New Build Flooring

veryconfused20

I'm due to complete on a new build property this week. I've chosen to source my own flooring and fitting for such due to my budget, however having seen the finish that the developers have left on the floor, it is unsuitable to lay a floor covering on top of. The concrete is set but has what I can only describe as hundreds of small bumps that don't look dissimilar to bubbles. I believe this has already been signed off by the NHBC but having looked on the website regarding floor finishes, I believe I'm reading it correctly in that the standard should be that it is suitable as a base for a floor covering which it currently is not.

The developers have stated they will put "patches" of self levelling compound down over the worst areas of these 'bubbles', but I fear this will simply make the flooring even more uneven just in larger sections.

Should the developer be altering things like the floor after it's been signed off? And can they argue to leave the floor in an unsuitable state?

Thanks

nyermen

Can't speak for what they should have done (but someone else may do), but for what its worth my 80's build I replaced the paleolithic age carpet with laminate floor when I moved in a year ago.  The concrete was far from perfect, but the underlay has (afaik) dealt with that.

Of course, if you're talking large bubbles, thats another matter.  Maybe you can post a photo or send it to a flooring company for a view?

veryconfused20

nyermen said:

Can't speak for what they should have done (but someone else may do), but for what its worth my 80's build I replaced the paleolithic age carpet with laminate floor when I moved in a year ago.  The concrete was far from perfect, but the underlay has (afaik) dealt with that.

Of course, if you're talking large bubbles, thats another matter.  Maybe you can post a photo or send it to a flooring company for a view?

I'm planning on having vinyl flooring put down for a large portion of the ground floor, minus where you would expect carpet. I wouldn't be too concerned if it was all carpet as, as you say, the underlay would 'absorb' the lumps. But unfortunately for vinyl (or probably any tiling) would need prepping first.

This is a photo of what it currently looks like, this is very textured in person. I have no idea what it'll look like post putting "patches" of compound down 😬

katkatmachine

Ours is the same, we have vinyl althroughout the house except for the wet areas (bathroom, kitchen and cloakroom), we had these tiled done by the developer. It was a good decision doing it on our own and sourcing our own flooring because the tiling the developer did on the wet areas was horrible! So uneven, we plan to redo them after a few years maybe.

Anyway, our flooring men had to screed the floor downstairs and apply I think it was cement to straighten and smoothen the surface in preparation for the vinyl. For the rooms upstairs they put wood underlay. Our stairs too and landing are vinyl, no carpet in the house. All in all, i think we spent £7k for our vinyl flooring in our two bedroom house, a big chunk of it went for the flooring in the lounge and the stairs. I know it’s a bit expensive but it’s super worth it.

veryconfused20

katkatmachine said:

Ours is the same, we have vinyl althroughout the house except for the wet areas (bathroom, kitchen and cloakroom), we had these tiled done by the developer. It was a good decision doing it on our own and sourcing our own flooring because the tiling the developer did on the wet areas was horrible! So uneven, we plan to redo them after a few years maybe.

Anyway, our flooring men had to screed the floor downstairs and apply I think it was cement to straighten and smoothen the surface in preparation for the vinyl. For the rooms upstairs they put wood underlay. Our stairs too and landing are vinyl, no carpet in the house. All in all, i think we spent £7k for our vinyl flooring in our two bedroom house, a big chunk of it went for the flooring in the lounge and the stairs. I know it’s a bit expensive but it’s super worth it.

From what I've read on the NHBC, my question is more whether the flooring can/should be left this way as it doesn't seem to comply with their guidance of being appropriate to put flooring on top of.

My concern is also them tampering with the floor after the sign off, as it won't be re-assessed and could possibly be made worse? 

katkatmachine

veryconfused20 said:

 katkatmachine said:

Ours is the same, we have vinyl althroughout the house except for the wet areas (bathroom, kitchen and cloakroom), we had these tiled done by the developer. It was a good decision doing it on our own and sourcing our own flooring because the tiling the developer did on the wet areas was horrible! So uneven, we plan to redo them after a few years maybe.

Anyway, our flooring men had to screed the floor downstairs and apply I think it was cement to straighten and smoothen the surface in preparation for the vinyl. For the rooms upstairs they put wood underlay. Our stairs too and landing are vinyl, no carpet in the house. All in all, i think we spent £7k for our vinyl flooring in our two bedroom house, a big chunk of it went for the flooring in the lounge and the stairs. I know it’s a bit expensive but it’s super worth it.

From what I've read on the NHBC, my question is more whether the flooring can/should be left this way as it doesn't seem to comply with their guidance of being appropriate to put flooring on top of.

My concern is also them tampering with the floor after the sign off, as it won't be re-assessed and could possibly be made worse? 

Hi. I think the NHBC warranty gets void if you do any restructuring like extensions or alterations in the property, I don’t think fixing the patches and screeding the floor are considered as restructuring. And looking at your photo, your flooring men will definitely have to screed it before you could lay the vinyl. 

Scotbot

veryconfused20 said:

katkatmachine said:

Ours is the same, we have vinyl althroughout the house except for the wet areas (bathroom, kitchen and cloakroom), we had these tiled done by the developer. It was a good decision doing it on our own and sourcing our own flooring because the tiling the developer did on the wet areas was horrible! So uneven, we plan to redo them after a few years maybe.

Anyway, our flooring men had to screed the floor downstairs and apply I think it was cement to straighten and smoothen the surface in preparation for the vinyl. For the rooms upstairs they put wood underlay. Our stairs too and landing are vinyl, no carpet in the house. All in all, i think we spent £7k for our vinyl flooring in our two bedroom house, a big chunk of it went for the flooring in the lounge and the stairs. I know it’s a bit expensive but it’s super worth it.

From what I've read on the NHBC, my question is more whether the flooring can/should be left this way as it doesn't seem to comply with their guidance of being appropriate to put flooring on top of.

My concern is also them tampering with the floor after the sign off, as it won't be re-assessed and could possibly be made worse? 

You could put down carpet or the sort of lino that comes on a roll basically anything that goes on top of underlay so my guess is it would comply. You may not want carpet but it technically complies

veryconfused20

katkatmachine said:

veryconfused20 said:

 katkatmachine said:

Ours is the same, we have vinyl althroughout the house except for the wet areas (bathroom, kitchen and cloakroom), we had these tiled done by the developer. It was a good decision doing it on our own and sourcing our own flooring because the tiling the developer did on the wet areas was horrible! So uneven, we plan to redo them after a few years maybe.

Anyway, our flooring men had to screed the floor downstairs and apply I think it was cement to straighten and smoothen the surface in preparation for the vinyl. For the rooms upstairs they put wood underlay. Our stairs too and landing are vinyl, no carpet in the house. All in all, i think we spent £7k for our vinyl flooring in our two bedroom house, a big chunk of it went for the flooring in the lounge and the stairs. I know it’s a bit expensive but it’s super worth it.

From what I've read on the NHBC, my question is more whether the flooring can/should be left this way as it doesn't seem to comply with their guidance of being appropriate to put flooring on top of.

My concern is also them tampering with the floor after the sign off, as it won't be re-assessed and could possibly be made worse? 

Hi. I think the NHBC warranty gets void if you do any restructuring like extensions or alterations in the property, I don’t think fixing the patches and screeding the floor are considered as restructuring. And looking at your photo, your flooring men will definitely have to screed it before you could lay the vinyl. 

Sorry Kat, perhaps I'm not explaining it well. 

I've not yet completed on the property and won't do until later this week. NHBC attended last week to perform the sign off. However prior to completing, the developers plan to make alterations to the flooring. Given the thickness that screed usually is, I am concerned that rather than lots of little bumps, I'm going to be given keys to a house than now has large mounds of screed making the flooring even more uneven than it was before.

My understanding is that properties must be built within certain tolerances - if alterations are going to be made following having been checked, then my concern is that they will no longer comply with the acceptable tolerances but it will go unrecorded due to the sign off having happened beforehand. 

Seashell517

Whoever fits your vinyl will do the levelling first anyway, so just tell the builders to leave it as it is, because the floor fitters would probably rather do it themselves (and do a better job). As it's new concrete there's a fairly good chance there might be issues with moisture level too... 

BigD74

I wouldn’t worry too much about the state of the concrete floor: any concrete flooring will need screed before vinyl can be put down. Same in our new build: we had flooring put down by the builder in our wet rooms (en-suite, bathroom, cloaks) and had the rest fitted by Tapi. Combination of LVT in kitchen/hallway, carpet in living room and all carpets upstairs. 
Word of advice if you’re having LVT put down in the kitchen: our kickboards didn’t fit any more after screed + vinyl was laid. They needed to have a few mills removed, which a very helpful site manager was able to organise.