You can’t have your cake and eat it too, and that applies just as much to flooring as it does to everything else in the world. One of the most important choices you have to make when choosing a new floor is whether you favour style or practicality. You’ve got the fashionable, fabulous flooring products and the robust, workmanlike floors that are built to last – there’s very little overlap!

So which is more important: beauty or brawn? A floor should last you for at least a few years, but on the other hand, who cares how long the floor will last when it looks absolutely awful? It’s a tricky decision, but if you’ve got children, pets, or a lot of foot traffic, then you’ll probably have to opt for durability over decadence.

Fortunately, we at Floormaker are capable of providing the best of both worlds. Remember when we said you couldn’t have your cake and it eat it? Well, we’ve decided to bend that particular rule – the 8mm Lava Block laminate flooring is some seriously durable flooring, but the wood-style beauty is no less stunning for its practicality. Laminate flooring is great for busy families who still want a little bit of style, because it looks just as good as wood while requiring far less maintenance! If durability is top of your list, then Floormaker’s sturdy yet stunning products are almost certainly the perfect choice.

Shopping online has taken over the retail World and although nothing will ever beat going into a store and seeing and trying the product for yourself; most of us prefer shopping online. It’s so easy! You see the product you like, you find a price you like, tap in your details and bam! It’s on it’s way to you and you never even had to leave the comfort of your home. However there are some downsides to this online wonderland. 

Like we’ve already mentioned, however great online shopping can be; going to town, seeing, feeling, trying on if needs be the product is always best. You want to make sure that you’re buying the perfect thing for you, that it will fit and look incredible. Well that’s why Floormaker give you 3 free samples so you can ‘try before you buy.’ It’s better safe than sorry and at Floormaker we fully understand that. We want to make sure you have the best flooring experience ever and get exactly what you ordered. So if you’re a first time buyer or you’re just finding it difficult to choose between a couple of woods, get your 3 free samples and make sure you’re choosing right. 

Second and probably most importantly, Home Delivery. Some Internet Shops are mean and for them simply buying their products is not good enough and they need to charge you for posting and packaging AS WELL. Who wants to pay more!? No one. And that’s why Floormaker give you free Home Delivery for all UK orders. Wherever you are in the UK, be it Scotland, England or Wales you can be sure your gorgeous flooring gets to you safely free of charge. Unlike many shops we appreciate the fact you’ve chosen Floormaker to shop with and we’d like to give you something back. 

And to top it all off, Floormaker have an excellent customer service. In shops it’s easy to turn round and find the nearest sales assistant but shopping online can sometimes mean you have less guidance. Especially when online stores make it extremely difficult for you to contact them and we’ve all had first-hand experience of that. It’s annoying and selfish and that’s why Floormaker have strived to make their customer service second to none. Our lines are open Monday-Friday 9am – 5pm just call 08444 889 177. And you can always drop us an email at sales@floormaker.co.uk and we’ll be sure to get back to you as quick as possible. 

It’s always nice to know you can simply pick up the phone if you’re having trouble deciding between floors and you want some advice on what’s best for you. Or you need some help when it comes to finally installing your new floor. Whatever the matter is, we’re sure to be at the other end of the phone giving you the best support and advice we can. That’s just Floormaker policy. 

Red wood flooring sounds appealing, doesn’t it? It sounds a fair bit more interesting than brown wood flooring, at any rate; everybody is used to brown wood, but a bit of red wood flooring will really throw your guests for a loop. It’s a fantastically unique design concept, and it’s sure to make your living room look magnificently modern and fashionable!

Part 3 of 3 – Finishing Touches & Helpful Tips

Anyone can learn to lay laminate flooring, but it can seem like a pretty scary prospect if you’re not so hot on your DIY knowledge. Don’t panic, though, because that’s what this guide is for! We’ve been taking you through the entire installation process, step-by-step, and we’ve already covered preparation and laying laminate flooring. The only thing left to do is finish it off, so that’s what we’ll be teaching you to do in the final part of our Floormaker guide, as well as offering some handy hints to bear in mind once your floor is finished.  

11. So, you’ve covered the floor, but what about the door? It’s really simple; just place an offcut piece of laminate flooring next to the door, and use it as a guide to saw part of the door frame away. Generally as a rule the part you saw should be the thickness of the laminate and underlay combined plus a few millimetres. This will allow your floor to slide underneath the door frame, at which point you can use your threshold strip to create a smooth transition between your laminate and the one on the other side of the door, providing a neat and professional finish. 

12. Now that you’ve finished laying your laminate flooring, you must remove the floor spacers that are separating the boards from the wall. Replace them with the cork expansion strips as these will control the natural movement of your laminate flooring during the natural expansion and contraction of the flooring and during normal domestic movement.

13. For a truly stunning, spotless finish, place the scotia edging around the edge of your floor so that it covers up the cork expansion strips and creates an immaculate, expert finish. Remember to nail the edging to the wall or skirting board, not the floor! The floor needs to be able to expand and contract, and a nail would prevent it from doing this. 

14. One of the best things about laminate flooring is how easy it is to clean in comparison to carpet. Make sure you wipe up any spills as quickly as possible. And, when it comes to cleaning be careful when choosing a cleaning product to use on your laminate. We suggest you test on a small hidden area as some strong detergents can cause damage. Laminate-specific cleaning products do exist, so we’d recommend you purchase it along with your laminate flooring and accessories.  

Congratulations, you have now finished laying your laminate flooring! However, before putting your furniture back in the room, consider investing in felt pads and castor cups for the feet of any chairs, tables or sofas. These will prevent the furniture from scratching your brand new floor.

We hope that this step-by-step guide has shown you that laying a new floor doesn’t have to be a nightmare, and we’re sure the next floor you install will look sleek, stylish, and professional! If you do need any more help or advice, just go to the Floormaker website and we’ll see what we can do! 

The ‘How to Lay Laminate Flooring’ guide was written by the people behind Floormaker. Their website is packed with great flooring products and accessories, and their competitive prices make it the perfect place to buy flooring online  for everything to complete your flooring project.

Part 2 of 3 – Laying the Floor

Laying laminate flooring is a fairly straightforward task when you break it down into simple steps. That’s what this three-part guide aims to do: show you how to lay laminate flooring without confusing or alienating you along the way. In Part 1, we looked at the preparation that needs to be carried out before laying a new floor. Now it’s time for the fun part: laying the laminate flooring itself! Don’t worry, Floormaker are going to talk you through the whole process...

6. Once your laminate flooring has been acclimatised for at least 72hrs then you’re ready to begin. You can start laying your flooring, but don’t get too carried away! You must not go up to the walls; instead, use your spacers (that we talked about in part 1) to keep the floor 12mm away from the wall right the way around the room. This is called the expansion gap. This allows for the natural expansion and contraction of the laminate flooring.

7. Before starting the first row, measure the width of your room and divide this by the width of the plank to see how many planks fit into the width. This will show you if the last row of planks will be wide enough to install. If not, you will need to alter the width of the first row making the last row wider. When you reach the end of the first row, saw the final board to fit, remembering to leave an expansion gap. Start the next row with the piece you just cut off (not under 300mm.) This creates a staggered effect that looks great and strengthens the floor’s construction. 

8. Continue laying the floor, using the laminate flooring’s tongue and groove design to clip the boards together. No glue is required, which makes for a less messy and stress-free installation process! Remember the spacers – your floor needs to be 12mm away from the wall at every perimeter. 

9. This is where the hammer and knocking block come into play. (If the locking system requires it.) They are used to close the gaps between the boards. Place the block up against the board and firmly tap it with the hammer to close the gap. If you’re too close to a wall to use the knocking block, use the pull bar instead. Use the hammer to tap the pull bar to fit the end pieces at the end of every row.

10. If there are any pipes in the way of your floor, for example radiator pipes, simply drill a hole in the board that’s 16mm larger than the diameter of the pipe (again, this allows for the floor’s natural expansion). Cut into the hole so that the board can slot around the pipe, and place a pipe cover around the pipe for a smooth, professional finish and use a PVC rosette to cover the area cut at the base of the pipe. If you have room, you can even glue the offcut back in behind the pipe so that there’s no bare floor. This is one of the hardest parts of laying your laminate flooring, so don’t worry if you find it a little fiddly!

Well done! If you’ve gotten to this point, your new laminate flooring is ninety per cent complete. All that’s left to do now is add the finishing touches that will make your room look truly terrific. If you want to read more about those, we’ll see you in Part 3...

All three parts of the ‘How to Lay Laminate Flooring’ guide have been supplied by Floormaker, a professional flooring supplier who have been in the industry for over 80 years.

Part 1 of 3 – Preparation 

If you’re not too well-acquainted with DIY, laying a new floor can seem like an impossible task. But don’t give up yet! This three-part Floormaker guide will teach even total DIY novices how to lay laminate flooring by breaking the job up into small, manageable stages, and explaining them in language that everyone can understand. 

In this first section, we’ll cover the things you’ll need to do before you lay your new laminate flooring. Preparation is everything when it comes to laying a new floor, so if you’re planning to install a new floor in your home, read this first! 

1. First things first, start by measuring the room that you’d like to re-floor so you can work out how much flooring you’ll need. No matter what kind of laminate flooring you want, you’ll need to calculate the area of your room. To do this, multiply the length of the room by the width in metres, this will give you the total square metre area you need to cover. Then find out what area one pack of flooring will cover. This will vary between products. To work out how many packs of flooring you need simply divide the total square metre area you need to cover by the pack size of the laminate flooring, this will tell you how many packs you will need to complete the job and remember to add 10% more for those ‘just in case’ moments. 

2. Secondly, choose the laminate flooring you want. Remember to consider the price, style, texture, locking system, moisture resistance and thickness so you get the best laminate flooring to suit you and your home. Once you’ve bought your flooring, leave it in the room you want to lay it in for at least 72hrs before you start to install it. This allows the flooring to acclimatise to the room’s temperature and humidity. Laminate flooring will expand and contract due to temperature, so you want to make sure the laminate flooring is used to the room’s normal climate. This will ensure that the laminate flooring has adjusted to the room’s conditions before being installed. Always remember to store the packs of flooring flat during acclimatisation. 

3. Next, go shopping! Assuming you’ve already got the flooring, here are the tools and accessories you’ll want to have handy when you’re laying a new floor:

• Scotia edging (buy two times the room’s length in metres and two times the width in metres, and a little bit extra, just in case)

• Underlay (see step 5 to work out what kind you need)

• Floor Spacers, a Knocking Block, and a Pull Bar (available as an all-in-one kit or sold separately)

• Cork expansion strips

• Threshold strip – T Bar or Reducer

• Pipe covers and Rosettes (wooden or pvc )

• Tape measure

• Fine-toothed saw/ Jigsaw with appropriate laminate blade

• Drill

• Hammer

• Protective knee pads

• Pencil and Ruler

Having all these accessories may seem a bit much; but if you want to give your room a neat and professional finish then these things are essential. 

4. Once you feel ready to start, the first step is to prepare your subfloor. This is the surface you’re going to be laying your underlay over before installing your laminate flooring. 

• If your subfloor is made of wood, simply ensure that it’s firmly screwed down and flatten any screws or nails that are bulging out. All subfloors must be clean, level, flat, healthy and dry. 

• If you have a concrete subfloor that isn’t level, you can buy a product called self-levelling screed that you pour onto the floor to even it out, so wait for that to dry if you use it. Screed usually takes one day per 1mm to dry. If you have new concrete it will take one month per 25mm (1 inch) to dry. It is imperative that the subfloor is dry before you proceed.

• If your subfloor is covered in carpet or carpet underlay, remove it; laminate flooring should not be installed on top of carpet. For optimum results, remember to vacuum the subfloor before you start. Doing this removes any grit or dirt that might be hanging around. It also makes for a cleaner home! 

5. Now you’re ready to put down the underlay. You should choose the underlay to suit the subfloor not the product. All downstairs subfloors will require a vapour barrier or an underlay with an incorporated vapour barrier.  

• On a concrete subfloor, Polyfoam underlay is perfect when used with a vapour barrier. An alternative to this is a High Performance Underlay which will have an incorporated vapour barrier and be better underfoot for both comfort and noise reduction.

• A wood subfloor may be better suited to a fibreboard underlay; this will take away any undulations from the timber boards and give even more sound reduction. And one more word of advice, always use fibreboard underlay over existing floorboards.

Congratulations! You are now ready to starting laying your laminate flooring. Rest assured that the next part is just as easy as this part was; we’ll teach you how to lay laminate flooring, and get it looking good, in Part 2.

This advice on laying a new floor was provided by Floormaker. You’ll find all kinds of stylish laminate flooring products, as well as all the tools you’ll need to install it, at their website.

At Floormaker we try and make sure all our customers are happy. So if you’re looking for a shabby-chic, rustic flooring or something more down the modern road; we have a wood to please everyone. So firstly figure out what you want from home, what kind of style you’d like to achieve and imagine the transformation you want to accomplish. 

Rustic Charm:

Now, if you’ve decided rustic is the way to go, we applaud you. There are so many gorgeous rustic flooring designs out there that will look beautiful in your home. They make the smallest, darkest of rooms feel aired and refreshed with a vintage charm that helps make your home a more enjoyable place to live. 

One of Floormaker’s finest rustic wood’s is the 18mm Rustic Whitewashed Oak Random Length Flooring. Nothing says rustic better than real solid wood flooring. It’s the absolute real deal, like all rustic styles should be. Solid wood flooring feels fabulous under foot; it’s soft and smooth and will cushion every step you take on it. With this solid wood flooring you will truly capture the essence of a Rustic Style Home, making your home look and feel more beautiful than ever. 

Rustic styles are easy to get – you just need the right wood to start you off, and Floormaker have plenty of options for you! Whether you want solid wood flooring or a laminate or engineered, you can find vintage designs in all our ranges. We suggest going for light colour woods with dark low-lights and shadows. This creates an incredible texture in the wood and really achieves that ‘worn’ look you’ll be aiming for. Then add the right furniture and accessories that you like and voilà! You can begin to live in style. 

Modern Magic: 

The urban look is all the rage right now, never has modern look so good. And luckily for you, Floormaker have got a stunning range of new designs and styles just waiting for you to pick them up. Whether you want something completely outrageous or just a simple, contemporary design, we have them all! 

If simple is what you’re looking for then what better wood to choose than the 18mm Oiled Onyx Solid Black Oak Wood Flooring. It's pure solid wood flooring and it is stunning. Black flooring is in. It’s mysterious, dusky and beautiful and will transform your home from a mundane house into a mystical, thrilling beauty. Solid wood flooring is hard, robust and feels amazing. Nothing says modern-chic better than this.

However, perhaps you’re looking for something a little more funky and crazy. A design that is sure to catch everyone’s eye and be the centre of attention. Fortunately, Floormaker have an array of daring designs like this. Just go to our Engineered Range and take a look at some of the amazing designer flooring we have in stock. One of our absolute favourites is the 10mm Havana Wood. It looks good wherever it goes and its design is to die for, just take a look for yourself. 

We hope we’ve given you a broader look at our range so you can see all the kinds of woods that are out there waiting for you. Floormaker only stock the best laminate, engineered and solid wood floors so you can be sure you’re buying durability as well as style when you shop at Floormaker; no wonder we’re the UK’s leading flooring supplier!

We want you and all of our customers to have the best flooring so if you have any questions don’t waver to call us on 08444 889 177 

Solid wood flooring comes in many different styles. A lot of people buy solid wood flooring because they want a rich, dark tone that’s as decadent as it is authentic, but what about the people who want a bright and airy feel from their wood? Will they have to make do with laminate products, or is there such a thing as a genuine hardwood floor that can brighten a room?

Well, we’ve trawled through Floormaker’s extensive solid wood flooring range, and we’re happy to report that yes, real wood can be bright and breezy too! The Unfinished Solid Oak Wide Wood Flooring is a fine example, showing that lightly-coloured wood can look just as appealing as the dark stuff. If you want to combine the fabulously natural feel of solid wood with an open, airy atmosphere, then this is the solid wood flooring for you.

But while the solid oak floor is a bright and beautiful addition to any living space, it’s not the only alluring solid wood floor we’ve got here at Floormaker. There are plenty of other astounding styles to be discovered in our Solid Wood Flooring section, ranging from nearly-white to dark and delicious. Whatever you want from your wood, we’re bound to be able to help.

Floormaker reveal the latest Flooring Trends. 

We all want beautiful flooring, that’s the new and stylish and we want it before anyone else gets it. Well Floormaker are here to help by revealing some of the latest flooring styles and upcoming trends! 

At the moment the hottest floors around are the Glossy Tile Laminate Floors and they are selling fast. At Floormaker, we’ve had a boom in sales in our glosstile range from our wonderland of White Laminate Flooring 8mm Glossy Tiles to even our most outrageous glossy tiles, the 8mm Glossy Red Tile Laminate Flooring. People love them. They’re sophistication and style mixed into one and you cannot miss out on this gorgeous flooring range before it goes, so hurry! 

However if you’re looking for something a little less out there; something that has a lot of elegance and flair but with a subtle and simple design then our Slate Effect Laminate Flooring range will be perfect for you. We have a huge range of sleek and sexy black slate floors to creamy, buttery slate laminate flooring that will open up your rooms and make your home a stunning place to be living in. 

But let’s not forget those upcoming trends, the all-important and crucial trends that will set you apart from all your friends and make you the fashion guru. Engineered flooring will soon take over everyone’s homes. Engineered floors have everything, elegance, beauty, design, style and above all durability. Floormaker stock a fabulous range of Engineered flooring that vary from floors with extravagant and outlandish designs such as our 10.5mm Wood Veneer Wenge Zebra Red Flooring or our  10mm Wood Veneer Sylt to more subtle beauties such as the Parador Cherry Herringbone Parquet, a classic and timeless flooring. 

So be the first to order an Engineered Wood Flooring from us. You will instantly see and feel the difference high quality flooring can make in your home. Why not order your 3 free samples from us now? Just call us on 02920 344 358 for more details 

You don’t have to decide between durable flooring and beautiful flooring. With Floormaker’s remarkable range of laminate flooring products, you can have your cake and eat it too! Take the 8mm Lava Block Laminate Flooring from Parador, for example – it’s got a great look, we’re sure you’ll agree, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s some seriously durable flooring.

The oddly-named Lava Block is a shining example of how laminate flooring can boast elegance and endurance in equal measure. Being a laminate, it’s a sensationally durable flooring product, but the knotty wooden details and the medium-dark brown veneer look just as stylish as solid wood. Perhaps ‘lava block’ isn’t such a strange name when you think about it; after all, it is one hot floor!

If you’re looking for durable flooring that’s still a delight to look at, the Lava Block laminate flooring is perfect for you. It’s just as easy to install as it is easy on the eyes, and it will stay looking lovely for years