The UK Flooring Podcast

This episode of The UK Flooring Podcast sits down with Kelsey and Mark from UltraFloor for a proper technical chat about moisture testing, DPMs, primers, smoothing compounds, adhesives, training, and the mistakes that can turn a job into an expensive failure.Because when it comes to subfloor prep, guessing is where the problems start. Whether it’s moisture, contaminants, the wrong primer, mixing brands, or not understanding what you’re actually going over, the small details can make a massive difference once the floor covering goes down.Kelsey and Mark explain why more fitters should be moisture testing properly, how UltraFloor’s site support works, when a DPM might be overkill, and why using one full system from the same manufacturer gives contractors far more protection if something goes wrong.One of the biggest takeaways is simple: don’t wait until the floor fails to ask for help. Whether you’re unsure about the subfloor, need a spec, or want training for your team, the support is there, and using it could save you a very expensive headache.What You’ll Learn in This Episode:Why moisture testing is still one of the biggest gaps in flooringThe difference between moisture suppressants and epoxy DPMsWhen using a DPM on every job might be overkillWhy mixing different manufacturers’ systems can leave you exposedHow to choose the right primer for porous and non-porous subfloorsWhy UltraFloor has different smoothing compounds for different situationsThe difference between bag and bottle products and water-mix compoundsWhat lignite is, and why it can cause serious floor failuresThe most common mistakes Kelsey and Mark see on siteWhy contaminants like paint, plaster and laitance need removing properlyHow UltraFloor’s training academy and webinars can support contractorsWhy asking for help early is better than dealing with a failed floor laterMemorable Quote:“Moisture is definitely the most common one, but it’s insufficient prep. People not asking when they get to site, what is this subfloor?”Speaker Information:Kelsey is an Area Sales Manager for UltraFloor, covering the Midlands and the East. She supports contractors on site, helps with moisture testing and specifications, and works closely with customers to make sure the right systems are being used for the right jobs.Mark is the National Key Account Manager for UltraFloor and has been with the business for eight years. His role involves working with distribution, customers and contractors, supporting technical conversations, site visits and wider product guidance across the UltraFloor range.UltraFloor provides subfloor preparation systems, including DPMs, primers, smoothing compounds and adhesives, alongside technical support, training, site visits and product guidance for flooring professionals.Where To Find The UK Flooring Podcast:Website: https://theukflooringpodcast.co.uk/Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6E2SllHM89hF2tntrW0v8kApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-uk-flooring-podcast/id1585627584YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theukflooringpodcast

This episode of The UK Flooring Podcast sits down with Murray Biggs, founder of Woven & Woods, for a proper honest chat about retail, showroom design, customer experience, and what it really takes to build a flooring business that stands out.Murray shares how he went from working in carpet retail at 16 to opening his first showroom in Twickenham with borrowed money, limited budget, and a clear idea of what he didn’t want to be. No red sale banners. No showroom packed with every stand going. No bland retail experience that looks like everyone else.Instead, Woven & Woods was built around impact, storytelling, and making the customer feel like they are in the right place before anyone has even started selling to them.The conversation gets into the thinking behind showroom layout, why too much choice can become a problem, how data helped Murray decide where to open his second showroom in Richmond, and why customer experience matters more than ever when footfall is harder to come by.It is also a very real conversation about the less glamorous side of growth: cash flow, overheads, staffing, warehousing, business partners, self-doubt, and learning how to back yourself again when business gets difficult.What You’ll Learn in This Episode:How Murray started Woven & Woods with £25,000 of seed money and less than £10,000 left to build the first showroomWhy he refused to create a typical flooring shop full of manufacturer stands and sale bannersHow cheap materials, used properly, helped create a high-impact showroom with a clear identityWhy Woven & Woods limits its carpet ranges rather than trying to show everythingThe importance of using data, not just gut feeling, when opening a second showroomHow the river between Twickenham and Richmond affects customer behaviour more than you might expectWhy the first few steps inside a showroom matter, and how customers need space to settle into the environmentHow showroom design can tell a story before the sales conversation even startsWhy a messy showroom is a non-negotiable problem for MurrayHow to make flooring one of the enjoyable parts of a stressful renovation projectWhy customer experience is about much more than being friendlyThe hidden costs of running retail showrooms in London, including rent, rates, warehousing, staff, pensions, and cash flowWhy bigger businesses often come with bigger problemsThe best business advice Murray has read, and why focusing on what you are best at helped the business growThe danger of choosing the wrong business partner, even when the opportunity looks right at the timeHow a difficult year in business led Murray to question his decision-making and join Make or BreakWhy sometimes the thing holding the business back is the person running itMemorable Quote:“I would probably lose interest in the business if the business lost its wow factor to clients.”Speaker Information:Murray Biggs is the founder of Woven & Woods, a flooring and carpet retailer based in South West London, with showrooms in Twickenham and Richmond.Woven & Woods focuses on the mid to high-end residential market, helping customers choose flooring, carpets, wood flooring, and other products for homes and renovation projects. The business is known for its distinctive showroom style, carefully selected product ranges, and customer-first approach.Website: https://www.wovenandwoods.comInstagram: @wovenandwoodshttps://www.instagram.com/wovenandwoods/Facebook: @wovenandwoodshttps://www.facebook.com/wovenandwoods/Where to Find The UK Flooring Podcast:Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6zBTR6F44i7E6Tp4k6t8jvApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-uk-flooring-podcast/id1668971415YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheUKFlooringPodcast

This episode of The UK Flooring Podcast sits down with Ben Montgomery and Peter Cohen from Veatu Flooring for a proper behind-the-scenes chat about growth, recruitment, commercial flooring, and what really happens when a business starts moving fast.Veatu Flooring started in 2019 and has grown from a small office with a handful of people into a commercial flooring business with a team of more than 20, working across sectors including schools, hospitals, residential, retail, supermarkets, tiling, hard flooring, resin, paving, and more.But as Ben and Peter explain, growth is not just about winning bigger jobs. It brings pressure, cost, cash flow demands, recruitment challenges, payment terms, tighter margins, and the need to build a structure that can actually handle the work.One of the biggest takeaways is that the team matters more than anything. Skills can be trained, but attitude, ambition, culture fit, and the willingness to graft are what keep a business moving when things get chaotic.What You’ll Learn in This Episode:How Veatu Flooring started almost by accident, and grew into a fast-moving commercial flooring business.Why growth can be a good problem, but only if the business is built properly behind the scenes.The challenge of keeping standards high while materials, labour, and operating costs continue to rise.Why recruitment is about more than skills, and why the right people need to fit the culture as well as the role.How Veatu have kept a family feel as the business has grown and become part of a wider group.Why cash flow and payment terms can make or break commercial flooring businesses, especially on larger projects.The opportunities Veatu are now looking at, including Tier 1 contractors, rail, government projects, and larger commercial packages.Why the flooring industry is still so relationship-led, even as businesses get bigger and more professional.Memorable Quote:“The business is screaming at you what it needs.”Speaker InformationBen MontgomeryOperations Director, Veatu Flooringhttps://veatuflooring.com/Peter CohenOperations Manager, Veatu Flooringhttps://veatuflooring.com/Where to Find The UK Flooring Podcast:Website: https://theukflooringpodcast.co.uk/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theukflooringpodcast/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theukflooringpodcast/Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/59DLhGPVKNtVoS656EYtxqApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-uk-flooring-podcast/id1606720642

This episode of The UK Flooring Podcast is a special National Flooring Awards 2026 edition, with Tom and Sarah pulling back the curtain on what is coming this year, why last year hit so hard, and why this one looks set to raise the bar again.From the atmosphere and emotion of the 2025 event to the plans already in place for 2026, this episode is all about momentum. Bigger entertainment, a stronger VIP experience, a packed room full of the best in the industry, and an awards night built to celebrate flooring properly. If you were there last year, this will get you buzzing for what is next. If you were not, this is the episode that will make you want to be in the room.Tom and Sarah also break down how nominations work, why entering properly matters, what the judges are really looking at, and why writing yourself off before you have even entered is a mistake. One of the strongest themes in the episode is simple: this is not just another industry event. It is a genuine celebration of the people, companies and work that make flooring what it is.What You’ll Learn in This Episode:Why the National Flooring Awards 2025 created such a strong reaction, and what made the atmosphere so memorable.What is changing for 2026, including more entertainment, a larger dance floor, a stronger VIP offering, and more time to make the event even better.How nominations and ticketing work, including why shortlisted businesses will need to be in the room.Why your entry needs proper effort, and how judges use your submission to make decisions.How the judging process works, including the role of public voting and why the panel takes the process so seriously.Why businesses across the industry should not talk themselves out of entering before they have even had a go.A full run through of the award categories for 2026, and why there is real opportunity for businesses of all sizes to get involved.Memorable Quote: “You can’t package that up and sell that to somebody. You’ve literally got to experience it.”Speaker Information Tom Cockerill and Sarah Cockerill Hosts, The UK Flooring Podcast / Founders of the National Flooring AwardsWhere to Find The UK Flooring Podcast Watch on YouTube Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts

This episode of The UK Flooring Podcast sits down with Gary Hosey, leadership coach and EQ-i Master Trainer, for a straight, practical chat about emotional intelligence, and why it matters more in flooring than most people realise.Because whether you’re a one-person band or running a team of 20, the job is still people. Customers with expectations. Staff with personalities. Pressure, stress, and those awkward conversations you keep putting off until they blow up. Gary breaks emotional intelligence down into the real-world stuff that actually helps: how you communicate, how you handle stress, how you make decisions, and how you build trust without turning into a pushover.One of the biggest takeaways is simple but brutal: if you want better outcomes, you need better conversations. Gary explains why “being interested, not interesting” changes sales chats, customer trust, and how your team responds to you.What You’ll Learn in This Episode:What emotional intelligence actually means, and the five key areas that sit underneath it (self-awareness, self-expression, interpersonal skills, decision-making, and stress management).Why trust is the real foundation of repeat work, and how to build it without giving everything away for free.A simple shift that improves customer conversations fast: ask better questions, find out what matters, then deliver that experience.The difference between leading 5 people and leading 20, and why “doing it all yourself” stops scaling being possible.Why feedback gets avoided, how it piles up, and how to make it normal before it turns into conflict.How to develop supervisors and key people around you so leadership is shared, not chaotic.Memorable Quote:“Be interested, not interesting.”Speaker InformationGary HoseyLeadership Coach and EQ-i Master Trainerhttps://www.garyhosey.com/LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/garyhoseyWhere to Find The UK Flooring Podcast:Website: https://theukflooringpodcast.co.uk/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theukflooringpodcast/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theukflooringpodcast/Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/59DLhGPVKNtVoS656EYtxqApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-uk-flooring-podcast/id1606720642

Recorded in the Cockerill & Co Darlington HQ, this episode of The UK Flooring Podcast sits down with Ben Wain, business consultant, property investor, husband and dad, for a straight conversation about what it takes to run a flooring business when the bar keeps rising.Ben shares his route from leaving school and working behind bars, into sales, then an 18 year career in retail leadership, before stepping into consultancy. That background gives him a rare mix of frontline reality and big picture thinking, and it shows in how he talks about people, performance, and the gap between “busy” and “well run”.The thread through the episode is simple: customers now expect a joined up experience, and if your systems, showroom, website and team are not aligned, you will feel it. Ben breaks down what “Amazon level” expectations look like in flooring, why new businesses can leapfrog older ones, and how to approach tech and AI in a way that helps you sell, deliver, and keep standards high, without turning your brand into generic noise.What You’ll Learn in This Episode:Why customer expectations are higher than ever, and how that changes the way flooring businesses need to operateWhat “omnichannel” actually means for flooring, and why your website and showroom have to matchHow newer businesses can move faster, and what established businesses must fix to avoid falling behindWhy “race to the bottom” pricing is a trap, and how it quietly kills profitabilityHow to think about speed, service and communication as part of what customers pay forWhat Ben sees as the biggest challenge in the industry, finding, keeping and developing fitting teamsHow to build structure and accountability without micromanaging everythingPractical ways to use AI tools like ChatGPT for planning, training, systems, and management supportThe biggest mistake people make with AI, and how to stay authentic while still moving quicklyMemorable Quote:“Customer expectation is so high, you can very quickly get left behind.”Speaker InformationBen WainBusiness Consultant and Property Investorhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/wain-consultancy-coaching/Where to Find The UK Flooring Podcast:Website: https://theukflooringpodcast.co.uk/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theukflooringpodcast/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theukflooringpodcast/

Recorded live at Momentum 26 in Newcastle, this special episode of The UK Flooring Podcast is Martyn Cohen from Cockerill & Co, delivering a straight-talking keynote on leadership, team performance, and what it actually takes to scale without burning yourself out.Martyn’s background is rooted in leading teams at scale, from smaller groups to large operations, and he pulls those principles into the reality of running a flooring business. The thread running through the whole talk is simple: results come through people, and if you want consistent performance you need a repeatable way to create clarity, ownership, and accountability.At the centre of the keynote is a practical framework Martyn calls the FLOOR model: Focus, Leadership, Ownership, Observation, Results. It’s a five-part checklist for driving performance that you can apply immediately, whether you are leading installers, sales, ops, or a growing management team. He also covers goal-setting that actually sticks (including SMART targets), how to adapt your leadership style to different people and situations, and how to coach rather than rescue, so your team improves instead of waiting for you to step in.What You’ll Learn in This Episode:Why performance starts with focus, and how to give your team a clear target to aim atHow to create clarity on “what good looks like”, so people can execute without constant checkingHow to set SMART goals that actually drive action, not vague intentionsThe leadership styles that matter in the real world (and when to direct, coach, support, or delegate)How to build ownership and accountability, without slipping into micromanagementWhy observation matters, giving people autonomy while still keeping standards highHow to use simple coaching structures (including the GROW approach) to develop people over timeHow to measure performance properly, and then do something with what the numbers are telling youWhy trust and reputation are hard to replace, and how strong execution protects bothA practical prompt to leave with one commitment you can implement immediatelyMemorable Quote:“You can’t outspend trust.”Speaker InformationMartyn CohenKeynote recorded live at Momentum 26 (Newcastle)Cockerill & CoWhere to Find The UK Flooring Podcast:Website: https://theukflooringpodcast.co.uk/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theukflooringpodcast/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theukflooringpodcast/

Recorded live at Momentum 26 in Newcastle, this special episode of The UK Flooring Podcast is Sarah Cockerill’s keynote, delivered to a room full of flooring business owners who probably did not come for “a talk about numbers”. Sarah opens with a confession that will feel familiar: she is not naturally a numbers person, and she actually hates them, but she has learned that the right numbers, looked at consistently, will tell you the real story of your business.She takes you back to where her relationship with money started (Yorkshire upbringing, Barclays in the family, bags of pub receipts on the living room floor), then brings it right into the messy middle of running a flooring business. A knock on the door from HMRC (a £20k CIS bill) kicked off a chain reaction that lots of owners will recognise: trying to “sell your way out” of a cash problem by pushing turnover, getting bigger, adding people, and hoping the money sorts itself out. Sarah is very clear, that approach nearly cost them everything.From there, the keynote becomes a practical reset. Sarah breaks down what actually went wrong (overtrading, losing control of cash flow, treating the business account like a personal purse, and letting systems lag behind growth), then gives a simple framework to stop it happening to you. No accounting lectures, just habits: keep all finance data in one place, use separate bank pots (especially for HMRC), pick one tool, pick one report, learn a small set of key numbers, and ask for help the moment you do not understand something.What You’ll Learn in This Episode:Why “numbers tell a story”, and how to read the story without being an accountantThe real danger of chasing turnover to solve a cash problem, and why it feels right in the momentThe HMRC CIS bill lesson, and what it revealed about cash flow and controlThe three silent killers Sarah points to: overtrading, losing control of cash flow, and treating the business bank account like your own purseWhy growth is not the problem, but growth without systems isHow to simplify your finances fast: one inbox (accountant email), one place for data, and a set time to deal with itWhy separate bank pots matter (including a dedicated HMRC pot), and how it removes panic from the business“Choose one tool”, and stop mixing spreadsheets, software, and half-finished systemsThe power of one report (year-to-date, month-by-month) to spot patterns quicklyHow department coding helps you track where profit is really being made (or lost), and why that matters when you run multiple servicesA simple way to hunt “profit leakage”, and identify the small gaps that quietly drain profit over timeThe most important rule if you are confused by any of it: ask someone who understands, and learn through consistencyMemorable Quote:“Numbers tell a story.”Speaker InformationSarah CockerillKeynote recorded live at Momentum 26 (Newcastle)Where to Find The UK Flooring Podcast:Website: https://theukflooringpodcast.co.uk/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theukflooringpodcast/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theukflooringpodcast/