Frequently Asked Questions about Hardwood Flooring

When I order hardwood flooring, how much extra should I allow for “wastage”?

Inevitably when fitting a solid hardwood floor or engineered wood flooring there will be some wastage. The most obvious instances are when cutting wood flooring to fit against an uneven wall or fire place, and when cutting boards to length, or cutting at an angle to fit into a bay window. Although as a general rule the pieces cut off the end of the last board to be fitted in a given row, will be used to start the next row, in practice this does not always work. For example the piece might be considered too short, or if fitted it would lead to the end join being level with one in the previous row. In the latter case, provided the board is long enough, it could be shortened to stagger the end join, in which case the piece cut off will be scrap. In other cases, there might be a board, or part of a board, which you would prefer not to use. The characteristics in a hardwood floor are usually varied and it does sometimes happen that you don't like a particular feature. This is why it is important to check through all the boards before you start to fit them. This allows you to select any which have features which you would like in a prominent position, or which you feel would be better under the settee!

So, some wastage is inevitable, but how much? As a general rule, hardwood flooring fitters allow an extra 5% where the boards are ends matched (i.e. a tongue and groove in the ends), and 10% where they are not, e.g. where the intention is to cut boards so that they meet on a joist or a batten. All things being equal, the more extra hardwood flooring you have, the more you can be selective, but this does of course have a cost implication. At the end of the day though, there is nothing worse than finding that you are one board short as you get to the end of the job. Reputable suppliers can of course send some more, but then there is a delivery cost, and sods' law inevitably means that they are out of stock and you have to wait. There are even cases where someone has bought a bargain floor, only to find that it is discontinued! So make sure you have enough. If you have too much, you can always make a coffee table or a bird box or two.