Boat Club, Oxford

The city of Oxford is known for many things, one of the most renowned being its rowing community. With the university college competitions dating back over a century, the city’s rowing history is rife, and at the centre of this are the boat clubs. Falcon Boat Club is one of the oldest rowing clubs in Oxford, dating back to 1869, offering the local community a place to enjoy the sport, in addition to relaxing and enjoying the beautiful views of the river. When it came to the renovation, Ideal Flooring was approached by NGK Builders to provide the flooring package for the works at the magnificent new build boat club”. With a large space to cover, it was important that the flooring chosen looked at home in the space, adding enough character without distracting from the beautiful views of the river. To that end, the floor chosen was our EG106 Broad Oak, an engineered oak plank, unique in its large-sized boards. Measuring 220mm by 2200mm, these planks were well suited to the large space, drawing your eye across the room, and creating a large multi-use area for the boat club members. With a natural UV oiled finish, Broad Oak offers all the beautiful characteristics you can expect from a wood floor born from nature, whilst maintaining a hardwearing finish, perfect for this member’s area!

“Throughout Falcon’s history the Club has never had its own Club House. As part of our 150th anniversary the goal is to have plans and funding in place to be able to build one, so we have somewhere to train and socialise off water and support our wider community activities.”

To that end, the floor chosen was our EG106 Broad Oak, an engineered oak plank, unique in its large-sized boards. Measuring 220mm by 2200mm, these planks were well suited to the large space, drawing your eye across the room, and creating a large multi-use area for the boat club members. With a natural UV oiled finish, Broad Oak offers all the beautiful characteristics you can expect from a wood floor born from nature, whilst maintaining a hardwearing finish, perfect for this member’s area! The end result of the renovation was a beautiful two-story river-side boathouse, complete with slanted roof gables, mirroring the original boathouse design. The boatshed’s four doors are complete with the club’s colours, white, teal, black and yellow, as chosen by the committee in the 1800’s, brilliantly establishing the club’s presence on the river. Inside the clubhouse, the broad oak flooring perfectly sits next to underneath the natural oak beams, offering a calming open space for members to enjoy.

"When discussing the project, Andy Cox from Ideal Flooring recalls: “The installation was straightforward due to this being a new build project along with having a large area which required the installation of the V4 Wood flooring. We have always found the V4 wood flooring to be an excellent product which lays well and looks fantastic"