Original Pine Floorboards
We hold large stocks of Original Period, slow-grown pine floorboards, from the Classic Victorian London Board and Georgian Planking that was hand adzed 200-300 years ago, to more common Victorian and Edwardian floorboards - going right up - to tongue and groove boards from the 1920's to 1960's. These timbers are in Baltic Yellow Pine, British Columbian Pine, Douglas Fir, Oregon Pine, Pitch Pine, Old Fashioned Deal and very old Scot's pine.
We offer our boards for purchase in a variety of conditions to suit the requirements of each customer. This can range from an "As Is" purchase, where boards have simply been de-nailed, selected for quality and tallied for collection or delivery, right up to fully finished boards with one of our unique, hand-created surface textures. All timbers can be kiln-dried and/or engineered so that they can be laid on top of floated on or glued directly over an under-floor heated, screeded sub-floor. Full details of what each processing and purchase option entails can be found below. We recommend that everything that leaves AWF Ltd be Kiln-Dried, for which we give a written guarantee, especially for boards going over under-floor heating.
We provide a free sample service. Send us an image of what you want to replicate. We will see what is possible from our stockholding, prepare and apply treatments or washes as required to the timber and post them within 2 days, free of charge.
Choice of Boards
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Classic London Pine Board
Please quote the image reference code when making an enquiry. The reference code can be found by hovering over, or clicking on the image.
These boards, known as 'the classic London boards', are found in the better quality houses in Holland Park, Camden, Notting Hill, Hackney, Islington, Kensington, Clapham, Brixton, Battersea, etc.
- SPECIFICATION: All boards at 170mm wide x 22 - 30mm thick x great lengths from 1-5mtrs. Average 3.5mtrs.
- SAWMILL CUT: First cut from tree. Central Crown Row of figure down every board. Either side should be tight, straight grained, quarter-sawn wood. Timber naturally stable and a uniform colour.
- SPECIE: Nearly always British Columbian Pine from 1850 to 1910. Some Baltic Yellow and Douglas Fir, plus Old Scots Pine.
These boards are available with either an Antique Original face or clean planed face (see our finishes), and as a solid or an engineered board. See purchase options below.
Hand Adzed Georgian Pine Boards
Please quote the image reference code when making an enquiry. The reference code can be found by hovering over, or clicking on the image.
Original Pit-Sawn boards from 1690 -1820. Excellent lengths and widths. Very hard to source, but we always hold stocks. We can match to a sample if necessary when you are repairing an existing floor or supply boards for an independent area in matching timber.
- SPECIFICATION: Boards cut before electricity or machinery - pit sawn in the forests. Hand Adzed on site, i.e. backs of boards show varying degrees of chopping out where each board was eased down to become level with its neighbour. These boards are always supplied in random widths. We have a system for working this out. Please ask.
- SAWMILL CUT: Through and through - some rift. Variable. No sapwood allowed. Goal, when originally cut, was to yield longest, widest boards possible from each tree.
- SPECIE: Scot's pine, some Pitch Pine but mainly early growth Baltic Yellow pine. Simply getting these boards is a pleasure.
These boards are available with either an Antique Original face or clean planed face (see our finishes), and as a solid or an engineered board. See purchase options below.
Victorian and Edwardian Pine Boards
Please quote the image reference code when making an enquiry. The reference code can be found by hovering over, or clicking on the image.
Not quite the consistent quality of the London Board, but pretty close.
- SPECIFICATION: What one "knows" as traditional pine floorboard. Reclaimed from Victorian buildings. 145 to 155mm wide x 20 - 24mm thick x good lengths from 1-3.5mtrs. Average 2.4mtrs.
- SAWMILL CUT: First/second cut. Central Crown row down around 60% of board centres. Decent uniformity of colour.
- SPECIE: Columbian, Baltic Yellow, Old fashioned Deal or Douglas Fir.
These boards are available with either an Antique Original face or clean planed face (see our finishes), and as a solid or an engineered board. See purchase options below.
1920s - 1960s T&G Pine Boards
Buildings that straddle both wars and Great Depression. Raw materials were scarce world-wide. People built with what was available.
- SPECIFICATION: All sorts of wood used. Pretty good quality, but this varied from building to building. Always needs careful matching up from your sample. 120 -155mm x 20mm x random lengths.
- SAWMILL CUT: Depends on each yield. Key is to supply each order from the same batch. Upstairs boards can often be slightly different to downstairs.
- SPECIE: Oregon Pine, Columbian, Old Fashioned Deal.
These boards are available with either an Antique Original face or clean planed face (see our finishes), and as a solid or an engineered board. See purchase options below.
Slow-Grown Douglas Fir Boards
Today's go-to softwood for flooring made popular by the renowned Norwegian flooring company, Dinesen. We hold large stocks, in long and wide virgin growth timber.
This timber exploded into Britain when Canada opened up commercially. Our own current stocks came from 2 houses on the Crown Estate in Regents Park. They were re-timbered in the 1890s, when gutted by a fire. Our stocks come from the joists used in that re-build. We believe they are all Virgin growth timber from the west coast of Canada, forested and exported to England. They are all long and wide boards - and very heavy! Please ask for a free sample.
- SPECIFICATION: Great quality. Wide and long boards. Mainly virgin growth, slow-grown timber has made this very desirable. Strong grain. Crown rows with quarter-sawn sides.
- SAWMILL CUT: Flat sawn with some rift cutting. 80% of boards cut from joists. 3 to 5 mtrs long. Random widths from 120 to 280mm. Great floorboards.
- Ask for our Rare Double Central Banded Grain. Unique. This practice is no longer permitted in managed forests, so these extraordinarily grained boards are only available as long as our current stocks last.
These boards are available with either an Antique Original face or clean planed face (see our finishes), and as a solid or an engineered board. See purchase options below.
Purchase Options:
We have 4 ways you can purchase our boards and blocks.
- "As Is"
- Processed and Kiln-Dried
- Hand DA Sanded
- Engineered
Solid Boards - 'As Is'
As the timber comes to us from site + the following works:
- All big fixing nails and screws removed, being careful to avoid damage to top face
- Any broken or un-useable wood is cross-cut out
- A slight variation in thicknesses and widths may remain, but simple to re-lay
- Boards are bundled into 4s, with fixed and running ends, for easy tally and handling
Solid Boards - Processed and Kiln Dried: Written Guarantee Given
- All boards fully de-nailed, while protecting the original face and selected for quality
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Kiln-dried in our on-site kilns, to an agreed set moisture content:
- For normal, centrally heated conditions, 9-11% for hardwood 10-12% for softwood
- For timber that will be laid over under-floor heating, we perform a secondary kilning to bring the moisture content to 6-8% for hardwood and 8-10% for softwood
- Written guarantee provided to cover the kiln-drying
- All boards then regularised to one chosen width (widest possible based on selection)
- All boards planed from the back face only, to bring to a set thickness. This preserves the Original face. Massively quickens and simplifies the on-site installation.
- Boards are bundled into 4s, with fixed and running ends, for easy tally and handling
Solid Boards - Hand DA Sanded
Processed as above, then hand-sanded and finished to client specification.
- A signed off, 1m2 panel is required before work can start. Showing degree of texture (see our hand-made textures), widths of boards, grade of timber allowed (i.e. knots, splits shakes, old nail and bolt holes etc.) and degree of cleanliness of board face
- All boards then Hand DA Sanded to replicate the sample board exactly, long edges hand-rolled to 1.5mm radius,
- Boards bundled into 4's, with fixed and running ends, for easy installation. Available unfinished, French-Polished, semi, or fully-finished
Engineered Boards
For use with concrete sub-floors or under-floor heating systems.
- Secondary kiln-dried to very low moisture content
- Sanded to required texture - see our finishes
- Precision-planed on back face to bring to 6-10mm thickness to provide solid wear surface
- Engineered onto top-quality birch plywood: BB/BB or BB/CP grade, 11 strand x 15mm
- Vacuum pressed with minimum of 30 mins in-press cooling time
- Every board hand-checked to ensure no delamination
- Surface filled and repaired, and long top edges hand-rolled to 1.5mm radius
- Grooved on long edges only; loose tongues supplied in 1-2m lengths
- Available unfinished, French-Polished, semi- or fully-finished to specification