The Flooring Expert

Q: We recently pulled up carpet due to a leak and found parquet flooring in great condition under the carpet that we decided to keep. A company suggested that we polyurethane with a traffic coat since this was our family room. However when the polyurethane was applied it immediately started to peel up and get bubbles. That same company has now buffed the floors and suggested that we wax, since by the polyurethane did not take it must have been waxed before. Now our floors look worse than when we started and when the man came to wax, said he could not do so over urethaned floors. What can we do now?

Kerri C.

A: Depending on how old your parquet floors are, there are two routes you will want to take. The first thing you will want to do is a scratch test on the parquet. You'll want to find a spot where the baseboards will cover the area you are going to scratch. What you're looking for is if you can scratch through the finish and stain to get to bare wood or not.

If you are unable to get to bare wood fairly easy, then you have a parquet that went under a special curing process. I spoke to Gene D. and he mentioned this handy bit of info that I did not know:

“Back in the day there were tons of acrylic impregnated finishes applied to parquets, these products were actually cured with gamma rays (no kidding). Any way, you can hardly refinish those, they are a screen and top coat products to refinish.”

So, if you have this type of floor, where you can't get to the bare wood, you will need to re-screen the floor and apply a new finish, usually 2-3 coats.

If you can get to the bare wood easily, then you will want to sand down the floor, removing a small amount of the wood, then seal and refinish. Again, 2 – 3 coats of finish here. This is actually the easier option, but regardless of which floor you have, I would suggest hiring a professional to get this done, as it can be tedious and is difficult for a DIY project.

In regards to finish, I would suggest using Glitsa's Infinity finish. This is a waterborne finish that is easy to apply and is super tough. Do not use a wax finish.

Q: I have a parquet floor over hard concrete. I would like to install cork underlayment and an engineered floating bamboo floor in its place. Some of the tiles are loose and in poor condition. The tiles themselves come up fairly easily, but the glue underneath them is another story. But the glue that was used is extremely thin as shown in the attached picture (the scrap wood spans both clean concrete and glue, the quarter is there for scale). My question is – do I really need to scrape all this glue up if it is thin like this? Cant I just lay the cork right over it?

Thanks!
Mike

Here is a photo Mike sent a long to give an idea of what he is working with and what he plans to install over.

A: With floating floors, especially those using premium underlayments, they can account for variances of subfloor height up to 1/16". This being said, as long as you remove a majority of the high spots so that the entire floor is relatively even, you can install over the top of the adhesive. Keep in mind you will still need to use a moisture barrier for your installation to ensure that there is no worry of having moisture vapor get into the flooring itself.

If you have a few areas where a portion of the parquet is not getting pulled up easily you can go in with a portable belt sander or similar grinder to grind down the area to a height similar to the rest of the floor. It is in your best interest to scrape up as much of the adhesive as possible, but not necessary to remove all of it, just ensure that higher spots or build ups are removed enough to be within about 1/16" of the height of the rest of the floor.

Q: Hello - Four months ago, we moved into our home which has 3 year-old oak flooring throughout. For the last few weeks, we have been hearing 'random' clicking coming form various parts of the floor - while we are sitting in the living room, something seems to click on/from the floor. I have considered that perhaps the flooring is contracting or expanding, and that perhaps the noises are no more than that. On the other hand, I am concerned that we may have some kind of insect infestation... Can you offer any advice on what we are dealing with, and what we might do?

Eoghan
Waalre, The Netherlands

A: My guess here is that this is just random adjustments from weather - so your expansion and contraction guess is on target. This should not be something to worry about as bug noises tend to be heard from walls and not floors.

Now just to be safe, what I would suggest doing is moving the furniture which is over the areas in question and tapping on the parquet to make sure none of the tiles have come loose. I doubt this is the case, but if so its good to know now rather than find out later after damage has occurred.

If weather is currently a bit different than normal (more humid summer than usual, very cold winter, etc.) than I would suggest looking into measures to bring the environment in your home back to a norm. If its more humid than normal, look into a dehumidifier, if its very dry out, get a humidifier also try to keep the temperature in your home around the same temperature all year long. Typically about 65 degrees with 40% humidity is perfect for both humans and wood flooring.

Q: I am going to have my parquet floor with new hardwood floor in my living room, which houses a small concert grand piano. The subfloor is concrete, and my floor installer says that I should go for engineered hard wood strips. My question is: should the floor be floated or glued down to the subfloor? I am worried that if the floor is floated, then it could serve as another big sounding board for my piano and this will disturb my neighbors. I live in an old condo. With my current floor, my neighbors have not complained, but I need to make sure that I can minimize the transmission of sounds (it is more of vibration than impact sound).

Thank you and look forward to hearing from you.

A: My first bit of advice would be to check with your HOA for any regulations required when installing a wood floor in a condo. Usually this requires certain underlayments, typically most HOAs require cork, to absorb the sound from the floor. This being said a floating floor can be a great option as it will need underlayment; however, having a concert grand piano over this floor leaves me to worry a bit.

The best set up for such a heavy furnishing on a floor is to have it solidly anchored to the floor, so I would honestly suggest going with a glue down application. This might mean needing to glue down a cork underlayment (do not use foam based underlayments when gluing down) then glue the floor down over the top of the underlayment. Again, I stress that you check with your HOA before you proceed to ensure you meet their sound requirements. Typically, gluing down 6mm cork then gluing down a floor will meet all HOA requirements while getting exactly what you will need to place your piano on this floor.

Q: I have refinished hardwood floors before however I have never done parquet. The house we have just purchased has 20 Year old parquet that has never been touched and is showing the wear of time. I enjoy doing this type of work very much and would like to refinish the floor before we move into the house.I have read much about this but every one seems to have varied opinions. Advice and direction would be very much appreciated.

Mike

A: It is possible to refinish parquet, but it can be difficult. The big problem with refinishing parquet is that you have a floor with multiple wood grain directions, this means you run a larger risks of a sander marring the surface of the wood. Let's look into what you can do to make this come out right.

First of all, keep in mind that patience is key when refinishing any floor, but especially with parquet. Unlike most wood floors, large drum sanders will get a job done fast, but there are problems with them. Unless you are a real pro and rather experienced with these types of sanders, they have a high potential to mar and even put gouges into wood floors. Big orbital sanders pose similar dangers; however, they are a bit easier to control than a drum sander, so the potential for problems drops some.

Your best bet is to get a smaller, hand-held orbital sander (especially one with the vacuum-like dust collector attachment), and put in a bit more time doing the work. With a small sander you have much more control and you can work to go with the grain direction to minimize chances or marring the flooring. This will add quite a bit of time to your job, but it will give you a much more controlled sanding.

From here, much like with any other floor, start with lower grit papers and move on to finer sanding. 60 grit paper is a good start, then move to 100, then 150 and finally finish with 220 before applying any stains and your coats of finish. Don't forget to buff between each coat of finish to ensure proper adhesion and a smooth layer and you should be all set.

Q: I am looking for 9" by 9" tongue and groove parquet flooring to replace water damaged tiles --

I believe it may be model "K-36." Do you know where I can get it?

Thanks
John

A: The only Parquet that I know of off-hand with K-36 as a product number was an old Bruce Oak Parquet, but this stuff has been discontinued for some time now. To be honest, the only parquet I know of now is all 12" x 12" and almost all of the good quality stuff is tongue and groove. Your best bet for replacement would be to either contact a company which can custom build some of this for you or take some 12" tiles and mill them down to a 9" size.

I'm sorry that I can't give you much better help here, but one long shot you can try is somewhere like Ebay or Craigslist. I have had some customers in the past have luck finding discontinued product is this manner, but again I stress that this is a long shot.