Yes. Hybrid flooring needs an expansion gap of around 8-10 mm at every wall, doorway, kitchen kickboard and fixed object. Skip it and the floor will buckle, peak at the joins, or click apart as the planks expand and contract with temperature and humidity changes. The gap gets hidden under skirting or scotia after install, so you don’t see it once the job’s finished — but it has to be there.
Why hybrid flooring moves
Hybrid flooring (whether it’s an SPC stone-polymer-composite core or an RCB rigid-core board) is more dimensionally stable than laminate or solid timber, but it still moves. The plastic and stone components in the core respond to temperature swings — a sun-drenched living room in a Sydney summer can sit 15-20 degrees warmer than the same room in winter, and the planks will grow and shrink across that range. Floating floors handle this by moving as one big sheet, which is why you’ll see whole-of-floor expansion rather than gaps opening between individual planks.
The expansion gap is the room you give the floor to do that. Without it, the planks have nowhere to go and they push against the wall — that pressure is what causes peaking, buckling, or click joints separating in the middle of the floor. We’ve covered the same principle for vinyl in our loose-lay vinyl expansion gap guide.
How big should the gap be?
For most Australian hybrid products, the manufacturer’s instructions specify between 8 mm and 10 mm. Always check the box for the specific product — some thicker SPC ranges call for 10-12 mm, and a few thinner RCB products allow 6 mm. As a general rule:
- Rooms under 30 m²: 8 mm gap at every wall and fixed obstacle.
- Rooms 30-100 m²: 10 mm gap, and consider an intermediate transition strip across long runs.
- Runs over 12 m in a single direction or over 100 m²: a T-bar transition is usually mandatory under the warranty. Check the spec sheet.
The click system on the plank doesn’t change the gap requirement, but it does affect how forgiving the floor is during install. The 5G vs 2G click systems guide covers that side of it.
Where the gap has to be
The gap isn’t just at the four walls. Leave the same clearance at every fixed vertical: door jambs, kitchen kickboards, fireplace hearths, structural columns, staircase strings, and around any pipe coming up through the floor. Anywhere the plank meets something solid, it needs room to breathe.
Two places people commonly miss: under door architraves (undercut the architrave so the plank slides beneath it with clearance, rather than butting against it), and at the threshold between rooms (a transition strip is the right call here, not a tight butt-join).
How to set the gap during install
Installers use plastic spacers — small wedges sized to the gap requirement — pushed against the wall as each row goes down. Cheap method that works just as well: offcuts of plank, cut to the right thickness. The spacers stay in place until the last row is locked in, then come out before the skirting or scotia goes on.
One thing to watch: don’t trap the floor with heavy furniture or a kitchen island that sits directly on the planks and is then bolted to the wall. The floor needs to float underneath. Built-in cabinetry should be installed first, then the hybrid laid up to it with the expansion gap left at the kickboard.
What happens if you skip the gap
The two failure modes we see most often:
- Peaking at the joints. The planks push against each other, the click joint can’t take the pressure, and a ridge forms where two planks meet. Usually shows up in summer, six to twelve months after install.
- Buckling along a wall. The floor lifts off the subfloor, sometimes by 10-15 mm, because it has nowhere else to go. Once it buckles, the click joints often pop and you’re looking at a partial relay.
Both of these are warranty-voiding installation faults under most Australian manufacturer terms. The fix is rarely a quick one — you usually have to lift skirting, trim back the plank along the affected edge to recreate the gap, and click the floor back together. Worth doing right the first time.
Hiding the gap
Two options. Skirting boards (the more common pick in newer Australian homes) sit on top of the plank and cover the gap — clean, modern look, and the skirting is fixed to the wall, not the floor, so the floor can still move underneath. Scotia (also called quarter-round) is a slim moulding that sits in the corner where existing skirting meets the floor — used when you don’t want to remove and replace skirting during a renovation.
Either way, the trim is fixed to the wall or to the existing skirting, never down through the plank into the subfloor. If you nail through the floor, you’ve pinned it in place and the gap stops doing its job.
The short version
Leave 8-10 mm at every wall and fixed obstacle, set it with spacers during install, hide it under skirting or scotia, and add a transition strip on long runs. That’s all hybrid asks of you on the gap front. For a wider view of what to look for in the product itself, our guide to the best hybrid flooring brands in Australia covers the ranges we install most, and the hybrid flooring cost guide walks through the supply-and-install numbers for an average Australian home.
Ready to shop? Browse our full hybrid flooring range online, or drop into our Sydney or Brisbane showroom to see the range in person.