No longer are you limited to pine wood for your floors, but oak parquet has re-emerged as a popular wood flooring, along with a variety of oak, mahogany and walnut flooring. Actually, mahogany is not used much now, as it is scarce, and there are limits on its exports.

How do you choose which wood to have, and which type of wood? Well, it depends what effect you want to create. Oak is very popular because it is light in colour, which makes rooms lighter. But there are many types of oak flooring. You can get oak flooring that is lacquered, or brushed and oiled, or hand scraped.

One of the oddest finishes to come back is hand scraped wood. Of course, years ago, there was only handscraped, because there was no suitable machinery to scrape wood cheaply. Now, of course, machines are generally used, but people are prepared to pay extra to get the wood handscraped. There is not much point, because you actually have to tell your guests the wood is hand scraped, but still. Solid wood flooring in Berkshire and Surrey has quite a following.

Lacquered finishes are fairly hardy, but can get scratched, and once they have been scratched badly, the floor needs to be sanded and lacquered again. Therefore, lacquered finishes are not the best choice where there is heavy traffic, especially if you have teenagers coming and going in football boots, with skateboards, roller skates and so on.

The advantage of oiled oak flooring, which includes some oak parquet flooring, is that it is very hardy and strong, and it can be kept looking like new with regular oiling.

As a a rule, solid wood floors outperform and outlast laminate floors. They are nicer to walk on, and have some give. Of course, you can buy cheaper laminates that look like oak flooring when new, but which do not have the same feel. Also, laminates are not so strong, and surface damage is difficult to repair.