Mid Browns Laminate Flooring
Mid-brown laminate floors deliver the balanced, authentic look of natural wood. They pair well with a wide range of furniture styles and bring comfortable, timeless character to any home.
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Buying guide
Mid Browns, explained
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Mid Browns in laminate: 1 block in all, the Leicester herringbone, listed as natural oak. It is 12 mm thick and 100 mm by 600 mm with a 4V edge, rated AC4 and listed as compatible with underfloor heating.
The look
Natural oak, mid tone
AC4
The block
In depth
Choosing mid-brown laminate
Mid Browns holds 1 block in all today, the Leicester herringbone, listed as natural oak. It is an oak design under a registered embossed surface on a high-density fibreboard core: 12 mm thick, 100 mm by 600 mm, click-jointed with a 4V edge, rated AC4, listed as compatible with underfloor heating and covered by a 15 year manufacturer's warranty. A box holds 32 blocks and covers 1.92 square metres.
Leicester is filed under the beige and light browns as well, so it sits between the two groups. Next to it, Whitby is the other natural oak design and York the smoked one. If the room has warm timber furniture, a brick fireplace or a deep-coloured wall, lay Leicester and York side by side in the pattern and judge them in that light, at the time of day the room is used most.
In practice
Herringbone sets the blocks at right angles, so a room reads as a pattern before it reads as a colour. That changes the planning as well as the look: the pattern is set out from a line in the room rather than started against a wall, the rows end in cuts at every wall, and the cutting allowance is higher than for planks. No standard fixes that allowance; the manufacturer figures quoted below differ from each other.
Laminate is a floor for the dry rooms: bedrooms, a living room, a landing or a study. EN 13329 grades abrasion from AC1 to AC6 and does not cover areas subject to frequent wetting, and the fibreboard core is the reason for that. Leave the EPLF's gap of 8 mm to 12 mm at every wall so the floating floor can move, and cover it with skirting or beading fixed to the wall rather than to the floor.
Published standards4 sources
What the published standards say
Each entry is quoted from its source and linked to it. The full set is in the standards reference.
BS EN 13329 — laminate floor coverings
BS EN 13329 specifies the characteristics, requirements and test methods for laminate floor coverings with a surface layer based on aminoplastic thermosetting resins, including requirements for marking and packaging. It also contains a classification system based on EN ISO 10874 for areas and levels of use, and it does not cover areas subject to frequent wetting such as bathrooms, laundry rooms or saunas.
“BS EN 13329 specifies characteristics, requirements, and test methods for laminate floor coverings with a surface layer based on amino plastic thermosetting resins. BS EN 13329 specifies requirements for marking and packaging.”
Source: BS EN 13329:2016+A2:2021 | 31 Oct 2021 | BSI KnowledgeAC1 to AC6 — abrasion classes for laminate
EN 13329 classifies the abrasion resistance of laminate floor coverings in abrasion classes AC1 to AC6. The EPLF's own Environmental Product Declaration for DPL laminate floor covering states the property "Abrasion Class EN 13329" with the value range AC1-AC6.
| Abrasion classes under EN 13329 | AC1-AC6 |
|---|
“Abrasion Class EN 13329 | AC1-AC6 | -”
Source: 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-ENCutting waste — how much extra to order
There is no published industry standard for cutting waste; the figures come from manufacturers' own guidance and they vary. Havwoods advises 8-12 % wastage for planks and 15-20 % for patterned floors such as herringbone or chevron. Quick-Step's UK guidance for laminate is 5 % extra in a regular room and 10 % in a room with many angles or curves.
| Wastage allowance, plank floors (Havwoods UK) | 8-12 % |
|---|---|
| Wastage allowance, herringbone or chevron (Havwoods UK) | 15-20 % |
| Extra to order, regular room, laminate (Quick-Step UK) | 5 % |
| Extra to order, room with many angles or curves, laminate (Quick-Step UK) | 10 % |
“For planks we typically advise on 8-12% wastage and patterned floors, such as herringbone or chevron, may need 15-20% wastage.”
Source: Havwoods UK - FAQs: How Much Wastage Shall I Encounter For? · second sourceThe expansion gap
The EPLF, the European association of laminate flooring producers, recommends an edge gap of 8 mm to 12 mm on all sides of a floating floor, so that the covering can expand and contract without lifting.
| recommended edge gap on all sides | 8 to 12 mm |
|---|
“To accommodate such changes, a edge spacing should be observed on all sides. A free space of 8 mm to 12 mm is recommended.”
Source: EPLF Technical Bulletin — Installation of Laminate Floor Coverings (06/2022), 6.4 Edge gapsQuestions