Twenty-five years of engineered hardwood, considered.

Timberzone was founded in the 1990s — a moment when British engineered hardwood was a niche, often poorly understood category, dominated by imported product of inconsistent quality. Our founder believed there was room for a different kind of supplier: one that took the floor itself as seriously as the architects and designers who specified it.

From the start, that meant fewer ranges done properly rather than vast catalogues done generically. It meant European oak, sourced through long-standing partnerships with mills who shared our standards. It meant board-by-board grading. And — perhaps most importantly — it meant a willingness to talk through a brief on the phone for an hour rather than send out a swatch pack and a price list.

That working method earned the studio its earliest specifiers and its first long-term commercial relationships. Twenty-five years on, both still trust us with their projects.

As the practice grew, so did our understanding of what specifiers actually need. Architects work to tight deadlines and tighter clients. Interior designers move between projects in residential, hospitality and commercial in the same week. Both need a supplier who gets there first — with the right sample, the right specification, the right answer to a question about an underfloor heating zone or a screed moisture reading.

So over the years we built our service to match the work. Bespoke colour development for projects that needed something the catalogue didn't offer. Sample boards delivered to studios within 48 hours rather than two weeks. NBS specifications, CAD details and BIM objects on request. Technical guidance on sub-floor preparation, UFH commissioning and on-site moisture testing — written by us, not borrowed from a manufacturer's brochure.

This is the part of the business we now think of as Timberzone Studio: the same exceptional engineered floor, supported by everything a specifier needs to bring it into a building well.

Our showroom on the High Road in East Finchley is open six days a week — set up the way a specifier wants to work. Full-size sample boards laid out on the table, every colour and pattern in the collection within reach, and an espresso while we walk through the brief. Architects come for project meetings. Designers come to test palettes against finishes. Private clients come to see the floors at scale before they commit.

Our installation team — many trained in the European parquetry tradition — works directly alongside main contractors and design leads. We arrive prepared, with all materials, adhesives, fasteners and bespoke accessories, and we hand-inspect every board before it goes down. Our maintenance team looks after every floor we've ever laid, for as long as the client wants to live with it.

Twenty-five years in, the work is still about the same thing: a floor specified once, lived with for decades. Visit the studio →