Herringbone vs Chevron Flooring: The Difference and Why They Cost More to Lay

Herringbone and chevron are both zigzag floors, and the difference is in the ends of the boards. Herringbone blocks are cut square, so each one butts into the side of the next and the zigzag looks stepped. Chevron boards are cut on an angle, so their ends meet in a clean point that runs the length of the room.

Both cost more to lay than a straight plank floor. Every piece goes down at an angle, and the pattern has to be lined up on the room before the first one is laid. Here is how to tell them apart, which suits your space, and where the extra cost comes from.

How herringbone is laid

A herringbone floor is made from short rectangular blocks. Each block sits at 90 degrees to its neighbour, with the end of one tucked against the long side of the next.

That overlap gives herringbone its woven look. Follow a row down the room and you see a staggered zigzag, each block stepping past the one before it.

Block shape matters. Herringbone blocks are short and narrow next to a floorboard, so the pattern repeats often enough to read properly. Our Crosswood engineered herringbone blocks are 600mm long and 127mm wide.

Herringbone also uses a single block shape. There are no left and right pieces to keep in balance, which makes ordering simpler.

How chevron is laid

Chevron takes the same idea and changes one thing: the ends of each board are cut on an angle instead of square. Where two boards meet, their angled ends form a sharp V, and the points run down the room in one unbroken line.

Because the angle runs one way on half the boards and the other way on the rest, chevron comes as matched left and right pieces. Our Corsica Chevron from Godfrey Hirst is packed 10 left and 10 right in each box of 20, covering 1.55m2. Each board is 620mm by 125mm.

The result is calmer and more directional than herringbone. The eye follows the points. That is why chevron is often run down a hallway or along the longest wall of a living room.

Herringbone vs chevron at a glance

Neither pattern is better. Herringbone suits rooms where you want the floor to carry some texture, such as an entry or a formal lounge. Chevron suits long spaces where you want to draw people through.

Timber or hybrid herringbone?

Pattern floors used to mean solid timber parquet, sanded and sealed on site. You can now get the look in engineered timber or in hybrid, and that choice changes the price, the water rating and how the floor is fixed down.

• Crosswood from HTT: European oak, 14mm thick with a 3mm oak veneer over a seven layer plywood core. It is tongue and groove and glued down rather than floated.
• Obsidian from HTT: SPC hybrid in 625 by 125mm blocks at 9mm, with a waterproof core and a click joint that needs no adhesive.
• Herringbone 7.0 from Eco Flooring Systems: 600 by 150mm blocks at 7mm, including 1.5mm of attached acoustic underlay. Its click profile was designed for the angled joins.
• Easi-Plank 8mm Herringbone from Preference Floors: SPC hybrid in 625 by 125mm blocks, with a 0.7mm wear layer and 1.0mm acoustic underlay bonded to the back.

Engineered timber gives you real oak on top. The 3mm veneer on Crosswood and Corsica can be sanded back and recoated, which a hybrid cannot.

Hybrid gives you a waterproof core, a click joint and a factory finish that never needs sanding. A click floor is still not a waterproof assembly, so ask us before planning one for a wet area.

What the boards cost

The floor type moves the material price far more than the pattern does. Our published supply ranges are $25 to $65 per m2 for hybrid and laminate, and $69 to $129 per m2 for engineered timber.

Our hybrid herringbones sit inside the first range and our engineered herringbone and chevron sit inside the second. So for the boards alone, hybrid herringbone costs well under engineered oak. These are supply prices; installation is quoted separately at the measure.

Why pattern floors cost more to lay

This is the part that surprises people at quote stage. A herringbone or chevron floor takes longer to install than a plank floor of the same area, for four reasons.

1. Setting out. The pattern is centred on the room, usually off a line run down the middle, before any piece goes down. That line governs the whole floor.
2. Smaller pieces. A 600mm block covers far less floor than a full-length board, so there are many more pieces to place per square metre.
3. Angled cuts at every edge. Wherever the pattern meets a wall, each piece is cut to an angle. A plank floor needs one square cut at the end of each row.
4. More offcuts. As a general rule, angled perimeter cuts waste more material than a straight lay, so you order more for the same room.

Glue-down floors add a step. Crosswood is bonded to the subfloor, which has to be flat and clean first. The hybrid herringbones click together and float.

Compare the straight lay in the hallway above. Each row runs wall to wall with a single cut at each end, which is why a plank floor goes down faster.

Is herringbone or chevron worth the extra?

In an entry, a hallway or the main living area, a pattern floor is the first thing people notice. It carries the room without a rug or a feature wall. That is where the extra labour earns its place.

Bedrooms are different. Most of the floor ends up under a bed and wardrobes, so a straight plank in a similar tone often makes more sense. Easi-Plank, for one, comes as an 8mm herringbone and a 7.5mm straight plank.

Be honest with yourself about DIY. Both patterns are harder to set out than planks, and the first line decides how the whole room looks. Our regular installers lay herringbone and chevron across Sydney.

Want a price for your room? Book a free measure and quote and we will cost the lay you have in mind.