Wood Flooring Layout Planner
Whether it's solid hardwood, engineered planks, or herringbone parquet, the layout determines your waste, your cut list, and how the floor looks from the doorway. Herron plans it all.
Wood Flooring Is Too Expensive to Wing It
Engineered oak runs 40 to 80 pounds per square metre. Solid hardwood can be double that. Herringbone parquet is often north of 60 pounds per square metre before you account for installation. At these prices, every wasted plank is real money. And waste on a wood floor project isn't the 5 percent your supplier casually suggests. It depends entirely on the layout.
A straight-lay engineered plank floor in a simple rectangular room might produce 4-6 percent waste. The same planks in an L-shaped room with a bay window could hit 12 percent. Herringbone has its own waste profile entirely, typically 8-15 percent depending on the room shape and plank size, because the 45-degree angle creates more edge cuts and fewer reusable offcuts. If you're budgeting for wood flooring without knowing which scenario you're in, you're guessing.
The layout also determines how the floor looks. The direction you run the planks, the stagger between rows, the width of the border pieces along each wall. Get the layout wrong and you end up with a 25mm sliver against the far wall that looks like an afterthought. Get the herringbone starting point wrong and the pattern appears off-centre from the doorway. These are problems you discover after the floor is down, when the only fix is to pull it up and start again.
How Herron Plans Wood Flooring Layouts
Herron works with the actual dimensions of your planks and the actual shape of your room. You draw the room polygon on screen, including alcoves, chimney breasts, and any irregular angles. Then you enter your plank dimensions and choose your pattern: straight lay, brick bond, or herringbone.
The engine places every plank into your room, clips them to the room boundary, and calculates the real waste. For straight lay and brick bond, it tracks offcut reuse row by row, the offcut from the end of one row becomes the starter for the next if it's long enough. For herringbone, it calculates the specific waste profile that 45-degree angled planks produce against your walls, which is always higher than straight lay and varies significantly with room proportions.
You see the full layout on screen before you've committed to anything. If the border pieces are too narrow, you adjust. If the herringbone centre line doesn't align with the doorway, you shift it. If one pattern produces noticeably more waste than another, you see the numbers side by side and decide whether the aesthetic is worth the extra material cost.
This is what separates planning from guessing. With wood flooring, that distinction can be worth hundreds of pounds.
What You Get
Pattern-specific layout visualisation. See your straight lay, brick bond, or herringbone pattern rendered into your exact room shape. Not a generic preview. Your room dimensions, your plank size, your pattern. The visual shows every plank, every cut, every border piece, so you know exactly what the finished floor will look like before you start.
Geometry-based waste calculation. Herron calculates waste from the cuts your room shape actually requires, not a flat percentage. A rectangular room with 220mm (8 5/8") by 1,800mm (70 7/8") engineered planks in straight lay will have a different waste figure than the same planks in herringbone in the same room. You see both numbers and make an informed choice.
Offcut reuse tracking. For straight lay and brick bond patterns, the engine identifies which offcuts from row-end cuts are long enough to start the next row. This is where most of the material savings happen. Herron marks reusable offcuts in the layout and factors them into the total plank count, so the pack number you see is the pack number you need.
A numbered cut list. Every plank in your layout gets a sequential number, with its dimensions and position. Full planks, cut pieces, starter offcuts, all listed row by row. For a material that costs 50 or 60 pounds per square metre, having a cut list that eliminates measuring errors and wasted planks pays for the planning time many times over.
Sliver and fit check warnings. Herron flags thin edge pieces, typically anything under 50mm (1 15/16"), that will be difficult to install and may look wrong. It also identifies problematic stagger sequences. You see these warnings before you order, giving you the chance to adjust the layout or shift the starting position.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Herron support herringbone wood flooring?
Yes. Herringbone is a first-class pattern in Herron, not an afterthought. The engine handles the 45-degree plank rotation, the interlocking grid, and the specific waste profile that herringbone creates against room boundaries. You see the full herringbone layout clipped to your room shape with accurate waste and cut list.
Can I compare waste between straight lay and herringbone?
Yes. Run the same room with different patterns and compare the waste percentages, plank counts, and material costs. This is particularly useful for wood flooring where the price difference between 6 percent waste and 12 percent waste can be substantial.
What about rooms with chimney breasts or alcoves?
Draw any room shape as a polygon. Add obstacles for chimney breasts, pillars, or built-in furniture. The layout and waste calculation account for every wall angle and obstacle, giving you an accurate plank count for the actual space you're covering.
Don't guess on wood flooring
Draw your room, choose your pattern, and get an exact plank count and cut list. Free, browser-based, no signup.