The boom in home renovation in the inner west continues unabated in November 2015 meaning that the need for handyman services in Sydney’s inner west is very strong. One area of home repair and maintenance that is at the top of every renovators list is flooring and we have had a number of enquiries to assist with laying and installation of flooring.

Flooring Installation Options

The range and types of flooring materials and systems available today are staggering. Most homes in the inner west have traditional timber floors. These floors can be sanded back and stained or polished and can look fantastic. Timbers like kauri pine and cedar look absolutely stunning when the are re-finished. In terms of cost many floor sanding companies would charge around $1500 to sand and apply 2-3 coats of lacquer to and longe room, hallway and 2 bedrooms. This is quite reasonable given the amount of work and materials required. Besides traditional timber flooring we have requests to lay and install many different types of ‘second generation’ flooring systems which include:

Vinyl Plank Flooring

Back in the 1960’s and 1970’s (and well before that) vinyl was a popular and low cost flooring solution. It was generally laid in sheets and was hard wearing and reasonably attractive. In 2015 and 2016 vinyl plank flooring is the ‘modern equivalent’. We recently installed a beautiful vinyl plank floor in a kitchen and dining room. Vinyl is perfect for areas that can get wet (from dishwasher spills and the likes) as it is totally waterproof unlike laminate flooring and even bamboo flooring which can warp and swell if water is spilled on it.

Vinyl plank flooring project inner west Sydney – November 2015

The vinyl planks that we laid consisted of a ‘click lock’ system that means the flooring required no glue and is essentially a ‘floating floor’ system. To lay the planking in 2 rooms is actually more involved that one might imagine. The process involved, in this instance:

• pouring a floor leveling compound over existing ceramic tiles to create a perfectly flat surface to lay the tiles on
• cutting under door jams and architraves to fit the planks under
• allowing expansion gaps around the wall area – even vinyl can expand and shrink with change of temperature and this movement must be allowed for by using expansion gaps
• removal of skirting boards, where possible to make a neater finish to the flooring project
• installation of edge trim around door ways
• cutting of individual floor planks to fit around door ways

So what seems like a relatively easy project can actually take 4 to 5 days easily. However, as can be seen from the image above, the results are fantastic. The flooring is low maintenance and should look beautiful for many years to come.