Herringbone Flooring in Birmingham

A herringbone floor in a Harborne or Moseley hallway runs from the front door to the stairs as one direction of travel, and the pattern is set out from the centre line of the hall so that the cut blocks land against the skirting on both sides equally. Edwardian halls in these suburbs are wide enough for the pattern to read as a surface rather than a stripe.

The inter-war slabs further out give the pattern a flat base for free, and there the whole job is setting out square to the room. Over the heated screeds of Icknield Port Loop and Park Birmingham the engineered Oxford block is the one to specify. The order carries the higher cutting waste of a diagonal layout, and a brushed, oiled block hides the marks a Birmingham winter brings in on boots better than a smooth lacquer.

Semi-detached houses are 36% of the homes in Birmingham, and in a semi the herringbone usually goes into the living room, often a knocked-through one. A pattern gives a long room a centre; set it out from the middle, and where the timber front floor meets the concrete extension the two are levelled to each other before the first block, because a glued pattern records every step in the base.

With terraced houses at 28% of the Birmingham stock, the Birmingham hallway is a narrow one, and that is the room herringbone was made for: the diagonal pattern draws the eye along the length and the hall reads wider than it is. The smaller 90 x 450 mm block keeps the pattern in proportion. Over a suspended timber floor the blocks are glued to a ply overlay; the rigid-vinyl herringbone clicks together over an underlay and needs no glue.