Apart from the usual factors which affect price (like species of wood, or solid wood vs engineered wood), other factors include:

- dimensions of the plank (thickness x width x length). Many suppliers have max length of 3' to 5' - these are the 2nd tier cuts from the log and hence a bit more affordable. 18mm is fairly standard thickness for solid wood. When I did my floor, I specially use higher grade planks 19mm thick with max length up to 12'.

- sub floor preparation, namely the battens. What wood they use and spacing. Good standard is chengal and about 6" center-to-center spacing.

- what coating they use. I believe water based is more expensive.

160 - 180 is cheap.

I can supply you with Merbau wood for your floor.

PM me with your dimension, i will quote.

Can i ask how you going to finished the surface?

initially i want solid wood for my ground floor living cum dining area, after some reading n searching looks like i have no choice but to choose laminated flooring.

1) problem of waterproofing. the new extension floor can do waterproofing but if to hack the old floor n redo waterproofing, the costing is simply too high.

2) even if i choose the common merbau solid wood, the price is easily 3 times more than a common laminated flooring, not to mention my favorite teak.

i thing for sure, i will not pick the "woodlike" vinyl

Ground floor use timber need to have good water proofing, if not, heart sick later. Tiles are the most sensible. Bedrooms upstairs if use timber wld be nice.

i don't like the cold feeling of tiles although they look nice too. since mine is a single storey corner, have no choice lah. laminated should be able to withstand moisture far more better than solid wood.

I think both of you looking for trouble.

Ground floor, always have water vapour seeping out of the concrete, thus worse for laminated flooring as de-lamination will 100% occur. Ignore what the manufacturer claim, unless they are willing to give you a lifetime warranty against de-lamination. No glue is soooo good, the heat and cold cycle inside our house will cause the glue to degrade over the years. Don't understand ?? easy, same as any good expensive pair of shoe, the sole will de-laminate after a few year.... hot and cold cycle. Heat from our feet and cool down when you take off your shoe. Ask any good shoe sales person.

Just for your understanding re solid wood flooring, thickness and length do matter on cost.
All solid timber costing is calculated from either per M3 or MT ( volume ton = 1.416 m3 ), so whatever your contractor quote you, work out the cost per m3 or mt to compare.
Eg : 16mm x 95mm @ rm12/m run = 1 / (0.016 x 0.09 ) x rm12 = rm8333 / m3 . Use only 0.09 instead of 0.095 cos 5mm is eaten up by the tongue&groove (T&G).
For ground floor, best to use only 18mm up thickness, too much traffic, unless the batten is placed very closely.

As for the length of 3ft to 6ft, this are majority imported from Indonesia, Finish product like flooring is still legal to be exported. Cost is around usd1200-1400/m3, KD with or without T&G. WHERE GOT SO MUCH MERBAU IN MALAYSIA except from Sabah.

As for waterproofing the ground floor, ask any good tiling supplier, there is already in the market waterproofing coating chemical to coat over the existing tile as waterproofing. Ask around, you are paying for heartache if not.

Merbau is super for flooring if you can afford it.

This post has been edited by hunter1425: Jun 22 2011, 03:57 PM

Hi there,

can I know where did you get this material conversion factor ( volume ton = 1.416 m3 )??

Google lah.

Timber is calculated by volumetric tonnage. Very confusing when timber men quote by MT.

Standard is 50 ft3 = 1 MT = 1.416 M3.

Keke, I was in timber b4.

I guess that is for general calculation...

Apart from that, I guess your calculation is based on Saw Mill supply rate excluding all the process to manufactured into Timber Flooring?

Standard market for T&G processing won't be more than rm500/MT.

Cost at usd1200-1400/m3 is for Grade A Merbau, flooring sizes, rip or S4S KD (MC 10-12%) timber.

Wah, you really Timber Sifu....

so mr hunter, r u suggesting that only those with deep pocket or stay at 2 storey house may use wood flooring, be it solid or laminated?

To each his own bro.

Some love to spend money on their house, some on girls, some on drug, some on gadget, some on car, so many some of...........


I myself loves timber flooring, just our Malaysia weather is not favouring timber flooring on ground floor. Still possible, but..... hiya lots of headache to do it properly.


There are lots of other cheaper good Malaysian timber suitable for flooring, why use the expensive Merbau ? Check with MTIB ( Malaysian Timber Industry Board ).

I spent RM17,000 for timber flooring for first floor (24' x 55') and the tangga. Average abt RM15 or RM17 psf I think.

1. Merbau planks 18mm thick 1 ft to 5 fft lengths, 90mm wide
2. Planks placed on cengal batten placed 4" to 5" apart
3. Water based coating(Bona - accordng to the supplier)
4. Area covered - all upstairs floor & 14 stepts of stairs & landing.

If cover with 2x2 tiles, the cost will be about RM9 psf MINIMUM.

Timber supply by Maha Asia. They have a website, just google parquet it shld pop up. The website advertise a promotion, this is an ongoing promo, so u can take your time to compare prices or quality. The office is in puchong I think, and behind the office is the store where u can inspect the planks and check out the varish they use.

This post has been edited by lizziewong: Jun 22 2011, 05:20 PM

That is reasonable. Where did you get it from?

When I started my reno, I wanted to use cheap cheap things to save cost. My friend said to me, better to feel the pain one time only (meaning spend alot of $$ for the reno to do it right), rather than to hve pain everyday (heart sick to see the end result if not done properly). I suppose he is right, thats why I spnt on my timber floor, which cost RM5k more than tiles.

Now when I look around my house, Iwish I had spent abit more on better finishes in some places. I opted for the Niro 2x2 polished tiles wihich was lelong at builders mart at RM14 per pc. It would be nicer if I spent more on sthg really very special (maybe double thee cost). Since my Niro tiles look quite decent (not exquisite), so it is not painful for me, and it is just a nice to have.

To save cashflow, I have brought my old furnture across (tv counter, dining table, sofa). Will buy new ones when I see sthg good later..

This post has been edited by lizziewong: Jun 22 2011, 05:15 PM

i thought merbau is considered common n "cheap" already, what would u suggest Mr Hunter?

Merbau actually has been considered a "common" Hardwood Timber flooring due to all the common factors such as price, stock availability, MC and etc...

There are more Hardwood Timber flooring around (e.g Teak, Pinewood and etc) which is imported timber flooring...

Common and cheap is what the timber retailer are telling you.

Common for them as they can anytime buy from Indo ( Indo is exporting no less than 10,000 m3/mth all over the world for this species), cheap to them cos they can get easy margin of 20% just trading. No sweat lah.

For other local suitable timber for flooring, ask MTIB opinion and go and see the sample. Individual taste on color, grain . etc ,etc. American loves red colored wood, same as Chinese, Japanese and European prefer light yellowish color. So, personal taste.

Teak is considered an exotic timber for the non teak producing country. U know the teak used for building super yacht cost easily Euro20,000/m3 ?

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Added on June 22, 2011, 5:58 pmBro, pine is classed under temperate softwood. Pine is used as all purpose utility softwood, except the pine from New Zealand. Bro, those NZ plantation pine is beautiful lah.

Temperate hardwood is only equal to our tropical medium hard.

This post has been edited by hunter1425: Jun 22 2011, 05:58 PM