Resources
The words on the quote.
Every term a flooring quote or a product box uses, in one sentence each.
- AC rating
- The abrasion class of a laminate floor, AC1 to AC5. AC3 suits bedrooms, AC4 a whole house, AC5 a store.
- Acclimation
- Letting wood flooring sit in the house, boxes open, for several days so its moisture matches the room before it is installed.
- Backer board
- A cement or fiber-cement sheet screwed over a wood subfloor to give tile a stiff, stable base.
- Below grade
- Below ground level: a basement. Moisture comes up through the slab, which rules out solid wood and most carpet.
- Engineered hardwood
- A veneer of real wood bonded to a plywood or fiberboard core. Real wood on top, stable underneath.
- Expansion gap
- The space left at every wall and doorway so a floating floor can move with the seasons. Covered by baseboard or shoe molding.
- Face weight
- The ounces of fiber per square yard of carpet. Higher is denser and wears longer, within a fiber type.
- Floating floor
- A floor that clicks or glues to itself and rests on the subfloor without being nailed or glued to it. Most vinyl plank and laminate.
- Glue-down
- A floor bonded to the subfloor with adhesive: flexible vinyl plank, some engineered wood, sheet vinyl.
- Grout
- The cement or epoxy filler between tiles. The part of a tile floor that stains and needs sealing.
- IIC and STC
- Impact and airborne sound ratings for a floor assembly. Condo boards set minimums for hard floors.
- Luxury vinyl plank (LVP)
- A printed vinyl floor in plank form. Rigid-core (SPC, WPC) floats; flexible glues down.
- Mil
- A thousandth of an inch, the unit for a vinyl wear layer. 6 mil is builder grade, 12 a home, 20 heavy use.
- Moisture test
- A measurement of the water vapor coming through a concrete slab, done before a floor goes down on it. Cheap; skipping it is not.
- Nail-down
- Solid hardwood fastened to a wood subfloor with cleats or staples through the tongue.
- Pad
- The cushion under carpet. Its density and thickness set how long the carpet looks new.
- Prefinished
- Flooring finished at the factory, walkable the day it is installed. The alternative is site-finished.
- Rigid core
- A vinyl plank core that does not flex: SPC (stone-plastic composite) or WPC (wood-plastic composite). Floats and hides small subfloor flaws.
- Site-finished
- Hardwood sanded and coated in the room after installation. Seamless, slower, dustier, and refinishable the same way later.
- SPC
- Stone-plastic composite: the densest rigid vinyl core. Dents less than WPC, is firmer underfoot.
- Subfloor
- What the finished floor is attached to: plywood or OSB over joists, or a concrete slab.
- Tack strip
- The wood strips with angled pins along the walls that hold stretched carpet.
- Transition
- The molding where one floor meets another or a doorway: T-molding, reducer, threshold.
- Uncoupling membrane
- A plastic mat under tile that lets the subfloor move without cracking the tile above it.
- Underlayment
- The thin layer between subfloor and floating floor: foam, cork or rubber, for sound, moisture and small flaws.
- Wear layer
- The clear top layer of a vinyl floor, or the veneer of an engineered one. It is what you walk on and what wears out.
- WPC
- Wood-plastic composite: a rigid vinyl core with air in it. Softer and quieter than SPC, dents more easily.
Not sure yet?
Don’t start with the flooring. Start with your home.
Eight questions about the rooms, the household, the subfloor and the budget. A ranked shortlist with the reasons, the watch-outs and a project estimate.
8 questions · about 2 minutes · no obligation