Evening all - I'm looking for a bit of advice on LVT as I've never had this type of flooring before. We're hoping to get one type of flooring across all of the downstairs in our house but it's a mixture of floorboards in the hall and lounge and concrete in the kitchen - Is it possible to get a seamless level across different types of floor or will the join always be visible even after screeding? We're looking at Polyflor Camaro (2231 Ambrosia Maple). Is this a good choice or are there better products for the money? Is LVT a good choice for a hallway or will it get scratched easily? Finally, can anyone recommend a good installer in the B92 area or estimate what a fair price would be - it's 36.5sqm in total (8sqm on concrete subfloor, the rest is 3.5" pine floorboards). Thanks.
Yes its possible to get a seamless finish I do it all the time but the floor will sound different when you walk from the wood to concrete. Camaro is a budget lvt but very good quality You can scratch any flooring really don't get black as is shows up more And wipe your feet on the way in
Ive just finished a job acually that is more or less same as yours. My customer went for the camaro white limed oak and what a Joy it was to fit. Love the stuff. Hallway concrete, over sized reception room on right was floorboard, lounge on the left of hall was floorboard, going through to the back of the lounge which has now been extended and turns into concrete, to your right goes through to the kitchen (concrete) that comes back into the hallway via a doorway in the middle of the kitchen wall so made sure it all flowed right and not bent like Ive seen in the past (or half a width planks been cut in a doorway to make the planks meet up) All skirts were removed ready for new, I 6mm ply boarded all floorboard areas and Arditex NA'd the whole lot making sure levels were bang on. Fitted a lovey Forbo designer matting to the hallway 1 meter in and looks perfect. Just make sure whoever you get to do the job is 100% clued up what they are doing especially with the levels etc as the colour you are having will magnify the joins quite a bit as its quite a smooth colour if I remember rightly. Ive seen some right sh*t attempts in the past.
Thanks for the info gents. Is removing the skirting required in order to get a professional finish? Also, how does polyflor compare to karndean? My in laws had walnut style karndean installed 8 years ago and it still looks brand new. If we're careful with the floor can we expect the same thing or is Polyflor a noticeably inferior product? (We would probably go for karndean but we'd struggle to afford it at the mo as we're putting in a new kitchen at the same time).
Personally I prefer skirts on but most installers would probably prefer them off (lazy like Dazlight) Polyflor is not an inferior product It's like anything If you look after it correctly will look good for many many years The most important thing is to have it installed correctly by a fully trained installer ie not a carpet fitter with pound signs in his eyes The cheapest quote for installation is the one to avoid
This will be a bespoke job to some degree so you need to be ready for a hefty price tag, the concrete will possibly require a screed dpm screed sandwich the floorboards will need 6mm ply then the whole lot to be screeded with a fibre reinforced screed to get the same height throughout as you can imagine the floor prep is probably the most costly part of the job but definitely the most important. Camaro is a good quality LVT along with many others including mFlor, Luvanto, Project Floors etc... Karndean and Amtico are the biggest brands and the most expensive although this doesn't make them better, personally I would look towards the other brands as you do get more for your money (not paying for brand name). For fitters always go with a quality installer with all the accreditations and buy the materials from them will help stop the blame game if anything does go wrong (sadly we are only human and things can go awry).
Thanks for the response Tarkett. Everyone has mentoned the importance of getting an accredited installer who knows what they're doing so can anyone recommend an installer in the Birmingham area? Also, what should a ballpark price be for this job? The floorboards will need 6mm ply (28.5sqm) and the concrete floor (8sqm) will need 6mm of screed to keep it level with the ply floor. A DPM shouldn't be required as the floor already has one but I haven't done an RH check so can't be certain. Floor will be straight lay with no borders or trim strips. I understand that it's difficult to give an estimate without seeing the job but I have no idea what a fair price would be. I'm aware that the materials alone will be over 900 quid so I'm not expecting it to be cheap.
The floor boards will more than likely need 9mm ply It's very rare I use 6mm at all. or 6mm ply, screed up to level then flexy screed over the lot would give the best "Seamless finish" A normal rule of thumb for basic prep and fit would be what ever the flooring costs double it but obviously there's a lot more work involved in yours and every job i do tbo so yeah it defo not going to be cheap there was a find a fitter bit on here but it's disappeared ?
I'd hazard a guess at around £2400-£2600 obviously depending on site inspections as spacey said there used to be a find a fitter on here but seems to have disappeared try contacting FITA, Polyflor direct see if they can recommend also this will give you backup if anything goes wrong they recommended them. Plus Matt on here runs floorskills who could possibly point you in the right direction
Just busy spacey. Just busy. With skirting off it means I get 2 jobs a day done. Not like you doing one then home to drink tea and sing.
A good fitter in Birmingham area on here is Matt Bourne, but I know he's quite busy. I'm sure he could point you in the right direction though
