Don't fall for technical talk, our Floor laying jargon buster will help you know what the common technical terms are when your floor laying man is waffling on.
A waterproofing, self-leveling floor
screed, approximately 2-5mm thick, used as a damp resistant
layer for old floors. This will require a latex screed before
the finishing layer is applied.
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A vinyl floor finish with integral foam.
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Traditional Axminster and Wilton style
carpets do not tend to have a bonded foam underlay and the traditional
way to smooth out base floor irregularities was to use a felt.
This has largely been superceded by rubber foam although felt
often has better sound absorption qualities. Felt will need
paper as a first layer. Under layers are important and will
prevent some wearing.
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See screed. Generally a hard cement
/ sand layer but only measuring about 15-25mm. This is laid
wetter than screed and with strength throughout instead of just
on the surface so that it can be used as a wearing surface,
particularly in garages.
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Plywood battens around 25mm wide with
small nails protruding 'hedgehog style'. These are laid spike
up around the perimeter of a room to grip the edge of a carpet.
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A mixture of fine aggregate and liquid
rubber poured onto a floor to run and find its own level, thereby
filling any small holes or slightly off-level areas. Around
6mm is the maximum workable depth.
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A traditional mixture of cork dust or
wood dust, flax, chalk and linseed oil which is highly compressed
between rollers onto a jute backing and used as flooring. Lino
is produced near Dundee in Scotland.
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Floorboards are unsuitable for sheet
flooring materials, as the joints will show through. This is
prevented by over boarding with plywood or with pre-soaked or
oiled hardboard. Pre-soaking with water is important to prevent
expansion 'bubbling up' the boarding.
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A coarse, washed sand, sometimes granite
based and referred to as 'grano', which is mixed with cement
when slightly damp and spread over a floor to about 65mm then
steel trowelled smooth. The screed may be laid over a concrete
floor a day or so after setting and monolithically bonded to
the concrete by pouring liquid cement (grout) over as glue.
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A mixture of white cement and marble
chippings/powder, laid wet then ground smooth. This is often
seen in shop doorways but can also be used for work surfaces
and basins.
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A finishing floor tile of hard vinyl
plastic that, in the past, was mixed with asbestos fibre. For
this reason, 20-year-old marbled plastic tiles should be treated
as suspect.
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