Tongued and Grooved (T&G)

Tongued and Grooved (T&G) – Glossary

T&G is just an abbreviation for tongued and grooved flooring.

Floor boards fit together side by side by means of a tongue located into a groove. One edge of the board having a tongue, whilst the other has a corresponding groove. With ends matched wooden flooring, one end of the floor board is machined to a tongue and the opposite end to a groove.

The tongue in a T&G situation was never intended to be structural. Historically air seasoned floor boards, typically of Oak, would have been used which contracted as they dried in service. As these boards “gapped” they would have opened up meaning, for instance, that dust would have fallen from an upstairs are through the gaps and light would have been seen shining through. The invention of the tongue and groove meant that as the floor boards contracted there was maintained a bridge between adjacent boards.