A kitchen floor takes water from above, heat from below and traffic all day, and in this range that points to two materials: rigid vinyl listed as waterproof, and porcelain tile. In Bath 79% of homes are houses, most of them semi-detached houses (29%), so the questions are the subfloor and the underlay rather than impact sound.
The Bath and North East Somerset district counts 79,250 households in the 2021 census, and the mix of houses and flats in that count is what decides how a kitchen floor is specified here.
Semi-detached houses are 29% of the Bath and North East Somerset stock, and the semi's kitchen is usually a kitchen-diner today, extended onto a new slab with underfloor heating under it. A rigid-vinyl floor runs from the old concrete onto the new screed in one piece; a porcelain tile does too, on a levelled base. Both are listed for underfloor heating in this range.
Terraced houses are 27% of the homes in Bath and North East Somerset, and the terraced kitchen in Bath is the room at the back, often on a concrete floor laid over the old scullery, sometimes damp. That base is the decision: a rigid-vinyl floor bridges a slab that is not quite flat and floats over it, where a tile needs the slab levelled and a dry reading first. Either way the hygrometer comes before the floor.
Owner-occupation is 66% in Bath and North East Somerset, and an owner refitting a kitchen in Bath is usually choosing between the tile and the vinyl on feel: porcelain is cool and hard underfoot, rigid vinyl warmer and quieter. With underfloor heating the tile's coldness goes away, and the range's tiles are listed for it.
Source: ONS, Census 2021, Bath and North East Somerset (E06000022) · Postcode districts: postcodes.io (ONS geography) · Range: our product catalogue
Delivery to Bath
We deliver across Bath and Somerset. Most in-stock orders reach Bath within a timeframe that depends on the delivery postcode. We also cover Bristol, Frome, Wells, Trowbridge, Bradford-on-Avon and the surrounding Mendip and West Wiltshire areas.
The rigid-vinyl planks with the 0.55 mm wear layer, such as BML Natural Oak SPC Wide Flooring and BML Grey Oak SPC Wide Flooring, and the herringbone boards such as BML Herringbone European Oak SPC, are the kitchen floors here, listed as waterproof; the BML Concrete Grey SPC Click Floor Tile gives a stone look without grout. In porcelain, the 600 x 1200 mm tiles such as Luna Blanca Matt Porcelain Floor Tile and Wabi Bianco Lappato Porcelain Floor Tile; the Wabi tiles carry an R11 slip rating in the listing.
Bath kitchens often combine period character with modern function. Porcelain stone-effect tiles suit traditional Bath stone interiors, while LVT offers a warmer alternative that flows from period reception rooms.
Bath and North East Somerset in the 2021 census: 79,250 households, 78% houses, 21% flats.
Bathwick, Lambridge and Combe Down sit inside the BA1 and BA2 delivery area, together with Kingsmead, Lansdown, Newbridge and the Bathavon North and Bathavon South wards of Bath and North East Somerset. What stands out in the 2021 accommodation figures is conversion: 5.9% of homes are flats inside former houses, on top of 13.5% purpose-built, so 21.4% of the stock is flatted. An upper floor carved out of an older house rests on joists never designed to be split between two households, and deflection plus sound transfer governs the build-up, which usually means a floating layer over a resilient mat and door heights checked before any underlay is ordered. Ownership stands at 65.3%, a little below the 66.7% recorded in 2011.
More than a quarter of Bath lives in a terrace, and a further one household in eighteen in a flat carved out of a larger house. Much of that stock is Georgian, much of it is listed or in a conservation area, and both of those change what can be done to a floor before anything is chosen.
A Georgian floor is suspended timber over a void ventilated by airbricks that later work has often closed up. Before anything goes over it, the question is whether air still moves under there — Lansdown, Bathwick and the streets off Kingsmead all hold houses where it does not.
Delivery times and options depend on the delivery postcode. See Delivery & Returns for the applicable estimate.
Guides
Before you choose
Before you order in Bath
Dry slab, tested A kitchen floor in an older house has often been wet. A hygrometer reading, dry to BS 8203 practice, before the floor.
Vinyl or tile: warmth against permanence Rigid vinyl floats, is warmer and quieter and can be lifted; porcelain is bedded, harder and stays.
Units first or floor first A floating floor runs under the kick boards, not under the units; a tile usually runs under everything. Decide with the kitchen fitter.
The extension slab The kitchen in a semi is usually the later extension, on a slab that may have no membrane. The hygrometer reading comes before the choice.
The terrace kitchen slab The kitchen at the back of a terrace is on the oldest slab in the house, often with no membrane. The hygrometer reading first; a floating floor listed as waterproof over it, sealed at the edges.
Tile if it stays, vinyl if it changes A kitchen kept for twenty years can take a bedded porcelain; a kitchen that will be replaced takes the floating vinyl that lifts with it.
There are two candidates in the range and the room decides: rigid vinyl listed as waterproof, warmer and quieter and forgiving of an old base, or porcelain tile, harder and permanent. The kitchen guide linked below compares them.
Can I have wood flooring in a kitchen?
Engineered oak is fitted in kitchens with a sealed finish and wiped-up spills, but it is not listed as waterproof and a leak under a dishwasher will mark it. Where the look of wood is wanted with the listing, the rigid-vinyl planks and herringbone are the answer.
Does a kitchen floor need a slip rating?
The HSE grades slip potential by pendulum test value, with 36 or above rated low. Two of the porcelain tiles in the range carry an R11 rating in the listing; for a domestic kitchen the floor is chosen for the spill and the mop as much as for the rating.
What flooring suits Bath’s Georgian townhouses?
In a Georgian townhouse what goes under the floor is more constrained than what goes on it, and the constraint is depth: the finished level cannot rise past a threshold or a stair nosing that is part of the fabric. A thin build-up matters more here than in anything built since.
Do you deliver kitchen flooring to Bath?
Yes. We deliver across Bath and Somerset from our UK warehouse, including the BA1 and BA2 postcode districts. Delivery cost and timing depend on the delivery postcode and are shown at checkout, and samples come by post first so the floor can be seen in the room before the full order.
Can I see a kitchen sample before ordering in Bath?
Yes: cut samples are £1.99 each, up to two per product, posted to your Bath address. Two or three side by side on the floor, in the room's own light morning and evening, settle the colour faster than any photograph.
All ranges
More flooring pages for Bath
Every range and room for Bath, each on its own page with the same housing data read for that floor.
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