Initial arrangements

You will be contacted before installation to confirm details and entry arrangements. If you can’t be there in person, perhaps you could provide us with a key to allow workers in. All DFD installers are highly experienced. We will arrive on the chosen day as early as we can given local traffic. You will find all DFD installers courteous and professional.

 

Moving appliances & furniture

Our installers expect to find the work area(s) cleared of all furniture. You will also be responsible for removing present floor coverings such as carpet, grips, underlay, lino etc. In the case of bathroom fixtures, these need to be disconnected and removed by a professional plumber. Any delicate ornaments or pictures etc, also need to be removed. Trailing floor wires cannot be ‘hidden’ underneath any of our products, so please keep this in mind and seek alternative wiring routes.

 

Commencing work

Please ensure that anything of concern or importance to you, be communicated to us before installation & not after. This avoids frustration and time delays. Since every job is a custom design, certain areas of installation are left to the discretion of our installers, such as precise placement of borders, field and perimeter tiles.

 

The first step is floor layout, and depending on complexity, this can take a considerable amount of time. On larger jobs, you may not actually see anything down on the floor on the first day, but this is all part of the design process and insures that installation is done to professional standards. Next your floor is laid piece by piece, much like a jigsaw. The choice of glue will depend on the application. Areas like conservatories and kitchens with large amounts of natural sunlight, will need a high-temperature adhesive, whilst areas subject to moisture like bathrooms may need an epoxy. We only use the products recommended adhesives.

Points of caution

On newly built homes, an adequate amount of time should be allotted to allow the subfloor to completely dry out, and the relative humidity checked to ensure that it is not greater than 75% by using a suitable moisture test method. All direct-to-earth and stone sub-floors must have an effective damp proof membrane, this is very important and Design Floors Direct can not be held responsible for any related moisture problems if we have not been told about this.

We’ve also noticed that in the case of new wooden skirting and architrave such as white deal, a certain amount of skirting shrinkage can occur over time following its installation. This varies form job to job and in most cases is not even noticeable. Our floor tiles are fitted last in most cases, and fitted up to the skirtings. However unsightly gapping can occur. This can be prevented if need be by allowing the skirting to be installed last, on top of the floor covering.