Laminate Flooring in Reading

A floating laminate floor can be lifted and relaid if a joist needs attention later, which in the Victorian houses of Katesgrove and Newtown is a real advantage over a glued or nailed floor; the AC-rated boards click together over an underlay, with a gap at every wall, after the sagging boards beneath have been levelled. On the Tilehurst and Whitley slabs the underlay carries a moisture barrier to the concrete.

Laminate stops at the kitchen door and the bathroom door, because the standard behind its abrasion rating is written for dry rooms; the BML rigid vinyl takes those. For a let in a town with a large private rented sector, the wear layer’s scratch resistance is the point: it survives a tenancy of furniture. At Dee Park the screed is heated, and the boards are listed as compatible with the heating.

Flats are 33% of the homes in Reading, 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 28% of the homes in the Reading 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.