When installing your new hardwood flooring, or even if you hire a professional to do the job for you, you are likely to come across a lot of terms you have never heard of before. Not understanding these terms and abbreviations can make the job trickier, so it can be useful to do your homework.

The following are a few of the most commonly used but not frequently understood terms related to buying and installing hardwood flooring, and of course – what they all mean…

• DPM – this stands for Damp Proof Membrane, which is a vapour barrier used underneath hardwood flooring to protect it from rising moisture from the sub floor.

• Floating floor – this is a floor which is not attached to its own sub floor using nails or adhesive. It is a floor type most often used with laminate flooring material.

• Burrs – these are clusters of small knots in hardwood flooring which create a cats-paw like pattern

• EMC – this stands for Equilibrium Moisture Content, which is the moisture content a material achieves in an atmosphere in which both humidity and temperature are stable

• Tongue & Groove – this is a method commonly used to install engineered and soild wood flooring, where male and female profiles on each floorboard lock together.