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Flooring Buying Guide

Flooring Buying Guide

The right choice of flooring will perfectly complement your home - and a new floor can transform any room. Explore our range of flooring styles, colours and finishes, from hard-wearing laminate and LVT to striking engineered wood. Our handy how to guides will help you get it right first time.

Types of flooring

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Laminate flooring

Compressed fibreboard overlaid with photographic paper and a protective resin top layer (suitable for living spaces and kitchens).

Advantages

  • Easy to install and maintain
  • Resists scratches, dents, stains
  • Made from 70% wood which is sourced from sustainable forests
  • Softer underfoot than tiles, concrete and stones
  • More affordable than engineered or solid wood
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Solid wood flooring

Cut from a single piece of solid wood brings natural character, grain and warmth to a room (suitable for living spaces and bedrooms).

Advantages

  • Strong and durable flooring with great sound absorption
  • Timeless and long lasting with scratch-resistance
  • Tongue & groove joint: can be glued or nailed
  • Can be sanded, restained, lacquered or varnished
  • Our timber is sourced responsibly and is FSC-certified
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Engineered wood flooring

Engineered wood flooring combines all the natural character and durability of solid timber with a strengthened construction for stability and versatility (suitable for living spaces and kitchens).

Advantages

  • Durable with strengthened construction made up of 3 layers
  • Click fitting: no glue or nails required
  • Textured finish with great scratch-resistance
  • Our timber is sourced responsibly and is FSC-certified
  • Compatible with underfloor heating
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LVT luxury vinyl click flooring

Luxury Vinyl Flooring features a realistic printed decor, sandwiched between a layer of vinyl providing a resistance to scratches (suitable for living spaces, kitchens, bathrooms).

Advantages

  • Most durable flooring
  • 100% water-resistant
  • Fast and simple installation
  • Excellent noise reduction and has a soft sound when walked on
  • Authentically replicates wooden and tiled floors
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Shop by room

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Kitchen flooring

Our range of flooring suitable for you kitchen helps you update your home with a friendly feel.

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Bathroom flooring

Our range of bathroom flooring has been designed to withstand moisture and give a great look.

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Complete your flooring project

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Underlay

Ideal for Laminate, Vinyl, Engineered and Solid Wood flooring

Advantages

  • Smooths uneven floors
  • High compression strength
  • Proven sound reduction upon impact
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Trims & Threshold Bars

Ideal for Laminate, Vinyl, Engineered and Solid Wood flooring

Advantages

  • Covers the gap between the two floors and walls
  • Creates continuity between the floors and skirting boards
  • Colour matched to our range of laminate flooring
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Flooring Tools

Ideal for Laminate, Vinyl, Engineered and Solid Wood flooring

Advantages

  • Maintains the gap around a perimeter
  • For pulling planks together and protecting edges of boards when tapping them together
  • Great for repairing damaged flooring
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Cork Expansion Strips

Ideal for Laminate, Vinyl, Engineered and Solid Wood flooring

Advantages

  • Essential when fitting a floating floor
  • Controls the natural expansion of your flooring
  • Minimises impact and prevents rising and moving against the perimeter of a room
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Top tips

Measure before buying

Measure the length of all walls in the area in which you intend to lay the flooring. Using the online flooring calculator, add your room dimensions to work out how many packs are needed.

Check the flooring is suitable

Before purchase, check the features and benefits of the type of flooring you are purchasing and ensure they meet the requirements of your household and the room. Moisture, pets and sunlight should all be considered. For kitchens and bathrooms, we recommend water-resistant flooring. Luxury vinyl tiles are waterproof, meaning they are bathroom- and kitchen-friendly. Please follow product instructions on pack to ensure the correct preparation and installation process.

Check the surface before installing the flooring

For flooring installations, make sure that the sub-floor surface is level, dry and clean. We recommend using an underlay on most floorings, unless already fitted. A good quality underlay will help improve acoustics and also level minor sub-floor imperfections. For any installations containing underfloor heating, please check with a qualified expert before installation.

Ensure you have the correct equipment

Make sure you have all the equipment that you'll need before starting a flooring project. This includes spacer wedges, jigsaw or handsaw, tapping block, hammer and a ruler.

Don't forget expansion gaps and other project completers

All laminate, wood and luxury vinyl flooring will expand and contract due to temperature and moisture fluctuations in the home. To allow for this, the expansion gaps recommended on the packs should be followed. You may also require a skirting board, door threshold bar or colour-matched edging trims to complete your project.

Flooring aftercare

To keep the flooring in a good condition, make sure that it is used in accordance with the recommended conditions found on the packaging. When moving furniture, make sure to be careful to avoid damaging the surface of the flooring, and use felt pads under chairs and heavier pieces of furniture. Barrier mats should be used if there is a risk of dirt and debris coming into the home from outside.