The new showroom needing a little work

This could take sometime

Our ethos has become very green and environmentally friendly, all our heating is provided by two wood burning stoves that burn our waste wood flooring from installation. One stove is 24 kw and incorporates a boiler inside it that provides our central heating and hot water. We also burn recycled wood pellets when we do not produce enough waste material ourselves, so we have no reliance on fossil fuels, and a vast reduction in the waste we send to landfill.   All our lighting has been changed over from halogens to led’s, we now use a tenth of the electricity we were using in lighting our showroom. 

Our karndean area with flooring fitted by us

Our new showroom , many late nights and very early morning, all acheived in 28days

The central island contains carpet books  and vinyl books , so our range of choice is vast

Our purpose built Amtico Signature and Amtcio Spacia Showrrom

Our wood burning stove in the showroom gives a real homily feel, roaring away in the back ground whilst our customers browse our vast range of flooring.

 

We now have the full range of Amtico Signature and Amtico Spacia, all the Karndean range, all the Vusta vinyl range, V4 Wood Flooring complete range, Kersaint Cobb complete wood range, carpets from New Way, Wool Carpet Company, Jacaranda, and really way too much to list.  If it goes on a floor and is good quality then we can supply and fit it.  A recent addition to our showroom is our bean to cup coffee machine, we bought this because my wife, Rosanne who runs the showroom, loves coffee, well real coffee anyway. It is really for customers (along with the mints in the bowl, Rosanne!) but it keeps my wife smiling so that has to be a good thing. Our whole ethos is about loving our customers, from the free coffee, tea and mints to the homily feel of our showroom, our fantastic customer care, expert fitters, and our reduction in cost, it’s all for you.

So other than that what have we been doing. Well November and December were crazy as usual with work and the inevitable last minute “I need it done before Christmas” customers. We have fitted over 2000 Sqm of wood flooring, 1500 Sqm of vinyl and over 2100sqm of carpet in November and December alone, so quite busy you might say. Our feedback scores on Checkatrade still remain at 9.6 out of 10 across the board for tidiness reliability, value for money and workmanship, so despite the amount of flooring installed the quality still remains the same, as ever. 

Another beautiful installation of engineered wood in Ash vale

So after yet another manic Christmas period we needed to recharge our batteries with a holiday fishing in Thailand.  As all holidays, it ended too quickly, but I was keen to get back to Floorcarft anyway, can’t leave my baby for too long!

In August 2011 Floorcraft won the tender for the soft flooring package on Wavell Barracks Garrison mess WA0605, a  package worth 120k.  This was the final part of 20 million pound project by Aspire to refurbish and build additional army personnel accommodation and recreational facilities.

The Garrison mess was a 3.9 million pound new build state-of-the-art facility for officers and senior ranks to be able to dine and socialize together. The build consisted of public rooms and dining rooms, along with bars and ante rooms.

The project had been put out to tender by Aspire (as it has to tender 1/3 of the work it receives from the armed forces. GB Building Solutions (GBS) were successful in securing the tender.  GBS’ turnover is in the region of 400 million per year and they specialize in commercial build, particularly in the public sector. They are main contractors on most of their projects which include schools, hospitals, nursing homes and Aspire Defence work.

GBS were very tight on time schedule as they had to hand over the completed work by 12^th  December 2011.  Floorcraft had 700 square meters of latexing, damp proof membranes and capped and coved safety flooring to install and 1400 square meters of double stuck commercial grade carpet.

We commenced works on 17 September 2011. As the site was very busy we could only take small areas at first so that we did not hinder the progress of other trades.   The screed had been laid 2 months prior to our commencement, which meant it was not fully dry, so Floorcraft were tasked with applying a damp proof membrane (DPM) system that would be compatible with an under floor heated floating screed. We used Sika Rapid DMP, as this is one of the only DPMs on the market that is suitable for use on under floor heating; two coats have to be applied at cross directions to one another to achieve a barrier that sealed the slab.

It is a common misconception that a DPM holds back all the moisture in the slab forever.  Moisture usually passes from a screed at 1% per day. With  two DPMs moisture still passes but at a rate of 0.1% per day.  This allows the screed to eventually dry over time, whilst causing no problems with floor coverings or the commonly used water soluble adhesive to adhere them to the slab.

After the two coats were applied to various accessible areas, Floorcraft applied P131 (F.Ball&Co.). This is a neoprene based primer that aids the adhesion of latex to a DPM.  This was allowed to dry fully before the Latex (Arditex NA) was applied.  The latex was applied to these areas and spike rolled to eliminate air bubbles and assist the removal of blend lines and undulations. It was then  left to dry for a minimum of 48hrs or until it reached <75% RH (relative humidity).  The drying times were actually quite considerable, taking sometimes up to five days to fully dry due to climatic conditions and the lack of any heating or airflow.  GBS provided us with large fans to shift the damp air around the building to reduce drying times; this worked to a certain extent but drying still took up to three days.  GBS very keen for us to push on with the floor fitting regardless, however we convinced them that it was not worth the risk to fit vinyl until the base layer was fully prepared.  Towards the end of October we were able to take much larger areas and on one particular week we DPM-coated, latexed and fitted over 300 meters.  Floorcraft managed to complete all the vinyl floors by the 10 November 2011.

The  carpets had been ordered from Newhay Carpets as soon as the contract was awarded to us:Newhay only make bespoke carpets to order so their earliest delivery was be 28^th November, leaving us only 2 weeks to install over 1400 square meters of carpet, a slightly tall order.  However we pulled out all the stops and completed all the carpet fitting by 11^th December, one day early!  The carpet fitting method used was a double stuck system using Duralay 650, tackified to the slab using F40 adhesive with the carpet adhered to the underlay using F3adhesive.

Since completing the Garrison Barracks mess,  Floorcraft has returned only twice to snag a few items; we believe that this is a real testament to our attention to detail and quality of workmanship.   Floorcraft has now been given the opportunity to appear on the Aspire recommended list and GBS  preferred contractor list.

Garrison vinyl floor Altro designer 25 Midnight (kitchen)

Garrison vinyl floor Altro designer 25 Midnight (kitchen)

Garrison vinyl Altro designer 25 Rust (officers' servery)

Garrison Altro D25 Midnight scruffs bar

Altro D25 senior ranks' servery

Garrison entrance hall

Newhay carpets NG9608 vestibule and corridor

Newhay carpets NG9609 bar and public rooms

Newhay carpets NG9609 officers' dinner and public rooms

Newhay carpets NG9608 senior ranks' dinner room

This is not a lecture just advice from someone who knows what can go wrong when you ‘give it a try yourself’ or ask someone else who is not a professional in that field to carry out the work

Believe it or not certain elements of flooring are actually pretty complex, and we are still learning every day about new and improved ways of installation and advancements within the industry.

We work with some very competent builders such as Rees Homes Ltd and most will try to be very helpful when it comes to extras such as fitting flooring or tiling, painting etc. But you should remember builders are not specialists in every field, most fit neatly in the pigeon hole of general builder, with only a few are maybe a little more specialist.

When it comes to flooring whether it be sticking down solid oak, latex levelling, damp proof membranes, the builders we work with know that a specialist will save them time, put a real finishing touch to their build and ultimately save them money as any snags will be addressed by the flooring specialist and not the builder.

If you’re having  building works carried out or an extension at the moment you probably think your builder can do everything or at least he has told you he can, but please don’t be naïve, flooring is a specialist job, as is electrical work and plumbing, you would not let your electrician or plumber fit your floor so why would you let your builder do it. I have always said that if had pound for every time a customer has come to me and said ‘my builder fitted my floor and it’s all coming up now’ I would be a millionaire, don’t get me wrong some builders do know what they are doing but more often than not they are taking chances with your flooring and subsequently your hard earned money.

Solid oak floors also need specialist installation, you can’t just go and buy solid oak, or even engineered oak flooring from a local diy center and fit it yourself the same day, it must be allowed to acclimatize for at least 7 days (48hrs for engineered). It must be permanently fixed to the subfloor by either secret nailing or fully bonded adhesive to a sub floor that is clean, sound and dry and flat to within plus or minus 2mm over 1800mm . It must be strap clamped during installation to ensure it stays tight together and most important of all expansion gap, expansion gap, expansion gap, minimum 10mm at any point where it meets an obstacle. Unfortunately unless you’re an expert in flooring you would not know this, most diy center staff don’t know this so dont rely on them for advice. Even knowing the above wont ensure a good job, however experience does, don’t DIY,  it’s not worth the risk, it will cost you in the long run when the flooring has to be removed and re installed by a professional.

When it comes to Amtico or Karndean flooring, only an approved fitter should install these products. This is because Amtico and Karndean will only warranty their products if its fitted by an approved installer, if there are any warranty issues then the suppliers and fitter need to be on site before any warranty inspection can take place. This holds true if you purchase the product on the internet, your supplier would have to be on site for any warranty issues to be resolved as well as your fitter. Your fitter (if it is a shop) will be more inclined to help you if they have supplied the product, most shops will not fit a product you have purchased elsewhere, this is because they cannot guarantee if it is genuine (there are plenty of fake products on the internet, flooring is actually one of the most copied!). Chinese factories have become experts at passing of substandard products on the internet, they look the same, are packaged the same, but are made from substandard materials and because they are fake there is no warranty.

I guess it comes back to what we started with , flooring can be a huge part of your overall budget when you are putting on an extension or simply replacing your floor coverings. You would not by a car without looking at it, or furniture, or really anything else for that matter, so why risk it with your flooring, its just not worth it

Go to a reputable shop where you will get expert advice from people who know the industry inside out, they will supply and fit genuine products which will be installed by craftsman, we cannot speak for all flooring shops, however if you visit Floorcraft we guarantee this to be the experience you will have.