Flooring Guides
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Posted: March 30, 2026Categories: Flooring GuidesRead more »
Choosing flooring for your living room is one of the most important decisions you can make for your home. It’s a space that sees constant footfall, heavy furniture, and everyday wear, while needing to feel comfortable and cosy for relaxing evenings on the sofa. It also has to stand up to the demands of your household, whether you’re shoes on or off, pet-friendly or have little ones running around. In this guide, we break down the main types of living room flooring, what each one offers, where it falls short, and which options suit different homes and lifestyles best.
Types of flooring for living rooms
Carpet
Carpet remains one of the most popular choices for living rooms in the UK, and for good reason. It is warm underfoot, reduces noise, and creates a comfortable, inviting feel that is difficult to replicate with hard flooring. It also provides a degree of slip resistance, which
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Posted: March 25, 2026Categories: Flooring GuidesRead more »
Choosing the right flooring is only half of the decision. The finish applied to it affects how it looks, how it performs, and how much maintenance it needs over time. Whether you are browsing laminate, LVT, engineered wood, or solid wood flooring, this guide breaks down every flooring finish so you can make a confident, informed choice.
What is a flooring finish?
A flooring finish is the protective or decorative coating applied to the surface of a floor. On hard floors like engineered and solid wood, the finish is usually a treatment such as oil, lacquer, or wax that seals and protects the timber. On manufactured floors like laminate and LVT, the finish refers to the texture of the wear layer, which determines how the surface looks and feels underfoot. In both cases, the finish has a direct impact on durability, appearance, and the level of upkeep the floor requires.
Why does a floor’s finish matter?
A floor’s finish
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Posted: March 25, 2026Categories: Flooring GuidesRead more »
Engineered wood and laminate are two of the most popular flooring choices for UK homeowners. Both replicate the appearance of real timber at a lower cost than solid wood, and both install using a click-lock system. But they are built differently, perform differently, and suit different rooms and budgets. This guide compares the two products across every factor that matters so that you can decide which floor type is better for your home.
What is engineered wood flooring?
Engineered wood flooring consists of planks made from a genuine hardwood veneer on top, bonded to multiple layers of plywood or HDF beneath. The cross-ply construction of those base layers makes the board more dimensionally stable than solid wood, meaning it expands and contracts less in response to changes in temperature and humidity. The hardwood veneer is the part you see and walk on, and it can be sanded and refinished
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Posted: March 25, 2026Categories: Flooring GuidesRead more »
LVT and vinyl flooring are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same product. Both are made from vinyl, but their construction, performance, and price differ in ways that matter when choosing the right floor. This guide explains what separates them, so you can decide which type fits your room, your budget, and how you live.
What is sheet vinyl flooring?
Sheet vinyl flooring is a single-layer, flexible flooring that comes in wide rolls, typically 2m, 3m, or 4m wide. It is one of the most affordable floor coverings available. The surface is printed with a wood, stone, or geometric pattern, and a clear wear layer sits on top to protect it from scuffs and light use. Most sheet vinyl is glued down directly to the subfloor during installation. Because it comes in large rolls, it can often be laid with few or no seams, which makes it a practical option for bathrooms and kitchens where water
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Posted: March 25, 2026Categories: Flooring GuidesRead more »
Choosing between LVT and laminate flooring means understanding how each performs in your specific space. Both offer the appearance of natural wood or stone at accessible price points, but they differ in construction, water resistance and installation requirements. This guide examines the practical differences to help you select flooring that suits your budget, room type and lifestyle needs.
What is LVT Flooring?
LVT stands for Luxury Vinyl Tile. It's a multi-layered flooring solution made from PVC-based materials, making it 100% waterproof and available with realistic wood or stone finishes. The typical LVT structure includes four distinct layers:
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Wear layer: Aluminium oxide coating that resists scratches and scuffs
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Clear protective film: Additional layer preventing surface damage
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Posted: June 04, 2025Categories: Flooring Guides
Read more »When it comes to flooring a property, the bathroom is one of the hardest rooms to get right.
Not only does it need to be completely waterproof and durable enough to withstand consistent usage, but colour and design can make a huge difference to the look and feel of the room.
So, style and practicality both need to be assessed and well-balanced.
To help you narrow down your options, and find the best match for your bathroom flooring, we’ve shared our handy bathroom flooring guide below.
What are the key considerations when looking for bathroom flooring?
If you’re assessing your options for bathroom flooring, you will need to consider the following:
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Posted: March 14, 2025Read more »
Vinyl flooring is one of the most popular flooring varieties, widely used in both domestic and commercial properties.
It is renowned for not only its durability, but also its versatility, coming in an extensive range of styles and colours. For instance, at Floor Giants, we have a huge variety of vinyl flooring options on sale, to suit every property type, style and budget.
If you know that vinyl flooring is the right fit for your property, but aren’t sure how to narrow down your design options, keep reading. Below, we’ve shared our handy guide for choosing the best-fit luxury vinyl flooring style for your property.
What are the benefits of vinyl flooring?
Vinyl flooring offers a number of unique advantages.
Its main benefits include:
- Available in a wide range of design options (more on this below)
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Posted: October 31, 2024Categories: Flooring Guides
Read more »Carpets are a simple and affordable way to improve the comfort of a property.
They are a popular choice amongst property owners, and it’s easy to see why. There are a number of big benefits to investing in carpets, including their ability to improve the heat and comfort of a room, their durability, and their huge variety of design styles.
Plus, believe it or not, carpets are also surprisingly easy to install - even if you’re a relative DIY newbie.
To help you see how straightforward this process is, our flooring experts have shared their step by step guide to carpet laying.
A step by step guide to laying carpet
You will need the following equipment:
- Your chosen carpet
- Measuring tape
- Carpet knife (or sharp utility knife)
- Underlay
- Staple gun / carpet glue
- Carpet stretching tool (such
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Posted: July 25, 2024
Read more »Soild wood flooring (real wood) is a fantastic investment for your home, it’s hard to find a more timeless, stylish and effortlessly elegant choice for a property.
Real wood has a wonderful natural allure, and its style is compatible with any interior design aesthetic. For homeowners who want a similar look with easier upkeep, laminate plank flooring offers the appearance of natural wood grain with added durability. Plus, natural wood comes in a huge range of different designs and finishes, meaning you can find a customised wooden floor that perfectly suits your signature style.
However, one of the most common questions that we get from customers that are thinking about investing in a new solid wood floor is, ‘how do you clean the floor?’.
So, to answer this top wooden floor FAQ, we’ve created a dedicated guide to cleaning solid wood floors.
Keep reading to find our top tips for looking
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Posted: February 21, 2024
Read more »Laminate flooring is one of the most popular types of flooring out there, and it’s easy to see why.
There are a huge range of benefits to laminate flooring, including impressive durability, scratch resistance, low maintenance and moisture resistance, with finishes such as natural laminate flooring offering a realistic wood look. Plus, not only is it highly affordable and available in a huge range of different styles, but it is also renowned for its ease of installation.
Laminate flooring can be installed as a floating floor. This means that this flooring type does not need to be nailed or glued to the subfloor, making laminate flooring installation significantly quicker and easier - even if you’re a complete DIY rookie.
To help you see how straightforward it is to lay laminate flooring, our flooring experts have shared their complete step by step guide to the process below.
