Kitchen Flooring in Newcastle

In an upper Tyneside flat the kitchen is at the back and the neighbour’s kitchen is directly beneath it, which makes the floor a piece of acoustic engineering before it is a surface. The resilient layer goes down, a deck goes over it, and only then does the BML rigid vinyl plank go on top, chosen because it adds so little at the door and is mopped. Porcelain from the tile range would outlast it, but the joists and the door frame of a Tyneside flat were not cut for its weight or its depth.

A Gosforth semi usually has its kitchen in a later extension on a slab, with the damp-proof membrane checked at the join with the old house, and there porcelain is at home. At Newcastle Great Park the kitchen is open-plan on a heated screed, where both the plank and the large-format porcelain are listed as compatible with the heating; the tile warms the room faster, the plank is warmer to stand on before it does.

Semi-detached houses are 35% of the Newcastle upon Tyne 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.

Flats are 32% of the homes in the Newcastle upon Tyne district, and a kitchen in a flat is often open to the living room and above or below a neighbour. A rigid-vinyl floor over an acoustic underlay carries less footfall through the slab than a tile does, and it stays under the door thresholds; the lease usually has a view on hard floors, and it is read first.