Sub-Floor Preparation
Screed, Plywood Fitting and Sub-floor Repairs
Sub-Floor Preparation
The key to a quality carpet or vinyl installation starts with the sub-floor, the surface underneath your floorcovering of choice upon which everything else will lie.
Often the sub-floor is 'out of sight, out of mind', a secondary consideration to the floorcovering you choose. However, the standard of your sub-floor makes a great difference to the finished appearance of your carpet or particularly vinyl.
The removal of a wall or building of an extension to a room often causes slightly different floor heights between two areas, or a patch of floor slightly raised or lower than the surrounding area. Plumbing work underneath floorboards often creates unevenness, and floorboards themselves aften warp slightly creating paralell ridges.
There are several options available to us to reduce and even eliminate these problems prior to the installation of your carpet or vinyl, to make the final appearance as good as it can possibly be, screed, plywood and hardboard.
Screed for Concrete and Tiled Floors
Often concrete floors have uneven patches, channels which have been chased out to install pipes for central heating and not filled level, ridges or gaps where a wall has been removed or a room extended, etc.
Many imperfections will be too slight to notice through a carpet with underlay, but some may be worth attending to before the fitting, to remove the possibility of an unsightly ridge or dip in your carpet which will annoy you and may cause premature wear in some cases.
Vinyl on the other hand is quite unforgiving of imperfections and demands a very high standard of sub-floor for the optimal finished appearance. Another critical issue with vinyl is that it will likely have an allergic reaction with bitumen based sub-floors nd adhesives which will affect its appearance and shorten it's usable lifespan.
Various types of screed and self-leveling compunds are available for smoothing, covering and repairing solid floors. Our fitters are trained to identify potential issues and advise the best solution.
Plywood fitting and Hardboard
Wooden floors, especially floorboards, are particularly prone to unevenness from shifting, warping, and the attention of plumbers and electricians.
Chopping through a section of floorboard to gain access to the ceiling void below usually results in the floorboard being replaced at not quite the same height or alignment as its neighbours. The aging process of wood, made worse by damp conditions, often causes floorboards to warp slightly upwards at the edges, causing paralell ridges across the length of the room. It can be quite distressing to install a quality underlay and carpet only to find that you have rows of paralell ridges showing through your carpet across the entire room.
The most straightforward solution to uneveness in a wooden floor is to nail or screw down Plywood or Hardboard over the entire floor area. Plywood is the recommended medium as it is more robust and damp resistant than hardboard, and also is available in a variety of standard thicknesses to be used depending on the severity of the sub-floor condition. Hardboard is less expensive than plywood, and while in some cases may be acceptable as a substitute is inferior in every aspect but cost. Care must be taken when applying plywood or hardboard that all screw or nail heads are flush with the surface and will not work themselves out and cause rows of bumps under the floorcovering.
Our fitters are well trained and experienced in the installation of plywood and harboard products, and can advise you as to what the ideal solution would be for your individual floors.