You want a new washable floor for your Kitchen bathroom or other area?  What is available?

SHEET VINYL

This comes from various manufacturers in different designs, tiles and wood effects are two main types.  It usually has a ‘cushioned’ back (remember the name cushionflor?) The wear layer varies in thickness too as does the thickness of the backing.  Again, the more you pay generally gives either a thicker backing and deeper wear layer or both.  Consider where it is to be installed?  A bathroom would feel good with a thicker back, softer and more luxurious.  A kitchen however with dining table and chairs would suit a firmer back.  Why?  Thick back, heavy person on a chair, big dents!  Also the lightness of the design chosen should be considered as again a Bathroom could take a light colour whereas a Kitchen would probably be better in a more forgiving pattern or grain in the wood.

Vinyls come in sheet from 2metre 3metre and 4 metre wide.

Can it be easily installed?  Generally, relatively easy and quick to install providing the subfloor (the floor onto which we install) is sound and smooth.

Here are a couple of examples.  Concrete floor is just fine as long as it is smooth and has no bad cracks or pock marks that could show through the new floor.

If the concrete is cracked and poor then we can apply a self smoothing screed to give a good base for the new vinyl.

Floorboard floor.  This needs to be ply boarded in preparation for the new vinyl.  Why? Given time and gravity the new vinyl will show the old boards through from below, makes a new wood vinyl look very ‘fake’ !

Other types of sub floor.  There are quite a lot to cover here so probably best to let us come and have a look or take a picture to show us?

SAFETY FLOORING /ANTI SLIP FLOORING

This is a hard type of sheet flooring generally used for commercial applications example entrance halls, behind a bar, toilet areas.  It has a special not slip ingredient, it has little shiny bits in it!  There is a special one made for wet areas such as showers and wet rooms, this is very similar but has raised embossing to allow water to flow and give a good grip.

LVT,(LUXURY VINYL TILES)  KARNDEAN etc

High quality flooring supplied in tile or wood strip form.  It really does look like the real thing, wood or ceramic tiles.

There are now several types of LVT available in Stick Down, Click and Looselay.

Installation The subfloor needs to be good so we either plyboard or screed in preparation.  We do like to visit these installations to assess the required preparation.

A couple of IMPORTANT points to be noted about floor preparation.

Screeding, we use a self-smoothing mixture it does not make floors ‘water level’!!  Particularly older properties rarely have very level floors, so a smooth floor is what we try to achieve.

Plyboarding over wooden floors, again the plyboard follows the contours of the existing boards so a smooth floor is what we try to achieve not necessarily perfectly flat.

Dependant on the amount of subfloor preparation required the installation of a medium sized kitchen usually takes place over two visits, one we the prepare the floor with a screed and one to install your floor, however screeding floors (dependant on size) takes up a small amount of time in relation to the actual laying of the floor.  It helps our installers if they can have reasonably flexible access as they sometimes need to carry out floor preparations and installations on the same day.

Laminate flooring.

What is laminate flooring?  Is it wood as it comes in planks?  No laminate is a very good look alike.  It looks like wood and generally clicks together making a solid durable floor.  It is very hard wearing and comes in different qualities and thickness’s Unlike Karndean it can generally be fitted over a firmlevel floor without screeding or ply boarding.  As it is a floating floor note the underlined firm and level.  If the floor is uneven then attention will need to be taken or the laminate will bounce and ‘seesaw’.  There are few perfectly level floors but the underlay used under laminate does cope with most household floors. We also have a fibre board ‘underlay’ that works well on slightly poor floors.  You may still experience some slight movement in places it is after all a ‘floating floor’ this is normal and generally acceptable.