What Is So Good About Amtico Wood Flooring?

An Amtico floor is just about the most hardwearing and practical alternative to real wood.

A huge selection of Amtico flooring in the latest natural wood designs that are available These range from the softest shades such as white maple, to the mid toned classic oaks, -the darkest shade is the popular Wenge

All Amtico woods are genuine British made commercial grade (not the Asian made Spacia or Karndean) and are made in tick finish in the most popular 114mm x 915mm standard size.

Choosing an Amtico floor means you will not have to worry about long term maintenance- your floor will never need sanding or re-finishing. The tough abrasion resistant surface will repel stains and moisture making it an ideal choice for wet areas such as bathrooms and shower rooms, and heavy wear areas such as hallways and entrance lobbies.

Amtico wood authentically replicates the natural product and its true characteristics.

The Stripwood is highly variable in shade and decoration. Please consider this in your product selection as online images only display a small section of the material.

Installing Amtico wood flooring can be undertaken by any reasonably competent DIYer with little in the way of equipment. If you are installing onto an existing wood floorboard, chipboard, or MDF sub-floor, it is always good practice to install a new plywood base first. Doing this ensures long term wear, it will also prevent undulations showing through your new flooring.

If your sub-floor is reasonably flat, 6mm exterior grade moisture resistant plywood is adequate. This should be fixed at 15-20cm centers with screw nails.

If your sub-floor is old and extremely uneven, a higher grade plywood 9mm or 12mm should be used. However before installing this, level off any hollows with a latex screed compound. Otherwise the new flooring will never be completely flat.

After fixing down the plywood, spend as much time as possible filling any gaps in the joints, and knocking down nails flat. Then take down any high spots with a medium grade sand paper. Extra Time taken on preparing the sub-floor will produce huge dividends when you have installed you new Amtico, so do not be tempted to cut any corners.

Depending on how flat and smooth you have managed to make the prepared sub-floor, it may be necessary to apply a further leveler such as Ardex "Feather Finish" which can be applied thinly without the risk of delaminating

When you are installing over a solid floor e.g. concrete, asphalt, quarry tiles, stone flags etc. it is important that your do a thorough check of the moisture content of the sub-floor. Even a slight amount of moisture in a sub-floor will cause Amtico flooring to start lifting within a very short period of time. Your investment will then be wasted, as the floor will be beyond repair.

Check in the first instance for the presence of a dpm, which should be visible on your outside, walls maybe the first or second line of brick or stone. If there is none evident, and your dwelling was built before 1960, then it is safe to assume that there is no damp proof membrane in the sub-floor.

Your only option then is to apply a surface dpm to the sub-floor. These are a 2-part epoxy resin coating. These are easy to apply, but can take up to 48 hours to cure. The most widely used product is ES3000 made by Treetabond.

Once you have a dry clean solid sub-floor, a leveling screed should be laid. Always follow the screed manufacturers instructions with regard to the use of priming or bonding agents. Remember that if the screed de-bonds from the sub-floor, your new Amtico floor will also fail.

The screed should be rubbed down as smooth as possible before installing your Amtico flooring. Visible trowel marks, high or low spots will soon become evident once you have a new shiny floor fitted over the screed. Therefore more time and effort spent on the preparations will be rewarded with a superior final floor finish.

The Amtico flooring should always be laid using the approved Amtico adhesive. For wet areas the Amtico Universal adhesive should always be used. Amtico flooring can be laid onto underfloor heating, provided that Amtico HT (high temperature) adhesive is used. For all other areas, the standard Amtico SF (solvent free) adhesive can be used without problems.

As with all, Amtico flooring will benefit from regular maintenance. The Amtico floor dressing will give enhanced protection fromwet and abrasion. The Amtico Cleaner will effectively clean your floor without taking off the Dressing. However, when the time comes to renew the dressing,

Amtico Dressing Remover is a powerful and aggressive stripper, which makes light work of removing heavy build-ups of old layers of floor dressing. Guidance on maintenance is available from the Amtico flooring website.

Allan is the owner of Birbek

Birbek is a UK distributor of

in wood plank designs. http://www.birbek.com