What’s the difference between floating and glued flooring?

The key difference between floating and glued flooring is how the floor covering is attached to the subfloor. Glued flooring uses an adhesive to fix the flooring to the subfloor. Floating flooring relies on the weight of the floor covering and interlocking system to stay in place.

Installing glued flooring

An adhesive bonding solution is applied to the subfloor, then the floor tiles or planks are pressed onto the adhesive, making the tiles or planks firmly attached to the subfloor. This creates a very stable floor, which is good for high foot traffic areas. If the subfloor is uneven, it should be levelled first.

Installing glued flooring takes skill and time and is best done by professional installers. If the floor is damaged, it is not easy to remove individual planks or tiles to replace them.

Installing floating floors

Floating floor installation involves laying planks or panels on the flooring and joining them using an interlocking system, such as a tongue-and-groove or click mechanism. The planks are not glued or attached to the floor, which allows for limited movement and expansion.

Compared to glued flooring, floating floors are easier to install and can be installed on top of existing floors if they are level. Individual planks are easier to replace if damaged. However, floating floors are susceptible to movement and can be noisier to walk on. Uneven subfloors may require levelling before floating floor installation.

Which method is best?

Which method to use depends on three factors: flooring type, subfloor and personal preferences.

Glued-down floors are stable and durable, making them excellent for high-traffic rooms and underfloor heating systems. Glued flooring is recommended for solid wood and vinyl floors.

Floating flooring is a good option for DIY installations as they are easier to install, and it is simpler to replace sections if damaged. Engineered wood, vinyl, and laminates are suitable for the floating floor method.

If you are uncertain about which installation system is best for your floors, consult with a flooring company in Chester, Wrexham or elsewhere in North Wales for expert advice on the installation of hard surface flooring.

Which flooring types make a home sellable?

On an episode of Unsellable Houses on the HGTV channel, hosts Leslie Davis and Lyndsay Lamb looked at how flooring can make a home more difficult to sell.

They showed a home with floral patterned carpets that they said only appealed to buyers with a "very specific taste." They recommended replacing the carpet to make the home more sellable.

Patterned carpets, especially ones with bold colours and shapes, express personal taste, which is fine for homeowners who choose them. However, when it comes to selling the home, they can put buyers off.

According to flooring expert Yuri Grakovski, younger home buyers:

“Prefer a hard floor because it’s cleaner, requires less upkeep, and aligns better with modern design aesthetics.”

Households with heavy foot traffic and pets prefer luxury vinyl plank (LVP) or engineered wood for durability and easier maintenance.

In bedrooms, plush plain colour carpets are fine as they add comfort and warmth. Experts recommend home sellers replace bold patterned carpets with ones in neutral tones that appeal to a wider range of buyers. Grakovski recommends a light grey or soft taupe carpet to make a bedroom more attractive. When the old carpet is removed, check the subfloor for stains, mould, or damage and repair if necessary. If the existing carpet is a plain colour in good condition, it may simply need a deep clean.

If a bedroom carpet is old and worn, it's time to contact a local carpet retailer in North Wales and ask them to install a new one that makes the home more sellable.

500 years old lost carpet is found and returned to Turkey

A 500-year-old Usak carpet, which had been lost for 30 years, has been found and returned to Turkey.

The carpet is a rare example of an Ottoman-era hand-woven carpet. It was owned by Adrian Stefan Ionescu, who bought it from an Italian collector Erminio Bottini after he died. Ionesco then discovered that the carpet matched the description of a missing carpet featured in the book "Vakıf Halılar" (Foundation Carpets) by Suzan Bayraktaroğlu. He offered to voluntarily return the carpet to Turkey, where it was woven.

The carpet is a fine example of a Usak hand-woven carpet made with thousands of handmade knots. The dark blue carpet features large naturalistic flower pattern medallions. Damaged sections of the carpet were restored before the carpet was delivered to the Ankara Museum of Foundation Works, which is dedicated to reclaiming and protecting Turkey's artistic legacy.

Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, Turkey's Culture and Tourism Minister, said:

“We are proud to see this elegant carpet, once knotted thread by thread in Uşak, reunited with the land that inspired it, just like every heritage that carries the spirit of this soil."

When you buy carpets in North Wales, while they may not be able to last as long as 500 years like the Usak carpet, unless nobody ever treads on them, you’ll find that modern quality carpets will last for many years even in areas with high footfall. A premium quality carpet bought in Wales also costs considerably less to buy and install than a highly valuable 500-year-old hand-woven carpet.

Carpet tiles improve ambience of Nightcar Lounge Bar

The Nightcar Lounge Bar in Auckland, New Zealand is featured by the website Architecture Design as an example of how carpet tiles can improve the ambience of a hospitality venue and also look stylish.

The bar was designed by architects CTRL Space which specialises in hospitality design. The Nightcar Lounge Bar combines industrial elements with refined elegance. The themes that inspired the design are intimacy, travel and luxury. The design features raw industrial elements with plush textures, atmospheric lighting and deep, sultry tones.

The creative director at CTRL Space, Sam Griffin, describes the bar design as a blend of classic train carriages with the urban look of subway stations. For flooring, the designers chose carpet tiles, which Griffin says were,

"Essential to achieve the desired ambience within a concrete building shell."

He explained that high quality carpet tiles balance visual appeal, sound absorption and practicality. Carpet tiles of varying pile depths in the bar create a chequerboard effect and a distinctive underfloor texture.

The Nightcar Lounge Bar is an underground venue offering a tranquil escape from busy city life. It is a stylish retreat showcasing the power of intentional design and deliberate material selection.

You don't have to go to New Zealand to experience how carpet tiles improve the atmosphere of hospitality venues. A local carpet retailer in the North Wales and Chester region supplies a range of premium-quality carpet tiles that look good, are durable and easy to clean, while reducing noise in busy restaurants and bars.

Danish designers create collection of entirely unique carpets

Snøhetta, a design and architecture company in partnership with Danish Ege Carpets, has created the MATTER collection of woven carpets, with randomness as its core design philosophy.

The carpets combine craft and code to create unique nature-inspired designs. Each carpet uses computer algorithms that control how multiple threads are woven in unique ways so that every carpet has a one-of-a-kind design.

Binary computer code is converted to digital pixels, which control the arrangements of the woven threads. An algorithm adds randomness and makes sure that no two carpets are the same, though by using two colour palettes with 18 colours and muted undertones, there are similarities and coherence in the look of the carpets.

The carpets contain elements of both precision and imperfection in what Snøhetta and Ege claim is a new design methodology. Adding digital processes to physical carpets is a design philosophy that aims to make unpredictability a source of beauty. The carpet design method imitates nature to utilise organic randomness to grow individual trees and plants, which are unique yet possess similar properties.

The carpets are made from recycled yarns and are flat-woven for durability. Tenna Knak, Director of Product and Marketing at Ege Carpets, says that each carpet is beautifully produced…:

"with a perfect surface, high density, and extraordinary quality."

Most carpets available today are not unique, but a carpet retailer in the Chester and North Wales region has a wide range of carpets in a rich variety of colours and patterns.