Fitting Solid Herringbone Parquet – DIY or Professional JOB

fitting solid herringbone parquet

One of the most common questions, many customers are often asking themselves – Is fitting solid herringbone parquet DIY or professional job. Indeed, it often seems that it is not that difficult to install solid herringbone parquet. However, there are quite a lot of things that you need to consider in order to do it properly. First things first, lets explore what exactly is required to fit solid herringbone parquet.

Skills and Experience required for fitting solid herringbone parquet

Really the main difference between professional floor fitter and a common folk, is experience indeed. The skills that anyone needs for any job. In this instance for fitting of parquet flooring, usually comes with practice. No one is born with skills for doing anything at the end of the day. We are all learning to do new things as we go along.

So back to the fitting of solid herringbone. Yes, it is true that professional herringbone fitter would have much greater experience in fitting parquet flooring. For sure the flooring work will be done faster and in much greater quality. You are probably asking yourself “Isn’t laying herringbone like fitting a puzzle? I’m good in that”. Well not exactly. Installing herringbone often takes in to account other factors like, preparation of the base, acclimatisation of the subfloor, layout of the flooring area, etc. Nevertheless, if you make mistake in fitting your puzzle, there is always an option to start from the beginning. In professional installation of solid herringbone, there is no rooms for mistakes.

In fact, once you make a mistake this will affect all other wood blocks that you are installing. They are simply not going to be aligned properly.

Sub-floor preparation

Essential part for any herringbone parquet installation is preparing of the base. Indeed, properly prepared sub-floor will not only guarantee longevity of your parquet flooring, but it will provide an optimal performance of your flooring. There are quite a lot of things that needs to be taken into account, when you do preparation of the sub-floor. All f this to ensure that all is ready for the new herringbone parquet flooring.

Preparation of concrete base for new herringbone parquet

To begin with, quote a lot of homeowners would probably think that of you have a concrete, no prep work is required to lay solid herringbone parquet. The base is strong enough, so why not lay the parquet straight onto it? We’ll there are several things that a professional will consider, before even start with the parquet floor fitting works.

Checking Moisture content of the concrete slab

In fact, the main difference for experienced floor fitter is that they will firstly check the moisture content (MC) within the slab. This needs to be within allowable tolerance, so it can guarantee that your parquet flooring will not be affected by moisture coming from underneath.

Levelling of the base

Not only that but, the base needs to be completely smooth and flat, so the new herringbone parquet can be laid without any gaps. Now you are probably thinking how this can affect the pattern. Well, it can and it will. Any unevenness of the sub-floor for sure will affect the way that the parquet blocks can be laid. This why proper levelling of the concrete base is essential for any solid parquet flooring. At the end of the day, we are all aiming for the perfect parquet flooring installation.

Priming & Damp proofing

After the base is properly prepared and it is flat and smooth, another essential part of the prep work is priming of the base. What exactly this means, you will ask. Priming of the base will ensure good bond with the sub-floor and the new solid parquet flooring. In addition, most commonly used for many UK properties is Epoxy-Resin primer. This is a paintable liquid, which is applied directly on to the concrete base and apart that it acts as a primer, it can also act as Damp Proofing Membrane. This is again an important part for the parquet fitting job. Furthermore, it will guarantee that the herringbone wood blocks will not be affected by any damp, or moisture that can come from the base.

Preparation of suspended flooring for new herringbone parquet

On the other hand, if the existing base is suspended flooring (floorboards), another common opinion is the solid herringbone parquet can be directly laid on top. In fact, in many old properties, you can see solid parquet battens pin nailed directly on to the floorboards. Yet it may be true that such parquet flooring has last for number of decades already, it is not a good practice to do it the same way anymore. Let’s explore why.

Floorboards natural movement

The main reason in fact is that the original floor boards are also made of timber. Being natural timber product, means one thing. This wood will absorb humidity from the surrounding environment and will have a natural movement during the entire lifespan of the floor. This why the old floorboards have quite a large gap between them. In order to ensure that the movement of the base does not affect parquet flooring fitted on top, professional parquet fitter would ensure that intermediate solid layer is installed on top.

This is in most cases plywood. Due to its structure, it creates indeed solid and stable surface for the new solid oak herringbone parquet. In different occasions instead of plywood can be used chipboard, OSB panels, or some types of sound insulation panels. Yet the plywood really remains the most commonly used material for preparing a subfloor for parquet floor fitting.

Levelling of floorboards

Subfloor preparation

In addition to the above, the existing floorboards may be in really poor condition. The existing sub-floor could be very uneven and consist of a lot of creaking boards. While fitting plywood on top may provide some improvements, the proper way to address this is different.

Professional parquet floor fitter would offer completely removing of the existing boards, levelling of the joists and fitting a thicker, plywood onto the newly, levelled and reinforced joists. This will guarantee that the base is stable, levelled and perfectly prepared for new solid herringbone parquet.

Parquet floor installation materials

Apart of the solid herringbone parquet wood blocks, that obviously needs to be installed, you will also require adhesive and often floor finish.

Flexible parquet adhesive

Regardless of what you’ve read online, or what the online companies are telling you, in order to sell their products, you have to remember this. There is only one way of installing solid herringbone parquet flooring. You have to glue it down on to the base. Working with parquet adhesive can become quite messy for nonprofessional. Not only that, but experienced floor fitter will ensure that all wood blocks are perfectly bonded to the sub-floor surface, without any hollow spots.

Wood Filler

Yet it is true that filler may not be necessary at all, if the above points are followed, in some cases, there may be some minor gaps that floor fitter can fill in using appropriate filler. While there are plenty of coloured wood filler options available on the market, a professional parquet fitter would simply do it in a slightly different way. Indeed, the most common method, as well as the method providing the best results is using mix of resin & sawdust. Sawdust needs to be collected from the very same parquet flooring, usually during the finishing work. This how, you can have all minor gaps filled using the very same colour timber. That in fact makes huge difference in the appearance of the flooring afterwards.

Fitting Solid Herringbone Parquet

Floor finish

There are many floor finishes that can be used nowadays. Some could be relatively easy for application, according to the manufacturer. However, you have to be sure in one thing - professional parquet floor fitter will simply do much better job.

Furthermore, when it comes to application of the finish the experience really matters. A professional floor layer will certainly apply the desired floor finish smoothly, with no overlapping and streaks. In addition, where necessary intermediate polishing of the flooring will be done as appropriate. This will guarantee the best possible result.

Parquet floor installation machinery and equipment

You may be surprised how many tools and machinery are required for fitting solid herringbone parquet. Often the Pro parquet fitters travel with their vans half full of all sort of tools and machinery. Indeed vast majority of them are required for parquet installation, as well as finishing.

Especially, when it comes to finishing of the solid herringbone parquet, a professional fitter uses heavy duty equipment. Only this can guarantee that the parquet flooring is fine sanded and polished, prior application of the desired finish.

For Best Fitting of Solid Herringbone Parquet – Always go with Professional Parquet Floor Fitter

To sumarise, there are quite a lot of things that can go wring when you sit solid herringbone parquet flooring. Moreover, for non-experienced person, this can become a disaster and cost you not only your time and efforts but it can lead to completely ruined floor. Therefore, choosing Professional fitter for your solid herringbone parquet is indeed the wisest way to go forward. Indeed Fitting of solid herringbone parquet is NOT a DIY job

We at Luxury Wood Flooring are proud to be among the best parquet floor fitters in London. Apart of the many decades that we have behind our backs fitting solid oak parquet in many domestic properties, we are also proud to be one of the companies with ultimate attention to detail. As we are always aiming to improve our service, we do guarantee that our clients will receive Top Quality fitting of solid herringbone parquet.

fitting solid herringbone parquet

Not only that, but apart of our well trained and experienced parquet floor fitters, we do provide an ultimate customer care. We encourage you to get in touch and make your first step to perfectly fitted solid parquet flooring in your property. Contact us Today!