Help with oak flooring

[cassielynch]

I've been living in the UK for over 2 years and my husband and I have recently purchased an 18th century barn conversion. What I really want is to try and stick to traditional oak timber for renovating our barn, as this is what was used traditionally for a lot of the olde world type houses (you'll have to forgive me, I come from Australia, so don't know too much about structural materials used for British homes).

I want to lay the hardwood flooring mostly in the downstairs area; kitchen, living, hallways etc.

I live in North Yorkshire and have found floors from this company:

www.britishhardwoods.co.uk/oak-flooring.php - the traditional aged oak flooring looks very authentic, I've gone into their showroom and it's distressed, fumed etc.

Again, coming from Australia, wood flooring is ideal because of the heat rather than having carpets, but I'm just concerned about how warmth is kept in with oak flooring. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.

In traditional houses the floorboards were laid onto timbers with a big void and airbricks underneath. The wind whistled through which is why wall to wall carpet was invented .

These days Building Regulations call for insulation under the floor - for a solid floor you'd have (ground up:) hardcore, damp proof course, concrete slab, insulating layer, screed (a fine concrete) and then the finished floor on top of that. If you then wanted a wood finish you would nail it onto some battens or some kind of sub-floor. If you are still cold you can put in underfloor heating depending on the type of boards.

Solid oak floors are very susceptible to moisture/temperature, I have seen some terribly bowed/buckled ones but I'm sure the supplier can advise you on the proper product and way of installing it.

at your barn, I'm sure it will look beautiful when it's done, what a lovely project.

That was a rogue :) caused by typing colon:bracket) !