Base For a Parquet Flooring

[sleapy]

I am having a parquet floor fitted Herringbone Style. They are 15mm Blocks. I have floorboards which are quite solid. The guy who is fitting this has told me, who is quite experienced, as he has been laying these floors for 40 years, he is going staple and glue 4mm hardboard down as the base. Is this correct? He is also repairing an original floor in my hallway, which is laid directly to the floor boards, i think it is glued and nailed with six pins and filed with putty apparently that is how they used to do the parquet flooring, also to sell the houses by putting this flooring down. He is filling this with a mixture of saw dust etc. Is this guy right about the base and the filling in the hallway.

 

[mattysupra]

he can repair floor and use saw dust mixed with pva to fill in gaps and then final sand floor then seal. Sounds like this what they doing. As for new floor i would like to see 6mm base, whish should be plywood not hard board and should be either stapled/nailed or glued. Not both combined.

 

[WoodYouLike]

Matty: nailing (face-nailing) wood blocks in combination with glueing is needed when the blocks are longer than 30 - 35 cm (to press the whole block into the glue), otherwise you're correct.

 

[sleapy]

So if i ask the guy to staple and glue down 6mm plywood, the 15mm blocks can then be laid on top of that.? If he did use hard 4mm hardboard what couold happen? Would it be so bad if he did talk me into it, as these builders etc always think they are right.

thanks very helpful

jason

 

[sleapy]

Sorry. You say stapled/nailed or glued not both. Do you mean Stapled and Glued or nailed and glued is ok.

 

[WoodYouLike]

Jason, 4mm boards are too thin to create a stable subfloor.

 

[sleapy]

Ok i will get him to 6mm. You say stapled/nailed or glued not both. So Stapled and glued is ok.

 

[WoodYouLike]

Depends on how long and wide your blocks are?
(p.s. we normally use at least 8mm subfloor)

 

[mattysupra]

6mm minimum and that if sub floor o.k to start with, thicker if worse. when i say nail i mean through tongue I dont face pin as i get my subfloor within 3mm per 3meter run out. A good fitter can get floor flat without face nailing. And as you got half wooden subfoor and half concrete you should glue hole floor. Dont use hard board. This is made for people who dont know what they doing. There nothing wrong with face nailing tho.

 

[WoodYouLike]

My 'Dutch' mistake (again).
Whenever we talk about parquet, wood blocks I immediately think of 10mm wood blocks without T&G, which we normally glue onto 8mm mosaic subfloor and if the wood blocks are longer than 30cm they do need to be pinned down (face nailing) also.

 

[mattysupra]

My 'Dutch' mistake (again).
Whenever we talk about parquet, wood blocks I immediately think of 10mm wood blocks without T&G, which we normally glue onto 8mm mosaic subfloor and if the wood blocks are longer than 30cm they do need to be pinned down (face nailing) also.

I wouldn't call it a mistake. Both methods are fine, just yours is a bit different to mine. Think if we teamed up for a week sharing our knowledge we could learn alot of each other. More so your 'Dutch' methods for me tho.

 

[sleapy]

cheers guys

you are very helpful.

jason

 

[WoodYouLike]

Matty, you're on.
p.s. West-midlands? What area do you cover?

 

[crazycanuck]

your both right but I think someone shoud mention srcrewing subfloor to remove any potental squeeks do it now you can't later

 

[mattysupra]

wood you like- birmingham mainly. And crazycanuck- you lost me a bit. Do you mean screw down floorboards before the ply goes down or screw the ply down? If fixing 4mm/6mm ply you would use staple or ring shank pins not screws. If ply more on 18mm side then yes you would screw it. Is this what you mean?