Timber Flooring in Timaru and South Canterbury

Marchand began here. Our founder grew up in South Canterbury, and our first container of European oak came through the Port of Timaru while the family was living in town. Long before there were studios in Christchurch, Queenstown and Auckland, there were boards being laid in South Canterbury homes, in South Canterbury conditions.

That is why we know this climate the way we do. It sits between two demanding conditions: cold, dry winters on one side, and the nor'west föhn wind on the other. A nor'wester can drop relative humidity sharply over a few hours. Timber responds to that, and a floor laid on a damp substrate or without proper acclimatisation will show it within the first year.

Specifying for South Canterbury conditions

• The perimeter needs no expansion gap. Boards run tight to walls and joinery when laid to guideline, so the rapid humidity drops that are a regional feature here are managed by a dry substrate and proper acclimatisation rather than by a gap at the wall.
• Acclimatisation is not a formality. The documentation says 48 hours in the room. Longer is better, with boxes open and the home's heating running as it normally does.
• Wood fires and heat pumps run hard through winter. Sustained low indoor humidity is the condition the floor will actually live in, not the condition on installation day.
• Coastal Timaru and inland South Canterbury behave differently. Closer to the coast the swings are gentler. Inland they are not.
• Slab moisture on newer builds still needs testing and documenting.

Board width

Our board is 240mm wide, and width amplifies movement. In inland South Canterbury, with hard-running heating and low winter humidity, that makes correct acclimatisation and substrate moisture testing more important rather than making the board unsuitable. The 20mm engineered construction with a cross-bonded core is precisely what makes a board this wide viable in these conditions.

The homestead look

South Canterbury homes lean towards generous rural plans, deep verandas and rooms that open onto the land. Our warmer colours, Bordeaux, Nectar and Saint-Tropez, sit naturally in that setting, and the 2.2 metre board length reads calmly across a long farmhouse floor. McDrurys Road, below, is a rural Canterbury renovation in Bordeaux Oak that shows the character well.