Expansion gaps for laminate and LVT: how much, where, and how to hide them

Every floating floor needs an 8 to 12 mm gap at every wall and every fixed object, because laminate and LVT expand and contract with humidity, and a floor with nowhere to go buckles upward. The gap is a manufacturer requirement (and warranty condition), it is invisible once the skirting or trim covers it, and forgetting it around one pipe or doorway can lift a whole room.

The numbers

The floor moves as a single raft, which is why the gap must go around everything, not just the walls you can see. A kitchen island bolted through the boards, or one tight pipe hole, pins the raft at that point; the floor then expands against the pin and lifts around it.

Where people actually miss the gap

1. Radiator pipes. The hole gets drilled snug because a big hole "looks wrong". Drill pipe plus 20 mm; a two-part pipe rosette hides it completely.
2. Door frames. Cutting boards tight to the architrave. Undercut the frame with a handsaw laid flat on an offcut, slide the board under, keep the gap behind. Details in flooring around doorways and pipes.
3. The last row. The row is ripped to width, and it's tempting to fill the space fully. The rip width must include the gap: measure to the wall, subtract the gap, then cut. See planning the first and last row.
4. Heavy furniture across a doorway line. A wardrobe in one room, a sofa in the next, both pinning the same raft, works like two walls with no gap. Large connected areas often need a break at the doorway (a threshold profile) precisely for this.

Planning gaps, not just leaving them

The gap changes your measurements, not just your fitting:

• The laying area is the room minus the gap on every side. On a 4 m wide room, 10 mm per side removes 20 mm, occasionally exactly the difference between a comfortable last row and a sliver.
• Every obstacle's cut-out grows by the gap all round.
• Spacer blocks set the gap during laying; the skirting or scotia covers it after. If the existing skirting stays, the cover strip's width limits your maximum gap, so check before committing to 12 mm.

When the designer lays out a room it works from the laying area, with walls and obstacles already inset by the gap, so the pack count and the last-row width come out right. Measuring for it is covered in how to measure a room for flooring.

LVT, engineered and the exceptions

• Click LVT floats like laminate: same rules, sometimes smaller gaps (check the sheet, since rigid-core boards move less).
• Glue-down LVT is bonded, not floating: perimeter gaps shrink to a few millimetres or none, per the adhesive spec.
• Engineered wood floated: same as laminate. Glued or nailed: follow the system's own rules.

When in doubt, the manufacturer's installation sheet wins, because it is the document the warranty refers to.