Flooring in Alexandria: porcelain, parquet, SPC and marble

What is different about floors in Alexandria?

In Alexandria a floor is chosen for humidity, sand and the state of the old floor before its looks, because those three are what ruin floors here.

• Humidity: damp air does not harm porcelain or stone, but it does harm anything made with wood fibre, especially in a flat left closed for months.
• Ground floors: damp can rise from the ground through the concrete slab, so check it and treat the cause before any wood-type floor, SPC or vinyl.
• Flats facing the sea: sand carried in on shoes scratches marble and polished surfaces, so put a mat at every door and choose a matt finish in the entrances.
• Sun through large windows heats SPC and vinyl and fades them, so shade them with curtains.
• The old floor: terrazzo and old marble can often be ground and polished rather than lifted, so decide what happens to them before you buy a new floor.

What goes in which room? A comparison for Alexandria’s humidity

Porcelain and stone are the safest with water and damp, SPC is the best wood-look option in a humid flat, and HDF laminate is for dry rooms only.

Our flooring guide compares them in more detail for wear and upkeep.

HDF, SPC, vinyl and wood parquet: the real difference

All four give you the look of wood, but their cores differ, and the core decides how the floor behaves with water.

• HDF laminate is pressed wood fibre with a printed wood image and a wear layer on top, clicked together over an underlay. The surface is tough, but the core drinks water through the joints, swells and does not recover, and types sold as water-resistant only cope with surface spills for longer. The box carries an AC wear class with a number, higher being tougher, so ask for it in writing in the quote, with the board thickness.
• SPC has a rigid core of stone powder and PVC with a printed surface and a wear layer, and clicks together. It does not swell with water, so it suits kitchens and humid flats, but it needs a flat base so the joints do not break, and it is not for showers.
• Vinyl is flexible PVC: planks or tiles glued to the floor, or sheet with welded seams in clinics. It is quiet underfoot and its surface takes water, but the glued kind needs a very smooth, dry base, because even a grain of sand beneath it shows.
• Wood parquet is solid timber, or a real-wood top layer on an engineered core that is more stable in Alexandria’s climate. It can be sanded and refinished, but it needs steady humidity and protection from water.

Old floors: terrazzo and marble, restore or cover?

Terrazzo and old marble in older Alexandria flats can often be restored by grinding and polishing instead of being lifted, provided the tiles are firm and do not sound hollow.

• The firmness test: tap each tile with a coin; a hollow sound means a loose tile, to be relaid or replaced before anything is decided.
• Grinding levels the lips between tiles and brings the colour back. Broken tiles are replaced, but an exact match to the old colour can be hard to find.
• Covering with a floating floor: SPC or HDF laminate clicks together over firm, flat terrazzo without glue, so the old floor stays intact underneath and can be uncovered later. Glue on top of it is hard to undo.
• Covering with tiles: porcelain with a suitable adhesive over firm old tiles; our Alexandria tiles page explains the conditions.
• Height: every new layer raises the floor, so check the doors, the balcony threshold and the front door before you buy.
• Old wood parquet: if the boards are firm and dry, they can often be sanded and refinished; boards with woodworm or soaked by water are replaced.

Before any wood-type floor: levels and a moisture test

Laminate, SPC and vinyl usually fail because of the base, not the board, so the levels, the flatness and the moisture are checked before you buy.

1. Levels for the whole flat

   Set the finished floor level for the whole flat first, so different floors, doors and thresholds meet at one height.

2. Flatness

   Lay a long straight edge in several directions: the gap beneath it must be within what the maker allows, usually a few millimetres, and anything worse is corrected with a levelling screed.

3. A new screed

   A new screed needs enough time to dry, and dryness is measured, not counted in days.

4. The moisture test

   The most accurate check is a moisture meter compared with the maker’s limit. As a simple test, tape a piece of clear plastic sheet tightly to the floor for a day or two; if moisture appears under it or the floor darkens, it is still damp.

5. The barrier

   On concrete, a polythene damp-proof sheet goes under the underlay, overlapped at the edges, as the maker specifies.

6. Last in the sequence

   A wood-type floor or SPC goes down after the wet trades such as plastering and tiling, not before them.

Expansion gaps, skirting and thresholds

A floating floor must not be trapped between the walls: it needs an expansion gap all round, hidden under the skirting, or the boards lift and the joints open.

• The expansion gap runs round the whole room and around columns and pipes, at the size the maker gives, and is never filled with silicone or mortar.
• At doorways: a threshold profile between rooms where the material changes, and a break in long runs as the maker specifies.
• Fixed furniture: kitchens and heavy fitted wardrobes are not fixed on top of a floating floor; the floor is laid around them.
• Skirting is fixed to the wall, not the floor. MDF skirting swells from mopping water in a humid flat, so choose PVC or WPC skirting, timber with sealed edges, or porcelain or marble skirting with tile and marble floors.
• Hard floors too: porcelain and marble need movement joints at the edges under the skirting, and over any joint in the concrete.

How to check a floor at handover

Check the floor before you sign and before the furniture comes in, because flaws are hard to put right afterwards.

1. Look along the floor

   Get your eye close to the floor and look along it: no edge higher than its neighbour, and no board lifting at the joints.

2. Tap the tiles and marble

   A hollow sound means a tile not fully bedded; mark it, starting with the entrances and wet areas.

3. Walk on a floating floor

   It should not bounce or creak, there should be no gaps between boards, and the threshold profiles should be fixed.

4. Edges and doors

   Skirting tight to the wall with the expansion gap hidden beneath it, clean cuts around doors and pipes, and doors that open without catching on the floor.

5. Marble

   An even polish with no change in sheen from one area to another, and flush joints.

6. Spares and care

   Note the batch number, keep a box or two for repairs, and ask for the cleaning instructions for the material.

Our handover checklist covers the rest of the flat.

Itmam and floors in Alexandria

Itmam is a finishing, decoration and supply company from Alexandria: head office in El Ibrahimya, and a marble and granite showroom in El Deresa, Moharram Bey, where you choose the stone for floors and stairs with your own eyes, Egyptian or imported. Stone is templated, cut and installed by the same team; we grind and re-polish old marble, and we restore terrazzo where that is the right call.

We supply porcelain and ceramic tiles with the adhesive and grout to suit them, and supply-only is available. Laying is done by our team as part of a finishing job, including the screed, the levels and the waterproofing in wet areas. Laminate, SPC and vinyl are explained here so you can choose with your eyes open; ask us about them at the survey.

We visit, measure and give you a written, itemised quotation before work starts. On a finishing contract you pay each supplier directly at their price, and the tax invoice is in your name; our management fee for supervision and execution is agreed in writing before we begin, and we add nothing to the price of materials.

Itmam was founded in 2016, with 20+ years in the trade. Call or WhatsApp us on +20 106 926 2572, Saturday to Thursday, 09:00 to 18:00.