Colour is the fun part, but what decides whether a timber floor behaves itself is the system: the board type, how it fixes down, and what you’re laying it on.
Melbourne homes split fairly cleanly into weatherboards and brick veneers on timber joists, and apartments and newer builds on concrete slabs. Those two situations suit different floors, so it pays to pick the system for the building first and choose the colour after that.
If you’re still deciding whether you want real wood at all, start with timber vs hybrid vs laminate, then come back here.
Solid strip — the traditional floor
One piece of timber, tongue and groove, nailed into joists or battens. This is the floor under the carpet in a lot of older Melbourne houses, and it’s what most people mean when they say “proper timber”.
You sand and coat it on site, so the whole room finishes as one surface. It can be resanded later, often several times over the decades, provided the boards are thick enough and the wear stays in the face rather than the tongue. It wants a timber subfloor, or battens over concrete. On a straight slab apartment, battens get fiddly and expensive quickly.
Wide boards look great, but they also move more with humidity. A 130–180mm+ solid board will show seasonal movement more than a narrow strip, so ask about that before settling on a 180mm face.
Decision criteria for solid strip: a timber (or battened) subfloor, willingness to live with site sanding dust and cure time, preference for a continuous site finish, and acceptance that Melbourne seasons will open and close small gaps.
Engineered — the apartment workhorse
Real timber on top, plywood or engineered core underneath. Glue-down onto concrete is the usual call for flats and townhouses. Floating click systems exist too; they’re quicker to lay, less permanent, and feel slightly different underfoot.
Engineered boards move less in width than solid, and the factory finish means no sanding dust in your living room. Body corp noise and moisture rules are usually easier to satisfy with glue-down engineered than with solid strip.
Wear layer thickness is the number that decides how many lives the floor gets. Engineered wear layers commonly sit around 2–6mm. Thin veneers may allow 0–1 careful sands; thicker 3mm+ layers may allow more. A timber face doesn’t mean unlimited resands, so ask the manufacturer for that product’s limit.
Prefinished solid
Solid timber, coated at the factory. You get the longevity of solid without waiting for on-site coats to cure. The colour is locked in board by board, so you lose the continuous sanded surface of a site finish, and board edges can read a touch more than a fully sanded room.
It’s handy for renovations where you need rooms back in use quickly. It’s still a solid product underneath, though, so humidity movement and subfloor matching still apply. The factory finish saves time and site mess; it doesn’t change how the timber behaves.
Bamboo
Bamboo is a grass, not a timber, but it’s sold and installed much like engineered. Strand-woven is hard and dense. Treat it as its own product: movement, colour range and coatings aren’t identical to eucalypt hardwood. Species hardness charts don’t map cleanly onto bamboo — see timber flooring hardness for how we talk about Janka bands on real hardwoods, then ask product-specific questions for bamboo.
Matching system to the building
The subfloor and the way you live decide the system; the photo that made you want timber comes second. Coat choice still matters once the system is right — floor coating finishes covers that. Wet rooms and splash-heavy laundries are a hard sell for real timber; for those areas, look at hybrid options in timber vs hybrid vs laminate.
Subfloor decision tree
- Timber joists or existing strip boards (sound and level enough)
- Prefer traditional look and resandability → solid strip, site sand and coat
- Need faster turnaround or factory colour → prefinished solid or engineered
- Concrete slab (apartment, townhouse, new slab home)
- Glue-down engineered is the usual default
- Floating click engineered if the product, underlay and body corp allow it
- Solid strip only with a proper batten or acoustic system — budget and height buildup get serious
- Battens over slab
- Opens solid strip as an option — confirm moisture barrier, acoustic needs and finished floor height first
- Unknown or mixed
- Get the subfloor typed properly before you order boards. A site check is cheaper than ordering the wrong system.
Cost and timeline cues
These are honest ranges; for firm numbers you’ll need a proper quote. Material alone for timber floors commonly sits in a wide band depending on species, grade, width and finish. Installation, sanding, coatings, acoustic underlays, battens and site prep often rival or exceed the board cost in apartments.
Rough timeline cues:
- Prefinished / floating systems: often days for a typical house area once the site is ready. Still leave expansion and curing as the product requires.
- Glue-down engineered: install days, then avoid heavy abuse while the adhesive sets. Follow the adhesive and manufacturer rules.
- Site-sanded solid: sanding plus multiple coats typically stretch over several days to a week-plus of restricted access, depending on the coating system and weather. Allow for that restricted access when you plan.
Body corp and apartments add paperwork: acoustic ratings, approved adhesives, and sometimes a ban on floating systems or solid over slab without specific treatments. Ask before the boards arrive.