Why Brixton Homeowners Keep Getting Hardwood Wrong

Brixton is a place that has a personality. Victorian terraces stand side-by-side with floodlight-lit art deco warehouse flats. Old markets buildings throb with a new vitality. And lost somewhere in all this character, many a floor are trashed.

We have been installing wood flooring for this postcode for over 20 years. Same errors, different street. Search about vinyl flooring and fitting near me. Let’s list them.

Skipping the Moisture Check

The housing stock in brixton is ageing. A sizeable proportion predates indoor plumbing, and can exhibit dampness problems lurking under the floor boards that have been left uninspected since the blitz.

Place a good quality oak on a moist subfloor and see it cup, warp and lift in a matter of months. We check the moisture contents of the planks before we even lay one. That’s five minutes and a saving of thousands.

The homeowner by Brixton Hill had done this already himself with a previous installer. 6 weeks down the line, the boards had all warped to look like an upturned ship. We binned it all and began again. Such a hard lesson, and one that could have been avoided.

Buying Flooring Before Measuring the Room Properly

This may sound straightforward. It isn’t. You can measure a room by eye, order flooring online and realize halfway through fitting that you’ve run out by 12 square metres. Or you’ve ordered enough to carpet a ballroom where you only needed a box room.

Correct measuring takes wastage, pattern direction and acclimatisation cuts into consideration. Get one wrong and you’re half way through making your curtains and waiting for a reorder while your sofa still languishes in the hall.

Ignoring Acclimatisation Time

Wood has a life cycle of its own. It breathes. It swells.

It shrinks.

Moving boards directly from a chilled van into an overheated apartment and installing them straight away is playing with fire.

It needs to be in the room for a few days first. This is to get used to the actual humidity and temperature it’ll be living in. Don’t rush this stage and it will open up within weeks, sometimes minutes of the heating being turned on in winter.

We’ve heard of DIY jobs in Brixton, where gaps big enough to drop a coin down have appeared between boards, all for the sake of getting it done before the weekend.

Choosing the Wrong Wood for a Period Property

Brixton’s Victorian and Edwardian conversions all have their idiosyncracies. High ceilings, original cornicing, uneven joists where no one’s been since 1890. If you go putting down a modern engineered floor without considering what you’ve already got, the room can look really odd.

Solid oak is the perfect fit. Reclaimed-style boards work just as well. A floor doesn’t have to match how old the building is; that’s just silly fuss. It’s what differentiates a well put-together flat from a showroom that has been dumped in a Georgian shell.

Forgetting About Underfloor Heating Compatibility

As more Brixton flats are having underfloor Heating added on, more are retrofitted, primarily basement conversions. Not all types of hardwood cane deal with this. Oak for example can crack from the constant heat cycles. Where as engineered wood handles this much better.

Mass-produced casings If you get this wrong you will be lifting boards within a year. The easy way is to make sure you never buy them. They split evenly down the middle. Always ask and check before you buy.18 We are asked this question routinely, and we always look at the heating plans before recommending it.

Hiring Whoever’s Cheapest on a Listing Site

We hear you. Cheaper quotes are important too. But what is taking a cheaper quote going to cost you in the long run?

Quicker jobs normally cut corners.

Subfloor prep often gets overlooked. Expansion gaps are not performed. Adhesive is applied gossamer thin just to claw back on material.

Type in “vinyl flooring and fitting near me” and you will turn up dozens in a matter of seconds. Most of these are acceptable. A small minority aren’t and that impression will become clear two years down the line when the floor begins to lift at the edges and you find that the ghost has disappeared from cyberspace!

Good Wood Floor Fitters London companies provide insurance, offer you written guarantees, and have the confidence to stand behind their work years after you’ve paid the invoice. That’s a hell of a lot more than forty quid saved.

People Also Ask: Would laminate flooring be a great value choice for flats in London?

You bet. It’s also typically the best solution for renters, landlords and penny pinchers alike. Today’s laminate looks like authentic wood grain, stands up to feet walking on it and only costs a small percentage of solid timber. When it comes to more unusual room shapes or older subfloors to work on, laminate can be a lot faster than wood.

Over the course of hundreds of London properties the job we practice in fitting our laminate is similar in quality to the jobs we complete in fitting our hardwood floors. Same prep. Same finish. Just a better price.

A Quick Word on Skirting Boards and Finishing Touches

People forget their skirting until the very end. So they lay that new floor, half a centimeter higher than it was previously and the gap below now resembles a rail link.

Sort for this early. Either lift off and refit the skirting or beading the chance to makeup the join with a quadrant. Small thing. Little things are the difference between a professional job and a beginners job.

Not Asking About Aftercare

Wood flooring requires looking after. If you ignore the aftercare tips, you’ll be refinishing in a couple of years rather than 20. Inquire to your carpet installer about care, cleaning products to avoid and resealing schedule.

We will go through this with any Brixton client after we fit. Takes ten minutes. Can save you a fortune in the future.

Twenty Years of Fitting Floors Across London Neighbourhoods

We didn’t do this trade last year, but twenty years of pre-installation fitting experience in London has prepared us for whatever surprises New York subfloors throw at us. The diversity of Brixton’s Victorian palaces, converted warehousing and newbuild apartments would have enlightened any training course:

Our fitters are trade qualified, fully insured, and we provide a written guarantee for every job. We are checked, tested, and approved by a long list of satisfied clients. That’s not a marketing slogan. That’s twenty years of satisfied customers talking for us.

When considering a wood floor installer in Brixton, ask around for people who have installed the flooring themselves on a property in the local vicinity, not across London. An understanding of the construction of period properties and idiosyncracies of the subfloor is vital to ensuring your floor will look as good in 5 years time.

Don’t leave your floor to chance. Ring us now on 020 3322 7001. We’ll provide with a clear answer, honest advice and a plan of action, taking into account the space, the budget, and the time frame. Or click onto flooringfitterslondon.org.uk for a selection of completed projects in South London.

Arriving early means escaping the springtime booking crush that plagues every year as everyone in London starts to do their do-it-all-ness. 2 months early and you can have it all sorted out while we work our way through the queues. Ring us, and get your floors ordered now!