Pure Stone by Balterio

Balterio recently added a tiled laminate range to their impressive array of products with Pure Stone, a collection of four new designs.

It’s an 8mm thick heavy grade laminate with a 25 year domestic and 12 year commercial warranty and is suitable for areas of heavy traffic including kitchens.

With this range, Balterio have managed to create a genuinely authentic looking stone tile. The surface texture and finish is subtle and slightly ‘pitted’ like the real thing. Obviously it doesn’t feel like stone, but perhaps that is part of the charm. Stone floors can often deter potential buyers simply because of their feel and coldness, so Pure Stone does offer a solution there.

Although there is a disappointingly small number of options, the four designs in the range are well thought out and the end result is especially good in my opinion. It’s streets ahead of Quickstep‘s very very tired looking Quadra range and Berry Floor’s tiles are not in the same league.

The tiles are bevelled all the way around and in a very large format: rectangles of 1192mm x 392.5mm. They lend themselves to large rooms, though we have fitted them in smallish kitchens so far and they have looked very good.

The format of the tiles brings me to my one gripe with Balterio’s point of sale. Their wonderful display stand has large tiles for each design, but nowhere does it show the bevel! I have found myself explaining to the customer, “yes they are bevelled all the way around, just like this one” and then showing them an image – it’s far from ideal and a definite oversight on their part. This does not detract from what is a great product though and I recommend it highly.

Can you put it in bathrooms? We often get asked this by customers and to be brutally honest, I don’t like putting any laminate floor in a bathroom. Forget what the makers may claim, it so often ends in tears. Thankfully Balterio and Quickstep unequivocally say ‘no’ by and large to avoid confusion. If you really want to do it then go ahead but clean up all spills and make sure the room is very well ventilated. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Price wise, this will sell at £18-£25 per square metre and is pretty decent value at that price.

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Agrippa by Gerflor: Vinyl Flooring

I must say how impressed I am with a new(ish) couple of ranges released by vinyl manufacturer, Gerflor.

Their Agrippa range has just had two new ranges added: Agrippa Woods and Agrippa Minerals. It’s what our rep called ‘unaplogetically expensive’ – he exaggerates, it’s not that expensive and you should be able to pick it up for around £16-£21 per metre.

So why do I like it? Here’s the rub…….

A lot of the new generation of ‘slip resistant’ domestic vinyls are a bit of a bugger to clean – dirt seems to become trapped within the ‘ridges’ of the surface texture. I know this first hand after fitting one of the first ones to be launched in my own bathroom several years ago. Well Agrippa sorts this out.

Their ‘Pureclean’ finish is nothing like its competitors and is a simple matter to keep clean. Now bearing in mind that this will be fitted pimarily into kitchens and bathrooms, hygiene is a key issue. The surface coating helps to prevent the spread of dirt and bacteria.

On top of that, the compact foam backing feels great in your hand and they claim it is warm and comfortable. All you need do is handle it and a piece of a competitors’ vinyl at the same time and I think you will prefer the construction of the Agrippa.

The designs are all on the money too, though there is a lack of anything to blow you away and one good design in a range can make the range I always think, but there’s  a good array of current popular stuff. It’s 3.0mm thick with a 0.25mm wearlayer, which is not quite up to Leoline’s top of the line 0.30mm wearlayer on products like Wondergrain and Stonemarks, but it is fine for most domestic installations. Remember, you are gaining on the maintenance side of things and relinquishing a little wear – swings and roundabouts.

Overall I have to say that I’m more impressed with the features of the product rather than the designs, but if you can find something here that works for you then it’s definitely a good choice for an easy life with the mop!

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Ceramitex Vinyl by Gerflor

Gerflor make a lot of their ‘polyester textile backing’ on their range of vinyl flooring. They claim that, among other things, it can be laid on top of virtually any kind of subfloor without the need for the usual preparation. That’s a bold claim and I must confess that we do sell it where the subfloor is a little awry and the customer does not want the hassle and the expense of screeding or plywooding beforehand. However, I do think that it is important to explain to the customer that the job may well not be ‘perfect’.

The latest range I have come across is ‘Ceramitex’. As the name suggests, it is a tile based selection available either 2m, 3m or 4m wide and with GripX slip-resistance, felt-backing and comes 2.0mm thick with a wear layer of 0.20mm.

CEramitex Borie Dark Design

I do think that the designs stand up quite well and as seen below, they offer a good range of contemporary designs. We are certainly selling more tile than wood design now in vinyl and this is probably borne out by the amount of new tile ranges we are seeing.

Ceramitex Designs in Full

This should be a steady seller and while it is not at the top end of vinyl as regards quality, the felt-backing may well get you out of a hole, so it’s worth considering if your subfloor is slightly uneven. If it’s more than slightly dodgy then please rectify that before wasting your money on a vinyl floor.

This should go out at between £12 and £16 per square metre. Sadly not available as of yet on yourfloors, but your local supplier who deals with The Headlam Group will be able to supply it easily enough.

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Nairn Cushionflor – New Ranges

Nairn are a top manufacturer of cushioned vinyl flooring in the UK and owner of the ‘Cushionflor’ brand. ‘Cushionflor’ has become the generic name now for cushioned vinyl floorcovering thanks to them.

I’ve been having a look through some of their new ranges lately. I haven’t got my hands on all of them just yet, but it’s always interesting to see what they come up with.

Their budget range is Cushionflor Classic and is 2.4mm thick with a wear layer of 0.2mm – those specs put it firmly at the budget end of the market, but it’s not a bad product at all. I do quite like the small mosaic ‘Roland’ design shown here:

 

Ideal for Bathroom

They also have a tiny mosaic design in ‘Mosaico’, which have already sold a bit of shown here:

 

Even Smaller Tile

Aside from that it’s wood planks and some bog standard tile designs. Expect to pay around £11-£15 square metre for this product.

A more upmarket range they do is ‘Cushionflor Reflections’, which is a high gloss vinyl and there are not many of those around right now. Maybe 7 years ago or so we sold a lot of these and then they went spectactularly out of fashion, so it’s good to see a limited amount re-introduced. Reflections is again 2.4mm thick and has a slightly improved wear-layer of 0.25mm. You’re paying for design as opposed to heavy wear  with this one in my opinion, but there’s nothing wrong in that – how long do you want to have your bathroom flooring down? In my experience, people change more regularly now than ever. Expect to pay £16-£21 per metre for it.

Anyway, to the designs and here is where Nairn score some big bonus points. The ‘Roman’ small mosaic tile design shown below is stunning when seen close up. This pic does not do it justice, but Nairn will send you samples should you wish.

 

The Gloss is More Noticeable Up Close

I also really like the plain marble ‘Pantheon’ design (once more the image here cannot replicate how good it looks):

 

Great Colour, Great Design

I do hope Nairn don’t mind me linking to their images like this, but nobody else seems to review flooring impartially, so what harm can it do? You can buy ‘Cushionflor Classic’ on Yourfloors, but not ‘Reflections’ so far.

One note of irritation though Nairn, your new sample books are poor. They are plit down the middle and the way they have been done makes them look like they are falling to bits.

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