Timber Flooring in Gisborne and Tairāwhiti

Gisborne combines warm dry summers with humid, wet winters, which is a wider annual swing than most of the North Island. A floor here has to cope with both ends rather than settling into one.

It is also a region with a large share of older timber-framed housing and a meaningful seismic history, both of which affect substrate condition.

Specifying for Tairāwhiti conditions

• Plan for the annual range, not the average. Summer dry and winter damp both act on the board. The boards take no perimeter expansion gap, so the range is handled by conditioning them and confirming substrate moisture before laying.
• Older timber subfloors need checking for level and ventilation. Movement in an older frame will show through a rigid floor.
• Acclimatisation in the room, at least the published 48 hours, with the house running normally.
• Strong summer light. East Coast sun is direct and changes how any colour reads through the day. Sample in the room before deciding.

Colour under East Coast light

Gisborne gets more sunshine hours than almost anywhere in the country, and direct light changes how a floor reads. Riviera is the colour most often chosen here. It is raw European oak finished without added colour, so strong light falls on the timber itself rather than on a tone laid over it, and the floor moves through the day the way oak is meant to.

Where the palette is already cool, concrete, schist or blackened steel, the grey undertones of La Forêt, Vuitton and Lune hold their character under strong sun and are the alternative worth sampling.

This is exactly the situation where a photograph misleads. Order samples, put them on the floor of the actual room, and look at them in the middle of the day.

Supplied in the region

Whataupoko, Gisborne. Riviera through a new three bedroom home by Solscape Builders. Raw European oak, finished without added colour, so the floor is the timber itself rather than a tone applied to it. The handmade bevel gives every board its own edge, and the floor reads as laid rather than installed.

Delivery and consultation

We deliver throughout Tairāwhiti and the East Coast. Our nearest showroom is Auckland, at Residium, 165 The Strand in Parnell, open seven days with an interior designer on site Wednesday to Saturday.

Samples are free and unlimited.