In this blog I want to talk about parquet flooring and the many different aspects of parquet flooring and what I have learned about this amazing design that has stood the test of time for generations. For the past 35 years I have been fitting all types of flooring and parquet flooring. I have seen the many different manufacturing designs of all types of flooring, and this is one of the reasons I have been involved with running and setting up MM Parquet & Carpentry Ltd. The first design of flooring was the square edge design, this was done in plank flooring and parquet flooring . This design was easy to manufacture as it was a straight cut and when this design is manufactured in parquet flooring it can cause a lot of problems if you do not have the right primers and adhesive to make this design last and work for your client.
The problem with this structure is all timber expands in width, length and in height and when you have this structure in parquet flooring after sanding and polishing, there will be expansion and contraction occurring in the parquet flooring blocks . Parquet flooring will just not look right, as lips and edges will start to show as the parquet flooring takes on natural humidity in the air, after time this can take away from the look of your parquet flooring and that is when you will need to apply another sanding and polishing to bring your parquet flooring back to its original look. All the old-style parquet flooring, especially reclaimed parquet flooring was done in this way. The reason for this is back all those years ago they did not have the manufacturing ability to make a tongue and groove block.
Even after all the years of the square manufacturing design they brought in the tongue and groove block for the parquet flooring. This manufacturing square edge design was much better and easier to install, but you will always get some sort of expansion and contraction within the parquet flooring block, and this would apply to engineered parquet flooring or solid parquet flooring also. It does not matter how well you glue or nail your parquet flooring or engineered parquet flooring because it has a square edge design.
The only time you will have a perfect parquet flooring is when the floors have been just sanded and sealed. The humidity in the air and how the house is heated will determine how your parquet flooring will look after time. This is why it is called traditional parquet flooring because after a period of time it will look like the parquet flooring has aged.
As this was the first really skilled way of manufacturing parquet flooring, the next step was to come up with a way of stabilising the structure of the parquet flooring block and this manufacture design was eventually applied to all wooden flooring and that was to come up with a bevelled parquet flooring block, this manufacturing design is a very simple design , but very effective. The beauty of this design is it will hide any expansion or retraction issues, such as cupping or crowning of the parquet flooring block and will make your parquet flooring very stable from whenever your parquet flooring has been fitted. Not only is this procedure used on a lot of unfinished parquet flooring blocks, but it is always required in pre-finished parquet flooring and the reason for this is when your parquet flooring block is put through the colouring and polish process you get a much accurate and shaper finish when the parquet flooring is fitted together. MM Parquet & Carpentry ltd prefer the bevelled edge block, but if our clients want the squared edge parquet flooring, we are happy to fit both as they all look stunning when they are fitted.
Parquet Flooring Options
MM Parquet & Carpentry Ltd can supply and fit the full range of traditional parquet flooring, tumbled parquet flooring and reclaimed parquet flooring, please click here for more examples of parquet flooring.
