What Are the Australian Standards for Floating Floors?

Floating floors, meaning hybrid, laminate, loose-lay vinyl and floated engineered timber, are covered in Australia by a mix of one installation standard, a slip-resistance standard, the National Construction Code and the industry guidelines that manufacturers write into their warranties. There is no single “floating floor standard”. Here is what each piece covers.

AS 1884: installation of resilient floors

AS 1884 (Floor coverings – Resilient sheet and tiles – Installation practices; the current edition is AS 1884:2021) is the standard installers work to for vinyl, hybrid and other resilient floors. It sets out the subfloor requirements that matter most: flatness of 3mm over 2 metres, moisture limits for concrete slabs and the test methods to check them, subfloor preparation and priming, acclimatisation, and expansion allowances. When a supplier rejects a warranty claim because “the floor was not installed to AS 1884”, it is usually one of those subfloor clauses they mean.

AS 4586: slip resistance

AS 4586 is the test method behind the P rating on every flooring product page. P3 is the usual rating for a matte hybrid or laminate in a home; P4 and P5 are specified for commercial wet areas and ramps. The NCC requires minimum slip ratings for certain areas of new buildings, such as stair treads and entries, and this is the standard those ratings reference.

The National Construction Code

The NCC does not tell you which floor to buy, but for apartments (Class 2 buildings) it sets the impact sound insulation the floor and slab together must achieve between units. Most strata by-laws translate this into an acoustic requirement for hard flooring, commonly an Lnw of 62 or lower, and often a stricter figure such as 5 or 6 stars under the AAAC rating scheme. That is why hybrid product pages list an AAAC star rating and why an acoustic underlay is often mandatory in a unit.

Laminate and engineered boards

Laminate is manufactured to the European standard EN 13329, which is where the AC wear rating comes from; engineered timber references EN 13489. Neither is an Australian standard, but both are accepted by Australian suppliers and quoted on spec sheets.

ATFA and manufacturer guidelines

The Australasian Timber Flooring Association publishes installation guides for floating timber and laminate floors that most suppliers adopt by reference. Every manufacturer also publishes its own installation guide, and the warranty is conditional on following it: expansion gap sizes, maximum run lengths before a transition, underlay type, acclimatisation time and which rooms the product may go in.

What this means for you

• Check the subfloor flatness and moisture before laying, and keep a record; it is the first thing questioned in a dispute.
• In a strata building, get the body corporate’s acoustic requirement in writing and choose a floor and underlay that meet it.
• Follow the product’s own installation guide; it overrides general advice, including ours.
• Keep the spec sheet with the slip and acoustic data with your paperwork.

Our hybrid installation guide is written to these requirements, and every product in the hybrid flooring range lists its slip rating and acoustic rating.

Frequently asked questions