What are my options for flooring for the ground floor please? It's a
through lounge/diner with a total area of 28m2, and I'd like to keep the
cost down to £300-500 if possible. I'd also like to lay it in a day, or so.

Last time I did something like this was 1995, and I bought laminate
flooring from Ikea. That seemed okay, and it was not too hard to lay.

Am I going to get anything reasonable for my budget, and do I now need
to look at something 'engineered' or perhaps LVT? Both seem to be £20/m2
upwards.

The sub floor is solid, smooth and level.

On Monday, 30 October 2017 19:48:29 UTC, GB wrote:

What are my options for flooring for the ground floor please? It's a
through lounge/diner with a total area of 28m2, and I'd like to keep the
cost down to £300-500 if possible. I'd also like to lay it in a day, or so.

Last time I did something like this was 1995, and I bought laminate
flooring from Ikea. That seemed okay, and it was not too hard to lay.

Am I going to get anything reasonable for my budget, and do I now need
to look at something 'engineered' or perhaps LVT? Both seem to be £20/m2
upwards.

The sub floor is solid, smooth and level.

pallet wood fits that budget. Comes up nicely, but a lot of cutting & sanding required. The other option is vinyl tiles, and I would not especially recommend them.


NT

replying to GB, Iggy wrote:
Your only options in that budget area appear to be Sheet Vinyl or Laminate.
Once installed you can't tell the difference between them and you can get both
in High Traffic and Extra Scratch Resistance heavier or commercial duties.

--
for full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/uk-diy...g-1246425-.htm

On 30/10/2017 20:44, Iggy wrote:
replying to GB, Iggy wrote:
Your only options in that budget area appear to be Sheet Vinyl or Laminate.
Once installed you can't tell the difference between them and you can
get both
in High Traffic and Extra Scratch Resistance heavier or commercial duties.

+1

The commercial grade vinyls are pretty tough and the cheaper ones should
be within your budget.

On 30/10/2017 21:48, newshound wrote:
On 30/10/2017 20:44, Iggy wrote:
replying to GB, Iggy wrote:
Your only options in that budget area appear to be Sheet Vinyl or
Laminate.
Once installed you can't tell the difference between them and you can
get both
in High Traffic and Extra Scratch Resistance heavier or commercial
duties.

+1

The commercial grade vinyls are pretty tough and the cheaper ones should
be within your budget.


Thanks for all this. I definitely don't want sheet vinyl. At the moment
the space is carpeted, and I can get it recarpeted for under £500. I
just thought that maybe some wooden flooring would be nicer.

How much do I need to spend to get reasonable looking wood flooring, and
what do people recommend? I can increase the budget if necessary.

On 30/10/17 19:48, GB wrote:
What are my options for flooring for the ground floor please? It's a
through lounge/diner with a total area of 28m2, and I'd like to keep the
cost down to £300-500 if possible. I'd also like to lay it in a day, or so.

Last time I did something like this was 1995, and I bought laminate
flooring from Ikea. That seemed okay, and it was not too hard to lay.

Am I going to get anything reasonable for my budget, and do I now need
to look at something 'engineered' or perhaps LVT? Both seem to be £20/m2
upwards.

The sub floor is solid, smooth and level.
I am afraid decent wood comes in at over £20/sq m
So do tiles laid.

Carpet is less. As is vinyl or lino or vinyl or carpet floor tiles



--
Climate Change: Socialism wearing a lab coat.

On 31/10/17 10:38, GB wrote:
On 30/10/2017 21:48, newshound wrote:
On 30/10/2017 20:44, Iggy wrote:
replying to GB, Iggy wrote:
Your only options in that budget area appear to be Sheet Vinyl or
Laminate.
Once installed you can't tell the difference between them and you can
get both
in High Traffic and Extra Scratch Resistance heavier or commercial
duties.

+1

The commercial grade vinyls are pretty tough and the cheaper ones
should be within your budget.


Thanks for all this. I definitely don't want sheet vinyl. At the moment
the space is carpeted, and I can get it recarpeted for under £500. I
just thought that maybe some wooden flooring would be nicer.

How much do I need to spend to get reasonable looking wood flooring, and
what do people recommend? I can increase the budget if necessary.

I used kahrs oak and loved it.

https://www.flooringsupplies.co.uk/kahrs-oak

its not cheap.

Take time on the decision


--
Climate Change: Socialism wearing a lab coat.

replying to GB, Iggy wrote:
If you're thinking its still the same old kitchen stuff, then you should
really go take a look in person. Waterproof, seamless, cheap, goes down in
minutes and very hard to tell the difference from real wood or tile.
http://www.diy.com/departments/saluz.../290757_BQ.prd
OR
http://www.diy.com/departments/arteg.../290753_BQ.prd
OR
http://www.diy.com/departments/caril.../536874_BQ.prd
OR
http://www.diy.com/departments/lucin...1155769_BQ.prd

--
for full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/uk-diy...g-1246425-.htm

On Tuesday, 31 October 2017 10:38:09 UTC, GB wrote:
On 30/10/2017 21:48, newshound wrote:
On 30/10/2017 20:44, Iggy wrote:
replying to GB, Iggy wrote:
Your only options in that budget area appear to be Sheet Vinyl or
Laminate.
Once installed you can't tell the difference between them and you can
get both
in High Traffic and Extra Scratch Resistance heavier or commercial
duties.

+1

The commercial grade vinyls are pretty tough and the cheaper ones should
be within your budget.


Thanks for all this. I definitely don't want sheet vinyl. At the moment
the space is carpeted, and I can get it recarpeted for under £500. I
just thought that maybe some wooden flooring would be nicer.

How much do I need to spend to get reasonable looking wood flooring, and
what do people recommend? I can increase the budget if necessary.

Nothing. Pallets are free. It comes up fine, just needs more work as it's not prepared as ready-made wood flooring is. And you'll be left with a ton of offcuts where it has nail holes, splits etc.


NT

wrote:

GB wrote:

How much do I need to spend to get reasonable looking wood flooring, and
what do people recommend? I can increase the budget if necessary.

Nothing. Pallets are free.

1/2" ply comes in about £9/m^2, rip it into strips, chamfer the edges,
jumble the "boards" up a bit as you lay them and stain/varnish to taste.

http://www.ibuildit.ca/other%20projects/Home%20Improvement/plywood-flooring-1.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxmx7qxR-nk

In article ,
GB wrote:
How much do I need to spend to get reasonable looking wood flooring, and
what do people recommend? I can increase the budget if necessary.

Prices vary dramatically by where you buy it. I got some very nice decent
plywood base oak faced from Ebay for a lot less than shop prices. The big
problem is knowing what you are buying, quality wise. Stuff with lots of
knots in the facing will be cheaper than without. The larger each 'plank',
the more pricey too.

I paid about £1000 to do a 'through lounge' - about 32 x 16 ft. Looks
superb. Had to buy a nailer to fit it - but sold it afterwards for just
about what it cost.

--
*Why is it that to stop Windows 95, you have to click on "Start"?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Dave Plowman wrote:

Had to buy a nailer to fit it
but sold it afterwards for just about what it cost.
Alternatively consider Tongue-Tite screws, but test out their
"no splitting" claim on an offcut of your particular boards rather than
trusting it blindly, I had to drill a pilot.

On 01/11/2017 10:58, Andy Burns wrote:
Dave Plowman wrote:

Had to buy a nailer to fit it
but sold it afterwards for just about what it cost.
Alternatively consider Tongue-Tite screws, but test out their
"no splitting" claim on an offcut of your particular boards rather than
trusting it blindly, I had to drill a pilot.

I've got a concrete sub-floor, so a 'floating floor' would be ideal.

On 31/10/2017 10:38, GB wrote:
On 30/10/2017 21:48, newshound wrote:
On 30/10/2017 20:44, Iggy wrote:
replying to GB, Iggy wrote:
Your only options in that budget area appear to be Sheet Vinyl or
Laminate.
Once installed you can't tell the difference between them and you can
get both
in High Traffic and Extra Scratch Resistance heavier or commercial
duties.

+1

The commercial grade vinyls are pretty tough and the cheaper ones
should be within your budget.


Thanks for all this. I definitely don't want sheet vinyl. At the moment
the space is carpeted, and I can get it recarpeted for under £500. I
just thought that maybe some wooden flooring would be nicer.

How much do I need to spend to get reasonable looking wood flooring, and
what do people recommend? I can increase the budget if necessary.

I recently put down some cheep laminate from Wickes. It looks good,
feels good, has an easier surface to clean than wood the only real
disadvantage I can see is that it supposedly expands and contracts, but
I put silicone caulk between the floor and skirting and can see no sign
of movement.

I have no idea how long it will last.

I have not been impressed by actual wood floors they are harder to
maintain and often look a bit ropey.

I would have preferred waterproof luxury vinyl but wasn't prepared to
pay more than double to get it.

On 01/11/2017 11:07, GB wrote:
On 01/11/2017 10:58, Andy Burns wrote:
Dave Plowman wrote:

Had to buy a nailer to fit it
but sold it afterwards for just about what it cost.
Alternatively consider Tongue-Tite screws, but test out their
"no splitting" claim on an offcut of your particular boards rather
than trusting it blindly, I had to drill a pilot.

I've got a concrete sub-floor, so a 'floating floor' would be ideal.



With a laminate floating floor the one thing to mention is that the
concrete floor has to be very flat, i.e. it can have a slope but no bumps.

I had to get mine to 2mm within 2m. After a carpet it hadn't occurred to
me that the concrete floor wasn't ok but in fact it required a bit of work.

On 01/11/2017 10:44, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
GB wrote:
How much do I need to spend to get reasonable looking wood flooring, and
what do people recommend? I can increase the budget if necessary.

Prices vary dramatically by where you buy it. I got some very nice decent
plywood base oak faced from Ebay for a lot less than shop prices. The big
problem is knowing what you are buying, quality wise. Stuff with lots of
knots in the facing will be cheaper than without. The larger each 'plank',
the more pricey too.

I paid about £1000 to do a 'through lounge' - about 32 x 16 ft. Looks
superb. Had to buy a nailer to fit it - but sold it afterwards for just
about what it cost.



These people are selling reasonable LVT at £12/m2. That's within my
budget.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Polyflor-C...-/281448054244

In article ,
Nick wrote:
I have not been impressed by actual wood floors they are harder to
maintain and often look a bit ropey.

Other than cleaning and mopping up any spills or whatever, mine hasn't
been touched in 5 years. And it's an oiled finish, so easy to re-do.

I would have preferred waterproof luxury vinyl but wasn't prepared to
pay more than double to get it.

Depends of whether you want it to look like a real wood floor or not.

--
*Support bacteria - they're the only culture some people have *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 01/11/2017 11:07, GB wrote:
On 01/11/2017 10:58, Andy Burns wrote:
Dave Plowman wrote:

Had to buy a nailer to fit it
but sold it afterwards for just about what it cost.
Alternatively consider Tongue-Tite screws, but test out their
"no splitting" claim on an offcut of your particular boards rather
than trusting it blindly, I had to drill a pilot.

I've got a concrete sub-floor, so a 'floating floor' would be ideal.




You lose 35% of heat through an uninsulated solid ground floor.
You will notice the difference.

Keep the carpet and give it a clean. Buy rugs to tart it up
if necessary or just go for some cheap contract carpet with a
separate underlay.

On 01/11/2017 11:18, Nick wrote:
On 01/11/2017 11:07, GB wrote:
On 01/11/2017 10:58, Andy Burns wrote:
Dave Plowman wrote:

Had to buy a nailer to fit it
but sold it afterwards for just about what it cost.
Alternatively consider Tongue-Tite screws, but test out their
"no splitting" claim on an offcut of your particular boards rather
than trusting it blindly, I had to drill a pilot.

I've got a concrete sub-floor, so a 'floating floor' would be ideal.



With a laminate floating floor the one thing to mention is that the
concrete floor has to be very flat, i.e. it can have a slope but no bumps.

I had to get mine to 2mm within 2m. After a carpet it hadn't occurred to
me that the concrete floor wasn't ok but in fact it required a bit of work.



I had up to 20mm high and low spots after I chucked my carpet out. :-(

I ended up digging out the entire ground floor screed which then
revealed a slab that was even more uneven. Luckily it came up in
big chunks by hammering a brick bolster into the joint twixt
slab and screed then bashing the screed to shatter it.

I spent ages fitting 3x2 battens long side vertical, each trimmed
to follow the contours and with the underside notched out and
infilled with 25mm celotex, so only a third of the length of each
length was touching the floor. I screwed them into the concrete
(through a blue 1000 guage 2ndary dpm) using concrete screws
from the same firm as tite-screws. I went for a 250mm spacing
infilled with 70mm quinntherm or 60 mm knauf loftboards where
the slab had a hump required a lot of 'trimming' to the batten.

Finished off with Wickes 18mm solid wood flooring, glued to
create long wide planks out of the short bits that it seemed
to be made of.

With hindsight I wish I had spent a bit more on decent flooring.
The wickes stuff seems to be a variety of species that expand
and contract at different rates so some glued joints have
shrinkage cracks at their ends. It also scratches and dents
very easily, so one day I will hire a floor planer and remove
all the wickes varnish and apply some wood hardener followed
by a decent coating of polyurethane varnish.

Combined with a similar treatment to the north-facing front
wall (50mm celotex fitted with 30mm horizontal fitted on top
of the celotex using 120 mm frame anchors and infilled with
30mm celotex, giving 80mm, means I hardly need any heat to
get it up to 20 centigrade and keep it there.

On 01/11/2017 13:23, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Nick wrote:
I have not been impressed by actual wood floors they are harder to
maintain and often look a bit ropey.

Other than cleaning and mopping up any spills or whatever, mine hasn't
been touched in 5 years. And it's an oiled finish, so easy to re-do.

I would have preferred waterproof luxury vinyl but wasn't prepared to
pay more than double to get it.

Depends of whether you want it to look like a real wood floor or not.


If I did my lounge again I would definately go for some sort of
engineered planking. You get a more consistent product which is
more stable.

There is some really awful 'solid' wood flooring out there.

On 31/10/2017 11:02, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 30/10/17 19:48, GB wrote:
What are my options for flooring for the ground floor please? It's a
through lounge/diner with a total area of 28m2, and I'd like to keep
the cost down to £300-500 if possible. I'd also like to lay it in a
day, or so.

Last time I did something like this was 1995, and I bought laminate
flooring from Ikea. That seemed okay, and it was not too hard to lay.

Am I going to get anything reasonable for my budget, and do I now need
to look at something 'engineered' or perhaps LVT? Both seem to be
£20/m2 upwards.

The sub floor is solid, smooth and level.
I am afraid decent wood comes in at over £20/sq m
So do tiles laid.

Carpet is less. As is vinyl or lino or vinyl or carpet floor tiles



Check out Nairn lino tiles if you have a good flat floor. They may
over your budget, but come in a wacky range of colours, have a 10mm
HDF subtrate so provide some useful insulation and allow bare-foot
during cold weather without feeling cold, as cheap laminate will.

Being 'lino' they resist impact damage and unlike vinyl, if you
do drop a match or candle or anything really hot on them, they just
scorch and can be rubbed down and repaired.

On Wed, 1 Nov 2017 11:12:43 +0000
Nick wrote:

I recently put down some cheep laminate from Wickes. It looks good,
feels good, has an easier surface to clean than wood the only real
disadvantage I can see is that it supposedly expands and contracts,
but I put silicone caulk between the floor and skirting and can see
no sign of movement.

I used cheap Wickes laminate in the lounge, but it's mostly covered with
rugs and furniture so it doesn't really matter that it's a bit naff.
As for skirting boards, I removed them before laying the floor - so
much neater than having to fill gaps or fix a quadrant moulding.

In article ,
Andrew wrote:
On 01/11/2017 13:23, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Nick wrote:
I have not been impressed by actual wood floors they are harder to
maintain and often look a bit ropey.

Other than cleaning and mopping up any spills or whatever, mine hasn't
been touched in 5 years. And it's an oiled finish, so easy to re-do.

I would have preferred waterproof luxury vinyl but wasn't prepared to
pay more than double to get it.

Depends of whether you want it to look like a real wood floor or not.


If I did my lounge again I would definately go for some sort of
engineered planking. You get a more consistent product which is
more stable.

Think if you want it to look like real wood, it's not going to be cheap.

There is some really awful 'solid' wood flooring out there.

True. Often too perfect. Real wood never is. Other giveaway is some form
of trim where it meets the skirting, etc. I took mine off and ran it
underneath. Not as difficult as it sounds here as the large Victorian
skirting is more than one piece, and only the bottom had to come off, with
the wood frame it fits to still intact behind.

--
*Confession is good for the soul, but bad for your career.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.