What you are choosing between
- Laminate
- A photographic layer over a high-density fibreboard core, sealed with a wear layer. Cheap, hard, and it swells irreversibly if water sits on a joint. Fine in a bedroom or living room, questionable in a kitchen.
- LVT and SPC vinyl
- Vinyl plank, either flexible or on a rigid mineral core. Genuinely water-resistant, warmer and quieter underfoot, and the sensible choice for a kitchen or bathroom. SPC is the more dimensionally stable of the two under sunlight.
- Engineered wood
- A real hardwood veneer on a plywood core. Looks and feels like solid wood, tolerates underfloor heating, and can be sanded once or twice depending on the veneer. The most expensive of the three by a distance.
- Solid hardwood
- A different job entirely: it is nailed or glued rather than clicked, moves with humidity, and belongs to a fitter rather than to a weekend.
AC class and thickness
AC is the abrasion class, from AC1 to AC6. It is the single specification worth checking before anything else.
| Class | Suited to |
|---|---|
| AC1-AC2 | Bedrooms and light domestic use only |
| AC3 | General domestic: living rooms, most homes |
| AC4 | Hallways, kitchens, light commercial |
| AC5-AC6 | Commercial and heavy traffic |
Thickness, usually 7 to 12 mm, is about feel and sound rather than wear. A thicker board sits more solidly, bridges small imperfections in the subfloor better and sounds less hollow. It does not make a low AC class survive a hallway.
Two other numbers worth a glance: the click system, which is proprietary and not interchangeable between brands, and whether an underlay is already attached to the back — which changes what else you have to buy.
Underlay, and why it is sized differently
Underlay does three separate jobs, and a single product rarely does all three well: it cushions and quietens, it evens out small subfloor irregularities, and — over concrete — it acts as a damp-proof membrane.
- Foam: cheapest, thinnest, adequate over a good timber subfloor.
- Fibreboard: better at levelling and at sound, thicker, sold in sheets rather than rolls.
- Combined underlay with an integral membrane: the usual answer over concrete.
- Attached backing on the plank: covers the acoustic job, usually not the damp one. Check the datasheet rather than assuming.
For quantity, the important point is that underlay is sized on the bare floor area, not on the flooring figure. It is rolled out and cut to fit, so its offcuts remain usable, unlike a plank cut at an angle. Applying the plank waste allowance to underlay sells you a roll you do not need.
packs = ceil(area × (1 + waste) ÷ pack coverage) · underlay rolls = ceil(area ÷ roll coverage)
Buying
- Take the pack coverage in square metres from the label; it is the unit you round up to, and it varies between products of the same board size.
- Allow 8% waste for a straight lay, 10% with several doorways, 15% or more for a diagonal or herringbone pattern.
- Order in one delivery. Shade varies between batches and a plank from the second order will show.
- Leave the expansion gap. It does not change the quantity — the planks still cover the floor — but omitting it buckles the floor in summer.
- Budget the beading or skirting separately: it is a linear-metre calculation over the perimeter, not an area one.
- Let the packs acclimatise in the room for 48 hours before laying. Every manufacturer asks for this and it is the most commonly ignored instruction on the box.
AC classes follow the EN 13329 abrasion classification used across the industry; the class for a product is on its own packaging. Waste percentages are planning conventions.