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- CM77
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Flooring in Braintree
Oak, vinyl, timber frames and semis
Braintree: a timber-framed core, homes built for factory workers, semis and newer houses on screeds. What listing, old boards and hot summers mean.
Delivered to Braintree: CM7, CM77
Start here · Braintree in one figure
Before you choose a floor in Braintree
20.4%
built before 1940
119th highest of 141 towns
VOA, 2025-03-31 · all local facts →20.4% of Braintree's dwellings date from before 1940, against 35.4% across England and Wales, which places the town 119th of 141 on our list.
The older town is still there, in a few distinct places. The town centre appraisal finds timber-framed buildings from the medieval and post-medieval centuries packed into the core, and in a Bocking conservation area rendered timber frames dominate the street. Factory workers' homes on Mount Road and its neighbours followed from the late 1800s.
Around all of that stands a town built later, with 12.0% of its dwellings dating from 1973 to 1982 alone. So the first question for a Braintree floor is which of these houses you are standing in. In an old frame it is what you may lift and what is underneath; in a later house it is what the floor is laid on, and the way each room gets used.
Read the 6 chapters on Braintree homes See all 19 local facts
At a glance
Braintree at a glance
Homes in Braintree
6 chapters on Braintree homes and what they ask of a floor · about 4 min read
01/ 06
- 9.5listed entries per 1,000 homes
Timber frames in the centre and along a Bocking street
The 2023 appraisal of Braintree's central conservation area describes a large number of timber-framed buildings from the medieval and post-medieval periods, set close together in the core of Braintree. North of the centre, the same appraisal sees one of Bocking's conservation areas as vernacular and Georgian in character, its buildings strung out along the street, with rendered frames to the fore.
The built-up area holds 9.5 listed-building entries for each 1,000 dwellings. That is fewer than the 14.7 for England, yet it still places the town 29th of 135. If your home is one of those entries, consent can reach interior work as well, wherever that work touches the building's character, and lifting the original boards may be just such work. Find out before anything comes up.
Age decides more than looks. The order of the rooms and the make-up of the joists follow from when a house went up, so a frame in the centre and a house from the 1970s begin from quite different structures before you even think about the covering.
02/ 06
- 5.6%built before 1900
- 5.5%built 1919 to 1929
Factory housing from the late 1800s, then inter-war growth
Homes built before 1900 are 5.6% of the town's stock, against 15.5% across England and Wales: 111th of 141 towns. The appraisal dates Mount Road, Woodfield Road and Victoria Street from the late 1800s into the first decades of the 1900s, and says the homes there went up for people working in the factories close by. It finds terraces, pairs of semis and detached houses side by side on those streets.
The 1920s are represented too. Homes of 1919 to 1929 account for 5.5% of the total, above the 4.8% for England and Wales and 57th of 141 towns, and the appraisal ties the years between the wars to the spread of Braintree's suburbs.
Houses of these ages commonly have a suspended ground floor: timber boards laid across joists, with an air space under them rather than a concrete slab. Air moving through that space is what protects the timber, and it moves only while the airbricks in the outside walls are open. Before a new floor goes down, check them, and look into the space below if a board will lift.
03/ 06
- 12.0%built 1973 to 1982
- 35.2%in a semi
Through-lounges, semis and the room the door opens into
Later decades left more. 12.0% of Braintree's dwellings date from 1973 to 1982, against 8.9% for England and Wales, 25th of 141 towns: that is more than every year before 1900 put together. A through-lounge of that era and the front room of an older terrace ask different things of a floor. The through-lounge is one room from the front of the house to the back, so a single floor serves both ends at once, the one by the front window and the one at the back.
Semis are the other thread. 35.2% of Braintree households live in a semi-detached house, against 31.5% across England and Wales, 46th of 151 towns. Which rooms wear fastest depends on how a house is lived in, and a semi with its own hall differs there from a terrace entered straight from the pavement. With a hall taking the outdoor traffic, a harder-wearing floor belongs there and the room behind it can be chosen for comfort.
04/ 06
- 62.2%own their home
- 18.5%rent socially
Owners, councils and housing associations: who decides
62.2% of Braintree households are owner-occupiers, whether mortgaged or owning outright: a little above the 61.6% for England and Wales and 35th of 151 towns. For them the floor is picked by whoever will walk on it every day, which is a different decision from picking one for a tenancy.
18.5% of households rent socially, from a local authority or a housing association, above the 17.1% for England and Wales. In any rented home, leaks can go unreported at first: a washing machine hose, a shower tray that spills over. If the floor's material does not soak up water and its edges are sealed, the leak means mopping and drying; if it does, it means a replacement, with the home standing empty while that is done.
05/ 06
- 11.7%built 2009 or later
Homes from 2009 on, and screeds that look ready too soon
11.7% of Braintree's dwellings are from 2009 onwards, just below the 11.8% for England and Wales and 45th of 141 towns. Between April 2025 and March 2026, 7.7 homes were finished across the council area for each 1,000 dwellings already there, ahead of England as a whole at 5.5 and 26th of 135 towns.
A new estate sits on a different base from the terraces and semis around it, and that base is often a screed. Screed dries slowly and shows no sign of it: a pale, hard, even surface you can walk across may still hold more water than any other part of a newly finished house. If yours is one, have the screed tested for moisture and wait for a result inside the range your chosen covering allows.
06/ 06
- 13.5days with 10 mm of rain or more
- 18.6days above 25 °C
Rain at the step, hot afternoons and glazed rooms
Braintree town centre averages 13.5 days a year bringing ten millimetres or more of rain. The median for the 151 towns is 17.8, and Braintree sits 136th of 151. Fewer such days do not keep grit, sand and wet shoes away from the floor just inside the front door; how much of each arrives depends on where the house stands.
Hot days come more often than in the median town. 18.6 days a year climb past twenty-five degrees in the centre of Braintree, where the median town manages 13.8; that is 38th of 151. A conservatory feels it directly: a glass room can be very hot on a summer afternoon and close to freezing on a winter night, and it repeats that swing every year the floor is down.
Surface water is a modest concern by the standard of our list. Across the council area, 6.6% of homes lie where flooding from surface water is rated a low, medium or high risk; England's figure is 14.3%, and the council area ranks 132nd of 135. For a home in one of those places, judge the floor's material and the way it is laid separately. A board that cannot absorb water says nothing about the joints between boards or the gap at the walls, which is where water finds the subfloor, and even a board listed as waterproof is no exception.
Floor by floor
From oak to vinyl, matched to Braintree's frames, semis and screeds
19 floors, rooms and needs, each with a note written for Braintree homes. Pick one to read it.
Floor types
Floor typeBraintree
Engineered Wood
Engineered oak suits Braintree's newer homes, floated over a barrier underlay once the screed has passed its moisture test.
Floor typeBraintree
Solid Wood
Solid oak belongs on the boarded ground floors of the town's older houses, once the space beneath is dry and the airbricks are open.
Floor typeBraintree
Parquet
Parquet blocks need a sound, level base, so in a timber-framed or listed house find out what lies under the existing floor first.
Floor typeBraintree
Laminate
Laminate works in a semi's hall and family rooms when its wear class is set for each room instead of a single grade everywhere.
Floor typeBraintree
LVT Vinyl
Luxury vinyl tiles and planks handle the wet rooms of a rented home, where a slow drip may go unnoticed for a while.
Floor typeBraintree
SPC Rigid Vinyl
A rigid core plank suits a slab ground floor where the kitchen and utility room need a covering that water does not soak into.
Rooms
RoomBraintree
Hallway
In a semi the hall meets grit and wet shoes before the other rooms do, so give it a floor rated for heavy wear.
RoomBraintree
Kitchen
A Braintree kitchen floor meets drips from the sink and the dishwasher, so a covering whose material shrugs off water is the sensible default.
RoomBraintree
Living Room
In a 1970s through-lounge the living room floor runs the full depth of the house, so it has to suit the door end and the window end at once.
RoomBraintree
Bedroom
Bedrooms see little outdoor grit, so a lighter-duty floor is enough upstairs while the hall gets the tougher one.
RoomBraintree
Bathroom
In a bathroom, pick a covering that water cannot soak into and seal its edges, so an overflowing shower leaves a drying job rather than a new floor.
RoomBraintree
Utility Room
A utility room often houses the washing machine, so choose a covering there whose material does not soak up water, and dry the subfloor after any leak.
RoomBraintree
Conservatory
With more hot days than the median town, a Braintree conservatory needs a floor sold for glass rooms.
Patterns & needs
Pattern or needBraintree
Herringbone
A herringbone pattern gives the front room of an early twentieth-century house built for factory workers a floor in keeping with its age.
Pattern or needBraintree
Chevron
Chevron suits the length of a through-lounge, where one pattern can run unbroken from the front of the house to the back.
Pattern or needBraintree
Waterproof
Where a home sits in a surface water risk area, remember that boards listed as waterproof still meet at joints and leave an edge gap, and standing water reaches the subfloor through both.
Pattern or needBraintree
Underfloor Heating
Newer homes with pipes in the screed need a floor rated for underfloor heating, laid once the screed has dried and passed its test.
Pattern or needBraintree
Pet-Friendly
Where a dog lives in a Braintree semi, the floor has to take wet paws in the hall as well as claws on the stairs.
Pattern or needBraintree
Grey
Grey is an easy neutral in a semi or a newer home, under furniture that may well change long before the floor does.
Bestsellers
Popular floors, delivered to Braintree
Knightsbridge Chevron Dark Brown Oak Wood Flooring 14 x 90 x 510 (mm)
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Durham Herringbone Light Oak Wood Flooring 20 x 80 x 350 (mm)
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Oxford Herringbone Unfinished Oak Wood Flooring 14 x 90 x 450 (mm)
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+ Sample · £1.99Cambridge Herringbone AB Prime Unfinished Oak Wood Flooring 18 x 90 x 400 (mm)
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+ Sample · £1.9912mm Leicester Oak Laminate Herringbone Flooring
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+ Sample · £1.9912mm York Oak Laminate Herringbone Flooring
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12mm Whitby Oak Laminate Herringbone Flooring
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+ Sample · £1.9912mm Durham Oak Laminate Herringbone Flooring
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Night Lux Matt Porcelain Floor Tile 600 x 1200 (mm)
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Taj Mahal Pearl Polished Porcelain Floor Tile 600 x 1200 (mm)
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+ Sample · £1.99Taj Mahal Cappuccino Polished Porcelain Floor Tile 600 x 1200 (mm)
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Alexandria Cream Polished Porcelain Floor Tile 600 x 1200 (mm)
£42.50 / m²Trade price available – log in or apply
+ Sample · £1.99Reviews
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Questions
Questions about flooring in Braintree
Can I take up the old boards in a listed Braintree house?
Not until you have checked. There are 9.5 listed-building entries for each 1,000 dwellings in the town, and for a listed home consent can cover interior work that affects its character, original boards included. Ask the council before the work starts.
Does a Braintree house from the 1920s have a timber ground floor?
Quite possibly. Dwellings dated 1919 to 1929 are 5.5% of the town's total, and suspended timber ground floors with a ventilated space beneath are common in British houses built then. Lifting one board settles it; after that, keep every airbrick open.
What suits a long 1970s through-lounge in Braintree?
One floor that suits both halves of the room: the half people walk through and the half they sit in. 12.0% of Braintree's dwellings date from 1973 to 1982, above the 8.9% for England and Wales. Choose the wear class for the half that carries the traffic; the other half will not need more.
When is the screed in a newly completed Braintree home ready for a floor?
When a moisture test says so, not when it looks dry. The council area finished 7.7 homes for each 1,000 it already had between April 2025 and March 2026. Test first, then lay: a pale, hard screed can still be wet inside.
Does a Braintree conservatory need a floor made for glass rooms?
Yes, pick one sold for conservatories. Braintree's centre averages 18.6 days a year above twenty-five degrees, more than the 13.8 of the median town, and a glazed room goes from hot afternoons to cold nights every year.
Local facts
Local facts: Braintree
19 facts from the census, the Met Office, the council and other public records, each with what it means for a floor in Braintree and where it comes from.
When they were built
20.4%
built before 1940
Braintree20.4%England and Wales35.4%119th highest of 141 towns
For your floorPre-1940 homes are a smaller part of Braintree than of England and Wales as a whole, but where they stand, the air under their boards keeps the timber sound while the airbricks are open.
Source
Dwellings built before 1940. Area: Braintree built-up area (ONS Built-up Areas 2024). VOA, Council Tax: stock of properties 2025, table CTSOP4.1 (build period). Data: 2025-03-31 · retrieved 2026-09-22.
When they were built
5.6%
built before 1900
Braintree5.6%England and Wales15.5%111th highest of 141 towns
For your floorThe few homes here from before 1900 share with later inter-war houses a ground floor of boards over a ventilated space, which a new build lacks.
Source
Dwellings built before 1900. Area: Braintree built-up area (ONS Built-up Areas 2024). VOA, Council Tax: stock of properties 2025, table CTSOP4.1 (build period). Data: 2025-03-31 · retrieved 2026-09-22.
When they were built
5.5%
built 1919 to 1929
Braintree5.5%England and Wales4.8%57th highest of 141 towns
For your floorBraintree's homes from the 1920s fall within the age at which a suspended timber ground floor is common in British housing.
Source
Dwellings built 1919 to 1929. Area: Braintree built-up area (ONS Built-up Areas 2024). VOA, Council Tax: stock of properties 2025, table CTSOP4.1 (build period). Data: 2025-03-31 · retrieved 2026-09-22.
When they were built
12.0%
built 1973 to 1982
Braintree12.0%England and Wales8.9%25th highest of 141 towns
For your floorHomes from 1973 to 1982 are well represented here, and a through-lounge of that time asks different things of a floor than an older front room.
Source
Dwellings built 1973 to 1982. Area: Braintree built-up area (ONS Built-up Areas 2024). VOA, Council Tax: stock of properties 2025, table CTSOP4.1 (build period). Data: 2025-03-31 · retrieved 2026-09-22.
When they were built
11.7%
built 2009 or later
Braintree11.7%England and Wales11.8%45th highest of 141 towns
For your floorHomes from 2009 on stand on a different base from the town's terraces and semis, so the subfloor question changes with them.
Source
Dwellings built 2009 or later. Area: Braintree built-up area (ONS Built-up Areas 2024). VOA, Council Tax: stock of properties 2025, table CTSOP4.1 (build period). Data: 2025-03-31 · retrieved 2026-09-22.
When they were built
7.7 per 1,000 dwellings
New homes completed in the year per 1,000 existing homes
Braintree7.7England5.526th highest of 135 towns
For your floorWhere a newly completed home in the council area has a screed, it can look dry well before it is.
Source
New homes completed in the year per 1,000 existing homes. Area: Braintree local authority. MHCLG, Live tables on housing supply: indicators of new supply, Table 253 "Permanent dwellings started and completed, by tenure and district", sheet FY_2025_26, column "All Completions" (building control reported, rounded to the nearest 10 by MHCLG); per 1,000 dwellings in Live Table 125 (dwelling stock at 31 March 2025). Data: 2025-04-01/2026-03-31 · retrieved 2026-09-22.
Who lives here
62.2%
own their home
Braintree62.2%England and Wales61.6%35th highest of 151 towns
For your floorWith owners slightly ahead of the national share, a Braintree floor is more often picked by its own household than for a tenancy.
Source
Households owning their home outright or with a mortgage. Area: Braintree built-up area (ONS Built-up Areas 2024). ONS, Census 2021, TS054 Tenure (households). Data: 2021-03-21 · retrieved 2026-09-22.
Who lives here
18.5%
rent socially
Braintree18.5%England and Wales17.1%72nd highest of 151 towns
For your floorIn social lets a drip can go unreported for a while, so flooring that does not soak up water spares a replacement.
Source
Households renting from a council or housing association. Area: Braintree built-up area (ONS Built-up Areas 2024). ONS, Census 2021, TS054 Tenure (households). Data: 2021-03-21 · retrieved 2026-09-22.
Weather & ground
13.5
days with 10 mm of rain or more
Braintree13.5Median, 151 towns17.8136th highest of 151 towns
For your floorBraintree has fewer days bringing ten millimetres or more of rain than the median town, yet grit and wet shoes still come in at the door.
Source
Days with at least 10 mm of rain per year (1991–2020 average, town centre). Area: Braintree town centre (Met Office HadUK-Grid 2 km cell). Met Office, HadUK-Grid (v1.1.0.0) climate averages 1991-2020, Met Office Climate Data Portal: Monthly Temperature Observations 1991-2020 (2 km grid), Monthly Min Temperature Observations 1991-2020 12km (12 km grid), Annual Count of 10mm Rainfall Days 1991-2020 (2 km grid). Data: 1991-2020 · retrieved 2026-09-22.
Weather & ground
18.6
days above 25 °C
Braintree18.6Median, 151 towns13.838th highest of 151 towns
For your floorHot days above the town median push a Braintree conservatory towards the hot end of its yearly swing, and the floor has to live with that.
Source
Days above 25 degrees C per year (1991-2020 average, town centre). Area: Braintree town centre (Met Office HadUK-Grid 2 km cell). Met Office, HadUK-Grid climate averages 1991-2020 (climate data portal). Data: 1991-2020 · retrieved 2026-09-22.
Heritage & plans
9.5
listed entries per 1,000 homes
Braintree9.5England14.729th highest of 135 towns
For your floorListing reaches inside a building, so in a listed Braintree house the old boards may need consent before they come up.
Source
Listed building entries per 1,000 dwellings. Area: Braintree built-up area (ONS Built-up Areas 2024). Historic England, National Heritage List for England, listed building entries. Data: 2026-09-21 · retrieved 2026-09-22.
When they were built
Building period
The town centre appraisal finds a large number of timber-framed buildings from the medieval and post-medieval periods, packed closely around the town's core.
For your floorA medieval or post-medieval timber frame has its own joists and room order, so start by finding out how the floor is built.
Source
Area: Braintree Town Centre Conservation Area (Braintree District Council). Braintree Town Centre Conservation Area Character Appraisal and Management Plan. Data: August 2023 (adopted at the Local Plan Sub-Committee on 3 August 2023, per the council page 'Conservation areas', retrieved 2026-11-04) · retrieved 2026-11-04.
When they were built
Building period
For one of the conservation areas in Bocking the appraisal describes vernacular and Georgian buildings strung along the street, with rendered timber frames to the fore.
For your floorWhere render on that Bocking street covers a timber frame, the frame's age, not the render, tells you what holds up each floor.
Source
Area: One of the conservation areas in Bocking, north of the town centre (Braintree District Council). Braintree Town Centre Conservation Area Character Appraisal and Management Plan. Data: August 2023 (adopted at the Local Plan Sub-Committee on 3 August 2023, per the council page 'Conservation areas', retrieved 2026-11-04) · retrieved 2026-11-04.
When they were built
Building period
The appraisal dates the houses of Mount Road, Woodfield Road and Victoria Street from the late 1800s into the first decades of the 1900s.
For your floorThe dating of these streets places their houses in the age of suspended timber ground floors, which is where a flooring plan there begins.
Source
Area: Mount Road, Woodfield Road and Victoria Street character area, within the Braintree Town Centre Conservation Area (Braintree District Council). Braintree Town Centre Conservation Area Character Appraisal and Management Plan. Data: August 2023 (adopted at the Local Plan Sub-Committee on 3 August 2023, per the council page 'Conservation areas', retrieved 2026-11-04) · retrieved 2026-11-04.
Homes
Housing type
On those streets the appraisal finds terraces, pairs of semis and detached houses side by side.
For your floorA terrace, a semi and a detached house on the same street take in grit and water differently, because the house shapes that as much as the household.
Source
Area: Mount Road, Woodfield Road and Victoria Street character area, within the Braintree Town Centre Conservation Area (Braintree District Council). Braintree Town Centre Conservation Area Character Appraisal and Management Plan. Data: August 2023 (adopted at the Local Plan Sub-Committee on 3 August 2023, per the council page 'Conservation areas', retrieved 2026-11-04) · retrieved 2026-11-04.
When they were built
Building period
The appraisal links the years between the wars to a wave of building in the town centre and to the growth of Braintree's suburbs.
For your floorSuburbs that grew between the wars hold houses whose floor structure follows from that age rather than from later building.
Source
Area: Braintree (Braintree Town Centre Conservation Area appraisal, history of the town). Braintree Town Centre Conservation Area Character Appraisal and Management Plan. Data: August 2023 (adopted at the Local Plan Sub-Committee on 3 August 2023, per the council page 'Conservation areas', retrieved 2026-11-04) · retrieved 2026-11-04.
Homes
Housing type
Those homes went up to house people who worked in the factories close by, according to the appraisal.
For your floorThese were homes for people working nearby, and what reaches their floors from outside depends on the house as much as on who lives there.
Source
Area: Mount Road, Woodfield Road and Victoria Street character area, within the Braintree Town Centre Conservation Area (Braintree District Council). Braintree Town Centre Conservation Area Character Appraisal and Management Plan. Data: August 2023 (adopted at the Local Plan Sub-Committee on 3 August 2023, per the council page 'Conservation areas', retrieved 2026-11-04) · retrieved 2026-11-04.
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