Laminate Flooring in Nottingham

Two Nottingham households buy laminate for opposite reasons. The landlord with a Lenton student house buys the AC-rated board because it survives a year of furniture being dragged about and is replaced cheaply when it does not; the family in an Aspley or Clifton semi buys it because the whole ground floor over a slab can be done in one look, with the underlay’s moisture barrier facing the concrete and a gap at every wall.

In Sherwood and Forest Fields the boards go over Victorian suspended timber, and levelling comes first or the click joints ride the joists. The bathroom and the kitchen at the back of the house are left to the BML rigid vinyl, because the standard behind the laminate’s abrasion rating leaves out rooms that are wet often. At Pelham Waterside the screed is heated, and the boards are listed as compatible with it.

Semi-detached houses are 33% of the Nottingham 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.

Terraced houses are 27% of the homes in the Nottingham 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.