Laminate Flooring in Newcastle

The Jesmond and Heaton student let is laminate country: bedrooms, landing and front room in one AC-rated board, clicked together over an underlay with a gap at every skirting, and cheap enough per room to replace after a hard year without regret. In an upper Tyneside flat that underlay also carries the acoustic duty to the flat below; in a lower flat the boards over the void are levelled before it goes down.

The hall is the exception in this city, because the weather comes in with every visitor, and the standard behind the laminate’s abrasion rating leaves out rooms that are wet often; the BML rigid vinyl takes the hall, the kitchen and the bathroom. On the Blakelaw and Denton estates the ground floor is a slab and the underlay goes down with its moisture barrier to the concrete; at Scotswood the screed is heated, and the boards are listed as compatible with it.

Semi-detached houses are 35% of the Newcastle upon Tyne stock, and the semi has both bases in one house: timber at the front, concrete at the back. Laminate goes over both, with the underlay chosen per base, a vapour barrier over the slab and none over the timber. The 8 mm AC4 boards in the range are rated for domestic use throughout the house; the expansion gap of 8 to 12 mm at every wall is what lets a whole-floor run move as one.

Flats are 32% of the homes in Newcastle upon Tyne, 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.