks more readily than any Australian species. Blackbutt is an Australian hardwood at 9.1kN Janka, pale straw to light brown, termite resistant and durability Class 1. Both come in the same two constructions, Stabilised Solid® and Nature's Steel®, from the same starting price. If you want an Australian timber from Australian forests, Blackbutt is the answer; if you want the pale European look, Natural Oak gets there more easily. Bring your benchtop sample into the showroom and lay them side by side.

Not when they're cross-engineered — that's the problem Stabilised Solid® was designed to solve. Wide solid boards move with Perth's swing from a dry 40-degree February to a wet July; cross-bonded boards stay flat, which is why we can offer a lifetime structural warranty on a 220mm Naturale board. Our boards are built for the wide range of climatic conditions found in Australian homes.

The oak is grown in managed French forests and made into boards in Lifewood's own purpose-built factory, so we control the timber from log to finished floor.

Most Perth homes are done in days, not weeks. Boards arrive pre-finished, so there's no on-site sanding and coating — we direct-stick the floor and you're walking on it the same week.