Choosing new flooring

To set the scene, this house is a 4 year old new build with new build carpets (in case you haven't ever experienced this delight.....it is cheap carpet thrown on top of whatever surface was left - in this case, it was cracked, plaster splashed dusty and dirty concrete).  4 years of prams, dogs, visitors and the joys of dirt from the building site outside on poor quality carpet wasn't great.  

It's a shame I can't show how it started out, even if I had a photo, it would never be a fair side by side comparison so just imagine showhouse cream carpet - after 4 years and countless attempts at cleaning, this was the very sad result.  

Stained, bubbled, awful.  It had to go, it was unsafe and unhygienic.

The final decision after months of samples and discussion was vinyl tiles.  

I know the price is high, and ridiculously high depending where you go (but more of that later) but it also comes with a 15 year guarantee for commercial use and I believe a lifetime guarantee for domestic use so it's clearly robust.  I know from experience that any freak damage can be rectified by removing and replacing tiles - not easy, but possible.  When you compare the initial cost with the cost of probably replacing the other types of flooring over 15 or more years, the figures are easier to handle.

In the end, the decision between Amtico and Karndean came down to colour, I wanted something a bit darker in a wood effect and the one that suited the best was Karndean Rubra (WP316 if you are interested).

The cost....this was an adventure!  I went to several suppliers and the costs varied by £2000.  In the end, I was lucky enough to have worked with a flooring contractor in the past who was able to do it for a sensible price.  Although I had a previous connection, this wasn't 'mates rates', it just wasn't the ridiculous mark up that the shops added.

The result -  It's a bit controversial in that the direction is technically wrong, the main living room should run away from the door and not across it and unlike most vinyl tile floors it doesn't have a border.  This is purely because I wanted the flooring to flow through the whole ground floor, which it does.  Plus, with such wide planks (36"x6") the border would either have to be cut down (extra labour costs) or make the hall really narrow.

Some more photos to show the flow between rooms and the detail.  It's been down for a few weeks now and so far so good.  I'll come back with an update if I fall anymore in love or if any problems crop up.

I always get excited about flooring day

So flooring day is a misleading title, it's flooring 3 weeks on this project.  With 3 types of flooring and 3 fitters, each with their own speciality.  We are doing carpet (too boring to talk about), Amtico and Flotex to suit the needs of the different rooms. 

The Amtico is now in progress and although I have often suggested it and lusted after it, I haven't used it on a project of mine before.  It is being used in the kitchen, utility and hallway.  

The kitchen was fairly simple, large tiles with a thin trim between (more about the thin trim later), which looks great and doesn't really show the fact that the room isn't completely square.

Kitchen (before plinths replaced)

The hall is proving much more difficult, it's a square(ish) hall with one small and one large corridor continuing from it. I have gone for an oak herringbone effect in here, as the impact in the wide hall will be great.  The problem is that, as with many older buildings (and some new builds to be honest) rooms aren't always square. It turns out in this one, no two walls are square.  Needless to say the fitter isn't delighted but doing a great job anyway with lots of maths and some slight adjustments to the alignment.

Hall in progress

So back to the kitchen and the thin trims, which are very fine slices of the same oak as the hall.  Its subtle but it does bring it all together.

The carpet fitter is also working some magic, no wastage here as all the excess pieces are sewn back together to carpet inside the  cupboards and one of the bathrooms.

Flotex is a product I hadn't come across before, if you've never heard of it before either I can only really describe it as furry vinyl, it actually reminds me of fuzzy felt (although that probably ages me). It's a really practical flooring, it is treated as carpet for cleaning so can be vacuumed as a regular carpet, or with a wet carpet cleaner (specific advice regarding detergents applies)as it's vinyl base make it waterproof.  I chose to use it because the room in question was cold, so the flotex was laid over a layer of insulated board.