We were delighted to be asked to supply and fit a floor for a new kitchen showroom in Fareham. It turned out this wasn’t going to be just any floor but one which needed to complement some very special and innovative cabinetry.

The Modern British Kitchen Company is a team of award-winning architects and kitchen designers crafting and building furniture based on solid English woods. There is no chipboard used here. The result from this unique manufacturing company is some of the most outstanding and beautiful kitchen designs we have ever seen.

As the intention was to have a fully appliance equipped and operational showroom, with moveable central islands, the floor covering had to be exceedingly tough, waterproof, impervious to dents and scratches and easy to keep clean. LVT (Luxury Vinyl Tile) is a highly popular material available in tile or wood plank formats which we have presented in several of our case studies. It was the ideal choice for this showroom. A tile from the Brampton Chase ‘Stones’ range – colour Dorset- was laid with vinyl grouting infills (strips) – colour cream. The tiles can be used without grouting infills but their inclusion in this particular project provided a truly realistic ‘finishing touch.

To allow for electric cable access the showroom floor was raised on joists and chip boarded. The surface was firstly feather finished to cover any indentations and joins in the boards (1). When dry it was sanded where necessary (2). As this type of board can have a chemical make-up harmful to LVT we then sealed the whole surface with an epoxy primer (3). When dry we trowelled the area with latex to give a completely smooth and level surface (4). A fine spiked roller was used while wet (5) to even out any undulations. The latex was then also allowed to dry.

A pressure-sensitive adhesive was then used to bond the LVT to the floor (6). While still tacky the tiles were laid in a brick design with the infill strips (7). The lengths of this were trimmed tightly with a knife to give a continuous finish as ordinary grout would normally look. The process was a little time consuming and fiddly, but the end result was exceptionally pleasing (8) giving the required impression of a real stone floor.

A few weeks later we saw the showroom complete, and it was worth all the hours in preparation. You really should visit and see this masterpiece of handcrafted woodwork from handleless doors to dovetailed draws (9 and 10). Only one word can describe it – stunning! Our flooring is now featured on the homepage of their website.