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Northamptonshire · flooring delivered

Flooring in Kettering

Oak and vinyl on new-build screeds

Kettering floors meet new-build screeds, frosty winter nights, semis and detached houses, and older homes that may have boards over an aired void.

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Start here · Kettering in one figure

Before you choose a floor in Kettering

11.2%

of 2025 sales new builds

7th highest of 133 towns

HM Land Registry, Price Paid Data, 2025 · all local facts →
Kettering 11.2%England and Wales 5.7%Each square is 1% of homes

11.2% of the homes sold in Kettering during 2025 were new builds, against 5.7% in England and Wales, which puts the town 7th of 133 towns.

For a buyer of one of those houses, the first flooring question is not oak or vinyl, light or dark. It is whether the screed underneath has given up its water. When a floor in a new house goes wrong, the cause is, as a rule, a covering put down over a screed that seemed dry and was not, and the covering then takes the blame.

From there this page moves on to the older stock, the semis, and a winter that gives Kettering more days of air frost than the median town on our list.

Read the 8 chapters on Kettering homes See all 19 local facts

At a glance

Kettering at a glance

11.1%built 2009 or laterEngland and Wales: 11.8%What it means 47.1air frost days a yearMedian of the 151 towns: 38.1 days a yearWhat it means 1.4ice days a yearMedian of the 151 towns: 0.8 days a yearWhat it means 4.3January meanMedian of the 151 towns: 4.8 °CWhat it means Every figure with its source in Local facts

Homes in Kettering

8 chapters on Kettering homes and what they ask of a floor · about 5 min read

01/ 08

  • 11.1%built 2009 or later

New-build Kettering: the screed sets the start date

The latest yearly count for the council area is high. In the year to March 2026, North Northamptonshire finished 11.3 homes for every 1,000 dwellings it already had, joint 8th of 135 towns; England's rate was 5.5. Treat that as one year's count rather than a trend, because completions jump about from one year to the next.

What the count does tell you is that freshly laid screeds are part of the local picture. A screed can look ready long before it is: smooth, pale, firm enough to stand on without leaving a mark, and still holding more water than any other part of the new house. Put wood or laminate on it at that stage and the screed wins. The answer is a moisture reading, taken in the rooms where the floor will go, before anything is ordered.

Not every newer home is that new. Dwellings from 2009 onwards make up 11.1% of Kettering's stock, below the national 11.8% for England and Wales. Where those homes stand on new estates, the base under your floor is a different construction from the terraces and semis around them, so a method that suits an older street may not suit a house built since 2009.

02/ 08

Hanwood Park and the drying allowance on a big site

North Northamptonshire Council describes Hanwood Park in Kettering as a garden community planned for 5,500 homes. Where a build programme on a site like this includes a drying allowance for the screeds, it helps to know what that allowance means.

The allowance is a figure for the build schedule. It says when testing can sensibly begin; it does not certify that your floor is ready. Ask the developer for the moisture figures in your own house, and if none exist, have the screed tested before a single board is fitted.

03/ 08

  • 47.1air frost days a year
  • 4.3January mean

Frosty nights in Kettering and the glass room at the back

The town centre averages air frost on 47.1 days a year, where 38.1 days a year is the median of our 151 towns: the 15th highest count. January nights are cold as well. In the grid square around the town centre the mean daily minimum for January is 1.0 °C, 133rd highest of 141 towns, where the median for the 141 towns is 1.7 °C.

A conservatory meets those nights through its glass, and it meets the summer too: the town centre has 16.6 days a year warm enough to count as summer days, where the median is 13.8. The same room therefore swings from hot afternoons to freezing nights, every year. Choose a floor that is sold for conservatories.

The cold reaches the rest of the house in a quieter way. The January mean in the town centre is 4.3 °C, joint 128th of 151 towns; 4.8 °C is the median. Heating that runs through a cold winter dries the indoor air, and wooden boards respond by losing moisture and shrinking a little, so hairline gaps can show between them. As the warmer, damper months return, the boards take the moisture back and the gaps close.

04/ 08

  • 1.4ice days a year
  • 14.9days with 10 mm of rain or more

Salt and grit on the doormat in a Kettering winter

On 1.4 days a year the temperature in the town centre stays below freezing from morning to night, joint 18th highest of 151 towns, where the median is 0.8 days a year. Days like that bring salt into the house on boots, mixed with the usual grit.

Rain plays a smaller part here than in many towns. The town centre averages 14.9 days a year when ten millimetres or more of rain fall, joint 108th of 151, and the median is 17.8. So at the front door, winter salt and grit deserve as much thought as wet shoes. A deep mat inside the door helps, and so does a surface you can wipe clean.

05/ 08

  • 35.3%in a semi
  • 24.1%in a detached house

Semis, detached houses and floors with no one below

35.3% of Kettering households live in a semi-detached house, 45th highest of 151 towns, compared with 31.5% across England and Wales. Where a semi has its own hall, the hall and the stairs take the dirt from outside before it reaches the living room. That is a different wear pattern from a terrace whose front door opens straight into the front room, and it argues for a tougher floor in the hall than in the rooms behind it.

Another 24.1% of households are in a detached house, 25th highest of 151 towns. In a house, detached or semi, nobody lives beneath your floor. How loud a hard floor sounds within one of its rooms is something rugs, curtains and furniture deal with, and the impact rating of the underlay counts for far less than it would above a neighbour's ceiling.

Owners lead here. 60.7% of Kettering households are owner-occupiers, with or without a mortgage, set against 61.6% for England and Wales. In an owner-occupied home, then, the household that chooses a floor is the one that lives with it, and the choice can follow how each room is used rather than what the next tenant might want.

06/ 08

  • 16.4%built before 1900
  • 33.8%built before 1940

Kettering homes from before 1900: check boards and airbricks

16.4% of Kettering's dwellings date from before 1900, 42nd highest of 141 towns and above the 15.5% for England and Wales. Taken together with the decades that followed, 33.8% date from before 1940.

In houses of those ages the ground floor is often made of boards laid across joists, with an open space beneath through which outside air can pass. That moving air is what keeps the timber sound. It only works while the airbricks in the outside walls are clear, so look at them before planning anything new and keep them open afterwards.

These shares come from council tax records sorted by year of building; they do not record what each floor is made of. A kitchen or hall in an older house may have been relaid in concrete at some point, so take up a board, or shine a torch through an airbrick, before deciding.

07/ 08

  • 8.2%bungalows

Bungalows in Kettering: every room sits on the ground

8.2% of Kettering's dwellings are bungalows, 29th highest of 141 towns, although below the 9.2% for England and Wales. A bungalow has no upper floor, so every room is on the ground floor. There, whether a damp-proof membrane exists, and what state it is in, decides what may go on top. Find that out before you choose wood for a bungalow.

08/ 08

  • 2.0listed entries per 1,000 homes

Listed interiors versus conservation-area rules

Listed buildings are scarce in Kettering: 2.0 list entries per 1,000 dwellings, while England has 14.7 per 1,000 dwellings; the town ranks 111th of 135. If you do own one, North Northamptonshire Council points out that listing covers the whole building, the interior as much as the exterior. Taking up the original boards or parquet blocks can count as a change to its character that needs listed building consent, so speak to the conservation officer before the old floor comes up.

A conservation area works differently. The examples the council gives of work needing planning permission in one, in a list it says is not complete, are all about the exterior and the grounds: demolition, cladding, extensions, roofs, satellite dishes, solar panels, flues, shop fronts and trees. Replacing the floor inside an unlisted house in a conservation area is not what those controls are aimed at.

Floor by floor

Kettering's screeds, semis and frosts, set beside each floor

19 floors, rooms and needs, each with a note written for Kettering homes. Pick one to read it.

Floor types

Floor type

Kettering

Engineered Wood

Engineered boards give a new Kettering house a real wood surface, once the screed beneath has a moisture reading in range.

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Floor type

Kettering

Solid Wood

Solid boards suit an older house here that still has a timber ground floor, after the space below and the airbricks have been checked.

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Floor type

Kettering

Parquet

Parquet blocks want a dry, level base: a tested screed in a new house, a sound subfloor in an old one.

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Floor type

Kettering

Laminate

Laminate in a family semi does its job when the wear class is picked for each room, higher by the door than upstairs.

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Floor type

Kettering

LVT Vinyl

Vinyl planks and tiles can be wiped clean of the salty grit that comes indoors on frosty Kettering days.

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Floor type

Kettering

SPC Rigid Vinyl

A rigid core floor goes well on a new house's screed once it tests dry, over the underlay its maker specifies.

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Rooms

Room

Kettering

Hallway

The hall takes the winter salt and grit first, so give it a tougher floor than the rooms behind it and lay a mat just inside the entrance.

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Room

Kettering

Kitchen

A kitchen in a new house can look finished long before its screed is, so test for moisture before the floor goes in.

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Room

Kettering

Living Room

In a house with nobody below, a living room's echo is a job for rugs and furniture rather than for the underlay.

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Room

Kettering

Bedroom

Bedrooms see little of the grit and salt from outside, so a gentler wear rating will do upstairs.

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Room

Kettering

Bathroom

In a Kettering bathroom, choose a surface that cannot soak up water, and give the edges as much care as the middle of the room.

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Room

Kettering

Utility Room

Where the washing machine lives in a utility room, choose a floor whose material does not soak up a leak.

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Room

Kettering

Conservatory

With frost and summer heat both above the median of our towns, a Kettering conservatory needs a floor sold for that swing.

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Patterns & needs

Pattern or need

Kettering

Herringbone

A herringbone pattern suits the front hall of a semi, the first floor anyone sees when the door opens.

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Pattern or need

Kettering

Chevron

Chevron can run unbroken through an open-plan ground floor in a newer home, laid when tests show the screed is dry.

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Pattern or need

Kettering

Waterproof

Floors listed as waterproof suit the kitchens and utility rooms of Kettering's new houses, with joints and edges finished as the instructions say.

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Pattern or need

Kettering

Underfloor Heating

Where a new house has heating pipes in its screed, the floor must be rated for underfloor heating and laid when the screed has passed its moisture test.

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Pattern or need

Kettering

Pet-Friendly

With a dog in the house, choose a floor that copes with wet, salty paws in winter and that the dog is happy to walk on.

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Pattern or need

Kettering

Grey

Grey gives a neutral start in a newly built Kettering house, before the furniture and colours have been decided.

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Questions

Questions about flooring in Kettering

How soon can a floor go down in a new Kettering house?

Not by the calendar. 11.2% of Kettering's home sales in 2025 were new builds, and in a new house the screed decides the date. Get a moisture reading for each room where the floor will go, and order only when it is within the range the floor's instructions give.

Does Kettering's frost matter for a conservatory floor?

Yes. The town centre has 47.1 days a year with air frost, 15th highest of the 151 towns we compare, and a conservatory feels those nights through the glass. Pick a floor its maker sells for conservatories, because it also has to cope with hot summer afternoons in the same room.

Why have gaps opened in my Kettering wood floor this winter?

Central heating draws moisture out of indoor air, and in a town whose January mean is 4.3 °C the heating has plenty to do. Wooden boards lose moisture to that dry air and shrink a little at the joints. The gaps normally close again once the warmer months bring moisture back.

Do I need consent to change the floor in a listed Kettering house?

You may. There are only 2.0 list entries per 1,000 dwellings in Kettering, but the council's guidance is that listing covers the inside of a building as well as the outside. Talk to the conservation officer before any original boards or blocks are taken up.

What is under the boards of a Kettering house built before 1900?

Often joists over an aired void, though not always. 16.4% of dwellings here date from before 1900. Check that the airbricks are clear, and lift a board to see what you have before choosing the new floor.

Local facts

Local facts: Kettering

19 facts from the census, the Met Office, the council and other public records, each with what it means for a floor in Kettering and where it comes from.

Nearby

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CorbyNorthamptonBedfordSt NeotsLeicesterPeterboroughMilton KeynesKettering

United KingdomNorthamptonshireKettering

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