When the DIY bug hits you it’s hard to just shake it off like a common cold, you feel the urge to try something. This is never a bad idea unless you’re really bad at it, luckily for you if it’s something like fitting a floor that you’re going to be trying then you’ve picked one of the easier and less time consuming activities of all DIY jobs. What style of flooring comes to mind next I’m sure.
Floating floors have by far become the most used style of flooring in the 21st century, it’s cost friendly, not overly time consuming and when you’re finished looks really nice in your home. Of course the term floating floor seems a little vague and misleading at first I promise it’s not.
A Floating floor is a term that is used to describe a floor that does not need to be glued or nailed to the beneath floor simply resting in place on top of it. The term originally started mainly to describe how you lay laminate flooring but as times gone by it’s not just specific to laminate, other styles of “Floating floors” are tile and vinyl flooring.
It should be noted that this is not a material of flooring but instead a method of how to install such floors.
What Is It?
Like stated earlier a floating floor is a style of installation that includes but is not specific to laminate flooring.
Laying a floating floor is seen as a quick and effective way to to lay a floor as unlike with hardwood or bonded ceramic tile it doesn’t have to be glued or nailed down. It’s a favourite style for DIYers because of its ease in application. Saving money on the labor of such a job is a win for most.
The easy installation of this style has made it much more common nowadays and it is easier to replace a damaged plank than an entire floor because one part is damaged.
Other styles of floating floors include vinyl and tile floors. When floating floors became the go to style however it was more specific to just use laminate.
Maintenance
After you’ve laid your floor in the material of your choice you could be wondering, what’s the best way to maintain this good finish as well as regularly cleaning the floor. That mainly depends on what material that you have used as your floor, let’s say for example you’ve stuck to the classic laminate flooring.
It’s recommended that with this style of floor that for cleaning you should just mop it with not too much water. This method would also be fine for vinyl flooring too.
If you notice that a plank you’ve laid has been damaged from moving furniture or perhaps it’s just been chipped by an unknown source, then as mentioned earlier since you haven’t nailed or glued the plank down it is just a case of replacing the damaged plank with a new one.
Floating flooring provides an easy fix to wear and tear it may face just from general years of usage.
Design
Unfortunately floating floors aren’t seen as the best style of flooring to everyone, due to its nature it can be seen as inferior to more classic style of flooring such as glued or nailed down flooring. Floating floors have been known to lower the real estate value of a property.
Although this view is slowly changing due to the easy nature, rise of its usage and the product quality has improved over the years. However this isn’t the case for luxury vinyl, it has instead been known to raise the value of the real estate. Vinyl flooring is seen to be replacing most plastic laminate flooring.
Although the initial view of floating floors can be somewhat damming. That view is now changing dues to the flexibility you have to choose from.
Now laminate flooring and vinyl flooring are available in all different styles and colors. You can find styles that look like stone, ceramic, wood and in some cases even metal.
This flexibility of design was not originally available but with its growing use more and more have been made available by retailers for your DIY projects.
Installing
The installation process is a relatively simple one, you should try to make the floor you’re going to be laying your materials down on as flat as possible. It’s recommended that you use a form of thin foam sheets to lay underneath to get the best results.
Once you have laid the first part and you’re happy that everything is level then you should begin to lay the exterior layer, you should start at one side of the room and work your way across connecting the flooring by fitting them together and continuing until the space is covered.
Like we said it’s a fairly easy process that’s great for beginners in DIY.
In Summary
A Floating floor is a modern style of flooring that normally uses floorings such as laminate or vinyl as its materials, it’s a much more cost effective style of flooring than anything that is nailed or glued down and is a very easy thing to get you started in perhaps taking on some more DIY responsibilities.
Originally before they became more commonplace it was seen to lower the real estate of a property this view is however, slowly changing. Over time more styles have been made available like mentioned earlier, stone, wood, ceramics and in some cases metal have been used.
Maintaining a nice looking floating floor is quite simple, it’s recommended that you mop it with a damp mop (nothing soaking wet) using something too wet can damage the underlying floor and cause the exterior floor to rise if water gets trapped underneath it.
If you spot that perhaps one of your planks is damaged then there’s no need to panic and start to rip up the entire floor, you can just replace the plank instead.