RK Flooring is a flooring company working throughout Brentwood, Shenfield, Hutton and the surrounding CM13, CM14 and CM15 postcodes from a base in Chelmsford, supplying and fitting engineered wood, solid wood, LVT and laminate in homes and small commercial spaces. Expect a site survey before any firm price, because the subfloor underneath governs both the specification and the cost.
What we supply and fit
Most of our work is domestic and falls into four groups. Engineered wood suits almost any room in a Brentwood house, including over underfloor heating, because its plywood core holds its shape through seasonal changes in humidity that would move a solid board. Solid oak still earns its place in period properties, where the thickness allows several sandings across the life of the floor, though it wants a stable timber subfloor and no underfloor heating beneath it. LVT has become the default for kitchens, utility rooms and bathrooms, since it is genuinely waterproof, warm underfoot and thin enough to fit under existing door frames. Laminate remains the sensible answer where budget leads the decision and the room sees moderate traffic.
Alongside new floors we carry out the preparation work that new floors depend on, including plywood overlays on suspended timber, levelling compounds on uneven slabs and liquid damp proof membranes where a concrete subfloor reads too wet to bond to. We also handle pattern work such as herringbone and chevron, which asks more of both the setting out and the subfloor than a standard plank floor does.
What flooring costs in Brentwood
The figures below cover supply and fitting on a straightforward room with a sound subfloor, which is the qualification that matters, since preparation is what moves a quotation from one end of the range to the other. A hallway with three doorways, an awkward stair edge and a slab that needs levelling will sit well above the same area of open bedroom floor.
| Floor type | Supplied and fitted, per m² |
|---|---|
| Laminate | £30 to £55 |
| LVT, click system | £45 to £75 |
| LVT, glue-down | £60 to £110 |
| Engineered wood | £70 to £140 |
| Solid wood | £90 to £160 |
| Herringbone and chevron | £85 to £160 |
| Floor sanding and refinishing | £25 to £45 |
On top of the floor itself, allow for the items that quotations most often leave out and clients most often discover late. Levelling compound, plywood overlay and damp proof membranes each add somewhere between £8 and £25 per square metre depending on what the subfloor needs. Beyond that there is beading or skirting, thresholds between rooms, door trimming, and the removal and disposal of the old floor, which for a carpet and its gripper is minor and for a tiled kitchen floor is a day’s work with a breaker.
How to judge a flooring company in Brentwood before you accept a quote
The single most useful question you can ask is whether the company will survey the room before pricing it. A firm price given over the phone from a rough square metre figure is an estimate wearing a quotation’s clothing, and the difference appears later as a variation once the fitters have lifted the old floor and found the slab is neither flat nor dry. Anyone quoting properly will want to see the subfloor, take a moisture reading on concrete, check flatness with a straightedge and measure door heights before committing to a price.
Ask what insurance they carry, since public liability cover of at least £1m is standard for domestic flooring work and £2m is common. Ask what the guarantee actually covers, because a fitting guarantee and a manufacturer’s wear layer warranty are separate things: the first covers the installation, usually for twelve months, and the second covers the product, often for fifteen years or more, but only where the floor has been installed and maintained to the manufacturer’s specification. That conditional wording is why a floor laid over a wet slab tends to fall outside both.
Trade membership is a reasonable signal, and the National Institute of Carpet and Floorlayers and the Contract Flooring Association are the two most relevant bodies in the UK. Reviews matter more when they are recent, plentiful and specific about the work rather than the tidiness of the van. Where a company is unwilling to give you addresses of comparable jobs nearby, treat that as information.
Choosing the right floor for each room
Kitchens and utility rooms want something waterproof, which in practice means LVT or a sheet vinyl, because a dishwasher leak under an engineered board will lift it and there is no repairing that without replacement. Bathrooms follow the same logic with the addition that the subfloor is often the weak point, particularly in an older Brentwood property where a timber floor has been patched around plumbing runs.
Hallways take more traffic than any other part of the house and are where a floor is judged, so this is the room to spend on rather than the one to economise in. A lacquered engineered board or a good glue-down LVT will still look presentable in ten years, whereas a thin laminate at the front door will show wear within two. Living rooms and dining rooms give you the widest choice, and this is where herringbone tends to earn its cost because the room is large enough and regular enough to display the pattern properly. Bedrooms are the one place where carpet still makes a strong case on comfort and on sound, particularly upstairs in a house where footfall carries.
How long a flooring installation takes
A single room of around 20 square metres in engineered wood, glued down onto a sound and level subfloor, is generally a two day job including setting out and finishing. Herringbone in the same room takes longer, often three days, because of the volume of cutting and the care the setting out demands. Preparation adds time that cannot be compressed: a levelling compound needs to cure before anything is laid on it, usually a day depending on the depth poured, and a two-coat epoxy damp proof membrane wants a similar wait between coats. Wood floors also need to acclimatise in the room before fitting, which is a period of days rather than hours and is not a step worth skipping to hit a date.
The realistic answer for a full ground floor in a Brentwood semi, with old flooring lifted, a slab levelled and a new engineered floor bonded down, is a week rather than a weekend. Any company promising it in two days is either not preparing the subfloor or not telling you that they are not preparing the subfloor.
What a proper quotation should include
A quotation worth comparing separates materials from labour, states the product range and colour by name, gives the square metre figure it has been calculated from, and prices the preparation work explicitly rather than absorbing it into a single number. It should say what happens to the old floor, whether doors will be trimmed, how the perimeter will be finished, and what the payment stages are. Where preparation cannot be fully assessed until the old floor comes up, which is common in older properties, the quotation should say so and give a rate for the likely work rather than leaving it open.
If you are gathering three quotes for a flooring company in Brentwood, put them side by side on those points rather than on the headline figure alone. The cheapest number on the page is frequently the one with the least preparation behind it, and subfloor problems do not go away because nobody priced for them. We survey free of charge across Brentwood and the surrounding villages, and we would rather tell you a room needs work before you commit than explain it to you afterwards.