Herringbone Flooring in Newcastle

In an upper Tyneside flat the hall is the room that carries the whole flat’s traffic to the neighbour below, and a herringbone floor there is built from the acoustic layer up: resilient mat, plywood deck, then the finer Oxford block set out from the centre line of the hall. Downstairs the same block goes over levelled boards on a deck, and in a Gosforth front room with a bay the broader block reads better.

A pattern shows a dip in the base more readily than parallel boards do, so the deck is checked with a straight edge before the first block is glued. At Newcastle Great Park the screed is heated and the engineered block is the construction to use. A diagonal layout wastes more in the cutting than a plank floor, the order allows for it, and the blocks spend a few days in the room before they meet the adhesive.

Semi-detached houses are 35% of the homes in Newcastle upon Tyne, 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.

Flats are 32% of homes in the Newcastle upon Tyne 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.