Herringbone Flooring in Cambridge

Chevron and herringbone are cousins, and in a narrow Cambridge entrance hall the choice between them is about the room: the continuous V of a Knightsbridge chevron pulls a Mill Road hall towards the stairs, while the woven Oxford herringbone reads as a surface in a wider De Freville hall. Both are set out from the centre line of the hall so the cut blocks land evenly at the skirtings.

Where a Cambridge hall steps down into the rear extension the pattern ends at the step and begins again on the lower floor, each part set out on its own; the deck over the levelled joists is checked with a straight edge before any block is glued. At Eddington the screed is heated and the engineered block is the construction to use. A patterned floor is ordered with its cutting waste allowed for, and the blocks acclimatise in the house before laying.

Flats are 35% of homes in the Cambridge district, and a flat is where the two herringbones in the range part company: the engineered blocks are glued to the slab and, where the lease asks for impact-sound performance, need an acoustic layer the adhesive is approved for; the rigid-vinyl herringbone floats on its own underlay and answers the clause more simply. The lease decides, so read it first.

With terraced houses at 28% of the Cambridge stock, the Cambridge 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.