Laminate Flooring in Sheffield

The fifties and sixties semis of Gleadless, Firth Park and Hillsborough sit on a solid slab, and laminate over that slab is the whole-house floor most Sheffield households in those streets order: the underlay goes down with its moisture barrier to the concrete, the AC-rated boards click together on top, and each level of a stepped ground floor is laid as its own room with its own gap at the walls.

On the pre-war terraces the suspended timber is levelled before the underlay goes down, or the click joints move along the joists. The laminate’s abrasion standard leaves out rooms that are wet often, so the kitchen with the boot-room door and the bathroom go to the BML rigid vinyl instead. Over the heated screed at Attercliffe Waterside the boards are listed as compatible with underfloor heating.

Semi-detached houses are 38% of the Sheffield 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 26% of the homes in the Sheffield 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.