Parquet

            Beauty requires sacrifice, and hardwood flooring provides an excellent example.  Like a beautiful woman, the beauty of hardwood flooring requires the combination of certain factors – genetics, cultivation and care.  It will display quality and beauty, provided the material of manufacture is high-quality wood, the turning and sawing of the planks is performed carefully and on good equipment.  Care and maintenance of its excellent condition will include regular and thoughtful actions.

            Parquet is a French word, referring to a covering for a floor comprised of standardized and specially finished strips of hardwood.  Such a floor will not only be a joy to behold, but also retain warmth because of its natural composition.  You are guaranteed to be protected against volatile chemical compounds, which contaminate the air of residences whose interiors are filled with artificial materials.

            The very best, and most expensive, material for hardwood flooring is considered to be oak.  But ash, maple, cherry and walnut have their admirers, too – the colors and textures of the different types of wood differ distinctly.  Of course, there are even more expensive species of wood, for example kempus, lapacho and eucalyptus, but they grow in exotic countries.

            The hardwood flooring planks, or strips, also vary in size.  The widest side of the strip is called the face, the narrow, lateral side is called the end, and the longitudinal side is called the edge.  This is the order by which the dimensions of the planks are given when describing them.

            While natural block, panel, and mosaic parquet are used widely, industrial parquet is becoming more and more popular.  Its quality and properties differ markedly from the previously mentioned types.  Solid parquet board is considered to be very close in the quality of floor coverings.

            Block parquet offers a variety of forms and sizes of strips.  By laying out the flooring with different patterns – “herringbone”, “checkerboard” – it is possible to create inlays and to use strips of different shapes.

            Hardwood flooring planks can be laid on a concrete bed, but it is more preferable to even out and insulate the floor with the help of particleboard, fiberboard, plywood or other materials.  The strips themselves are fastened with nails or are even fixed with a special glue (mastic).  In panel parquet the strips are pre-mounted on boards, which are laid out on the floor.  Inlaid parquet consists of fine strips eight to 12 mm in thickness, which are glued by their faces to a sheet of paper, as if they were to be typeset.  After the set is fixed, the paper is removed.

            Next comes the sanding of the surface.  The wearing surface layer allows a tolerance of seven to 11 mm on average, which quickly becomes noticeable in doorways and at the entranceway.   After sanding the hardwood floor is coated with varnish, and is sometimes laminated for greater protection.

            The maintenance of hardwood flooring should be timely and regular.  But this deserves a separate article.