The floor is
the biggest
surface you own.

Often, yes — over tile, over an existing vinyl or over a sound timber subfloor, provided it is flat, dry and firmly fixed. It saves the removal cost and the mess. What it does not do is hide a problem: laying over a hollow or a loose tile guarantees the same fault appears in the new floor within a year.

Almost always to some degree. LVP is thin and flexible, so it follows whatever it is laid on rather than bridging it. Small dips become clicks underfoot and then open joints. Levelling is part of the job we quote, not an extra we discover.

Generally yes, and it is one of the main reasons people choose it. How a specific product behaves in a genuinely wet area depends on that product and on how the perimeter is detailed — we will tell you what the data sheet for your chosen floor actually says rather than repeating a marketing word.

Many products are described that way, and the claim is about the plank itself. Water that gets past the perimeter and sits on the substrate is still a problem, whatever the plank is made of. We treat perimeter detailing in wet rooms as part of the installation rather than as a product feature.

Sweep or vacuum regularly, damp mop with a cleaner made for resilient flooring, felt pads under furniture. No steam cleaners and no flooding. That is genuinely the whole routine.

Substrate condition first — levelling and moisture remediation are the variables that move a quote most. Then layout: herringbone roughly doubles the labour of a straight lay. Then the number of transitions, doorways and stairs, which are priced per item rather than by area.

The laying is quick; the preparation is not. A straightforward straight-lay floor over a sound slab moves fast, while a floor needing removal, grinding and levelling takes considerably longer. We will give you a real sequence after the site visit.

Yes, with matched treads, risers and a proper nosing profile. It is slow, careful work priced per step, and it is the part of a plank installation where a shortcut is most visible.

Any printed floor can shift in tone under years of direct sun. Where a room has a large west-facing glazed wall we will say so and suggest blinds — the same advice protects your furniture.

Individual boards can usually be lifted and replaced, which is a real advantage over a sheet floor. It works best if you keep the offcuts — we leave them with you at hand-over for exactly this reason, because dye lots change.

Tile is harder, cooler underfoot and completely indifferent to water; plank is warmer, quieter, faster to install and far more forgiving to walk on. Many of the houses we work in use both — plank through the living space and tile in the wet rooms — and that is usually the right answer rather than a compromise.