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Kitchen Flooring

Are you in the process of updating your kitchen? Whether you are going
the whole hog and replacing all the appliances and units or whether you
are just giving a tired kitchen a new lift one of the most important areas
will be the Flooring. Many people ask what is the most suitable for a
kitchen floor. Country Flooring have been advising on kitchen floors for
many years and it is all about understanding the different products and
deciding on the right one for your design tastes and the practicality of
your life style.
Many kitchen design books show wood flooring in kitchens, especially the
shaker style kitchens they really set off the Oak flooring very well. We
have sold many hundreds of Square metres of flooring and installed in
kitchen areas but we always explain that wood and water do not mix so
there are certain rules you need to adhere to.
1). When you clean the floor you don't slosh around with a bucket of water
and leave water laying on the surface of the wood, you must always clean
with a very well rung out cloth or mop and you should wipe off any excess
moisture.
2). If you are a very messy person at the sink keep a mat in front of this
area to soak up the slops of water.
3). Use a proper wood cleaner such as Kahrs Cleaner so that you are not
using anything too strong that would damage the lacquers that have been put
there to protect the wood, and then use a Lacquer Refresher such as Kahrs
lacquer refresher to keep the floor in good condition, in a kitchen this
would probably need to be done every 6 months or so.
4). Keep felt pads on any furniture especially in Breakfast areas with
tables and chairs.
5). Make sure you have a good mat at any entrances from outside so the
grit and the stones can be wiped off the shoes easily.

If you don't feel inclined to spend the budget on a real wood floor then
maybe laminate from our Witex Castilia Range would be more suitable or the
Quickstep ranges. The same rules of care would apply to laminate as they
do to real wood except for the lacquer refreshers these are not necessary
on a laminate floor. Alternatively you may decide to go for Karndean.
Karndean is a vinyl strip flooring and therefore more resilient to
moisture. If you have dog bowls of water in the kitchen you may find that
this is a more practical alternative for when somebody puts their foot in
the bowl! Karndean can give you the wood or tiled effect without the
worry of the water issue or the coldness of a ceramic tile. Karndean also
needs some care and should always be cleaned with a Karndean cleaner to
protect the wear layers and a dressing for the top layer of protection
should be used from the outset, so as to keep the floor in good condition.
This dresser needs to be removed and re-applied about once every six
months. Again you should use felt pads on any furniture to protect the
floor from hard surfaces rubbing.

If you are unsure about any of the points on this page please don't
hesitate to call and speak to a customer adviser on 01245 250074 and we
will be happy to offer any advice on the products we sell.

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General

What is it that makes Kahrs Woodloc flooring such a good buy over and above many of the other woods on the market? Having been in the retail flooring business all our working lives it is not difficult for us to see the advantages to working with a quality product that is practical, and affordable but does not compromise on quality. To the un-educated any engineered floor can be looked upon as inferior to a solid wood. This is quite often not the case. If you are trying to fit a solid wood floor over an exisitng concrete floor unless you decide to use 18mm battens in the floor the chances are you would pick a solid 15mm overlay and stick it to the concrete floor or possibly use a Junckers 14mm solid to fit as a floating floor. This is fine but if you study the depth between the tongue and the top of the board you will note that the depth of wood that could be sanded is very close to that of a wear layer on a Kahrs 15mm engineered wood with a 4mm wear layer. The advantage of the Karhs board especially in the wide plank designs such as Kahrs Oak London, or Kahrs Oak Dublin are the stability. Any solid wood can have a tendency to what we term as misbehave, ie. to cup or warp slightly unless it is held into position with glues or secret nails. Engineered wood is not only considerably easier to fit and quicker even for the untrained but incurs many less pitfalls and risks along the way.
All Kahrs engineered boards use a quality wood for the wear layer it could be Kahrs Beech Stockholm 3- strip or Kahrs Ash London Wide Board, these are adhered to two layers of soft wood either Larch and pine or oak, the quality of these woods used is also important and you will notice that an inferior engineerd wood will be alot lighter to lift. The engineering of any type of wood floor is critical in how it fits together, if the boards are not engineered well then they can become bruised during fitting or the joints can fail in the click together systems. Kahrs use hardwood ends on their header joints to combat some of these pitfalls.
The final area to which the standard of Kahrs Woodloc flooring is so important are the finishes they produce. The Kahrs lacquers are very hard wearing, they will not peel as some of the cheaper imports, with their 5 coats of UV lacquers they are stable and very hard wearing. We are all looking for an easy low maintenance life-style these days and while every floor covering needs some attention, eg. vacum the carpet or dust the wood floor, by following the simple guide lines of keeping the floor well swept and free from grit and stones, using a good door mat on entrances from outside and only washing the floor with a minimal amount of water using the appropriate cleaner your Kahrs wood floor will last for many many years, indeed the maufacturers warranty on any of their 15mm engineered woodloc flooring is 30 years. If you prefer a more matt finish to the wood many species and designs are finished in Kahrs UV-oil, a hardwearing finish put on in the manufacturing process that requires very little maintenance, alternatively they also produce some boards such as Oak Dublin natural or Brown Oiled in a natural oil finish, this dose need a little more maintenance but allows you to care for your floor and feed it with oil to increase patinia in the wood nad revive any worn looking areas.

Having sold wood flooring for many years and had much feed back from our very experienced fitting teams we are well used to hearing the praises of Kahrs woodloc flooring, and have no hesitation in recommending any of their products for a beatiful wood floor.

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General

Figure 1



Fitting Guide for Engineered Woodloc Flooring

A large majority of the Engineered Wood flooring purchased from this site use glue less locking systems, which are ideal for the DIY fitter.

Engineered Wood floors are designed to be fitted as 'Floating Floors' this means that they are not adhered to the floor or walls at any point. An expansion gap of 10mm - 15mm must be left all around the room; this includes areas such as fireplaces, patio doors and radiator pipes.

Laying an Engineered wood floor is very much like decorating preparation; the key to a successful installation is the preparation of the sub floor.

STEP 1.
Firstly uplift any existing floor coverings, carpet, underlay, gripper, vinyl flooring. If you have vinyl floor tiles that are stuck down all over then as long as they are still sound they can be left in place when a floating floor is being laid, however old solid wood parquet flooring should really be uplifted and the old bitumen covered with a self smoothing compound. There are cases where the parquet has been left and this has been successful, so our advice would be if you decide to leave the old floor down use beading around the edges so that if for any reason the new floor does need to come up to rectify the situation you will not have to remove fixed skirting.

STEP 2.
Now it is time to examine the sub floor. All floors should be level to a degree of 3mm over the length of a 2m straight edge, e.g. put a 2m length of straight edge across the floor and if at any point there is gap below the straight edge of more than 3mm then the floor will need some preparation.

If you have floorboards make sure they are all secure and repaired or replaced evenly. Remember to check for pipes or cables when banging in nails! If they are flat and sound then you can lay the underlay and laminate as a floating floor directly over them, ensuring that there are no air bricks blocked. But if the floorboards are uneven, as we have discussed then you will need to put a minimum of 4mm plywood over the top of the floorboards and possibly some self-smoothing compound on top of the plywood. The plywood should be nailed down with ring shank nails to stop them from working their way out and if you do need to put smoothing compound down you should leave a 2mm gap between the ply to allow for expansion.

If your existing sub floor is concrete or concrete covered in vinyl tiles and if it is level you can lay the laminate floor using either a separate damp proof membrane and foam underlay or an all in one membrane and underlay, this is to slow moisture rising from the concrete sub floor, all joints between the runs of underlay should be taped. If the floor is uneven then you will need to apply a smoothing compound to iron out some of the dips and high spots. Also if your concrete floor is newly installed it must be fully dried. Most manufacturers would give a guide of 1 month per inch depth of screed, this is a guide and it is your responsibility to ensure the sub floor is dry before installation.

STEP 3.
Once you have made sure the sub floor is level it is time to proceed with the next step. To fit an engineered wood floor correctly you should use either a Tenon saw or a hand saw to undercut the door liners and architraves. We have seen many floors where the fitter has cut very neatly around the door architraves and then filled the gap with mastic, this not only looks awful it is incorrect. Figure 1 To do this place an off cut of the floor plus a piece of underlay beside the door frame. Lay the Saw horizontally to the floor and carefully cut away the architrave. The cut should be through to the door liner and into the doorway where the floor finishes. Be careful, as there are sometimes nails or pipes hidden within.

STEP 4.
You are now ready to fit the floor. The first decision to make is which direction you are going to run the boards. As a general rule the floor would be fitted parallel to the longer wall. If the room is reasonably square it is best to fit the floor running away from the entry door, but these are not rules but guidelines and you can make your own judgments. All the flooring sold on this site comes with instructions and you may prefer to use this link for the Kahrs fitting instructions. www.kahrs.se

Lay down your first row of underlay against the wall you have decide to start on, you will need to check to see if the walls are straight, but don't forget if you have a fireplace or feature in the room you will want the floor to look straight in front of it so have a good look around before you start. If your wall is not straight you need to click two rows together with the first row beginning with a full board and the second beginning with a half board, to ensure they are running straight. Offer them up to the wall, if they are not straight then follow this procedure.

To scribe a board to follow the line of a wall, place your two rows against the wall and a second off cut on top against the wall, run a pencil along the line of the off cut and this will give you a line to cut along, which will ensure that your first line of boards mirrors the profile of the wall. Now unclick the two rows and separately cut each board if needed, you will need a jigsaw to make this cut.

You can now proceed to put the first line of boards into place, again click a separate row onto your first row to ensure they are running straight. Remember to use the spacers from the fitting kit to allow the correct expansion gaps around the room. When you are satisfied that this line is straight you can carry on across the room. You will need to keep a non uniform stagger, cut a few different sized starts to begin, e.g. one ¾ length board and one ½ board. Use the off cut left from the first line to start the next row ensuring that you build the floor with randomly placed header joints.

If you have radiator pipes coming out of the floor you must leave good expansion around the pies. To do this, drill a hole of 32mm for a standard 15mm pipe. First mark the board where the centre of the pipe will fall then drill the hole form the top of the Wood, next cut out either a triangular shape behind the hole or at a 45% angle cut one side triangular and the other straight across the hole, (make this cut from the underneath of the board and this will stop the wood from chipping), this enables you to clic the small piece onto the next board. ( Insert Pic 2)

The last line of boards will also need to be scribed to the wall, it may also be necessary to remove the last tongue on a Woodloc Board especially in a hallway with doors either side as it can sometimes be difficult to achieve the angle to lock the board down into position. If you do need to remove the tongue on the last board use some PVA glue and treat the last joint as a tongue & groove joint and stick the joint together, using the pulling bar to allow you to lever into place the final row of boards.

STEP 5.
You are now ready to fit the threshold bars and any beading or skirting. Remember when fitting the threshold bars to leave expansion, the available bars to match the wood are all available from this site. Beading should be pinned to the existing skirting with small brad nails, but ensure that you do not pinch the floor as this will restrict the laminate and not allow it to move when necessary. When joining two pieces of beading on a long wall ensure that you cut a 45% mitre joint and do not but up two pieces as this gives a more professional look. Also ensure that on any end pieces you mitre the ends to make small triangular returns again to ensure a professional look. ( see photo)

Fit the skirting boards where necessary but again ensure that the skirting does not pinch the engineered floor and restrict its movement as it will then have a tendency to squeak.

Your floor is now ready to be used. Always place felt pads or castor cups under any furniture this will protect the surfaces that have been added to protect the floor. Only clean with a recommended wood cleaner ensuring a minimal amount of water is used on a well rung out cloth or mop. Always use barrier mats on entry from an outside doors and keep the floor well swept to remove any grit or stones. Don't forget to use a Lacquer Refresher every so often on a Lacquered floor and to Oil or use an Oil Refresher on an oiled floor to keep them in good condition.

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General

All the laminate flooring purchased from this site uses the Unilin glue less locking system, which is ideal for the DIY fitter.

Laminate floors are designed to be fitted as 'Floating Floors' this means that they are not adhered to the floor or walls at any point. An expansion gap of 10mm must be left all around the room; this includes areas such as fireplaces, patio doors and radiator pipes.

Laying a laminate floor is very much like decorating preparation; the key to a successful installation is the preparation of the sub floor.

STEP 1.
Firstly uplift any existing floor coverings, carpet, underlay, gripper, vinyl flooring. If you have vinyl floor tiles that are stuck down all over then as long as they are still sound they can be left in place when a floating floor is being laid, however old solid wood parquet flooring should really be uplifted and the old bitumen covered with a self smoothing compound. There are cases where the parquet has been left and this has been successful, so our advice would be if you decide to leave the old floor down to either clip on skirting or beading around the edges so that if for any reason the new floor does need to come up to rectify the situation you will not have to remove fixed skirting.

STEP 2.
Now it is time to examine the sub floor. All floors should be level to a degree of 3mm over the length of a 2m straight edge, e.g. put a 2m length of straight edge across the floor and if at any point there is gap below the straight edge of more than 3mm then the floor will need some preparation.

I you have floorboards make sure they are all secure and repaired or replaced evenly. Remember to check for pipes or cables when banging in nails! If they are flat and sound then you can lay the underlay and laminate as a floating floor directly over them, ensuring that there are no air bricks blocked. But if the floorboards are uneven, as we have discussed then you will need to put a minimum of 4mm plywood over the top of the floorboards and possibly some self-smoothing compound o top of the plywood. The plywood should be nailed down with ring shank nails to stop them from working their way out and if you do need to put smoothing compound down you should leave a 2mm gap between the ply to allow for expansion.

If your existing sub floor is concrete or concrete covered in vinyl tiles and if it is level you can lay the laminate floor using either a separate damp proof membrane and foam underlay or an all in one membrane and underlay, this is to slow moisture rising from the concrete sub floor, all joints between the runs of underlay should be taped. If the floor is uneven then you will need to apply a smoothing compound to iron out some of the dips and high spots. Also if your concrete floor is newly installed it must be fully dried. Most manufacturers would give a guide of 1 month per inch depth of screed, this is a guide and it is your responsibility to ensure the sub floor is dry before installation.

STEP 3.
Once you have made sure the sub floor is level it is time to proceed with the next step. To fit a laminate floor correctly you should use either a Tenon saw or a hand saw to undercut the door liners and architraves. We have seen many floors where the fitter has cut very neatly around the door architraves and then filled the gap with mastic, this not only looks awful it is incorrect. (Add Picture of undercut doors.)

To do this place an off cut of the floor plus a piece of underlay beside the door frame. Lay the Saw horizontally to the floor and carefully cut away the architrave. The cut should be through to the door liner and into the doorway where the floor finishes. Be careful, as there are sometimes nails or pipes hidden within.

STEP 4.
You are now ready to fit the floor. The first decision to make is which direction you are going to run the boards. As a general rule the floor would be fitted parallel to the longer wall. If the room is reasonably square it is best to fit the floor runnin away from the entry door, but these are not rules but guidelines and you can make your own judgements. All the flooring sold on this site comes with instructions and you may prefer to use this link for the Quickstep fitting instructions. www.quick-step.com

Lay down your first row of underlay against the wall you have decide to start on, you will need to check to see if the walls are straight, but don't forget if you have a fireplace or feature in the room you will want the floor to look straight in front of it so have a good look around before you start. I your wall is not straight you need to click two rows together with the first row beginning with a full board and the second beginning with a half board, to ensure they are running straight. Offer them up to the wall, if they are not straight then follow this procedure.

To scribe a board to follow the line of a wall, place your two rows against the wall and a second off cut on top against the wall, ru a pencil along the line of the off cut and this will give you a line to cut along, which will ensure that your first line of boards mirrors the profile of the wall. Now unclick the two rows and separately cut each board if needed, you will need a jigsaw to make this cut.

You can now proceed to put the first line of boards into place, again click a separate row onto your first row to ensure they are running straight. Remember to use the spacers from the fitting kit to allow the correct expansion gaps around the room. When you are satisfied that this line is straight you can carry on across the room. You will need to keep a non uniform stagger, cut a few different sized starts to begin, e.g. one ¾ length board and one ½ board. Use the off cut left from the first line to start the next row ensuring that you build the floor with randomly placed header joints.

If you have radiator pipes coming out of the floor you must leave good expansion around the pies. To do this drill a hole of 32mm for a standard 15mm pipe. First mark the board where the centre of the pipe will fall then drill the hole form the top of the laminate, next cut out either a triangular shape behind the hole or at a 45% angle cut one side triangular and the other straight across the hole,(make this cut from the underneath of the board and this wil stop the laminate from chipping), this enables you to clic the small piece onto the next board.( Insert Pic 2) The last line of boards will also need to be scribed to the wall, it may be necessary to use the pulling bar to allow you to click into place the final row of boards.

STEP 5.
You are now ready to fit the threshold bars and any beading or skirting. Remember when fitting the threshold bars to leave expansion, the available bars to match the wood are all available from this site. Beading should be pinned to the existing skirting with small brad nails, but ensure that you do not pinch the floor as this will restrict the laminate and not allow it to move when necessary. When joining two pieces of beading on a long wall ensure that you cut a 45% mitre joint and do not but up two pieces as this gives a more professional look. Also ensure that on any end pieces you mitre the ends to make small triangular returns again to ensure a professional look. (see photo)

Fit the skirting boards where necessary but again ensure that the skirting does not pinch the laminate floor and restrict its movement as it will then have a tendency to squeak.

Your floor is now ready to be used. Always place felt pads or castor cups under any furniture this will protect the surfaces that have been added to protect the floor. Only clean with a recommended laminate cleaner ensuring a minimal amount of water is used on a well rung out cloth or mop. Always use barrier mats on entry from an outside door and keep the floor well swept to remove any grit or stones.

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General

Each of these has their own advantages and disadvantages.

Laminate - This product is a man made copy of a real wood, the high quality photocopy of either the wood or tiles is applied to a HDF (High density Fibre) board, the quality of the laminate is determined by

1). The quality of the base board, this will determine the impact resistance.
2).The quality of the paper used for the photocopy.
3).The locking system.
4). The quality of the wear layer.

Laminate floors are quite resistant to scratching although not scratch proof and also very resistant to dents, but if you are unlucky enough to damage a laminate floor to repair it properly you will probably need to replace the board, this is where the Quick Step and Witex ranges have such an advantage as they have glueless locking systems that enable you to Unclic a board and replace it with a new board.

All these fators are not visible to the naked eye but are very important when it comes to the quality and longevity of the product. As a company that for many years has based our business on a supply and fitting service we are keen to offer quality products that we know and trust.

Engineered Wood - This product is a Multi Layer Board made from a 4mm wear layer of the particular wood chosen ie.Oak, with two different boards behind this running in two different directions, this means that the three layers are working against each other, this produces a very stable board that can be laid as a floating floor in the same way as a laminate can over the appropriate underlay. It still requires an expansion gap of between 10 & 15mm as does any wood floor but it is the ideal wood when fitting over a concrete sub floor.

Any wood flooring will show some dents and scratches over a period of time but it is the nature of the product and denotes the fact that it is a real wood floor. The advanatages are that it sounds different to a laminate floor and that if you do damage a floor it can be filled and or sanded an re-sealed. any wood floor will last be hard wearing but its performance will be based on how you treat the floor.

Solid Wood - This product is the most complicated to deal with. There are two differnt types of solid wood flooring sold on this site. As a rule a 14 or 15mm solid wood flooring is classed as a Overlay, that is it must be laid over the exisiting subfloor as it would not be strong enough to be the main load bearing floor unlike an 18-22mm Floor which can either be used to replace an exisiting floor or fitted over the top of an existing subfloor. Generally solid wood should be fixed to the floor JUNCKERS Wood floors are an exception and can be laid as a floating floor because the method of drying they use makes their product exceptionally stable. Any other solid wood should be either secret nailed to Joists or a wooden subfloor or glued to a concrete subfloor. All wood or laminate floors need a damp proof membrane underneath them when they are laid onto a concrete subfloor, on a floating floor this can either be seperate or incorporated in the underlay, but for a solid wood this needs to be a chemical membrane to allow the wood to be glued to the floor.

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General

The aim of the business of countryflooring.co.uk from the County town of Chelmsford in Essex is to supply good quality flooring to the whole country at competitive prices, to enable purchasers to be informed and confident that they are buying the right products for the right areas of the home. Please do not hesitate to telephone on 01245 250074 or e-mail info@countryflooring.co.uk for a well-informed discussion on your requirements, be they wood, carpets or vinyl flooring.

The local areas around our headquarters in the town of Chelmsford in Essex do give us the opportunity to be able to provide our own in-house fitting services, or to recommend local trusted and experienced fitters to cover the outlying areas of Essex such as Basildon, Braintree, Brentwood, Colchester, Great Dunmow, Maldon and Southend if they are required. But many of our products are designed for the DIY market as well. When buying any product it is essential that you have all the correct information at your disposal and this site will hopefully give you the necessary help to enable you to enhance your home or work space to provide a comfortable desirable enviroment.

Many consumers with the right time and information can achieve a great deal of satisfaction by first laying a floor in a bedroom with good quality laminate such as Quick Step or Witex and then progressing to fit a new real hardwood floor to the hallway such as a Kahrs or Boen engineered flooring, and then adding a very servicable Vinyl tile design floor from Karndean to the kitchen, but they will often draw the line at putting a Natural flooring in the lounge or a new carpet on the stairs and call in the professional fitter to help!

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