Flooring guides
Wide plank or narrow? What our catalogue actually measures
5 min read
Plank width has quietly become the thing people argue about. Wide planks read as modern and expensive; narrow planks read as traditional and, fairly or not, as cheap. Before joining that argument, we counted what is actually for sale.
Across 118,651 products we list from 419 brands, 67,637 carry a width. The median is 7.8 inches. Measured the same way, the average is far higher — 17 inches. The gap between the two is the most useful thing in the whole dataset.
Why the average width is useless here
An average that far above the median means the top of the range is doing all the pulling. That is exactly what you would expect in a catalogue this broad: a width field holds a plank width for a hardwood board, but it also holds a roll width for broadloom and sheet vinyl, and a face dimension for tile. Averaged together they produce a number that describes nothing you could install.
The median is immune to that. Half the products with a width sit below it and half above, however extreme the outliers get. So when a flooring article quotes an “average plank width”, check whether it is a median. If it isn’t, it is probably measuring roll goods.
What the median actually looks like
At 7.8 inches, the middle of the market is narrower than the floor in almost every design photo you have scrolled past. Those rooms are consistently wider than what is actually for sale.
Board count is the fastest way to feel the difference. Across a room 12 ft (3.66 m) wide, a 6-inch plank gives you 24 boards. A 9-inch plank gives you 16. A 3.25-inch strip floor gives you 44. Every board is a seam, and seams are what your eye reads as “busy”.
Width bands, and the trade-offs in each
| Width | Reads as | Asks of the subfloor | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 5 in / under 127 mm | Traditional, busier, more seams | The most forgiving over an imperfect subfloor | More boards, more labour, more joints to get wrong |
| 5 to under 7 in / 127–178 mm | Mainstream — the safe middle | Standard flatness tolerances | Very little; this is where most plank floors live |
| 7 to under 8 in / 178–203 mm | Wide, without committing to a statement board | A checked subfloor — straightedge it before you order | The band where manufacturers start tightening the install rules |
| 8 in and up / 203 mm+ | Calm, contemporary, fewer seams | A flatter, drier subfloor, often with a specified adhesive | Cupping and telegraphing show at full size |
Why a wide board punishes a bad subfloor
Width is not a neutral aesthetic choice. It changes the mechanics.
- It spans more of every hollow. A dip a 3-inch strip simply steps over becomes an unsupported span under a 9-inch board, and unsupported spans are what make a floor click and flex.
- Wood movement is proportional to width. A board that moves one percent across its face moves three times as far, in millimetres, at 9 inches as it does at 3. The percentage is identical; the gap you can see is not.
- Seams are more visible at scale. Any lippage between two big boards runs the full length of a long joint. The same lippage between narrow strips is broken up and disappears.
- Approved methods narrow. Check the manufacturer’s approved installation methods for the exact width you want. They are not the same for every board in a collection, and installing outside the approved list is one of the fastest ways to void a warranty.
Do wide planks make a small room look bigger?
Partly — but not for the reason usually given. Fewer seams read as calmer, and calm reads as spacious. In a genuinely small room, though, wide boards carry a cost: with fewer boards across the floor, a bigger share of them are rip cuts at the walls, and a room finished with a full board at one wall and a 2-inch sliver at the other looks worse than a narrow floor ever would.
The fix is not a different width, it is planning. Split the difference so both edge boards come out the same size, and run the boards along the long axis of the room. If your installer isn’t asking which way the boards run before they start, ask them.
What this data cannot tell you
We know what 419 brands offer. We do not know what Canadians install. This dataset holds no sales figures, so that median is the middle of what is for sale, not the middle of what ends up on floors. The two need not be the same, and nothing in this dataset can tell you how far apart they are.
It is still a more honest number than anything in a trend piece, for one reason: it was counted rather than felt.
Choosing a width without regretting it
- Measure the room and divide by each width you are considering. Look hard at the edge board you would end up with.
- Order samples in two widths, not two colours. Width is the harder decision to reverse.
- Straightedge the subfloor before committing to anything over 7 inches (178 mm).
- Match width to sightline: long, wide boards down the long axis of an open plan; narrower boards in a chopped-up floor plan full of doorways.
- Check the approved installation methods for the exact width — not for the collection.
Shop what this guide covers
- engineered hardwood — where width and stability trade against each other most directly.
- solid hardwood — the narrow strip end of the range, and the most forgiving.
- vinyl planks (LVP and SPC) — most of the wide-plank looks in the catalogue are here.
- the room visualizer — put a width in your own room before you order two samples.
- self-levelling compound — the price of going over seven inches on an unchecked subfloor.
Catalogue figures read on