Interior and finishes

Flooring Materials

Almost every flooring failure traces back to something underneath: subfloor moisture, an uneven base, an unsuitable adhesive, movement that was not allowed for, or a covering asked to sit in a wetter room than it suits. The covering is usually the last thing that goes wrong.

These entries describe each flooring material, what it depends on and what to ask about before committing. Where you want help choosing between two options, the existing Build Design Hub flooring guides and comparisons do that job and are linked from every entry.

52 reference entries · educational materials reference · suitability always depends on the complete assembly and qualified professional review

Scope

What this category covers

Where the boundary of this part of the library sits, including what it deliberately leaves to qualified professionals.

Wood, wood-based, resilient, textile and seamless floor coverings
Floor surface systems applied in place rather than laid
Raised and access floor systems
Not covered: subfloor moisture testing, adhesive specification, slip or accessibility determinations

Start here

Frequently referenced entries

A starting point, not a ranking — these are simply the entries most people arrive looking for.

Engineered wood flooring →A genuine hardwood wear layer bonded over a cross-bonded core, giving a real timber surface on a base that is dimensionally more settled than solid boards.Luxury vinyl tile →Modular tiles or planks carrying a printed film within a polymer body under a clear wear layer, laid with many joints over a base that must be flat and sound.Resin floor coating →Liquid resin systems applied wet and cured in place to form a jointless bonded surface, so preparation of the base and moisture within it largely decide the outcome.

All entries

Every flooring materials entry

The complete set for this category, in reference order.

Entry describes

Role in an assembly

Part of a building

Solid hardwood flooring →Flooring milled from single pieces of hardwood, so it moves with humidity across its width and can usually be sanded back and refinished more than once.

Engineered wood flooring →A genuine hardwood wear layer bonded over a cross-bonded core, giving a real timber surface on a base that is dimensionally more settled than solid boards.

Laminate flooring →A printed decorative layer under a hard resin wear surface, pressed onto a fibreboard core, so the core rather than the surface is the moisture weak point.

Luxury vinyl tile →Modular tiles or planks carrying a printed film within a polymer body under a clear wear layer, laid with many joints over a base that must be flat and sound.

Sheet vinyl flooring →A continuous polymer-based resilient covering cut from wide rolls and joined at very few seams, so the base beneath it shows through and largely governs the result.

Linoleum flooring →A covering pressed from oxidised linseed oil, natural resins, wood or cork flour and mineral fillers on a fibre backing, and a genuinely different material from vinyl.

Rubber flooring →A resilient covering of vulcanised natural or synthetic rubber with mineral fillers, supplied as sheet or tile and chosen mainly for how it feels and sounds underfoot.

Cork flooring →A covering made from the bark of the cork oak, granulated and pressed into tiles or plank layers, chosen for a compressible, warm and quiet surface underfoot.

Bamboo flooring →Flooring made from a fast-growing grass, processed either into laminated strip boards or into dense strand-woven blocks that behave quite differently from one another.

Carpet tiles →Modular carpet units on a dimensionally stable backing, laid to a grid so that individual tiles can be lifted and replaced without disturbing the rest of the floor.

Broadloom carpet →Carpet manufactured as a continuous width, delivered as a roll and fitted to the room, with planned seams, an underlay beneath it and a tension that has to be maintained.

Terrazzo flooring →A composite of aggregate set in a binder, ground back and polished flat, produced either poured in place over a prepared base or made off site as precast tiles and slabs.

Resin floor coating →Liquid resin systems applied wet and cured in place to form a jointless bonded surface, so preparation of the base and moisture within it largely decide the outcome.

Raised access flooring →A platform of removable panels on adjustable pedestals above the structural floor, creating a service void beneath and usually receiving a separate floor covering on top.

Parquet Block Flooring →Short solid timber blocks bonded in a continuous bed of adhesive onto a rigid, flat base and laid in a repeating geometry, so the floor stands or falls on the bond beneath it.

End Grain Wood Blocks →Timber blocks laid with the cut fibre ends facing upward, so the surface walked on is the section through the wood rather than its face or figure.

Softwood Floorboards →Machined softwood boards laid across joists to form the deck of a floor, and very often sanded and finished afterwards so the same boards become the visible surface.

Reclaimed Timber Flooring →Flooring made from timber recovered out of earlier buildings, sorted and remachined, so species, dimensions, past damage and moisture condition all vary within a single delivery.

Timber Decking Boards →Machined timber boards for external walking surfaces, laid with gaps over a supporting frame so that water drains away and air can move around every face of the board.

Composite Decking →Extruded boards of wood fibre bound in a polymer matrix, made for external walking surfaces, where span between supports and movement with temperature govern how the deck is set out.

Rigid Core Vinyl →Click-jointed planks and tiles built around a stiff mineral filled or foamed polymer core, laid as a floating field rather than bonded down like a flexible vinyl covering.

Vinyl Composition Tile →A semi-flexible bonded tile of polymer binder heavily loaded with mineral filler, with colour running through the body and no clear wear layer above it.

Safety Vinyl Flooring →A homogeneous vinyl sheet carrying hard mineral particles dispersed through its thickness, giving a textured face that is the same composition all the way down.

ESD Flooring →Floor coverings made with conductive material through them and installed as an earthed build-up, so the floor forms a controlled electrical path rather than simply a surface.

Anhydrite Screed →A pumped, self-smoothing floor screed bound with calcium sulfate rather than cement, which finds its own level but is sensitive to moisture and leaves a surface skin to be removed.

Granolithic Screed →A cement and hard aggregate topping laid over a concrete base and finished as the floor itself, rather than as a levelling layer waiting for a covering to be laid on it.

Mastic Asphalt Flooring →A jointless floor topping of hot-poured bitumen and graded aggregate, spread by float, forming both the trafficked surface and part of the damp-resisting construction.

Dry Screed Board →Bonded gypsum fibre or calcium sulphate panels laid dry over insulation, granulate or an existing deck to form a level floor base without introducing water to the building.

Dry Shake Hardener →A cement and hard aggregate blend broadcast onto fresh concrete and power floated in, adding a wear layer that becomes part of the slab surface during the pour itself.

Concrete Densifier →A reactive silicate solution applied to hardened concrete that works inside the surface pores to reduce dusting, leaving no film and no added thickness on the floor.

UFH Overlay Board →A rigid panel grooved to receive heating pipe within a dry, low-build floor layer, laid over a prepared subfloor as one component of a heating installation designed by others.

Floating Floor Underlay →A thin resilient sheet laid loose beneath a rigid floating covering, separating it from the subfloor and giving the locking joints above an even bearing to work against.

Carpet Underlay →A compressible cushion of foam, rubber crumb, sponge or felt laid between subfloor and carpet, whose density governs how the carpet backing flexes and therefore how it wears.

Underlayment Board →A thin sheet fixed down over a boarded or uneven deck to give a smooth, stable base for thin resilient coverings, achieving dry what a levelling compound does wet.

Acoustic Floating Floor →An isolated floor build-up in which a deck is carried on resilient battens, cradles or bearers above the structural floor, with a deliberate break kept at the perimeter.

Woven Carpet →A carpet in which the pile and the backing are formed together on the loom as one structure, so the yarn at the surface continues into the body of the carpet itself.

Tufted Carpet →A carpet whose pile is needled through a primary backing that already exists, then held from behind by a coating and a secondary backing bonded to the underside.

Needlepunch Carpet →A pile-free floor covering made by entangling loose fibres into a dense felt with barbed needles, giving a flat low-profile surface rather than woven or needled-in loops.

Natural Fibre Carpet →Woven floor coverings made from plant leaf and stem fibres such as sisal, coir, seagrass and jute, which respond to humidity and to cleaning quite unlike wool or nylon.

Entrance Matting →A planned run of scraper and absorbent zones, usually held in recessed metal or rubber carriers at a door, intended to take soil and water off footwear before the main floor.

Stair Nosing →The fixed component along the front edge of a tread, usually an extruded metal or rigid polymer section, that terminates the stair covering and forms the visible step edge.

Floor Transition Trim →A fixed strip that resolves where two floor coverings meet or where one stops, closing the movement gap and protecting an edge that would otherwise be left exposed.

Floor Movement Joint →A manufactured insert set into a joint that is expected to move, closing the line to traffic while armouring the two concrete or screed edges either side of it.

Flooring Adhesive →The bonding layer between a floor covering and its base, supplied as a polymer dispersion or a reactive resin and matched to the covering, the substrate and the heating arrangement.

Open Mesh Grating →An open grid walking surface made from load bars and cross members, or moulded in glass reinforced polymer, that lets water, light and small debris pass through it.

Chequer Plate Flooring →Solid metal sheet rolled with a raised pattern on one face, used as a closed walking or covering surface over supports, hatches, plant platforms and short ramps.

Sprung Sports Floor →A layered floor build-up in which resilient components sit beneath the wearing surface, so the behaviour of the floor belongs to the whole assembly rather than to the visible finish.

Wet Pour Rubber Surfacing →A seamless rubber surface mixed and trowelled in place from bound granules, laid over a prepared base and formed to any plan shape, including inlaid colour and pattern.

Artificial Grass →A tufted synthetic textile laid outdoors over an engineered permeable base, with pile, backing, any infill and the ground beneath together determining how the surface behaves.

Acrylic Court Coating →A water based acrylic coating system built up in successive coats, usually with graded sand, over an external asphalt or concrete base and finished with applied line marking.

Plant-mixed asphalt →Aggregate coated with bituminous binder at a plant, delivered hot, paved in courses and compacted by roller, so the rolling is as much the material as the mixture is.

Resin-bound surfacing →A trowel-laid mineral surface in which every particle is coated with resin before laying, leaving voids between the stones, and quite unlike resin-bonded scattered chippings.

Browse by role

By the role the material plays

The same entries, clustered by what they typically do in an assembly. A material can appear in more than one cluster because it genuinely plays more than one role.

Structure

Materials that carry load or form the primary frame.

Substrate and base

Backgrounds and bases that other materials are fixed or applied to.

Thermal layer

Materials whose role in the build-up is thermal.

Moisture and air control

Thin layers that control where moisture and air are allowed to move.

External surface

The visible outer face of a wall or roof.

Internal surface

The visible inner face people see, touch and walk on.

Jointing and fixing

Materials that bond, seal, support or connect other materials.

Where they appear

Parts of a building this category touches

An orientation aid only — it does not imply that any entry is suitable for that part of a particular building.

Foundations and groundworks · 1
Internal walls and ceilings · 1
Floors · 52
Wet areas · 1
External works and landscape · 10

Elsewhere on Build Design Hub

Planning guidance for this subject

This library explains what materials are. These sections help with choosing between them and preparing for the conversation.

Flooring planning guides →The choosing-and-comparing side of flooring.Flooring design ideas →Design directions for floors, patterns and layouts.Flooring and surface decisions →Preparation before a flooring conversation.

Building Systems Encyclopedia

The assemblies these materials sit in

A material page explains what a substance is. These pages explain how the assembly around it is organised, what roles its components perform and which interfaces matter.

Structure and supportFloor Structure and Build-Up Systems →Horizontal decks read together with the stack placed on them, told apart by what spans, what is infill and what is only a topping over both.Interior assembliesAcoustic Separation Systems →Assemblies defined by the transmission path each is built to defeat — airborne, impact, flanking or over the head of a partition — rather than by what they are made of.

Materials & Systems Encyclopedia

Reference entries for building materials, product formats and system components — what they are, what their behaviour depends on and what to ask about them.

Browse the full Materials Library →

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