FAQs – Answers from Jo

How do I start the process of getting a new floor?/should I buy my floor before I get in contact with you guys?

Please, Please, Please (and we can not stress this enough) if you plan to get any flooring professional in for an install get your floor fitter involved before you make any purchases etc. I would honestly advise this whether you use us for your install or any other company.

Now I understand fully that you may be feeling that you’ve seen a great deal online on the floor you want (and that could even be time sensitive) or that you feel you may be getting a bit of a bum deal and your fitter will either A. push you to have something you don’t actually want, or B. make a lot of money selling you the materials, and you want to avoid both of those outcomes.

I can honestly assure you that is not the reason I would advise getting your flooring contractor involved before buying any flooring. Firstly, to put your mind at rest, the vast majority of our customers buy their own materials online and just get us to fit them, we don’t make a bean on those materials! However they do buy what we advise, meaning they get genuinely good tried and tested products but at the best price possible. Secondly I would rather not do a job and walk away from the money than advise you a floor that is unsuitable, I am even happy to give you the phone number of friends and contacts that do other types of floors that we don’t offer if I think that is a better choice for you or your home – believe it or not there are still tradies out there that care.

And that is the exact reason I would advise getting your fitter on board before anything else. Over and over I have sadly seen people buy floors that just aren’t suitable for their home, their subfloor or even for their intended use. This could have been easily avoidable if they had just asked their flooring professional what was best. Now that being said, often we can find a way of making what is not the best floor work but it usually means additional prep work, meaning additional cost and on the rarest of occasions leaving a home with yes a great fit, but a sense of dissatisfaction knowing there may have been a better choice available.

Obviously if you are planning on fitting your own floor, you do you, have at it, buy whatever you want. And believe it or not, if that is the case and you tell me that’s the case, I will still often happily offer free advice on what’s the best floor for you, so give me a call.

I’ve heard of Karndean (or Amtico) and that’s what I want, is that what you do?

Well succinctly yes that’s exactly what we do.

Karndean and Amtico are both brand names of types of LVT. To understand LVT or Luxury Vinyl Tile we’ve got a pretty good explanation of all the different types on our Luxury Vinyl Tile page under the “our services” page on our website.

What’s happened over the years is that the brand name has become synonymous with the product, think Hoover and Vacuum cleaner and you’ll get what I mean.

What’s the difference between engineered and solid wood?

To put it simply, the clue is in the name. Solid wood flooring is a solid piece of wood cut from a tree. Engineered wood flooring has an engineering process behind the construction of it.

For a full explanation of the differences between the two and the different fitting methods available for both check out our wood flooring page under “our services” or give us a call.

What is an Agilia/Calcium sulphite/Gypsum/Anhydrite screed floor?

Anhydrite screed is a self-levelling liquid screed made from calcium sulphate rather than traditional cement.

Having a different composition means it requires different preparation to a traditional cement based floor. This often includes removing the ‘laitance’, a weak, powdery, and sometimes waxy layer of fine particles that forms on the surface of self-levelling screeds as they cure, caused by water carrying materials to the top. It must be removed, typically by mechanical sanding 4–10 days after installation, to prevent floor failure, speed up drying, and ensure proper bonding for adhesives or smoothing compounds. If left on the floor, the anhydrite laitance will likely lead to bonding failures, as it creates a weak, unstable surface. The longer this layer is left after the initial window determined by the manufacturer, the harder it can be to remove.

Incorrect preparation of this type of subfloor is one of the leading causes in recent years for flooring failures, leading to many of the horror stories you will see online about LVT flooring etc. Its not the product that’s the issue, it’s a lack of knowledge from installers, a desire to cut corners and save cost by the customer; usually leading to increased costs, increased time and a heap of aggro all round.

We have a lot of experience dealing with this type of floor and we are happy to take you start to finish of your flooring install with this type of subfloor.

Will my floor be perfectly level after ‘self level’ is applied?

Just being Honest. Not necessarily no.

And, take note… from a floor fitters point of view that is absolutely fine.

The standard we are looking floor is flat, smooth, straight but not necessarily level. Now I understand this may seem like a contradiction but it is genuinely not. If I can explain maybe you will be able to understand the difference.

When a floor fitter/contractor is looking at a subfloor what standard we are looking to achieve, depending on the floor being fitted fits into 3 categories: SR (surface regularity) 1, 2 or 3.

The standard is as follows:

• SR1 plus or minus 3mm over 2m
• SR2 plus or minus 5mm over 2m
• SR3 plus or minus 10mm over 2m

“According to the British Standard, surface regularity for normal floors is measured by putting a straightedge on the floor, totally flat. Now, the deviations from the straightedge are measure from point to point. A slip gauge is used to measure the deviation from the underside of the straightedge.”

An easy way to understand that is to shift your focus from the dial on the top your spirit level to the underside, because that’s exactly what we’re going to do.  

My floor is flat, do I really need a smoothing underlayment?

Yes. Yes. Yes.

For explanation No1 please see the previous FAQ.

Secondly it may genuinely be actually related to the drying of the glue for the product you have chosen. If you need a greater explanation on this topic please give me a call.

Why do I need beading?

Everyone hates beading/scotia. FACT.

But beading may be a necessary evil on your flooring install.

Any floating floor be that solid wood (this is not a contradiction, there is a very special type of underlay, and we need a phone conversation), engineered wood, laminate or click LVT, all of these products need an expansion gap. All of these floors can expand and contract throughout their life, meaning they need a correctly fitted piece of trim to hide said expansion gap at the edge of the floor.

Does the age of my property affect what flooring I can have?

Yes and No.

Almost all the time it doesn’t necessarily affect what floor you can have, but it can definitely affect how much work and therefore cost it will take to get you there. We all know that realistically, cash is king.

So it’s not really the age of the property affecting what floor you can or can’t have but more what you’re willing to spend and whether what you initially wanted is either A) a sensible decision or B) the best option. This is one of the reasons we recommend getting your flooring contractor involved before making any decisions or buying anything, we care and we’ll help you make the best decision for your needs and your property.

Why is moisture testing necessary?

Two reasons, 1: To comply with British standards – this protects us both.  You, in that your warranties are in place from your flooring manufacturers, your smoothing product manufacturers and adhesive manufacturers. Us, in that we aren’t liable to litigation (in that we’ve done everything right) and most importantly to us we aren’t liable to dissatisfaction from our customers. 

2: To ensure your floor literally doesn’t lift. Wood swells, glues emulsify and non-moisture-tolerant screeds blow. High moisture levels spell bad news if they aren’t dealt with correctly.

If you’re worried what it means if you have high moisture readings in your floor, please give us a call, it’s not all that bad.

IS LVT Suitable for over underfloor heating?

100% yes.

Almost all flooring is rated to be used over underfloor heating at the max recommended operational surface temperature of 27 degrees Celsius. LVT has great thermal efficiency and transference, minimal expansion and contraction because of increased dimensional stability and maintain their durability even when used in rooms with underfloor heating.

We personally recommend a fully bonded LVT or fully bonded wood floor over any type of floating flooring system with underfloor heating, but needs must and on occasion a low tog underlay with a floating floor may be the best option for you and your subfloor.

In most instances the heat from solar gain (bi-fold/patio doors or floor to ceiling windows) is a bigger issue than underfloor heating. Even then we have everything in place to ensure this potential issue just becomes a specification decision rather than a long term problem.

How much flooring will I need?

The industry standard amount of flooring needed is the area plus 10%. This is why you’re looking at your quotations and wondering why everyone is specifying a volume of flooring above your floor area. (Yes this may even mean ordering an extra box of flooring)

Now, this isn’t to say we will recommend ordering 10% every time. We use 10% as a base rule of thumb. But we also take into account the size of the area, the bigger the area the less wastage needed, the smaller the area the greater the waste needed. Conversely, the smaller the individual flooring plank the less wastage is needed, the bigger the plank the more wastage is needed. We might recommend anywhere between 5% and 25%

Just trust your fitter.