Kahrs And Wood. A 150-Year Love Story

Nature is our inspiration, and our provider. We're passionate about wood's intrinsic beauty and nature guides us in our craft. But we also endeavour to be at the forefront of development, technology and quality.

For a floor to remain beautiful whilst tolerating year upon year of wear and tear, it needs inherent quality.

Because we've worked with wood since 1857, you can be sure of getting everything you have a right to expect from a genuine quality wood floor.

By their very nature, different wood species are have different levels of hardness. The hardness of parquet is measured using the Brinell method. This invloves pressing a 10mm diameter steel ball against the parquet surface with a prescribed force and duration. The indentation that this leaves is then measured, and the Brinell value is calculated. The harder the wood, the higher the Brinell value.

Which Floor Suits You?

To help make the choice a littel easier, we've divided our floors into 3 groups: Style Selection, Life Selection, and Classic Selection. Each has its own character and tone, and the one that suits you best depends on your taste.

       

Do You Love Tranquillity?

Then you'll probably fall for the floors in our Style Selection. These floors are stylishly understated; they're created from a discreet and regular timber grade that doesn't have huge variations in tone and pattern. They can be light and dark, depending on the wood species, but the tone and overall effect is quite uniform. A harmonious play of colour and a timeless stage on which furnishings and accessories can play the leading roles.

Would You Like Something More Lively?

Then you should look at our Life Selection floors, where the patterns and variations in the timber are key to the overall rustic look. Here you'll find figuring and traces of gnarled wood, colour variation and unmistakable naturalness.

Something a Little More Classic?

Floors that look as it they've been around for a hundred years. Ship's Decking with decorative strips in contrasting wood species. Wide floorboards with bevelled edges that make you think of times gone by. And that's just a taste of the different floors in the Classic Selection.

Kahrs main brochure introduces the groups in more detail. It also shows the various wood species in lifestyle settings.

Floor Guard System - exclusively for floors from Kahrs

The Floor Guard System is the built in care you get when you choose a wood floor from Kahrs. One example of the Floor Guard System is the lacquer we use, which eliminates almost all microscratches. These minute annoying scratches can occur in the lacquer when, for example, furniture with worn out protective pads is dragged across the floor.

The difficulty is finding an extremely strong lacquer that only needs to be applies in a thin layer, allowing the wood floor to retain its natural lustre. All of our development is carried out in co-operation with leading lacquer manufacturers, so we can offer floors that retain their true, natural feel whilst being supremely durable.

Easy Care UV Oil

Oil creates a natural feel, brings out the grain of the wood and enriches the colour. Our UV hardened oil is of the highest quality, and it only needs simple cleaning and maintenance in the home environment - similar to a lacquered floor.

Aimple maintenance is another of the Floor Guard System's cornerstones. If coarse dirt is stopped at the entrance, vacuuming or sweeping is all that is needed from day to day - and who wants to spend more thime than necessary cleaning?

Laying Over Underfloor Heating

Good underfloor heating (electric or water-borne) is an ideal heating method combined with a wood floor gives optimal domestic comfort. The laying instructions for each floor type also apply when laying over underfloor heating. The following instructions summarise what is specific to wood floors laid over underfloor heating.

Ideal Choices of floor are Kahrs 15mm multi-layer parquet floor or Kahrs 7mm Linnea, with the woodloc joint. This reduces the risk of cracking. Kahrs Parquet can be laid over underfloor heating, which must distribute the heat efficiently and evenly across the floor. The surface temperature of the floor must never exceed 27°C. This also applies near radiator pipes and under any rugs. Beech and Hard Maple multi-layer parquet floors expand and contract more than other wood species. Underfloor heating causes the wood to dry out more, which results in additional shrinkage. In a cold, dry climate (e.g. in Sweden), cracks between strips and slightly concave boards are to be expected.

Kahrs With Woodloc

The biggest innovation since we invented engineered parquet. In 1941, Gustav Kähr was granted a patent on the multi layer parquet board, the world's first engineered parquet. The construction made the floors more stable, and also utilised the raw material in a new way that gave greater consideration to resources.

Much has happened since then, of course, but the next really big step in the history of floors was when we at Kahrs introduced the woodloc joint. This mechanical glueless joint locks boards together almost invisibly. The rows of boards align themselves automatically, without the need for gluing. The woodloc joint gives perfect results that withstand tough use and last through the floor's lifetime. And thanks to the glueless installation, the boards can be lifted at a later date and re-laid elsewhere.

Care and repair of UV-lacquered floors

Remember. Place doormats inside and outside the front door to stop dirt and grit being walked in, which can cause consdierable wear. Put protective pads on furniture (not metal feet, which mark wood floors) to avoid unnecessary marks and scratches on the floor.

In rooms where you know water is frequently spilled, and where it may also be left on the floor, we recommend that you lacquer the floor again after laying. This seals the joints between the boards and gives better protection against water.

Wood floors expand and contract depending on the ambient climate. To counteract excessive movement, and consequential damage to the floor, maintain a normal room temperature and a relative humidity of 30%-60%. Certain woods such as Beech and Hard Maple are more susceptible to climatic variations than others.