Herringbone floor installation in Nieuwegein

A herringbone floor is the pattern you see as soon as you walk into the room. That is why a mistake shows straight away, for example a starting line that runs crooked or a seam that opens. I lay herringbone floors in living rooms and bedrooms. I have laid them in flats, in the living room and in a bedroom.

If you are after straight planks, laminate or vinyl, that is under floors and tiling. This page is about the pattern.

What makes herringbone different

With herringbone you lay the planks in a zigzag, alternately mirrored. Every plank has to fit its place, and along the walls you are cutting all the time. That takes more time than a straight floor and more material goes through. A straight floor is a laying job, herringbone is a fitting job.

The most important thing is the starting line. The first row decides whether the pattern runs straight in the room, even when the walls do not. I set the line out before the first plank goes down, and if the pattern runs on into the next room, I lay the rooms out together. Otherwise one room is right and the other runs crooked.

A level substrate first

A herringbone floor shows every unevenness. The pattern runs diagonally across the room, so a bump or a dip in the subfloor comes back in the seams, and the floor starts to move in those places. That is why I pay extra attention to the substrate with herringbone.

If the floor is not level, I level it first. In one flat I levelled the subfloor before the new floor went on. Why that matters so much and when it is not needed is covered under floors and tiling.

Sometimes the floor is not worn out but has been wet. With one wooden floor with water damage, the damaged floor came out, a new subfloor went in and then a new floor. If you have water damage, read how I handle water damage repair.

Which material: laminate, vinyl or wood

Herringbone comes in laminate, vinyl and wood. I lay herringbone in laminate. Laminate has a core of compressed wood fibre and does not like water that stays put. Vinyl is plastic and copes better with water. Which of the two suits a normal straight floor is also covered under floors and tiling.

What a laminate floor costs in total, and where price differences between quotes come from, is in the article what laying laminate costs. The same items apply to herringbone, with more time and more cutting waste on top.

Laying a wooden floor

I lay a wooden floor solid, engineered or thin parquet. I check the subfloor first and leave the gap along the walls that wood needs to move. Wood moves with moisture and temperature, so a floor wedged against the wall will lift. An existing wooden floor that only needs refinishing is possible too.

Doors, thresholds and skirting boards

You see at the edges whether a floor was laid well. The floor has to leave a gap along the walls to move, and that gap disappears behind a skirting board or a profile. At doors I cut the frame, so the floor can run through. Where it meets another floor or a threshold, a profile strip takes up the difference in height. The skirting boards go on last.

How such a transition can look you can see on the open walk-in shower: a dark natural stone strip in the doorway, between the herringbone parquet and the tiles.

Where the floor meets tiles

A herringbone floor often ends at a tiled floor. Then you want the transition at one height and the joint, the profile or the strip to be right. If the floor runs up to the toilet or the bathroom, I do the tiling there myself and match the heights. How a toilet renovation goes is on a page of its own, and the bathroom is under bathroom renovation in Nieuwegein. That way the floor meets work that comes from the same hands.

How I go about it

I come and look, measure up and count the doors and transitions. Where I can, I lift a corner of the old floor, because what is under it decides whether levelling is needed. After that you get a quote per item. Send me a photo of the room and of the current floor, with the measurements, through the contact page.