Parquet is used as a floor covering not only because of prestige and beauty. Parquet is popular because of its ecological cleanness, good heat and sound isolation. It also has a wonderful shine and looks natural, though the laying is very difficult. Practically any pattern can be laid due to the variety of wood colors and types of laying. And of course, parquet floor will be very durable if you take proper care of it.
Parquet classification
Depending on the types of parquet laying and materials, floor coverings are divided in several types.
According to the type of materials:
- Block parquet – separate laths from firm natural wood;
- parquet board – two or three layered varnished board from natural wood (upper layer – always hardwood, lower – conifers);
- laminated plastic – analogue of parquet board, but in the upper layer decorative pellicle or paper with “wooden” pattern is used;
- massive board – a board made of a whole tree massive.
Every floor covering can be laid in different manners. Standard layings – “Deck”, “Fir”, “Square” – are quite popular. These types can be combined or laid parallel to the walls or at a certain angle. Different artistic ways of laying (“Rosette”, “Diamonds”, “Stars” and other patterns) can create unordinary interior.
This article is about block parquet, as it is one of the most durable.
Block parquet
Block parquet is a set of laths from the whole wood of different types. The most popular woods are oak, ash, beech, maple, cherry-tree, walnut and such exotic types as ducia, mahagon, venge, merbau and even bamboo. Lath sizes are: length from 15 to 40 cm and width from 3 to 9 cm. Thickness can vary from 1,5 to 2,2 cm.
It is recommended to choose the sizes of laths, according to the premise area. Big laths will visibly decrease the room, small ones – otherwise. Don’t forget that the larger are the laths, the fewer joints you’ll get, but the requirements to the parquet drying will be higher. Besides, the increase of size leads to the decrease of lath elasticity. That’s why the optimum width for block parquet laths is 5cm. If you need large laths, it is better to choose block parquet with cuts on the inner side – it makes them more stable.
Selecting among the variety of products for block parquet, pay attention to the quality of laths. They shouldn’t have any knots, chips or cracks, it is especially important for the right side. You should also pay attention to the lath wearing layer – from the surface of the right side to the joint elements (comb, slot). The thicker is this layer the more possibilities you have to polish it after the laying. In other words, the surface can be renewed few times. It should be mentioned that the parquet wearing layer increase is scarce, compared to the lath thickness, but it looses elasticity. So here you should also choose the best variant for you.
The quality of the parquet depends on its humidity (it shouldn’t exceed 8 %) and on the durability of drying, the optimum time of drying is considered to be one month or more. If this term is reduced (some firms do it to expand the production volume), the quality of the production will lower. Maybe you won’t get exact numbers, but you should ask about it.
Separate laths are joined with a help of different combs and slots. Comb is a salient element on one of the laths, which is put in the hollow (slot) of the next lath. Slot is a little bigger then the comb. You can easily check the quality of these elements. You should try to make a square of 4 laths. First, they should be easily joined. Second, they should make the angles of 90 degrees without chinks.
It is important to know that the laths are sorted by color, direction of saw cut, and depending on the presence/ absence of knots, laburnum (young, lighter part of the tree, that is less durable). There are following sorts:
- Radial – this sort of the parquet uses laths, made with a help of perpendicular saw cut. They have straight lines on the whole surface. They are single-color, there are no defects;
- Tangential – laths, made with a help of saw cut at the angle to rings. Their peculiarity is the variety of wavy lines on the parquet surface. There are no defects;
- Radial select (or just select) – differs from radial by the scarce curvature of straights;
- Standard – parquet combines the laths of tangential and radial saw cut, there are no defects;
- Natural – there is no sorting by the saw cut, there is scarce percent of laburnum, there can be small knots, but no more then 3 on one lath;
- Rustic – differs from natural by the variety of laburnum, cracks, small damages.
Radial parquet sort is valued for its durability, better water resistance. But the percent of ready laths in this saw cut is only 15% of the whole amount. That’s why the cost of radial parquet is much higher then other sorts.
Wood, used in the parquet
Block parquet durability strongly depends on the choice of the wood. Every sort of wood has its hardness, water resistance, colors. Conifers are not used in the parquet because of their softness. Only hardwoods can be used for parquet.
Oak is a classic variant. It is valued as an optimal choice because of its exploitation characteristics. The wood is hard, water resistant. But it should be dried properly to get the high quality. Quick drying is not acceptable. Oak parquet has a beautiful pattern, and the wide range of brown tints. But consider, that during the exploitation, oak parquet can get dark.
Beech – another popular wood for parquet. Beech is also hard, but it is capricious. Parquet from this wood acquires proper care, because there can be visible deformations due to the temperature and humidity drops. But beech is very popular because the parquet looks soft and warm. Beech color is even, yellow with red tint.
Maple is a wood, which is also very hard. Some sorts, for example Canadian maple, are even harder then oak. Maple should also be properly dried. If it isn’t dried properly, there can emerge cracks. The color of maple parquet is almost white, but gradually it becomes yellow.
Cherry-tree is less hard then oak. But it is easier to work with, because it can be easily processed. The color is brow with pink tints. Later this parquet gets darker.
Merbau is an exotic hardwood, it grows in South-East Asia. Merbau parquet is water resistant, but it is very difficult to process the wood, because of the oily substances. Merbau has beautiful patterns in the stem cut. Its colors – all tints of brown.
After the parquet purchase, it should be delivered to the premise, where it will be laid and it should lay there for a week. It is necessary, so that the humidity of parquet laths and air in the premise would be balanced. After the laying, the parquet won’t deform.
Parquet work
Parquet laying is a very durable and laborious process.
The floor surface should be evened out before the laying. The surface should be smooth without dents or slopes. Depending on the way of evening (covering or logs) it can take from few days to few weeks.
When the floor is prepared, assembling works begin. First of all, the veneer is laid, the laths of block parquet are glued on it. The time, necessary for this work, depends on the size of parquet laths, difficulty of the pattern, and of course the size of the room. The simplest variant of topside parquet laying in the 3 room flat will take about a week.
After two-three days begins the next stage. Parquet is polished to even the surface and to remove the dirt. Then the gaps between the laths should be removed. Even after the ideal laying there is a small lath deformation because of the moisture that is taken up by the wood from glue. Then the parquet is polished for a second time. The polishing of the parquet in 3 room flat will take 2-3 days.
In the end of parquet works, parquet is grounded and varnished. The minimal number of varnish layers is 3, but sometimes there are more layers to make the parquet more durable. The varnish dries up (minimum one week, it depends on the varnish characteristics) and the parquet is ready.
Surface evening (covering, logs)
If you don’t want to reduce the parquet’s term of life, the surface should be evened before the laying. It can be done in two ways: you can make a new cement covering or with a help of logs (wooden boards). The quality of parquet laying depends on the evenness of the floor surface.
If you even the surface with a help of covering, its minimal thickness should make up 4cm, so that the dowels can be easily fastened. If there were slopes, the thickness of the covering in those places would be bigger. The time of drying will also increase, because you’ll have to wait for 2 month till the 4cm covering will dry up. Every additional centimeter will increase this time on a week. You shouldn’t hurry, because the covering should dry to the necessary humidity level of 3-4%. Otherwise, the parquet can take up the excess of moisture. As a result parquet will become wavy. You can evaluate the covering yourself, if you scratch two crossing lines on its surface. In the crossing cement shouldn’t crumble a lot. To make sure that the covering is even, you should put a 2meter board on the floor. The inclining from covering on 2mm is acceptable. Often to make the surface ideally smooth, the selfevening substances are used. The surface evening is extremely important: if the parquet consists of large laths, the unevenness will be more visible after the laying.
If you can’t wait for a long time, you can use logs. As it was mentioned before, logs are boards, not necessarily planed. As for the size, you can use boards that are 8-10cm wide, 2,5-4cm thick. They should be dried to the residual moisture of less then 20%. Anyway, it is recommended to put ruberoid under the logs, to prevent decay. Boards are fastened to the floor with a help of bolts. Then they are used for vertical regulation (they can be raised or lowered if necessary). One of the inadmissible mistakes in log fastening is too large distance between them. That’s why you shouldn’t save money on boards, or the parquet will bend. Log fastening doesn’t take a lot of time. In standard 3 room flat it won’t take more then 24 hours. After the fastening, veneer sheets are put on the logs.
Parquet laying
When the surface is evened, the parquet laying begins. The floor is covered with veneer, so that construction becomes more durable. Block parquet laths are glued to the veneer. Laths are nailed to the veneer for the better durability during the glue drying.
The veneer is glued and then nailed to the floor with a help of dowels. Logs are fastened with screws (but they shouldn’t come through). Sheets of water resistant veneer are used to protect parquet from moisture. Their thickness is from 1 to 2 cm, they are usually cut into squares. The veneer should be 5mm thinner then the parquet. After the flooring of the veneer, it should be polished if necessary, then the parquet can be laid. Glue is put on the veneer surface with a help of special palette-knifes, then it is evenly distributed. Laths are additionally fastened with nails, their number depends on the size of the lath.
The laying of the simplest variant of the parquet “Deck” takes 7-10 days. In other cases the time of laying depends on the difficulty of laying. The necessity of cutting special forms of laths, will acquire much more time, because all laths should join without gaps.
After the laying, you should leave some time to the drying of glue. It will take up to one week, everything depends on the glue substance characteristics. Possible deformations because of the moisture from the glue, will be removed with a help of polishing.
Parquet polishing (scraping)
Polishing (scratching) is a necessary process in the parquet laying. It is necessary to remove the unevenness, which appears because the laths are joined not very well or because of the deformation due to the excess humidity in the premise. Parquet is also polished to remove the mud, which collects on the surface after the laying.
Parquet is scratched in 2-3 stages with a help of scratching machines. First few times are necessary to even the parquet surface. Another scratching removes the roughness that remains after the rough scratching. And if there were mistakes on one of the previous stages (floor evening, veneer covering, parquet laying), parquet should be polished few more times. Wearing layer will decrease during the laying and it will influence its further exploitation characteristics. That’s why it is recommended to work with firms that specialize in the sphere of parquet laying.
After the scratching, it is necessary to putty all the gaps in the joints. Parquet should be necessarily polished after the putty drying.
Varnishing
The last stage of parquet laying is varnishing. The term of parquet life strongly depends on the quality of varnishing. Parquet floor should be grounded before the varnishing. Grounding will prevent wood from taking up the varnish. It will allow not only to decrease its amount, but also to protect parquet from the varnish influence. Parquet can be covered with mordant before the varnishing. The parquet will look like a rare wood.
Then the parquet is varnished. Varnish protects the parquet from moisture penetration, it also protects parquet from mechanical wearing. The number of varnish layers varies from 3 to 9. Multitude varnish layers give a parquet additional shine, create the feeling of deep varnishing. But the price of such parquet works is high enough. Every square meter acquires about 0,3kg of varnish, plus the cost of the work; as a result the parquet becomes financially “gold”.
Every layer should be put with a help of a roller. Varnish should dry up (the time of drying is indicated on the package, usually 24 hours). First layer needs more time to dry up. While drying, the premise should be protected from dust and any air flows, i.e. the windows should be closed to prevent draughts and dust penetration, don’t put on any electric devices, conditioners etc.
In a day after the end of all parquet works, you can walk on the floor. But it is recommended to put furniture, especially such heavy as wardrobe and sofa, only in a week or even later. Varnish covering need some time to become durable.
The type of varnish, glossy or mat, depends only on your preferences. Glossy varnish is very shiny, underlines wood pattern, makes the room lighter. But dents and dust will be more visible on such parquet. Mat varnish is useful when you want to “cool down” bright parquet pattern. Besides, the room with parquet varnished mat, looks cozy.
Block parquet laying acquires a lot of time and a lot of money. Compared to the laying of parquet board, the cost of block parquet can be two-four times higher. But as for the term of life, block parquet is better because of the possibility of repair, but you should take proper care of it. So if you have laid the block parquet once, you’ll create the comfort and coziness for few generations.