Parquetry Restoration

Parquetry is a different discipline to strip flooring and the difference is grain direction. A parquet floor is made of small blocks laid in a geometric pattern — herringbone, basket weave, brick bond, or a bordered mosaic — and in every pattern, adjacent blocks run their grain at ninety degrees to each other. There is no single direction to sand with, which means conventional strip-floor technique produces visible scratching across half the blocks on the floor.

The technique that works is multi-directional cutting: the floor is sanded diagonally, at forty-five degrees to the block pattern, in two opposing passes. That way no block is ever cut directly against its grain, and the scratch pattern that remains is consistent across every block regardless of orientation. It takes longer than a strip floor of the same area and it is not optional — a parquet floor sanded in one direction shows it permanently.

Block thickness is the constraint that decides whether a floor can be sanded at all. Traditional solid parquetry blocks are generous and will take multiple cuts. Overlay parquetry — thinner blocks glued to a subfloor or to a backing mesh — may have only a few millimetres above the glue line. Modern engineered herringbone has a wear layer of two to six millimetres like any other engineered product. We measure before scoping, because sanding through a block is not repairable.

Loose and lifted blocks are the most common condition problem, and they are almost always an adhesive failure rather than a timber failure. Original parquetry was often laid in bitumen, which becomes brittle with age and lets go, particularly where there has been any moisture from below. A floor that sounds hollow underfoot in patches has blocks that have released, and sanding over them will break them up.

Refixing is done before any sanding. Loose blocks are lifted, the old adhesive cleaned off both the block and the substrate, and the block relaid in a modern flexible adhesive at the correct height. Where blocks are missing entirely, matching replacements have to be sourced — same species, same dimensions, same thickness — which on an unusual pattern or an uncommon timber can be the longest lead item in the job.

Moisture underneath is the recurring cause of adhesive failure and it needs resolving rather than working around. Parquetry laid over a concrete slab that wicks ground moisture will keep releasing blocks no matter how well they are refixed. Parquetry over a timber subfloor with poor ventilation does the same. We take readings before quoting, and where the substrate is the problem we say so rather than refixing blocks that will lift again.

Gap and joint treatment on parquetry needs a lighter hand than on a strip floor. The block joints are numerous and fine, and filling them all produces a floor that reads as a flat sheet rather than as parquetry. Generally we fill only what needs filling — failed joints, chipped edges, the gap at a border transition — and leave the pattern legible. Wood-flour resin mixed to the floor colour at $5 to $15 per square metre.

Coating a parquet floor is otherwise conventional, with one caveat about sheen. High gloss on a geometric pattern amplifies every reflection and can make a herringbone floor genuinely busy to look at. Satin holds the pattern definition without the glare. On a bordered or mosaic floor where the pattern is the point, satin or matte lets the geometry read rather than competing with it.

Borders and inlays deserve their own attention and they are where a rushed job shows first. Many older parquet floors have a perimeter border running in a different pattern or species to the field, sometimes with a fine contrasting fillet between the two. Those lines are narrow, they are the first thing the eye follows into a room, and running a machine across them carelessly rounds the edges and blurs the definition. We work borders by hand where the detail warrants it rather than treating the floor as a single uniform surface.