Laminate Flooring in Bristol

Laminate is the whole-house floor for the inter-war and post-war estates of Bristol, Knowle, Bishopsworth and Lawrence Weston among them, where the ground floor is a slab and the budget has to reach the bedrooms and the landing as well as the lounge. The underlay goes down with its moisture barrier facing the concrete, the AC-rated boards click together on top, and a gap is left at every wall for the seasons.

In a Victorian terrace on a Bristol hill the base is suspended timber and it is levelled first, or the click joints work loose along the joists within a year. The laminate’s abrasion standard excludes rooms that are wet often, so the kitchen-diner at the back and the bathroom go to the BML rigid vinyl instead. Over the heated screed at Lockleaze the boards are listed as compatible with underfloor heating.

Flats are 35% of the homes in City of Bristol, and laminate in a flat is a question of sound before anything else: a hard click floor over a bare slab carries footfall into the flat below. Approved Document E sets the impact-sound limits and the lease usually adds a clause, and the answer is the underlay, chosen on a tested impact-sound figure under EN 16354 rather than a claim on the pack. Check the lease first.

Terraced houses are 32% of the homes in the City of Bristol district, and laminate is the floor most often laid through them: a click floor floats over the old suspended boards on an underlay, and the whole ground floor of a terrace can be done in a weekend. The condition is the base. Loose or springy boards are screwed down first, and the underlay chosen for a timber floor is one without a vapour barrier, so the void beneath can breathe.