Tips & Step-by-Step Instructions + Video

The wooden floor in the house is always very beautiful, warm and cozy. In order to create an original covering, parquet is used. As a rule, laying block parquet is a difficult job, but despite this it has gained wide popularity. All parquet installation work can be done by hand. Currently, slats of piece parquet are produced with a tongue-and-groove system, which fixes the parquet parts firmly and without gaps.

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Choice of wood for block parquet

The type of wood will depend not only on the color scheme of the parquet, but also on its service life, so as various types of wood have different hardness and resistance to humid environments. For example, conifers are not used for parquet production due to the softness of these species. There will be visible marks from heels and other sharp objects on the pine parquet.

The most famous species of wood for block parquet are beech, oak, cherry, walnut, ash and maple .

The classic version is oak parquet .

It is strong enough, resistant to moisture, has a beautiful original pattern, the color of which has various shades of brown. One drawback of block oak parquet is its color change over time - it becomes dark. When buying oak parquet, pay attention to the drying time. It is important to know that the accelerated drying option will not work.

Beech parquet is as hard as oak and has an even yellowish or reddish tint.

Beech itself is a very capricious breed. Under the external influence of temperature extremes and high humidity, it bends and can deform, therefore, it requires careful care and strict adherence to the optimal conditions for its use.

Maple wood parquet looks white, but it will turn slightly yellow during use. In terms of its hardness, it is in no way inferior to oak, and in some cases even harder. You also need to pay attention to the drying time, a quickly dried maple tree will deform over time.

Cherry parquet , as a rule, is brown with a shade of pink, but when used it, like oak, can darken slightly. Its hardness is less than that of oak, but, in spite of this, it is quite popular and well-known, as it is easy to machine.

The exotic version is merbau parquet . It is highly appreciated for its original patterns in the section of the trunk and for its wide range of colors. Merbau is not at all afraid of a humid environment, and it is so saturated with resins that it has to be difficult to process.

The choice of wood for parquet follows from the conditions of use in different rooms. You can put cherry parquet in the nursery, and oak can be used everywhere.And it is not necessary to lay a parquet floor from one type of wood, you can combine parquet from different species, while creating a unique inimitable pattern.

Ways of laying block parquet

After finishing all walls and ceilings, all communications have been made and checked for leaks, feel free to start laying parquet. When laying block parquet with your own hands, observe certain indicators of temperature and humidity.

The total humidity of the walls of the house should not exceed 5%, and the humidity of the floor should not be higher than 4%. The relative air humidity should be 45 - 55%, and the optimum air temperature is 19 - 22 ° C.

If the humidity in the room is high, the parquet simply swells and picks up excess moisture. Of course, over time, the parquet will dry out, and gaps will appear between the dies. Fixing this problem will be much harder and more expensive than doing it right from the beginning.

The installation of block parquet can be divided into the following stages of work:

• Inspection and repair of the old base;
• Laying waterproofing of the concrete base;
• Floor screed;
• Primer of the screed for glue;
• Fastening plywood sheets;
• Bonding and nailing parquet to plywood sheets;
• Sanding the parquet surface;
• Putting parquet planks;
• Parquet priming for varnish;
• Parquet lacquer coating.

Preparation before installing block parquet

Prepare the subfloor before laying block parquet - an important task. The duration of the coating as a whole will depend on the initial quality of the surface.

It is worth noting that the price of laying block parquet when ordering in specialized hardware stores, preparation of the base is not included.

Block parquet laying technology

If you are laying wooden parquet on a concrete base, it must be waterproofed. For this, the surface of the concrete slab must be covered with a special superdiffusion membrane or ordinary plastic wrap. In this case, all the joints of the film are made with a certain overlap of about 20 cm and are fastened with construction tape. On the walls, the film is wound up to 15 cm and is also fixed with construction tape.

Next, the leveling screed is poured.

The thickness of the entire screed is about 5 cm. At all stages of the work, a clear control of the horizontal level of the coating and the absence of any defects are required. Before proceeding to the next stage of work, you need to make sure that the screed is completely dry.

Duration of drying is about a couple of months. At this stage, do not rush to install the parquet.

This is explained as follows, the tree absorbs moisture from the screed, and subsequently collapses. That is why all parquet laying works take more than one month.After the screed is completely dry, it is necessary to cover it with a primer. Next, moisture-resistant plywood sheets with a thickness of about 10 mm are taken and cut into squares.

The main advantages of moisture-resistant plywood under parquet :

• Protection of parquet from various deformations;
• Perfectly flat surface;
• Excellent thermal insulation and sound insulation;
• Strength characteristics and indicators increase;
• Good basis for fastening parquet strips.

But there is no point in using sheets less than 10 mm, they will not perform their basic functions. In this case, you can lay the plywood sheets in several layers.

Next, you need to grease the surface of the screed with special glue and put squares of plywood on it, pressing them tightly and fixing them with self-tapping screws. A gap of about 1mm should be left between the squares of the plywood sheets to prevent deformation of the parquet, provided that the plywood sheets expand.

Also leave a gap between the wall and the plywood sheets of about three mm, this will be the so-called expansion joint.

Preparing the wooden floor

Before installing block parquet on an old floor, it must be checked. There should be no dips, irregularities, creaks and other defects. If any faults are found, it is necessary to partially disassemble the flooring and repair the wooden logs. After removing the defects, the surface of the wooden floor is carefully sanded.

The planks can be laid directly on the subfloor without plywood sheets.

Options for laying block parquet

The technology for laying block parquet provides several options for installing it:

1. Floating ;
2. For special parquet glue;
3. With self-tapping screws;
4. For special parquet adhesive with self-tapping screws.

In the floating method of laying, the strips are attached to each other using a tongue-and-groove system. To eliminate the squeaks of this floor, a special sound-proof material is laid under it. Thus, depending on temperature and humidity, the planks will expand or contract freely.

The strength of this coating is very doubtful, because if one lock joint looses, then the entire floor will begin to deform.

Installing parquet planks on special glue is considered the most durable, but it can be difficult to repair. The base of the plank is abundantly greased with glue, after which the parquet floors are laid, interconnecting with a thorn-groove system. This method is more laborious and costly due to the consumption of glue.

Installing parquet planks on special glue with fixing with self-tapping screws is the most durable method of all.

This floor will practically not deform. But you will not be able to repair this parquet either.

Stages of block parquet laying

To obtain a smooth and beautiful pattern of block parquet laying, it is advisable to first draw it on paper. And it is very important to take into account the exact geometric dimensions of the room and parquet planks. And you will immediately see on paper where the rows are not intact, and you can correctly build the drawing.

Laying of parquet planks depends on the pattern.

Below we will consider the option of installing piece parquet with herringbone :

• We mark the room and find the middle. In the center of the room, from wall to wall, you need to stretch a cord, along which we will navigate in the future.
• Take two parquet planks and join them in a herringbone pattern by inserting the tenon into the groove. In this case, we must apply special glue to the ends of the strips.

• Next, we glue the base of plywood sheets with glue, you need to start from the far wall.
• Then we apply the "lighthouse herringbone" to the plywood sheets so that the left edge of the plank presses the cord to their base, and the right edge of the plank, respectively, rested against the cord.
• Press the planks well against the plywood sheets so as to squeeze out excess glue.
• Then we fix the parquet planks with self-tapping screws, screwing them into the groove of the parquet plank at an angle of 45 ° and be sure to insert the hat. For one 40 cm plank, you will need at least two fasteners with self-tapping screws.

• Then lay the planks according to the pattern. Coat the plywood base with glue to the width of the parquet plank.
• Apply the parquet strip by inserting it into the longitudinal and end grooves of the previous one, finishing off with a rubber mallet and secure with self-tapping screws.

Lay the rows of parquet planks in a herringbone pattern.

• Then put a row of planks to the left of the "lighthouse tree", and then to the right. This should be done up to the walls.
• Fill all spaces near the walls with cut-to-size parquet planks.
• It is very important to leave a gap of about 2 mm between the wall and the last row of parquet planks.

Types of block parquet laying

Block parquet can be installed in different patterns, placing parquet planks at different angles and in a different sequence. So, block parquet can be laid as follows:

• "Deck" - common and an easy way of styling. All planks are laid parallel to each other, with a certain offset by half the length of the plank. The first plank is placed near the wall.
• "Herringbone" - the planks are connected to each other at an angle of 90 °.

  There must be two spikes on the parquet strips - with a narrow end part and a longitudinal one. This method of installation is a little tricky as the rows will have to be perfectly aligned.

• "Squares" are also easy to fit. First, 2,3,4 parquet planks are connected and laid together, then the other 2,3,4 planks are connected, but laid perpendicular to the first. All rows will alternate, and you get an even geometric pattern.

• "Braid" , we described this installation option above. You can make inserts from a variety of wood species to obtain an original pattern.
• "Rhombuses" are laid from diamond-shaped parquet planks.
• "Sheremetyevskaya Zvezda" is made of two types: rectangular strips and oblique diamond-shaped strips.

In addition to the options that we described above, there are also various combinations of them with shapes and various designs.

Sanding of block parquet

Sanding of block parquet is necessary to give an even surface ... Grinding is carried out with special grinders or ordinary grinders with a sanding paper wheel.

The first two grindings are carried out with coarse grains , to cut large irregularities.

The last stage of grinding is carried out with fine grain , to obtain a smoother and more even coating, as well as to remove roughness that has arisen after the first two grinding. Next, the floor must be thoroughly vacuumed and all small debris and dust removed.

Putty and primer for block parquet

The entire parquet floor is rubbed with a special putty for wood, while filling in all irregularities and cracks. After final drying, the floor must be sanded well again with fine grain sandpaper and the excess filler removed. Upon completion of all work, the floor must be vacuumed again.

For better adhesion of the varnish to the parquet, the putty parquet floor is covered with a special primer.

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