Totally Floored!
Totally Floored!
After we’d had some time to mull it over, we’ve finally chosen the flooring we want for the hall. We covered up the old floorboards with a layer of insulation and 18mm T&G boarding so we opted for a Quick Step option from Andrew Mounsey Flooring in Settle. It seems a bit weird covering up a floor only to go to great lengths to replicate it with new flooring, but that’s exactly what we were hoping to do!
Anyway, the day came to get the flooring down and we’d moved pretty much anything we could out of the building, cleaned off any fallen plaster, cut off any hardened glue residue, mopped and swept the floor so we we’re all set.
The lads arrived and gave the place a once over, decided where to start and got stuck in. The Quick Step option looks pretty easy to work with but our main concern in finding a floor, was it had to be easy to maintain. There might be long periods of time where there was little or no heating on, it could have muddy boots left on it for extended periods of time and speaking to a few other flooring suppliers, natural oak flooring was great in homes, but for a building like ours, it would be likely to need a lot more maintenance than we were hoping for. The Quick Step options come in a variety of styles and colours and as either standard laminate board or flexible panels which can even be used in wet rooms so we opted for that one.
It’s a bit of a nerve wracking decision using such a modern material in such an old building but as it starts to go down, I’m happy we’ve made the right choice. Being easier to cut than oak or laminate boards, they are able to cut the panels to match the uneven stone walls really closely with only the minimum expansion gap left and no need to backfill or cover it with skirting board, which we didn’t really want. They’re done the same day too and with everything put back into it’s proper place, the whole place starts to look that much closer to being finished. When Rachel comes up to check it out, she agrees it looks like it’s always been there and is a really good match for the building.
We quickly run through our snag list as there is a bit near the lounge hearth and one on the mezzanine where a bit of plaster seems to have been missed and can be felt with your bare feet but Andrew agrees to send one of the lads back to sort it, which he does without any fuss.
It’s a really nice looking floor now, laid and cut really well and done when they promised it would be. We’re really glad we decided to get a local company in to do it too as we’d definitely recommend them.