Everything you need to know about ...Laying wood flooring

IF YOU OPT for wooden flooring, the next step is to decide on the best way to install it. As with the selection of the timber, how you lay a floor is a matter of choice.

If starting from scratch, you work directly from the concrete base. Whatever the thickness of your timber flooring - be it solid timber, semi-solid, or the thinnest laminate - other floor areas of the home, such as a carpeted bedroom or a tiled bathroom and kitchen, can be altered to match the same level. This can be achieved using 'transition strips' or in extreme cases, by laying cement sheet.

Solid timber involves exacting requirements and takes longer to install than other flooring. It's important to start by laying a sub floor with a thin layer of water-resistant matting or bitumen felt. And if you don't want one of the world's most destructive species gobbling up your prized flooring, it's essential to treat the wood against termites.

Engineered or semi-solid flooring comes pre-treated and ready to lay directly on to the concrete and is quick and easy to install.

Laminated flooring is the easiest to lay and some of today's designs can be installed without glue. Although the flooring is not actual wood, but rather a reproduction of wood grain covered with a plastic coating, it has the advantage of being able to be laid over existing floor coverings. Before installing solid wood or semi-solid flooring, the boards should acclimatise for 48 hours in the room where they will be laid. Make sure the sub floor is clean and dry.

The first floorboard is laid with the groove side to the wall. For aesthetic purposes, lay the floorboards down the hallway or room - not across it.