A floor is the bot Floor covering[edit]

Main article: Flooring
Floor covering is a term to generically describe any finish material applied over a floor structure to
provide a walking surface. Flooring is the general term for a permanent covering of a floor, or for the
work of installing such a floor covering. Both terms are used interchangeably but floor covering
refers more to loose-laid materials.
Materials almost always classified as floor covering include carpet, area rugs, and resilient flooring
such as linoleum or vinyl flooring. Materials commonly called flooring include wood flooring,
laminated wood, ceramic tile, stone, terrazzo, and various seamless chemical floor coatings.
The choice of material for floor covering is affected by factors such as cost, endurance, noise
insulation, comfort and cleaning effort. Some types of flooring must not be installed below grade
(lower than ground level), and laminate or hardwood should be avoided where there may be
moisture or condensation.
The subfloor may be finished in a way that makes it usable without any extra work, see:

 Earthen floor adobe or clay floors

 Solid ground floor cement screed or granolithic
There are a number of special features that may be used to ornament a floor or perform a useful
service. Examples include Floor medallions which provide a decorative centerpiece of a floor design,
or Gratings used to drain water or to rub dirt off shoes.

Subfloor construction[edit]
Floors may be built on beams or joists[1] or use structures like prefabricated hollow core slabs. The
subfloor builds on those and attaches by various means particular to the support structure but the
support and subfloor together always provides the strength of a floor one can sense underfoot.
Nowadays, subfloors are generally made from at least two layers of moisture resistant ("AC" grade,
one side finished and sanded flat) plywood or composite sheeting, jointly also
termed Underlayments on floor joists of 2x8, 2x10, or 2x12's (dimensional lumber) spaced generally
on 16-inch (40.6 cm) centers, in the United States and Canada. Some flooring components used
solely on concrete slabs consist of a dimpled rubberized or plastic layer much like bubble wrap that
provide little tiny pillars for the one-half-inch (12.7 mm) sheet material above. These are
manufactured in 2 ft × 2 ft (61 cm × 61 cm) squares and the edges fit together like a mortise and
tenon joint. Like a floor on joists not on concrete, a second sheeting underlayment layer is added
with staggered joints to disperse forces that would open a joint under the stress of live loads like a
person walking.
Three layers are common only in high end highest quality construction. The two layers in high quality
construction will both be thick 3⁄4 inch (19.1 mm) sheets (as will the third when present), but the two
layers may achieve a combined thickness of only half-that in cheaper construction – 1⁄2 in (12.7 mm)
panel overlaid by 1⁄4 in (6.4 mm) plywood subflooring. At the highest end, or in select rooms of the
building there might well be three sheeting layers, and such stiff subflooring is necessary to prevent
the cracking of large floor tiles of 9–10 inches (22.9–25.4 cm) or more on a side, and the structure
under such a floor will frequently also have extra "bracing" and "blocking" joist-to-joist intended to
spread the weight to have as little sagging on any joist as possible when there is a live load on the
floor above.
In Europe and North America only a few rare floors will be seen to have no separate floor covering
on top, and those are normally because of a temporary condition pending sales or occupancy; in
semi-custom new construction and some rental markets, such floors are provided for the new home
buyer (renter) to select their own preferred floor coverings usually a wall to wall carpet, or one piece
vinyl floor covering. Wood clad (hardwood) and tile covered finished floors generally will require a
stiffer higher quality subfloor, especially for the later class. Since the wall base and flooring interact
forming a joint, such later added semi-custom floors will generally not be hardwood for that joint
construction would be in the wrong order unless the wall base trim was also delayed pending the
choosing.
The subfloor may also provide underfloor heating and if floor radiant heating is not used, will
certainly suffer puncture openings to be put through for forced air ducts for both heating and air
conditioning, or pipe holes for forced hot water or steam heating transport piping conveying the heat
from furnace to the local room's heat exchangers (radiators).
Some sub-floors are inset below the top surface level of surrounding flooring's joists and such
subfloors and a normal height joist are joined to make a plywood box both molding and containing at
least two inches (5 cm) of concrete (A mud floor" in builders' parlance). Alternatively, only a slightly
inset floor topped by a fibrous mesh and concrete building composite floor cladding is used for
smaller high quality tile floors – these "concrete" subfloors have a good thermal match with ceramic
tiles and so are popular with builders constructing kitchen, laundry and especially both common and
high end bathrooms and any other room where large expanses of well supported ceramic tile will be
used as a finished floor. Floors using small (4.5 in or 11.4 cm and smaller) ceramic tiles generally
use only an additional 1⁄4-inch (6.4 mm) layer of plywood (if that) and substitute adhesive and
substrate materials making do with both a flexible joints and semi-flexible mounting compounds and
so are designed to withstand the greater flexing which large tiles cannot tolerate without breaking.