Flooring Glossary
Every term here is defined in plain English. Where a definition rests on a standard or on legislation, the source is linked so you can check it yourself..
Guide type
Glossary
Reading time
13 min
Terms defined
74
Questions answered
3
Every term here is defined in plain English. Where a definition rests on a standard or on legislation, the source is linked so you can check it yourself.
01
Wood
Brushed
A surface treatment that opens the soft grain with a wire brush so the texture of the timber is felt as well as seen.
Engineered wood flooring
A board with a real wood wear layer bonded to a cross-bonded plywood or HDF base, so the finished board moves far less with humidity than a solid board of the same thickness. BS EN 13489:2023 - Wood-flooring and parquet. Multi-layer parquet elements
Grading
A description of how much knot, sapwood and colour variation a batch contains. It is an appearance classification, not a quality or strength classification.
Janka hardness
A measure of how much force embeds a steel ball halfway into a timber sample. It ranks species against each other and says nothing about the finish, which is what usually fails first.
Lacquered finish
A film finish on the surface of the board. It resists spills well and cannot be spot-repaired — damage means sanding the area back.
Lamella
Another word for the wear layer of an engineered board.
Moisture content
The weight of water in a piece of timber as a percentage of its dry weight. Wood swells and shrinks as it changes.
Oiled finish
A penetrating finish that sits in the timber rather than on it. It can be spot-repaired without redoing the whole floor and needs periodic reapplication.
Sanding and refinishing
Removing the top fraction of a millimetre of a wood floor with an abrasive machine and applying a new finish. FAQ about flooring - Kährs
Smoked oak
Oak darkened right through by reaction with ammonia rather than by a surface stain, so a scratch does not show a pale line.
Solid wood flooring
A board milled from a single piece of timber through its full thickness. BS EN 13226:2009 - Wood flooring. Solid parquet elements with grooves and/or tongues
Wear layer
The layer of real wood above the tongue on an engineered board. It is what can be sanded, so it decides how many times the floor can be refinished. FAQ about flooring - Kährs
See also
02
Laminate
AC rating
The abrasion class of a laminate floor under EN 13329. It is the single number that separates a floor that survives a hallway from one that does not. Environmental Product Declaration - Direct Pressure Laminate Floor Covering (DPL Floor Covering), owner of the declaration: European Producers of Laminate Flooring e.V. (EPLF), decl. no. EPD-EPL-20210138-CBE1-EN
HDF core
A dense fibreboard panel used as the structural core of laminate and some engineered boards. It swells irreversibly if water sits on a joint.
Laminate flooring
A photographic decor layer over an HDF core, sealed under a transparent wear layer of resin. There is no wood at the surface. BS EN 13329:2016+A2:2021 | 31 Oct 2021 | BSI Knowledge
See also
03
LVT, SPC and vinyl
EN 16511
The European standard for modular multilayer floor coverings with a mechanical lock — the family that rigid-core vinyl belongs to. BS EN 16511:2023 - Modular mechanical locked floor coverings (MMF). Specification, requirements and test method for multilayer modular panels for floating installation
LVT
A vinyl floor covering supplied in planks or tiles, with a printed decor under a clear wear layer. ISO 10582:2017 - Resilient floor coverings - Heterogeneous poly(vinyl chloride) floor covering - Specifications
SPC
A rigid-core vinyl floor whose core is a mineral-filled polymer, stiff enough to bridge small irregularities in the subfloor that a flexible vinyl would telegraph. Multilayer Modular Flooring in focus - MMFA (Multilayer Modular Flooring Association)
Water resistance
The distinction that matters is between a covering whose material does not absorb water and an installation that keeps water out. A waterproof plank over an open joint still lets water reach the subfloor.
Wear layer thickness
The thickness of the clear layer above the decor on a vinyl floor. It is the number that predicts service life; the overall board thickness does not, and neither does the use class — the class describes intensity of use, not millimetres. ISO 10582:2017 - Resilient floor coverings - Heterogeneous poly(vinyl chloride) floor covering - Specifications (ISO catalogue page, abstract)
WPC
A rigid-core vinyl with a foamed rather than mineral-filled core: warmer and softer underfoot than SPC, less dimensionally stable in heat.
See also
04
Patterns and formats
Bevel
A chamfer along the edge of a board that makes each plank read as a separate piece and hides small differences in height between neighbours.
Chevron
Blocks cut at an angle at both ends so they meet point to point, producing a continuous unbroken V.
Herringbone
Rectangular blocks laid at a right angle to each other so the ends of one row meet the sides of the next, producing a staggered zigzag.
Plank width
The face width of a board. Wider boards show more of the grain and fewer joints, and move more across their width for the same change in humidity.
Versailles panel
A square framed panel with a woven or diagonal infill, laid as a unit rather than board by board.
See also
09
Porcelain and outdoor
Outdoor porcelain paving
Porcelain in a thicker format intended for terraces and paths, laid on a bedding system rather than an adhesive bed.
Porcelain tile
A dense fired ceramic with very low water absorption, which is what lets the same body be used outdoors in a British winter.
Slip resistance
How much grip a surface offers, measured with a pendulum. It is a property of the surface in the state it will be used in — wet, if it will be wet. HSE - Assessing the slip resistance of flooring (GEIS2)
See also
14
Common questions
What does the wear layer figure actually mean?
On an engineered board it is the thickness of the real timber above the core, and it sets how many times the floor can be sanded and refinished. On a vinyl floor it means something different: the clear film over the printed design, which decides how long the pattern survives traffic rather than how often it can be repaired. Same phrase, two different things, so always check which product you are reading about.
What is the difference between AC rating and wear layer?
An AC rating is a laminate classification for abrasion resistance and is chosen room by room, since a hallway and a spare bedroom are not the same job. A wear layer is a measured thickness quoted for wood and vinyl floors. One is a class, the other is a dimension.
Is water-resistant the same as waterproof?
No, and the difference decides which rooms a floor belongs in. Water-resistant means a spill wiped up promptly does no harm. Standing water is a separate case: it finds a joint and stays there. Where water sits rather than passes, that is a specification question, not a housekeeping one.
Every term here appears again on the local pages, where the same specifications are set against the housing stock of a particular place. Browse by town and region.
See also
15
Related reading
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