Laying Parquet floor

[PaulineB]

We have just had some tongue and groove parquet floor layed but I am not sure whether it has been layed correctly - the fitters were friends of friends and apparently experienced parquet fitters ...
The parquet is a floating oak solid wood planks 16mm thick. The fitters left a gap around the egde of the wall and the planks are held in place by little pegs by the wall which will be removed when the skirting board is put on. The planks are not glued to the floor, nor glued to each other, and I'm concerned that when the pegs are removed, the planks will move.
We really felt the planks should be glued to each other, but they said it is not normally done and they refused!
Can anyone enlighten me as to whether there is something I don't know that no-one is telling me???

 

[WoodYouLike]

Nothing wrong with the method they used, is common practise in Belgium when floorboards are not glued down.
In other countries (like The Netherlands and more and more in the U.K.) T&G's would have been glued, but still nothing wrong with the method used.
The only thing is that when the floorboards shrink a little tiny gaps will appear between some of the boards. If the boards would shrink much more, than even with the T&G's glued eventually the 'weakest' glued part would give way and you might end up with one larger gap, where by the method your fitters used, most of the shrinkage would be evenly 'spaced'.

Hope this helps or makes sense

 

[PaulineB]

Thanks WoodYouLike ... but I'm still confused as to what holds them in place when they are 2cm away from the wall ... and there's nothing to stop them moving .... wont big gaps appear due to people walking on them??

 

[WoodYouLike]

The weight of the wood itself, plus you'll be putting back your furniture, not?

 

[PaulineB]

Ok, I think I'm convinced ... thanks Woodyoulike .... could you also enlighten us to the next step ... how long we should wait before beginning the varnishing process???
(and thanks for your quick replies)

 

[WoodYouLike]

Not really sure where you are waiting for? Once the floor is installed, and all tools are removed from room and floor is vacuumed properly, go ahead.

 

[PaulineB]

Neither are we ... but we were told we should wait a couple of weeks for everything to settle ..... ??? (and we don't want to cos we want to get it finished more quickly)