Louise Walters at Designer Contracts looks at the future of new build flooring, from a shift in colour palettes to sustainable products, the importance of EPDs and how flooring materials can help meet the Future Homes Standard.
The role of flooring as a foundation block in a new home is often underestimated. From its contribution to the overall design of a house to more practical considerations such as heat insulation and noise reduction, floorcoverings are a key ingredient.
Increasingly it plays a critical role in sustainability considerations too. And for housebuilders working to meet Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) requirements and the aims of the Future Homes Standard, flooring can play a pivotal role.
The big story for 2026 is warmth. That means floors which feel cosy, grounded and connected to nature – a shift from the series of greys that have dominated interiors for years. Popular tones include honey oak, caramel and amber wood tones along with beige and blonde mid-tones that balance warmth without feeling yellow. Greige is still around but with softer, sunnier undertones than cool grey.
What we’re seeing is that floors are increasingly part of a holistic colour statement and not just functional surfaces. ‘Hard’ flooring is also less about a perfect smooth finish and more about visible grain, knots and hand scraped effects.
Sustainability also remains at the heart of interior design trends. No longer just a buzzword, sustainability is becoming a market standard and a core driver of product development. Customers expect manufacturers to help them make greener choices when it comes to flooring and shared commitment is critical to the success of circularity.
One example of a revolutionary, sustainable product in our industry is SpringBond underlay. Made by the UK-based Think Group and introduced in 2019, it is made from 85% recycled fibres (plastic bottles), offering an eco-friendly alternative to PU foam, felt and rubber underlay.
SpringBond has a certified Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) certification – something else which is rapidly shifting from a ‘nice-to-have’ to ‘must-have’ standard.
EPD certification is internationally recognised and provides transparent, verified environmental impact data across the product’s entire lifecycle – from manufacturing to end-of-life management. Meeting EPD requirements involves rigorous third-party verification of environmental performance; provides complete lifecycle assessment data; demonstrates quantifiable environmental impacts; and meets strict international standards for environmental reporting.
With EPDs, developers and contractors can compare alternatives objectively as they allow flooring to be selected on the basis of transparent metrics. People making specification decisions
for new builds want hard data – and EPDs deliver that.
It’s all part of a wider, environmental and ethical landscape which specifiers, developers and even the end consumer, consider. Increasingly they value and understand the importance of such operations as waste management in the quest for circularity. We ourselves work closely with Innovate Recycle, a recycling company which has invested heavily in state-of-the-art machinery/technology to develop a circular solution, producing plastic pellets from carpet waste for the plastics industry.
According to Innovate, more than 500,000 tonnes of end-of-life carpet are produced in the UK each year, and, for the first time, there is now a way, at volume, to deconstruct carpet and
enable the reuse of its constituent materials in a wide range of industrial supply chains.
As well as the visual and ethical aspects of floorcoverings, flooring materials can also offer hugely practical considerations – even helping housebuilders meet the aims of the Future Homes Standard (FHS).
The FHS for 2025 in England mandates new homes to be ‘zero-carbon ready’, featuring high energy efficiency, low-carbon heating and no fossil fuels, slashing emissions by 75-80%. Key changes involve stringent U-values for walls, roofs, floors, windows, improved ventilation and better insulation. The aim is for full implementation by December 2027.
In this regard, flooring can play a pivotal role in more thoughtful strategies to improve insulation, reduce reliance on traditional, less efficient heat sources and so promote low-carbon, future proofed heating solutions. The selection of flooring materials that combine these helps to ensure that new homes are not only cost-effective to run but capable of delivering the comfort, efficiency, and low-carbon performance expected of next-generation housing in the UK.
In short, flooring is evolving from a ‘finish’ to a strategic element in sustainable, healthy, future ready homes – and developers who lean into these trends will have an edge in an increasingly competitive market.
Louise Walters is commercial director at Designer Contracts