Wear layer explained: what 12, 20, 22 and 28 MIL mean

A mil is not a millimetre

This trips up almost everyone. A mil is one thousandth of an inch — roughly 0.025mm. So a 22 MIL wear layer is about 0.56mm thick. It is a different measurement from the overall plank thickness, which is quoted in millimetres.

A plank can be thick and still have a thin wear layer, or relatively slim with a substantial one. The two numbers answer different questions: overall thickness relates to how the plank feels and bridges subfloor irregularities, while the wear layer relates to how the surface holds up.

What the wear layer actually does

On a resilient floor, the printed design is a photographic layer. Above it sits a clear layer of wear material. Everything that scratches, scuffs or abrades a floor is working on that clear layer, not on the pattern itself.

A thicker wear layer gives more material to lose before the print is reached. That is the whole mechanism, and it is why wear layer is the spec commercial specifiers look at first.

The thicknesses Oakline stocks

Oakline's resilient range is concentrated at 22 MIL, with heavier and lighter options either side.

12 MIL

3 floors. A lighter option, found on thinner glue-down products.

20 MIL

0 floors, on 5mm rigid-core planks.

22 MIL

15 floors — the bulk of the range, and where most of Oakline’s SPC sits.

28 MIL

5 floors. The heaviest wear layer stocked, on 7.5mm planks in the Reserve collection.

What the number does not tell you

Wear layer thickness measures how much clear material sits over the print. It does not measure how hard that material is, and two floors quoting the same MIL can scratch differently depending on the finish over them.

It also says nothing about the rest of the build — the core, the locking system or an attached pad. A 22 MIL wear layer on a 5mm core and the same wear layer on a 7.5mm core behave differently underfoot even though that one number matches.

And it is unrelated to water. Waterproof comes from the core, not the wear layer, so a thick wear layer on a non-waterproof product does not make it a wet-room floor.

Treat MIL as the best single indicator of surface longevity, and then read the rest of the table.

How to decide

Match the wear layer to traffic rather than to budget. A spare bedroom and a clinic corridor are not the same problem, and the corridor is where a thin wear layer shows first — usually in the traffic lane, as a dulled path rather than obvious damage.

If a space will see rolling loads, grit carried in from outside, or chairs dragged daily, weight the decision towards the heavier end. If you are unsure where a specific product sits, the wear layer is listed on every Oakline product page.