Deciding on new flooring is often a big step in home or commercial renovation projects. With so many styles and variations available, it’s rarely an easy choice. A common question that follows a decision on flooring is “what accessories do I need?”
This buying guide will help you with what you need for floor preparation and underlay, fitting your flooring, adding the finishing touches and ongoing maintenance.
Different types of accessory
If you’re searching for information on one particular accessory, you can click the link to jump to that section.
Here’s a list of the accessories you may need for your wood flooring:
- Subfloor repairer
- Primer / damp proof membrane (DPM)
- Underlay
- Adhesives
- Joint protector
- Fitting kit
- Scotia / beading / trims
- Profiles
- Skirting
- Radiator rings
- Finishing oils
- Furniture pads
- Wood floor cleaning products
- Floor repair kit
Why are accessories so important?
Accessories are fundamental to your wood flooring for a number of reasons. They help to prepare your home for your new flooring, achieve a professional-looking finish, and increase your flooring’s longevity.
Floor preparation
Preparing your subfloor is a crucial step in any renovation project. From making necessary repairs to preventing moisture damage, here’s what you can use to prepare for a new wood floor being laid in your home.
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Wooden subfloor repairer
This is required if your subfloor is uneven and has gouging or depressions. An uneven subfloor can lead to an uneven wood floor, or cause long-term damage.
Concrete subfloor repairer
Similar to wood, a concrete subfloor needs to be repaired before laying your wood floor. Small cracks in a subfloor can get bigger as your floor is walked on more, so preventing these issues beforehand is important.
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Primer / damp proof membrane (DPM)
If you have a concrete subfloor, primer and DPM gives it a waterproof layer. Excess moisture can lead to warping in your wood floor, and these products help prevent it reaching your flooring. A regular DPM can be used for perfectly even concrete subfloors, whereas a primer comes in handy to hide smaller bumps and imperfections.
Fitting
What fitting accessories you need depends on whether you’re fitting the flooring yourself, or finding a professional flooring fitter to do it for you. To get your floor laid without fuss, there are a range of accessories you can use to help.
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Underlay
Underlay helps you get the most out of your new flooring. It adds warmth to your room, as well as cushioned comfort underfoot and noise insulation. Commonly used for floating installations, underlay is fitted underneath your new flooring.
There are different kinds of underlay, depending on what your needs may be. Fibreboard underlay will help to cover slight imperfections in your subfloor, whereas an underlay compatible with underfloor heating might be required to help improve heat transfer.
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Adhesives
Depending on your floor type, there are different adhesives you can use to ensure your new flooring is secure. Most commonly, an adhesive is used to bond flooring to the subfloor. However, you can also use adhesive to glue tongue and groove planks together; this isn’t required for click flooring.
An all-in-one floor adhesive is the most popular choice for obvious reasons, and is especially helpful if you’re fitting flooring in multiple rooms with different flooring types. It’s also suitable for use in homes with underfloor heating.
Impero Adhesive for Engineered Wood Flooring helps to glue tongue and groove planks together for extra stability._
Joint protector
Joint protector helps waterproof the joints between wood and laminate flooring planks. It prevents moisture and dirt from getting into your new flooring, which increases your floor’s lifespan. Impero Joint Protector is easy to use, odourless and transparent.
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Fitting kit
If you fancy yourself as a bit of a DIY-er, you can take on the task of fitting your new flooring yourself. To make the process easier, we recommend using a fitting kit. They come with the basic tools you’ll need to fit your wood flooring such as spacers, tapping blocks and pull bars, ensuring you get the professional finish at a fraction of the price of hiring a fitter.
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| Wood Fitting Kit | Laminate Fitting Kit |
Finishing touches
Small touches can help finish a room perfectly. Whether it’s covering an expansion gap or making a seamless transition between rooms, the right accessories make all the difference.
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Scotia / beading / trims
Scotia (often referred to as “beading” or “trim”) covers the expansion gap between your wall and newly-fitted flooring. It’s compatible with wood and laminate flooring, and colour-match to your flooring for an aesthetically pleasing border around your room. Depending on your preference and budget, you can choose from either solid wood scotia, or one that’s made from high-density fibreboard (HDF).
Scotia_
Profiles
The most common use for profiles is to fit them across doorways. They join the flooring between two rooms, and there are four main styles depending on your requirements.
End profiles – These are used to join flooring to a spot that goes up against a wall, window or door.
T-profiles – Used to join two floors of the same height.
Ramp profiles – Used to join two flooring of different heights.
Multi-use profiles – Have the ability to join floors of the same or different heights. Best when the difference between floor heights is only slight.
Similar to scotia, profiles are colour-matched to your flooring to give you a professional-looking and seamless transition between rooms.
Ramp Profile_
Skirting
Skirting boards, like scotia, come in solid wood or HDF. They cover the joint between your interior walls and your flooring. They can mask uneven edging, and also cover the expansion gap if required. What’s more, they’ll help protect your walls from bumps and scuffs, such as furniture or door marks.
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Radiator rings
Used to dress the pipes supporting your radiators, radiator rings are great for adding the finishing touches to your flooring. The ring is quick to install, simply sliding round the pipe or clicking into place, depending on whether you go for wood or PVC rings.
Radiator Rings for Wood Flooring_
Finishing oils
Finishing oils create an added layer of protection to your wood flooring, as well as enhancing the final look. Available in a range of colours, unfinished wood flooring can be stained to its desired colour whilst enhancing the wood’s natural knots and grains. If you’d rather stick with the unfinished look, clear oils will give you the protection of oil without taking away the wood’s natural colouring.
Care and protect
Once your new wood flooring is fitted, ongoing maintenance is crucial to ensure it lasts as long as possible.
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Furniture pads
Furniture pads protect your flooring from unsightly scratches due to moving furniture. When tables and chairs inevitably move, they can cause damage to your wooden floors. To prevent these entirely, apply furniture pads to the legs of any tables, chairs or cabinets to create a smooth barrier between your furniture and flooring.
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Wood floor cleaning products
To keep your floor looking it top condition, it should be cleaned regularly. Simple maintenance includes cleaning up any spillages as soon as they happen to prevent moisture damage.
For cleaning, an all-in-one wood floor cleaning kit will help you remove dust and keep your flooring clean of any bacteria or unsightly marks.
Impero All in One Cleaning Kit_
Floor repair kit
Hopefully, you’ll never need to repair your wood floor. However, if minor damages do occur, there are floor repair kits to make getting your floor back to its former beauty as easy as possible. Smooth over everyday scratches and scrapes, so nobody will know but you.
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Choosing the right accessories can be a daunting process, but we’re on hand to help. If you’d like advice on anything such as what to buy, or what the best colour-match for your flooring would be, get in touch today. Our friendly team are available on [email protected], or call 03308 088777.
