Herringbone Flooring in Reading

The walls of a Victorian Reading terrace are seldom parallel, and a right-angle pattern shows that at once, so a herringbone hall in Katesgrove or Newtown is set out from the centre line of the hall rather than from a wall, with the cut blocks landing evenly at both skirtings. The finer Oxford block suits that hall; the broader block fills a Caversham front room with a bay.

Over levelled joists the blocks go on a plywood deck checked with a straight edge; over the heated screed at Watchman’s Place and Green Park the engineered block is the construction to use. A brushed, oiled block hides the marks a commuter household brings in from the station better than a smooth lacquer. A diagonal pattern wastes more in the cutting than a plank floor, and the order allows for it.

Flats are 33% of homes in the Reading 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 Reading stock, the Reading 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.