Bjelin floor guide

The floor is the largest piece of furniture in the room, which is why it is important to choose the right floor for the right environment. At the same time, it has become more difficult to choose the most appropriate floor for a particular room. One of the reasons is that we at Bjelin are developing new floor categories, such as hardened wooden floors and ceramic wood composites, whose unique properties are not always known.

We hope that our floor guide can help you decide which floor to install in a kitchen, hall or bedroom, for example. And which is the best choice from an environmental perspective?

Hardened Wood flooring

Our hardened wooden floors are available in hardwax oiled and matt lacquered finishes. A hardened wooded floor is three times more impact-resistant than traditional parquet floors, but not as impact-resistant as Ceramic Wood Composite flooring. Hardened wooden floors can be installed in all areas of the home, except bathrooms. The floors are also suitable for public spaces with normal levels of traffic.

A hardened wooden floor is the perfect floor for those who are looking for a genuine wooden floor produced in a fair and climate-smart way, at a good price.

More about Hardened Wood

Herringbone parquet

Herringbone parquet with a click lock system is available in both natural oiled and matt lacquered finishes and is a floor that can be installed in all areas where wooden floors are traditionally used. Bjelin's herringbone parquet is ideal for both domestic and public environments.

We consider herringbone parquet to be most suitable for living rooms and bedrooms, but it can also be installed in kitchens and halls, provided they are exposed to normal traffic and humidity levels. Many floors have also been installed in public premises such as shops and restaurants.

More about Herringbone parquet

Parquet flooring

A parquet floor, like all traditional wooden floors, has a relatively soft surface that is more easily damaged by sharp heels, gravel from shoes and dropped pots and pans. We therefore recommend parquet floors for living rooms and bedrooms, which are exposed to less traffic.

A parquet floor with a 3-strip pattern is a slightly cheaper alternative to the standard 1-strip parquet, due to the fact that the 3-strip parquet is made of waste pieces. 3-strip parquet is thus a good low-cost alternative.

Hardened wooden floors are often a better option than traditional parquet floors as they are more durable and affordable. However, if you still prefer a traditional parquet floor in 1-strip plank format for your living room or bedroom, our parquet floors are a good choice compared with similar floors on the market. They are very easy to install with our new Bjeloc 18 click lock system.

Other floor types

We love flooring, that's all there is to it. At Bjelin we only sell wood-based flooring, though the market also offers laminate flooring, vinyl flooring, ceramic flooring and much more.

As a world leader in flooring innovation, we also want to highlight other flooring types and their properties.

What does a wooden floor cost?

It goes without saying that we all compare prices. But what are the real differences between expensive and inexpensive wooden floors and how much does a floor installation cost? Can a wooden floor be both affordable and high-quality? And what determines if a wooden floor is made of high quality materials?

We want to help you sort out questions you may have and questions you should ask.

Wooden floors – for a sustainable environment

All Bjelin floors are wood-based. This means that our floors store the carbon dioxide that trees have absorbed from the air during their growth. Floors are thus carbon negative and environmentally positive. Thanks to new manufacturing technology, we can make use of the entire log and waste material, such as sawdust, which we use as filler material when we manufacture new floors. Even old floors that are replaced can be ground into wood powder and reused in floor manufacturing or as biofuel.

The wood raw material we use for our floors, especially hardwood in the form of oak, comes from sustainably managed FSC-certified forests close to our factories. We can therefore ensure that forest management takes place in accordance with current FSC requirements.

FSC stands for Forest Stewardship Council and is an independent, international membership organisation that promotes environmentally appropriate, socially responsible and economically viable use of the world's forests through its own certification system.

We have deliberately chosen not to produce vinyl floors, conventional ceramic floors and nylon carpets, which are a less environmentally friendly option as they contribute to large carbon dioxide emissions and are difficult to recycle.

If you buy a wooden floor, you are helping to reduce the carbon dioxide level in the air. The floor is also easy to recycle and the click joint allows the floor to be taken up without being damaged and re-laid in another area.

Oiled or lacquered?

Our wooden floors are usually available in two finishes, matt lacquered and oiled. But what is really the big difference? Both options will give you a beautiful and durable floor and the choice really comes down to taste and style.

An oiled wooden floor has a natural structure that gives you a wonderful feeling of wood, but it also requires a little more maintenance. Approximately once a year, the floor must be maintenance oiled in order to maintain its character. If you get a scratch, it is often possible to treat it by adding a little oil. We recommend oiled wooden floors in less busy areas of the home, such as bedrooms and living rooms. In environments with heavy traffic, the floor requires more maintenance but works equally well.

A lacquered wooden floor has a more even and durable surface, which requires less periodic maintenance. The lacquered surface provides hard protection that is easy to keep clean. A lacquered wooden floor requires less maintenance than an oiled floor, but is more difficult to repair if the lacquer is damaged. We generally recommend lacquered wooden floors in more busy areas such as kitchens, halls and public spaces with normal humidity levels.

The strongest click lock on the market

All modern floors on the market that are installed as floating floors without gluing are so-called click floors. These have a mechanical locking system that makes installation easier, reduces installation costs and ensures that floors do not slide apart and that damaged floor boards can easily be replaced.

You should therefore choose a click floor, but not all floors are the same and there are both good and bad click floors. The most advanced floors have 5G locking system. The locking strip with its locking pin (as shown in the animation) must also be robust and manufactured with great precision in order for the floor to be easy to install by angling it into place in one movement, and to ensure high durability.

If you choose a floor from Bjelin, you always get a click floor with the most advanced 5G locking system on the market, developed by our sister company Välinge, inventor of the click floor.

General information about choosing floor appearance

Unlike performance and price, the appearance of the floor is of great importance when choosing a floor, and this is largely a matter of personal preference and taste. However, some general advice can help you in your choice of floor design. This advice is useful for all our flooring types, which have been specially designed for different environments in the home and public buildings. Our range includes several hundred different floors, all with different appearances.

Room size

In large rooms and spaces, you should choose a floor in a large plank format, for example floor planks with a width and length of at least 200 x 2000 mm. One exception is herringbone floors, which are installed in patterns with the short side of the floor strips facing the long side. Herringbone floors are suitable for most areas from small rooms and corridors to very large premises. 3-strip parquet floors and plank floors in a smaller size are best suited to smaller rooms such as bedrooms and home offices.

Just like herringbone floors, all our ceramic composite floor tiles can be installed in both large and small rooms, as they have decorative grooves that accentuate the shape of the tiles and give a lively pattern.

Floor colour

The colour of the floor plays a major part in how a room is perceived. It should be adapted to the style chosen for the entire room environment, i.e. colour choices, furniture and interior design. The floor is an important part of the room, but usually you don't want it to be too dominant. A darker floor can provide a warm and cosy environment and is therefore often suitable for basements, libraries, home offices, etc., while a light floor helps make a room feel larger and is therefore suitable for living rooms, kitchens and bedrooms.

Calm or rustic?

Pure wood patterns with a calm and harmonious appearance, without excessive knots, cracks and colour nuances are often suitable for living rooms, kitchens and bedrooms – especially in modern interiors.

More rustic floors are appropriate for a more classic style and often work well in holiday homes, attics and older buildings.