Greys

Choosing grey laminate

Grey is the largest tone in the laminate range: six of the twelve designs sit in it. All six share the one specification, 8 mm thick, 193 mm by 1204 mm, melamine surface over a printed decor on a high-density fibreboard core, click-fitted, micro-bevelled, AC4, listed as compatible with underfloor heating, 25 year manufacturer's warranty, 2.32 square metres to the box. Two designs cross tones: Unye is also the white laminate, Golcuk also a mid brown, which places them at the two ends of the grey band with Rio, Arkansas, Vivo and Symphony between.

Grey earns its popularity for practical reasons before aesthetic ones. It hides dust better than a dark floor and dark scuffs better than a pale one, and the AC4 melamine surface deals with the scratching that grit and chair legs cause. It is the usual choice for an upstairs laid as one floor, landing and bedrooms together, because it sits under most bedroom schemes without argument.

The limits are those of any laminate. The core is wood fibre and takes on water, so the laminate standard, quoted below, excludes rooms that get wet regularly. And a printed grey is more even than a grey oak, which can read cool in a cool room; warm walls or timber furniture bring it back. For a grey floor in a kitchen or bathroom, the grey rigid vinyl floors carry the tone on a waterproof core.

Laid floating over an underlay with an expansion gap at every edge and doorway, a long run stays flat; the industry figure for the gap and the underlay's three jobs are quoted below. For the same tone in real timber, the engineered grey oak boards are the dry-room alternative.