SPOTTED GUM TIMBER FLOORING PERTH

Lifewood Spotted Gum comes in two patented constructions, and the price depends on which you choose. Nature's Steel® Spotted Gum starts at $179 per m², supply only — a wide 180mm board with a 3mm real Spotted Gum surface over a high-strength bamboo core, with a 25-year warranty. Stabilised Solid® Spotted Gum starts at $209 per m², supply only — 130mm to 180mm wide, with a 5mm real Spotted Gum surface over a cross-engineered Spotted Gum core, re-sandable three to four times, with a lifetime structural warranty. Both are real Australian hardwood underfoot and both are pre-finished, so there is no sanding and polishing on site. Installation, underlay, skirting and any subfloor preparation are quoted separately, because they depend on your subfloor and your floor plan. Download the price guide for the full range, or book a showroom visit and we will price your actual plan.

The face is the same and the core is different. Both boards give you a genuine Spotted Gum walking surface at 11 kN Janka, 15mm overall thickness, direct stick, tongue and groove, pre-finished. Stabilised Solid® has a cross-engineered Spotted Gum core, so the board is real Spotted Gum from top to bottom, with a 5mm wear surface that can be sanded back and recoated three to four times, in widths from 130mm to 180mm, with a lifetime structural warranty — from $209 per m², supply only. Nature's Steel® has a cross-engineered high-strength bamboo core, a 3mm Spotted Gum wear surface that can be resanded once or twice, in a single wide 180mm board, with a 25-year warranty — from $179 per m², supply only. Choose Stabilised Solid® if you want the longest-lived floor and the option to refinish it more than once. Choose Nature's Steel® if you want the wide-board look at the lower price and you are comfortable with fewer refinishes.

Yes. What you walk on is genuine Australian Spotted Gum in both of our constructions — not a printed decor layer and not a paper-thin veneer. With Stabilised Solid® the whole board is Spotted Gum, face and core, with a 5mm real-timber wear surface thick enough to be sanded and recoated like a solid floor. With Nature's Steel® a 3mm real Spotted Gum surface sits over a high-strength bamboo core. That is the line between engineered timber and a hybrid or laminate product: a hybrid plank contains no timber at all, and a thin-veneer engineered board cannot be resanded. Our boards are built for the wide range of climatic conditions found in Australian homes.

Spotted Gum has a Janka hardness of 11 kN and a density of 1,100 kg/m³ at 12% moisture content, which makes it the hardest and densest floor Lifewood sells — harder than Blackbutt at 9.1 kN and more than twice as hard as American Black Walnut. It is also on ATFA's list of termite-resistant species. Both of our constructions have a Spotted Gum face, so 11 kN is the figure for either. What that means in practice: Spotted Gum resists denting about as well as any timber floor available in Australia. It does not make the floor dent-proof. ATFA is clear that denting is a function of timber hardness and scratching is a function of coating hardness, and no floor is scratch-proof — a dropped tin or a dragged chair leg will mark any timber. Felt pads under furniture and a doormat at every external door do more for a floor than the species does.

Both are Australian hardwoods, both are on ATFA's termite-resistant list, both come from the same farm forestry properties in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland, and both are available in Stabilised Solid® and Nature's Steel® at the same prices. The difference is colour and hardness. Blackbutt is pale to light brown with a fine, even grain and a Janka rating of 9.1 kN — the quieter floor, and the one that makes a small room feel larger. Spotted Gum runs from pale brown through to deep chocolate with a wavy, strongly figured grain and a Janka rating of 11 kN — the harder floor, and much more of a statement. If you want the floor to recede, choose Blackbutt. If you want the floor to be the feature, choose Spotted Gum. Bring your plan and your paint colours to the showroom and see both under the same light.

It is the floor we would put in one. At 11 kN it is the hardest timber in our range, it is naturally dense enough to shrug off spills that would swell a softer floor — in ATFA's submersion trial Spotted Gum gained about 2% in weight over four hours where Radiata Pine gained about 40% — and it carries nine layers of coating. The strong grain figure also does something practical: it hides the small scuffs of family life far better than a plain, even-toned floor does. What it will not do is stay perfect. Grit is what wears a floor, so the doormat matters more than the dog.

It is the floor we would put in one. At 11 kN it is the hardest timber in our range, it is naturally dense enough to shrug off spills that would swell a softer floor — in ATFA's submersion trial Spotted Gum gained about 2% in weight over four hours where Radiata Pine gained about 40% — and it carries nine layers of coating. The strong grain figure also does something practical: it hides the small scuffs of family life far better than a plain, even-toned floor does. What it will not do is stay perfect. Grit is what wears a floor, so the doormat matters more than the dog.

Because it is a natural timber and that variation is the reason people choose it. A Spotted Gum floor runs from pale honey-brown through mid-browns to deep chocolate, sometimes within the same board, with a wavy interlocked grain that catches light differently across the room. It is not a printed pattern, so no two boards match and no two floors are the same. Two practical consequences. First, judge Spotted Gum from a full floor, not a single sample — come and see one laid. Second, order the whole floor in one go where you can, so it comes from the same run.

Because it is a natural timber and that variation is the reason people choose it. A Spotted Gum floor runs from pale honey-brown through mid-browns to deep chocolate, sometimes within the same board, with a wavy interlocked grain that catches light differently across the room. It is not a printed pattern, so no two boards match and no two floors are the same. Two practical consequences. First, judge Spotted Gum from a full floor, not a single sample — come and see one laid. Second, order the whole floor in one go where you can, so it comes from the same run.

Our Spotted Gum is sourced from farm forestry operations across northern New South Wales and southern Queensland, where landholders thin naturally regenerating Spotted Gum on their own paddocks under government codes of practice — NSW's Private Native Forestry Codes or Queensland's self-assessable native forest practice code, depending on the property. Both set legal limits on tree retention, protect habitat trees, and require regeneration monitoring after harvest. In northern NSW the Code sets a legal minimum of 14 square metres of basal area per hectare that must stay standing after harvest, with regeneration checks at two, six and ten years. Thinning also benefits the farm itself: dense regrowth competes with pasture for light and water, so managing tree density supports grazing as well as timber supply. Read more about how this works.

We recover a minimum of 70% from the Blackbutt and Spotted Gum logs we buy — well above the Australian hardwood sawmilling industry's typical recovery of around 41%. That's because we deliberately buy standard-grade logs, not premium ones: our Stabilised Solid® construction is built to recover beautiful, usable flooring from timber a traditional solid-sawn mill would mostly reject. That means the farmers and foresters we work with can sell their whole harvest from a thinning operation, not just the best few stems. The sawdust and offcuts left over aren't wasted either — at our manufacturing facility in Vietnam, they fuel the on-site boiler that heats the kiln dry room, bringing every board to the right moisture content using the same log it came from.

No, and it is worth being precise about it, because "spotted gum" is used across this market as a colour name rather than a material. Hybrid and laminate planks described as Spotted Gum contain no Spotted Gum — usually no timber at all. They are a printed decorative layer over a plastic or fibreboard core. They are cheaper, and for some rooms that is a fair choice. What they cannot do is be sanded and recoated, develop any patina, or last the life of a house. If you are comparing quotes and one is dramatically cheaper, check what the board is actually made of. Our entry board, Nature's Steel® Spotted Gum at $179 per m² supply only, uses a bamboo core for structural strength — but the surface you walk on, look at and refinish is real Australian Spotted Gum, which is the part a hybrid cannot claim.

Spotted Gum is an Australian hardwood eucalypt native to the east coast of Australia, through New South Wales and Queensland. The name comes from the bark, which sheds in patches and leaves the trunk mottled. It is one of Australia's hardest and densest commercial timbers — 11 kN Janka, 1,100 kg/m³ — and it is used structurally as well as for flooring: poles, beams, decking and tool handles. As a floor it is prized for the combination of that hardness with a wavy, strongly figured grain and a colour range from pale brown to deep chocolate.

Yes. We make matching Spotted Gum stair nosing in 2.2 metre lengths and beading in 2 metre lengths, so the treads, the nosing and the floor come from the same run and match. Stairs take more wear than any floor in the house, which is an argument both for the hardest timber you can get and for the thicker 5mm wear surface of Stabilised Solid®. See our timber stairs page — [CONFIRM the surviving stairs URL after the trailing-slash consolidation].

Deliberately not answered: under-floor heating (trap 3), stock and delivery position (not published), the AS 2796 grade behind "Premium" and "Standard & Better" (not confirmed), and anything about borer resistance (trap 1).