What floor finish for parquet

[pilsbury]

Got a great parquet floor in my new house that is in need of some love. I intend to stick down some loose tiles then sand using a hired floor sander and edger. Normal straight boards are easy to go with the grain. How do you sand herringbone parquet?

A couple of questions. For the small gaps, I've seen many recommend mixing some clean fine sawdust with either pva or a resin based filler to basically grout the gaps before a final sand. Don't like the sound of water based pva so would like some resin recommendation.

Also, once fully sanded, what finish? Osmo hard wax oil gets good reviews, but from my research seems quite Matt and natural looking. The other end of the scale is a high gloss laquer. I kind of want something in the middle. I suppose a sheen is what I'm after. Any suggestions of a hard wearing finish for a hallway with kids and a dog.

 

[Gerrydelasel]

I happened on this blog recently where he did a parquet floor, which might be of interest to you:
http://jake.typepad.com/house/page/8/

 

[getitdone]

Pilsbury - any idea what species the wood blocks are? This will in part determine what coating product to apply once you've sanded it all back. A photo might help!

 

[pilsbury]

I believe it is oak.

 

[getitdone]

How you sand then depends on how much of a perfectionist you are about it - a pro would likely use three types of sander: a drum sander to get the existing coat off, an orbital sander (also referred to as a buffing machine) to even out the main floor area and an edging sander to do the same around the edges. The existing surface doesn't look too marked so you could get away with not using the drum sander, but you'll use more sanding pads on the buffer which may cancel out the saving. Whichever way you go, work down through the grades and finish somewhere between 100 and 120 grit sanding paper. Coarser and you'll see the sanding scratches, and finer will leave the surface too smooth preventing the the subsequent application of hard waxoil or lacquer from penetrating into the wood grain or mechanically keying to the surface.

For the gap filling, definitely do not use the PVA. Go for the dedicated resins - Blanchon do Resin Filler and Bona do Mix 'n' Fill. Both good though Blanchon's marginally better. Either way, mix with the sanding dust of the penultimate sanding and allow to finish under the final sand.

For the coating, hard waxoil and lacquer each have their pros and cons. The latest hard waxoils I think have the edge though and I would go with them. Osmo are good but I find the type of solvents they contain cause too much yellowing/orangeing of the wood fibres, and their higher viscosity has (to my eye) a presence when dried on the floor surface. Treatex's clear hard waxoils match Osmo for durability but without the orangeing problem and are easier to apply - only roll two thin coats without any buffing. If you're on a budget, the clear hardwaxoil from Ciranova is also good but doesn't quite match the stain resistance of Treatex or Osmo. Definitely avoid the cheaper consumer hardwaxoils, or those by Blanchon or Fiddes - stain resistance is more of an aspiration for these.

Hope this helps

 

[pilsbury]

Great reply there mate. I'll take your advice. Just a question about the buffer.

Until now I was gonna use just the drum floor sander and the edger for the edges (of course!) moving down the grits to 120 finish. A buffer is news to me. Why use one of these? Is it due to the numerous ways the grain flows on herringbone so a rotary action camouflages the not going with the grain scratches better? So after the initial drum sand to remove the old finish an level the floor a bit, what sort of grit should be used first on the buffer?

 

[Tigercubrider]

My house has parquet and I did the hall originally myself with a small floor sander and used polyurethane varnish. It took ages and wasn't easy

This Easter I paid a guy a grand to sand hall dining and living rooms. Almost zero dust and he stained it slightly before adding three coats of water based lacquer. He took three days and it looks brilliant compared to my original hall ( which took longer)

He used bono stuff. Price was abou £30 -35 a metre

 

[pilsbury]

Yep, pros have had plenty of practice so are likely to do it better than us amateurs..... sometimes!

As for this buffer, anything special about a floor sanding one? There's one at work the cleaner uses once a week with a scourer pad. Can I just source some sanding disks for this puppy or is a floor sanding version a specialist machine?