Floor and wall covering · SIC 43330 · Brighton and Hove
Subfloors made good, then vinyl, LVT, laminate, engineered wood and carpet fitted to the measure taken in the rooms.
01The board
A floor is fitted twice: once on paper at the measure, then once on the day. The sheet below is the paper half. It carries the rooms, the base under them, the covering chosen and the bar at every doorway, then the van is loaded from it.
The work is domestic floor and wall covering, with small commercial units taken on the same terms. Houses, flats, a shop floor, a treatment room, a single office. An enquiry reaches the fitting line by e-mail with the address, the rooms and the covering under consideration, then a measure is arranged for a time when the rooms can be cleared.
—On the register
Trade Floor and wall covering · SIC 43330
Registered office 8 Stanley Avenue, Portslade, Brighton, BN41 2WJ, United Kingdom
On the register England & Wales · Company No. 14096254 · D‑U‑N‑S No. 228920270
02The samples
The rail holds what comes off the van. Take one and the page turns to that material, then its line in the schedule below lifts to the front. The planks laid in behind the rail are set out in herringbone, the pattern that eats the most offcuts.
—Off the rail
Each covering is taken further on the covering page, read property by property rather than name by name. The schedule beside this rail is the short form of it: what the goods want under them, what closes them at a doorway, and what the traffic actually walks on.
—Schedule
| Covering | Underlay and base | At the doorway | Wear surface |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sheet vinyl | Goes onto a smooth dry base, then bonds down or loose-lays with a taped perimeter. | Scribed into the reveal, then a flat bar sits over the joint. | A clear wear layer over the printed film; its thickness is on the label. |
| LVT plank | Glued to the base, or clicked over a thin acoustic mat where the click system allows it. | Planks stop short of the frame, then a low bar covers the run. | A wear layer quoted in microns, read off the pack at the measure. |
| Laminate | Floats over foam or fibreboard underlay, loose of the base throughout. | An expansion gap is left, then a T-bar bridges into the next room. | A melamine face; the abrasion class is printed on the pack. |
| Engineered wood | Floated over acoustic underlay, or bonded to the base where the room takes traffic. | A gap is left at every fixed edge, then scotia or a bar closes it. | A solid top layer; its depth sets how often the floor sands. |
| Carpet | Tack strip round the room first, then underlay, then the carpet is stretched on. | Gripped both sides, then a carpet bar clamps the cut edge down. | Pile that flattens under traffic, then lifts again with a rake. |
03The plan
A flat is not one floor, it is six decisions that meet at the doorways. Choose a room on the plan and the sheet turns to it, then it reads out the base under that room, the covering on it and the edge that closes it.
Everything arrives here wet and gritty, then it walks the length of the flat.
Warmth and quiet lead the choice here, while the bay decides the widths.
Water and dropped weight decide it, then the plinth line decides the cut.
The floor is cut by template here, then every seam is welded shut.
Soft underfoot wins here, then the wardrobe run decides where a seam falls.
Each tread and riser is measured on its own, then the flight is cut in order.
The plan is a drawing, not the flat. The measure records the real widths, the real thresholds and the real order the rooms are fitted in.
04The measure
Rooms go in as length by width in metres. The sheet adds each room up, applies the waste allowance carried by the covering, then divides by the coverage printed on the pack and rounds up to the next whole pack. Every figure it uses is shown, so the sum follows by hand.
Guide only
The sheet totals rectangles and rounds up, and that is the whole of it. It reads no bay, no chimney breast, no threshold and no pattern repeat, and it settles no price. An order goes out on the measured drawing taken in the rooms.
—Working
Nothing is cut until the room has been measured on site.
Starts on a round figure; overwrite it with the number on the label.
—Allowances
| Covering or layout | Waste allowance | Where the allowance goes |
|---|---|---|
| Sheet vinyl | 7% | Cut from a roll width, then scribed at both ends. |
| LVT plank | 8% | Cuts at each wall, plus offcuts too short to start a row. |
| Laminate | 8% | Row starts are staggered, so board ends drop out. |
| Engineered wood | 10% | Boards are graded and sorted while they are laid. |
| Herringbone layout | 15% | Every perimeter cut lands on the diagonal. |
| Carpet | 10% | Roll width governs, then pile direction fixes which way it turns. |
—Two figures in
One room, or the rooms above added together.
One coverage runs down the table, so the lines compare like for like.
Reading 18.00 m2 of floor against 2.50 m2 a pack.
Allowance is area times the percentage on its own line. Area to order is the two added. Packs are that figure divided by the coverage, then rounded up. A real order uses the coverage printed on each label, so the pack column moves once the label is read.
05The allowance
The same floor area is ordered six ways, because the covering and the layout decide how much of it ends up in the offcut bag. One area goes in, one pack coverage goes in, then the whole lookup table runs on both figures at once. The last column counts the packs each line costs over the leanest line in the table.
Guide only
—Run out in full
| Covering or layout | Allowance | Allowance, m2 | Area to order, m2 | Packs | Over the leanest line |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sheet vinyl | 7% | 1.26 | 19.26 | 8 | level |
| LVT plank | 8% | 1.44 | 19.44 | 8 | level |
| Laminate | 8% | 1.44 | 19.44 | 8 | level |
| Engineered wood | 10% | 1.80 | 19.80 | 8 | level |
| Herringbone layout | 15% | 2.70 | 20.70 | 9 | +1 |
| Carpet | 10% | 1.80 | 19.80 | 8 | level |
06The build-up
The question that arrives before any other one: will the door still shut? A new floor is not laid at the old height. It sits on top of the base, so the underlay and the covering added together are exactly how far the finished floor comes up.
Measure the gap under the closed door with a rule, then add the two build-up figures off the packs. What is left is the clearance the leaf has once the floor is down. When that runs short the leaf comes off at the measure, then the bottom is eased and rehung the same day.
Guide only
—Three figures
Foam, fibreboard, acoustic mat or ply: the figure on the roll.
Board or sheet thickness, wear layer included, off the pack.
Measured at the leading edge, on the old floor, before anything comes up.
The leaf comes off at the measure, then the bottom is eased.
—Section
Thresholds, bars and the gap at every fixed edge are set out on the edges page.
07The day
A fitting day runs in a fixed order, and the order is what keeps a room usable by the evening.
Furniture goes out or moves to one half, then the old covering is lifted and bagged. Old tack strip, staples and adhesive ridges come off the base with it.
The base is swept and checked with a straight edge. Hollows are filled, high spots are taken back, then the floor is left until the repair is hard.
Any leaf that will catch comes off its hinges first, while the room is still empty. The bottom is taken down by the build-up, then the leaf is rehung and tried.
Tack strip is fixed round the room where carpet follows, then underlay is laid, butted and taped. A floating floor gets its perimeter gap set out at this point.
The run is dry-laid first, until the cut at each wall balances and the seams fall away from the traffic. Then it is fixed for good, cut by cut, from the longest wall.
Bars are fixed into the base, scotia is pinned and the perimeter is finished. Offcuts are bagged, the floor is cleaned down, then the furniture comes back onto pads.
08The first month
A floated floor settles while the room takes it up and down in temperature, so heavy furniture goes back gently and stands on felt pads. Glued goods are left alone until the adhesive has taken, then normal traffic starts. A new carpet sheds loose fibre for a while, then it stops; a light vacuum, taken often, carries it away.
Grit is what wears a floor out, so a mat at every outside door earns its keep. Hard coverings are damp-mopped, and wood is kept clear of the wet mop. Anything laid over underfloor heating is brought up to temperature a step at a time, until it reaches its working heat.
—Left behind
The measured drawing, the covering fitted and the batch details are written up on the job sheet, then the customer takes a copy of that record home on the day. Offcuts long enough to patch are left with the customer, labelled with the room they came out of. What the sheet holds and how long it is kept are set out on the details page.
The run of work sits inside Brighton and Hove: Portslade, Hove, Southwick, Hangleton, Kemptown and Rottingdean. Where a base needs levelling before a covering will sit flat, that is surveyed on its own and quoted on its own line, then it is set out on the base page. Enquiries reach the fitting line at fitting@kbflooring.shop.