Teesside flooring FAQs

Fitted in 2026: laminate £15 to £30, LVT £25 to £50, engineered wood £35 to £70, sanding existing boards £20 to £35, sheet vinyl from £20. Levelling, where needed, adds £8 to £15 per m².

Covering, underlay or adhesive, fitting labour, lifting and disposing of the old floor, beading or scotia and doorway thresholds. Subfloor preparation should appear as its own line rather than being assumed either way.

Yes. The rooms are measured and the subfloor looked at, the price comes back in writing per square metre, and you decide in your own time. No charge and no pressure.

Almost always product specification and preparation. A 0.3mm wear layer and a 0.7mm wear layer are different floors, and one quote may include levelling that the other has quietly left out. Ask both to itemise.

About 10 per cent on a straight lay, 15 per cent or more on herringbone or diagonal patterns. Keep the offcuts: a spare plank in the loft is the cheapest repair you will ever make.

A fitter lays a two-metre straight edge across it. Dips beyond about 3mm matter for click floors and much less than that for glue-down LVT. It is a five-minute check that saves an expensive-looking floor from looking cheap.

Loose boards get screwed down and, for thin coverings like vinyl or glue-down LVT, a plywood or hardboard overlay goes on top so board joints do not telegraph through. Thicker click floors can often go over a decent board floor with underlay alone.

It decides whether adhesive will hold. Older slabs across the Teesside estates frequently read too damp, and the fix is a surface damp-proof membrane before the covering. A meter reading before fitting is normal practice, not a sales tactic.

Often yes, if the tiles are sound, flat and well bonded, with grout lines filled. Loose or badly laid tiles come up first. Skipping that check is the most common reason a new floor looks uneven within a year.

Glue-down LVT and bonded engineered wood are the usual choices, both with a thin buildup and the heating cycled gradually around fitting. Thick underlays and most standard laminates work against the system.

LVT for most kitchens, sheet vinyl where standing water is a real risk. Both cope with appliance leaks, mopping and dropped pans in a way laminate does not.

In dry, visible rooms, often yes: it can be sanded and refinished rather than replaced, and it is noticed by buyers. In a kitchen or a hallway full of coastal sand, the extra money buys you maintenance rather than performance.

In houses built before about 1940 they are frequently pine worth restoring at £20 to £35 per m². Look before you buy anything new; the sanding versus replacing guide lists the checks.

A single room is usually a day. A hall, lounge and kitchen together is two to three days. Levelling compound and floor finishes need drying time, so those jobs run longer and cannot be rushed sensibly.

Rooms need to be clear. Many fitters will move heavy items as part of the job if it is agreed beforehand, so raise it at quote stage rather than on the morning.

Sometimes not, once a new buildup has gone down. Trimming internal doors is a routine part of a flooring job and should be mentioned on the quote so nobody is surprised.

Barrier matting at every external door, felt pads under furniture, a damp mop rather than a wet one, and no steam cleaner on a timber or laminate floor. Grit at the doorway does more damage than anything else in a house.