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Typical gap sizes
| Floor | Gap at walls |
|---|---|
| Laminate | 8–10 mm |
| Click vinyl (LVT, SPC) | 5–8 mm |
| Engineered wood, floating | 10–15 mm |
| Solid hardwood | About 15 mm or the board thickness |
| Tile | 5–6 mm movement joint, filled with silicone |
Large rooms need more. A common rule for wood is about 1.5 mm per metre of floor width, with the minimum above. The product leaflet is the final word.
Where the gap is needed
- Along every wall.
- Around pipes, posts, kitchen islands and stair nosings.
- At door frames (or undercut the frame so the floor runs underneath).
- At thresholds between rooms. Many floating floors need a transition profile at every doorway.
- Around anything fixed through the floor.
Hiding the gap
Skirting boards or quarter-round beading cover the gap. Fix them to the wall, never to a floating floor. For pipes, use pipe roses. At a doorway, a T-profile or threshold strip bridges the gap while letting both floors move.
A floating floor that is pinned anywhere, by a nail, a kitchen unit or a skirting fixed to the floor, will push up somewhere else.