Parquet Floor - Have I missed Anything?

[Mark Br]

Hi All

I've been promising my wife an oak parquet block floor in our lounge and hall for sometime now and the time has finally come to deliver.

I replacing my uneven floorboards/chip board floor with 18mm WBP ply. Planning on glueing the T&G blocks (70x300x20) down with Lecol 5500 and secret nailing. Do I need to glue the edges of the T&G's as well?

I'm putting in an oak with Wenge strip border. Was going to use a plunge saw to get a straight edge, then fit the border.

When layed I was going to sand with 40 grit, then repeat with 80 grit and collect saw dust. mix with Lecol 7500 and fill all the gaps. Sand again with 120 grit. Do I need to finish with 150 grit? (hiring a Trio sander)

Finally I was going to apply 2 coats of Polyx hardwax oil.

Anything I've got wrong or have missed?

Many thanks in anticipation for anyone's help/advice.

 

[WoodYouLike]

When you finish your floor with oil or hardwaxoil don't sand with grit 150. This will close the grain too much for the oil to penetrate in.

 

[Mark Br]

Many thanks for the advice on sanding.

Re glueing the tongue and grooves is this necassary/recommended. I also presume I don't need to secret nail every block what would be the recommened spacing?

 

[WoodYouLike]

I can't comment on that, never use 20mm tick T&G woodblock for parquet. Our parquet (Dutch style) is only 10mm thick, no T&G's and are nailed (tacker) down into subfloor.

 

[Mark Br]

Umm - that's got me thinking on whether I need to go for 20mm.

 

[WoodYouLike]

The 10mm parquet blocks need a wooden subfloor. On concrete floors we normally use 8mm Oak Industrial Grade mosaic to create a stable and very smooth subfloor onto which the parquet is glued and nailed on.
(On existing floorboards we use plywood - or special chipboard, special in the way they are specially manufactured for this purpose - not your normal DIY-shop chipboard!)

 

[Mark Br]

My existing subfloor is mainly chipboard with some floorboard at one end (creating a height difference) on suspended timber joists. I was going to replace all of the chipboard and floorboards with hardwood 18mm WBP ply and then lay the battons on the ply

If I understand correctly 10mm thick blocks are fine and there is no need to go to 20mm. Would the 18mm ply be a sufficient subfloor or do I need to go thicker say 25mm?

 

[WoodYouLike]

18mm would be fine. As long as it forms a firm and stable base for the parquet (shouldn't move so make sure you fix it firmly to the existing floorboards and chipboard and/ or use smaller sheets)

 

[Mark Br]

Many thanks for your help