Floor Fitters in Kesgrave and Grange Farm

Floors for the town's modern homes

Kesgrave had barely a hundred residents a century ago. Almost everything you see was built from the mid-twentieth century onwards, and the large Grange Farm development added thousands of homes in recent decades. For flooring, that means two things.

• Ground floors are usually concrete or beam-and-block with screed. They are generally flat, so LVT and laminate need less preparation than in an older house. Moisture is still tested.
• Upper floors are usually chipboard. Joints can squeak or sit slightly proud. We fix and level them before laying anything over.

Replacing the builder's floors

Many homes here still have the carpet and thin vinyl they were sold with. The most common projects we see in estate houses are:

• Carpet in the hall and lounge replaced with laminate or LVT
• Flattened builder’s carpet on stairs, landings and bedrooms replaced with a better carpet and underlay
• Tired kitchen and cloakroom vinyl replaced with wood-effect or stone-effect LVT
• One continuous LVT floor through hall, kitchen and dining area
• New sheet vinyl in bathrooms and en suites

Not sure which suits your household? The guide for homeowners compares them room by room.

Townhouses, stairs and landings

Many of the newer streets include three-storey townhouses, which means two flights of stairs and two landings. Stair carpet in these houses takes more wear than any other floor in the home, and the builder’s original rarely lasts. A dense twist or nylon blend over firm underlay is the usual replacement. If you want hard flooring in the hall, we plan the junction at the bottom stair so the carpet and the new floor meet cleanly.

Garage and loft conversions

Garage conversions are a frequent project on estates like these. The slab is often lower than the house floor, uninsulated and without a proper damp-proof membrane. It needs moisture testing and usually a membrane and smoothing compound before LVT or laminate goes down. Loft rooms are the opposite problem: new chipboard or OSB decking, which is flat but can be noisy. An acoustic underlay under carpet or laminate keeps footsteps out of the bedrooms below.

The older part of town

Along Main Road and the streets north of it are bungalows and houses from the 1930s to 1960s. These often have suspended timber floors, or older concrete without a modern damp-proof membrane. They get a closer subfloor check, and sometimes a plywood overlay or moisture barrier before fitting. That work is described under floor preparation.

Open-plan kitchen-diners and extensions

Rear extensions are common on estate houses. Where a new slab meets the original floor, levels and moisture can differ. New concrete and screed need time to dry before wood or glued floors go down. We measure instead of guessing, and advise on timing if your build is still in progress.

Getting to you

The town is about four miles from our base, straight along the A1214. It forms part of the wider Ipswich built-up area, so we treat it exactly as we treat the town itself.

Nearby areas

We also work in Rushmere St Andrew and Playford to the west and north, Martlesham to the east, and across Ipswich. See all service areas.

Local questions