Wider planks make a space feel calmer and more open because there are fewer join lines to break it up. That works brilliantly in open plan areas and surprisingly well in medium rooms. Where it stops working is very small rooms, narrow hallways and anywhere you’d only see two or three boards across the width.
Quick guide:
- Under 10m² (bedrooms, studies, small bathrooms): 150mm to 190mm
- 10m² to 25m² (average living rooms, bedrooms): 180mm to 220mm
- Over 25m² (open plan living, dining, kitchen): 220mm to 300mm
- Hallways under 1.2m wide: 150mm to 190mm, run lengthways
- Whole house, one width throughout: 190mm is the safest all rounder
If you take one thing from this article, take that last line. 190mm is the width that looks intentional in a bedroom and still looks generous in an open plan living area. It’s the default for a reason.
The real constraint isn’t taste, though. It’s your subfloor. Wide boards need a flatter subfloor, and if yours isn’t flat, the levelling cost can wipe out the design benefit. More on that below.
We offer premium Flooring Melbourne for all types of spaces.
Common Plank Widths in Australia (125mm to 300mm)
| Width | What it reads as | Typically available in |
| 125mm to 140mm | Traditional, period correct | Solid Australian hardwood, some engineered |
| 150mm to 170mm | Classic, safe, understated | Both solid and engineered |
| 180mm to 190mm | Current standard, the all rounder | Very widely available in engineered oak |
| 200mm to 220mm | Generous, modern | Engineered oak, some Australian species |
| 240mm to 260mm | Wide plank, premium look | Engineered European Oak mostly |
| 280mm to 300mm plus | Statement, architectural | Premium engineered European Oak only |
A few patterns worth understanding:
Anything over about 190mm is realistically engineered only. Solid boards that wide move too much across the seasons to be practical, particularly in Melbourne. If someone offers you 250mm solid, ask a lot of questions.
Width usually comes with thickness. A 260mm board is almost always 20mm or 21mm total with a 5mm to 6mm wear layer, because it needs the extra construction to stay flat. So you’re rarely buying width on its own, you’re buying a better board that also happens to be wider.
Australian hardwood tops out narrower. Blackbutt, Spotted Gum and Tasmanian Oak generally run 130mm to 190mm. If you want a genuinely wide floor, European Oak is the practical option.
Length matters as much as width. A 220mm board in 600mm lengths looks nothing like a 220mm board in 2.2m lengths. Long boards are what create the sweeping uninterrupted look people are actually after. Always ask for the length range, not just the width.
Explore the main categories we have for you:
Does a Wide Plank Make a Room Look Bigger or Smaller?
Both, depending on the room. Here’s the honest version rather than the marketing version.
Wide planks make a room look bigger when the room is big enough to show off a full board run without constant cuts. Fewer join lines means the eye reads the floor as one continuous surface rather than a series of stripes, and that feels expansive. In a 6m by 5m open plan area, wide boards genuinely open the space up.
Wide planks make a room look smaller when the room is narrow enough that you only see a few boards across. In a 2.4m wide bedroom, 260mm boards give you about nine boards across the floor. That reads as a series of big blocks, and the boundaries of the room feel closer, not further away.
The rule of thumb worth using: you want at least 12 to 15 boards across the narrowest dimension of the room. Below that, the floor starts looking chunky rather than expansive.
| Room width | 150mm boards | 190mm boards | 260mm boards |
| 2.4m | 16 boards, good | 13 boards, fine | 9 boards, too few |
| 3.5m | 23 boards, good | 18 boards, good | 13 boards, borderline |
| 5.0m | 33 boards, good | 26 boards, good | 19 boards, good |
| 7.0m | 47 boards, busy | 37 boards, good | 27 boards, ideal |
Direction matters too. Running boards along the length of a room makes it feel longer, running them across makes it feel wider. In a long narrow hallway, lengthways almost always wins.
Advantages of Wide Planks
- Fewer joins. A cleaner, quieter floor with less visual interruption, which is the whole point.
- Shows the grain properly. Oak grain, knots and figure need room to be seen. On a 130mm board you’re looking at a slice, on a 260mm board you’re looking at the timber.
- Faster to install. Fewer boards to lay per square metre, so labour can be slightly lower on a straightforward job.
- Reads as premium. Fairly or not, wide plank has become the visual shorthand for an expensive floor in Australian interiors.
- Better for big open spaces. In a large open plan area, narrow boards create a stripe effect that can feel busy and dated.
- Usually a better board overall. Since wide almost always means thicker with a bigger wear layer, you’re getting more floor, not just more width.
Disadvantages of Wide Planks
- Needs a flatter subfloor. The single biggest issue, covered properly below.
- Costs more. Typically $20 to $60 per m² above a standard width board in the same range.
- More noticeable seasonal movement. Even engineered boards move a little, and on a 260mm board that movement is spread across a wider board, so any gapping is more visible.
- Overwhelms small rooms. Anything under about 10m² generally looks better in a standard width.
- Higher wastage on complex layouts. Cutting a 260mm board around a doorway or a hearth wastes more material than cutting a 150mm one.
- Harder to match later. Wide plank ranges change more often, so finding a matching board in eight years for a repair is less likely. Keep spares.
- Can look wrong in a period home. A Federation cottage with 300mm boards reads as a renovation, not a restoration. If that’s the effect you want, fine. If not, go narrower.
Subfloor Flatness: The Requirement That Catches People Out
This is the part that turns a design decision into a cost decision, so read it before you fall in love with a wide board.
Australian Standard AS 1884 sets the subfloor tolerance for resilient and timber floor coverings at roughly 4mm variation over a 2 metre span. Most manufacturers of wide plank products want that or tighter, and some specify 3mm over 3 metres for boards over 220mm.
Why width makes it worse: a narrow board can flex slightly to follow a gentle undulation in the floor. A 260mm board is far more rigid, so instead of following the dip it bridges it. On a floating floor that shows up as bounce and a hollow sound. On a direct stick floor it shows up as hollow spots where the adhesive never made contact, which eventually leads to squeaks or a board lifting.
What this means practically:
- Get the subfloor checked with a straight edge before you choose a width. Any decent installer will do this at the measure.
- Budget for levelling. Light grinding of high spots runs $10 to $25 per m². Self levelling compound over part of the floor is $25 to $45 per m². A full level on a bad slab can be $50 to $80 plus per m².
- On timber joists, check for deflection and springiness, not just flatness. A bouncy floor needs the subfloor addressed before any wide board goes down.
- Older Melbourne homes are the risk case. Federation and post war houses with restumping history, bathroom rebuilds or slab extensions are rarely flat to 4mm.
If levelling would cost you $3,000, and dropping from 260mm to 190mm avoids most of it, that’s often the better spend. A well laid 190mm floor beats a badly laid 260mm one every single time.
How Width Affects Price and Wastage
| Width | Typical supply price, engineered oak | Typical wastage |
| 150mm to 170mm | $45 to $85 per m² | 5 to 7 percent |
| 180mm to 190mm | $55 to $100 per m² | 6 to 8 percent |
| 220mm | $80 to $130 per m² | 8 to 10 percent |
| 260mm to 300mm | $110 to $190 per m² | 10 to 12 percent |
Two things drive the price up with width. The obvious one is yield: a wider board needs a bigger log, and fewer logs produce boards that wide without defects. The less obvious one is that wide boards are almost always thicker with a larger wear layer, so you’re buying a more substantial product.
Wastage goes up because every cut around a doorway, a wall angle or a kitchen island wastes more material when the board is wider. On a complex layout with lots of rooms, that difference is real money.
Where the total cost lands on a 100m² house, mid range engineered oak:
- 190mm: around $16,000 to $18,000 installed
- 260mm: around $22,000 to $26,000 installed, plus any extra levelling
That’s a genuine gap, and it’s worth being clear about what you’re getting for it before you commit.
Top recommended flooring options for every style and space:
Width Recommendations Room by Room
| Room | Recommended width | Notes |
| Open plan living, dining and kitchen | 220mm to 300mm | The space where wide plank pays off most |
| Standard living room, 4m by 5m | 190mm to 220mm | Generous without dominating |
| Master bedroom | 180mm to 220mm | Usually large enough to carry width |
| Secondary bedroom, 3m by 3m | 150mm to 190mm | Wider starts to look blocky |
| Study or home office | 150mm to 190mm | Small floor area, often part covered by furniture |
| Hallway under 1.2m wide | 150mm to 190mm, run lengthways | Wide boards in a narrow hall look like a ladder |
| Hallway 1.5m plus | 190mm | Keeps continuity with adjoining rooms |
| Stairs | Match the main floor width | Treads are cut to size anyway |
| Federation or Edwardian home | 130mm to 190mm | Period appropriate proportions |
| Warehouse conversion or new build | 240mm to 300mm | Big volumes need scale |
One strong recommendation: use a single width throughout the house. Changing width room to room almost always looks accidental rather than designed, and it creates awkward transitions at every doorway. If you want the wide look but have a couple of small rooms, choose the width that suits your largest space and accept it in the small ones, or step back to 190mm and get a floor that works everywhere.
Not Sure What Width Suits Your Space? Ask Us
Width is genuinely hard to judge from a sample. A 260mm offcut in your hand looks enormous. Laid across a 6 metre living room it can look perfectly normal, or in a 3 metre bedroom it can look wrong. The room decides, not the board.
At Flooring Expert we stock engineered European Oak from standard widths right through to wide plank in the 15mm and 20mm to 21mm ranges, plus engineered Australian hardwood in Blackbutt, Spotted Gum, Jarrah and Tasmanian Oak. Our Balwyn North showroom has full boards laid out so you can see width at proper scale rather than guessing from a 300mm sample.
The most useful thing we do here is check your subfloor at the measure, before you choose. If your slab is flat, wide plank is open to you. If it isn’t, we’ll tell you what levelling would cost, and you can make the call with real numbers rather than finding out mid job.
- Book a free measure and quote and we’ll check subfloor flatness at the same visit
- Take home samples in two widths and lay them out on your existing floor to judge scale in your own rooms
- Come into the showroom on Doncaster Road, Balwyn North, and walk on wide plank rather than imagining it
Frequently Asked Questions
Does wide plank flooring make a room look bigger?
In medium and large rooms, yes, because fewer join lines read as one continuous surface. In small or narrow rooms it can do the opposite.
What’s the most popular plank width in Australia right now?
190mm, comfortably. 220mm is close behind and growing, especially in new builds and open plan renovations.
Can I get wide plank in solid timber?
Rarely above about 190mm, and it’s not advisable in Melbourne’s climate. Wide plank is effectively an engineered product.
Are wide planks more likely to cup or gap?
Engineered wide boards are stable, but any movement that does occur is more visible across a wider board. Keep indoor humidity between roughly 30 and 60 percent and you won’t have issues.
Do wide planks cost more to install?
Labour is often slightly lower per m² because there are fewer boards. The extra cost comes from the material price and any subfloor levelling required.
What width should I use in a narrow hallway?
150mm to 190mm, laid lengthways down the hall. Wide boards across a narrow corridor create a strong ladder effect.
Can I use different widths in different rooms?
You can, but it rarely looks deliberate and it complicates every doorway transition. One width throughout is the safer choice.
Do wide boards sound hollow?
Only if floated over an underlay with an air gap, and it’s more noticeable on wide boards. Direct stick solves it completely.
How flat does my floor need to be for wide plank?
Around 4mm variation over a 2 metre span as a baseline, and some manufacturers want tighter than that for boards over 220mm. Have it checked before you choose.
Does board length matter as much as width?
It matters more than most people realise. A wide board in short lengths loses much of the effect. Look for lengths of 1.9m or longer for the true wide plank look.
