Flooring
Flooring installation in Abu Dhabi
A floor is the largest single surface in a room and the one thing in it that gets walked on every day. It also has the least forgiving relationship with what is underneath it. Lay a beautiful floor over a subfloor that is out of level or holding moisture and it will telegraph every fault within a year, whatever it cost.
So we start underneath. Arkan Interiors has been fitting out spaces in Abu Dhabi since 2003, and flooring usually reaches us as part of a wider job, which helps: the floor gets sequenced against the joinery and the painting instead of arriving on a day when three other trades want the same room. If the subfloor needs work before anything can be laid, you will hear that from us at the quote rather than halfway through. The floor is the largest surface we lay, but not the only one. The same team handles the other hard surfaces in a fit-out, from thresholds to tiled and stone areas.
Choosing between the surfaces
Porcelain is fired harder and denser than ceramic, absorbs very little water, and can go outdoors and into wet areas where ceramic cannot. Large-format porcelain has become the default for villa ground floors here for good reason: it takes heat, sun and dust without complaint. It is unforgiving about a subfloor that is out of level, because the bigger the tile, the less a small hollow can be absorbed.
Natural stone is the one that needs the most thought before it is ordered. Marble and travertine are porous and will take a stain from oil, citrus or a spilled drink unless they are sealed and the seal is kept up. Travertine arrives either filled or unfilled, and unfilled will keep collecting grit in its open pores in a busy hallway. Every slab is different: veining, background colour, and how the pattern runs all vary between one slab and the next from the same quarry, which is why a small sample tells you very little about a large floor. Look at the actual slabs, and look at them wet as well as dry, because a honed surface and a polished surface of the same stone read as two different materials.
Solid timber moves with humidity, and in this climate that movement is real. Engineered timber puts a genuine wood wear layer over a cross-bonded core, so it stays far more stable while still looking and sanding like wood. The wear layer thickness is the number that matters, since it decides how many times the floor can be refinished before it is finished for good.
LVT and vinyl have improved past their reputation and are quiet, warm underfoot and genuinely waterproof. They will not refinish, and in strong direct sun a cheap product can soften or discolour.
One specification worth insisting on: slip resistance in wet areas. Bathrooms, kitchens, pool surrounds, and entrances that catch rain need a rated surface, and a polished stone that looks superb in a showroom can be dangerous around water.
Flooring moves a fit-out budget more than most items, which we cover in what a fit-out costs by level of finish. For a whole villa, the renovation checklist sets out where flooring falls in the sequence.
Process
How we work
- 01
Check the subfloor
Level, sound, and dry. Almost every flooring failure traces back to something under the floor rather than the floor itself, so this is not a step to hurry.
- 02
Pick the material for the room
A hallway, a bathroom and a bedroom want different things. We would rather talk you out of a material in the wrong room than lay it and be called back.
- 03
Plan the layout and the transitions
Which direction the boards run, where a run starts so you do not finish on a sliver, and how one floor meets another at a doorway. Transitions are where a good floor usually lets itself down.
- 04
Lay, trim, and finish
Laying, then skirtings, thresholds, and beading. The edges are what make it look built rather than covered.
Questions
Questions we get asked
- Which flooring works best in a UAE villa?
- There is no single answer, because it changes room by room. The questions that decide it are how much water the room sees, how much sun falls directly on the floor, and whether the space is air conditioned continuously or intermittently. That last one catches people out with solid wood in particular.
- Can you lay a new floor over the existing one?
- Sometimes, and it saves both money and mess when it works. It depends on what is down, how sound it is, and how much height you can afford to lose at the doors. We will check rather than assume.
- Do you move furniture and lift the old floor?
- Yes, that is normally part of the job. Tell us in advance about anything heavy, fragile or built in so it is priced properly instead of discovered on the morning.
- How long will a room be out of use?
- It depends on the material and on whether anything needs to cure or acclimatise before or after laying. We will give you a realistic sequence once we have seen the space, and phase it if you need to keep living there.
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Tell us about your project
Send a floor plan, a photograph, or just an idea. We will tell you what it takes and what it costs.