Why we chose Quick-Step wood flooring for our cottage renovation

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What do you do when you’re trying to put the character back into a period cottage but find the previous owner has ripped out all the original floorboards? Do you try to guess what they might have looked like and replace them with something similar? Or do you opt for the durability and practicality of modern flooring? That’s one of the dilemmas we faced when renovating our new home and we took the second approach, choosing engineered hardwood flooring from Quick-Step.

The main reason behind our decision was the house’s layout. The downstairs rooms all lead off one another, with no hallway between them, and it’s one of the things we love most about the cottage. We’ve never been fans of full open-plan living, and this gives us the ideal balance between separation and connection, openness and cosiness. We have the benefits of enclosed rooms, but each space still feels linked to the next – one of us can be in the living room and the other in the kitchen, but we can chat to each other easily without having to raise our voices.

We wanted to enhance the sense of flow between the various rooms – and make our little cottage feel a bit larger than it actually is – by using the same flooring throughout. Quick-Step’s ‘Cascada’ range proved ideal. It’s the only authentic wooden flooring that’s fully water-tight, meaning we can use it in every room, including the kitchen and the bathroom. And having installed Quick-Step hardwood boards in our previous home, we knew from experience that it would be easy to fit – a vital consideration, given our tight renovation budget meant we’d be laying it ourselves.

Longevity was another big factor. This cottage could well be our ‘forever’ home, so we want to focus on materials that will stand the test of time. All of Quick-Step’s wooden flooring has a protective coating that means it’s resistant to knocks, stains, dirt and scratches, as well as making it incredibly easy to clean. Importantly, this covers the entire surface, even the deepest textures and the joints.

The ‘Cascada’ range comes in an array of different colours and, after looking at various samples in different parts of the house and at different times of day, we settled on a pale oak called ‘Wintry Forest Oak’. It has a light and airy appearance, but there are visible knots and tonal variations that lend it character – perfect for a rural cottage setting and the rustic-minimalist aesthetic we’re aiming for. What’s more, it’s finished with an extra-matt lacquer, which gives it a natural look and a lovely tactile feel.

We paired the flooring with Quick-Step’s ‘Silent Walk’ underlay, which offers excellent acoustic insulation to reduce echoing and cushion the impact from footsteps, moving furniture and dropped objects. It also has great thermal qualities and even protects the flooring against damage from rising damp – a notorious problem in stone-built cottages such as ours, although thankfully we haven’t seen any sign of it so far.

To date we’ve fitted the flooring in the living room, the dining room, the kitchen, the main bedroom and the home office. The process was as quick and simple as we’d expected, and we generally got through each space in a day or so. Luckily there were no nasty surprises lurking beneath the tatty old carpet, with a concrete sub-floor downstairs and chipboard sheets upstairs providing level, stable bases. Quick-Step’s ‘Uniclic’ system means the boards slot together without the need for any glue, and we soon got into a rhythm of Chris measuring and cutting them and me clicking them into place.

You need to leave a 15mm gap around the edge of wooden flooring to allow for slight expansion as heat and humidity levels change. Many people lay their flooring in front of the skirting boards and then cover the gap with a scotia trim, but we decided to run our boards beneath the skirting and hide the gap that way. This of course involved crowbarring the old skirting off the wall before we started and refitting it afterwards, but we were planning to replace it anyway so it didn’t lead to any extra work overall. I think it looks much neater, and it also means we don’t have scotia getting in the way of furniture – something that’s particularly important in a small house, where space is tight and every centimetre counts!

Downstairs, we’ve laid the flooring continuously with no visible thresholds between the various rooms, reinforcing the connection between them and leading the eye seamlessly from one space to the next. Upstairs, we’ll be using T-bars in a matching finish to eliminate any gap underneath the doors, stopping steam escaping from the bathroom and reducing drafts and sound transmission that might disturb sleep in the bedrooms.

We’re really pleased with the results, and I can’t to wait to get the flooring fitted in the remaining areas of the cottage. It looks beautiful and it feels wonderful underfoot, with none of the coldness or off-putting shine that you often get with wooden flooring. And although we haven’t yet installed it in the bathroom, I can already attest to its ability to cope with water and stains. As anyone who knows me well will tell you, I’m notoriously clumsy and prone to spilling food and drink all over the place. So far our flooring has withstood coffee, wine, juice and tomato sauce, as well as dirty paw prints and whatever else Loki the cat has thrown (or thrown up!) on it.

Most importantly, I know the flooring will last for decades to come, evolving with us and our home. We really couldn’t be happier with it.

Browse Quick-Step’s full range of wood, laminate and vinyl flooring here.

All photography by Abi Dare