Do-it-yourself installation of a parquet board: options and laying technology

2024 Author: Aaron Duncan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 03:30

Parquet board is one of the most popular wall and floor coverings at the moment. However, it should be borne in mind that in order for the result to be really worth the effort and money spent, it is necessary not only to purchase good material, but also to perform high-quality work on its installation. Further in the article, several ways of installing a parquet board with your own hands will be considered.

Styling features

Before you get started, you should pay attention to some important points:

After buying a parquet board, it should lie in the room where it is planned to be installed. This must be done because of possible temperature differences. To do this, it is also recommended to remove the boards from the packaging.
Before preparing the work surface and starting work, it is necessary to sketch out an approximate diagram of how the boards will be located, taking into account their length and width. This will help you navigate your work much faster and easier.
When drawing up the above scheme, be sure to take into account the approximate width of the boards that will be reported last in the rows. Due to the fact that most often they need to be cut, it is worth taking as a basis a width of not less than 60 millimeters. Otherwise, you will also have to cut the boards in the first row.
It is necessary to lay parquet boards with an offset of 0.5 parts of the length relative to the first row.
The location of the parquet board is determined taking into account the characteristics of the room.

How to prepare the base for decking?

The choice of surface for laying parquet boards is unlimited. It can be either a concrete coating or a plank or plywood floor. The most important thing is to prepare to prepare the site for work:

First you need to inspect the place for installing the parquet board with your own hands. Look for various cracks, depressions and protrusions. All these signs must be eliminated before starting work. So, the cracks need to be slightly expanded and repaired with concrete repair mortar. By analogy, process the recesses. And the ledges need to be knocked down.
It is also necessary to check the floor or walls (depending on the place of laying) using the building level. You need to make sure that the unevenness does not exceed 2/2.5 millimeters per linear meter.
If the check revealed an error greater than allowed, then the surface will have to be further leveled. You can use zip ties for this.
If there is a large quantity, not too muchsignificant problems, you can fix plywood sheets to the floor by screwing or gluing them to concrete.
Before you start installing the floorboard with your own hands or placing plywood sheets, you need to properly prime the floor. Or the wall.
If you plan to place the board directly on a concrete base, then you must install the substrate before installation.

What tools are needed for the job?

This is also one of the most important nuances of preparing for the installation of parquet flooring. To complete the work without problems, you need to prepare tools such as:

circular saw or hacksaw, electric jigsaw;
rubber mallet;
screwdriver;
building level and rule;
roulette and square;
spatulas: notched and plain;
clip for tightening boards;
tamping block;
expansion wedges.

Now you can start learning how to properly install the parquet board.

Wall paneling

Installation of parquet board on the wall

It's worth starting with this type of work, as it will be presented in this article only once. Nevertheless, the preparatory work for it does not differ from those necessary for the floor. So, consider the technology of mounting parquet boards on the wall:

Assume that you have already calculated the required amount of materials, drawn up a scheme of work, processed the surface and prepared the tools. Now you need to set the level tostarting point.
Start on the left side of the wall. The same rule applies to outdoor work.
Next, you should mark the line, the width of which will be equal to one board.
Now you need to start applying glue to each of the boards. This is done in zigzags. It is also recommended to apply glue in the same way to the installation site of the parquet board.
Next, place the board carefully, making sure it fits snugly. Then check with the help of the building level that it is located correctly.
After that, install the rest of the boards. To do this, insert them into the lock until they fit snugly. Then pad and secure with staples.
As soon as you finish installing the massive parquet board on the walls, install the skirting boards and corners. This action is unlikely to cause you any difficulties, so we will not dwell on it.
After that, inspect the finished surface for various defects that may have occurred during the work. If you did everything right, remembering to check the evenness, then you should not have any problems.

Next, consider the first option for installing parquet boards on the floor.

Floating masonry

This is a fairly simple way to cover floors. Its main feature is the laying technology, in which the coating is in no way attached to the base. The solidity of the layer with this method of placement will be achieved only due to good fastening of the boards inareas of interlocks that are located at the edges.

This method is quite relevant in cases where the display is performed on a completely flat floor without any physical defects. The algorithm for installing a parquet board using this technology looks like this:

A waterproofing material is applied to the prepared floor.
After that, a backing sheet is laid out along the wall. From here laying work will begin.
Next, you need to attach one of the boards to the wall to check the evenness of the position.
Then you need to make an expansion gap between the wall and the boards. To do this, you need to install spacer wedges on all sides of the board (which touch the wall), the step between which should be approximately 500 millimeters. Next, a board is pressed tightly against them.
Now you should apply the second board for the first row and fasten them with a butt lock until they click.
Next, you need to make sure that each of the subsequent parquet boards is mounted exactly according to the width of the previous one. In the case of a shift to the outside, a docking problem will occur.
Before laying the last board of the first row, use a tape measure to measure the distance from the wall to the end of the lying board.
Now attach a whole board to the end of the row and on its wrong side mark the length along which the necessary piece will need to be cut.
Then it must be docked with the rest of the boards, before that, having installed wedges against the wall, as with the first board.
If the length allows, then the remaining piece can be usedto start a new row, docking with the previous one with a lock.

Next, carefully place the rest of the parts, fastening them with neighboring and previous ones.

When you get to the nut, make cuts at the bottom of the door frame so that the board fits in there. After that, mark the location of the threshold and lay the thresholds there.
Now along it, from the parquet side, cut off the backing with a knife.
Then, marks are made through the holes and the step is removed. Drill holes, install plastic dowel plugs there and put the step in place, fix it with self-tapping screws.
Now, with a chisel, remove part of the lock from the boards around the nut along their length and width.
Next, you need to apply carpentry glue to the sections and first put the board under the opening, and then attach it to the glue. If necessary, they can be knocked out. Next, the rest of the boards for the threshold are laid and pressed against the threshold from above.

Advantages of "floating" masonry

Next, it is worth considering the points due to which it is worth paying attention to this technology of installing a parquet board on plywood or concrete. Among them:

quite simple and fast styling algorithm;
errors made during installation can be corrected;
can replace individual boards;
very easy to dismantle and reuse material;
coating resistant to temperature fluctuations;
no need to buy a lot of glue;
can be used immediately after installation.

Flaws of technology

Don't forget the downsides as well. Among them:

not suitable for indoors larger than 50 square meters;
not recommended for use in rooms with a heavy load on the floor;
great sensitivity even to small irregularities.

Mounting the parquet board with glue

The name of the technology speaks for itself. When selling, you need to lay the boards on a base covered with special glue. Moreover, the glue must be selected depending on the type of boards.

Now consider the technology implementation algorithm:

First of all, it is necessary to properly prime the coating on which the boards will be laid.
Now you need to put a board along one of the walls and install plastic inserts between them, at a distance of 500 millimeters from each other.
After you adjust the length of the last board in the row, you can apply glue with a spatula. The width should be 100 millimeters wider than the outer line of the board. Once the adhesive has been applied, spread it evenly with a notched trowel.

Algorithm for working with mounting on glue

Next, you need to lay out the boards on the glue, immediately exactly joining them with a lock.
As soon as you lay out the first row, apply a new portion of glue to the concrete and distribute it in the same way as in the firstonce. Then lay out the second row, with a shift of one third of the length or half of the board from the first row. Moreover, they must first be docked in length, and then connected with a lock. Thus, the entire coverage is laid out.
When the installation work is completed, the coating should be left to dry for three days, while avoiding any stress.
After the glue dries, seal the seams. When it hardens, you can remove the inserts from the walls and install the baseboards.

Advantages of Technology

As in other options, this method of installing parquet boards also has positive aspects. Among them:

Unlike the previous installation method, this one allows you to process rooms with an area of more than 50 square meters;
such floors are more resistant to increased loads;
This plank mounting option can be used to install over screed covering underfloor heating.

Cons

There are more disadvantages than advantages. Among them:

To implement this method, you must use a decent amount of building glue. In this regard, you will have to spend money not only on acquiring a quality coating, but also on the material for fastening.
Unlike floating installation, this method requires working with substances, the period of complete drying of which must be at least two days. In this regard, the operation of the premises is unacceptable immediately after the installation is completed. It is also necessary to ensure that no onedid not accidentally get into the room until the glue and subsequently the sealant had dried completely so that the boards did not move.
The process of mounting the coating with glue is very difficult to implement. It must be done carefully so as not to stain the front of the board, and at the same time quickly and accurately so as not to encounter various problems.
Unlike the floating masonry of parquet boards, installation on glue is carried out with the expectation that there will be no interference with the integrity of the structure. Therefore, if during the installation of the coating some errors were made that were discovered after the completion of the work, it will be impossible to correct them.
If during operation you damaged one or several boards, then replacing them will be a rather complicated procedure, during which you can accidentally damage entire elements of the coating.

Now it's worth considering the last option for laying the coating.

Installation of parquet boards on nails

This method is also quite common under a different name. Maybe you have heard such a term as "laying parquet boards on logs"? Actually, before you start work, you need to decide whether you will lay the coating on plywood sheets or directly on the logs themselves. In the second case, you will need to choose such boards so that they can withstand loads and do not bend in empty places. Preferably, their thickness should be no less than 22 millimeters.

Now to the styling procedure itself:

Before installation,surface needs to be prepared. It needs to be cleaned of dust and loose particles.
Next, it should be strengthened with a deep impregnation primer and repair the cracks with a repair mixture, after expanding them.
After that, it is also worth waterproofing the floor. For this, both coating solutions and impregnations, and roofing material are suitable.
As soon as the surface dries, logs are installed in the room. If you do not want to change the height of the floors much, then they can be attached to a concrete base. Otherwise, they can be lifted and leveled using special studs.

Insulation material must be laid between the lags, tightened with a film that serves as protection against dust.
Further (if you chose the first option), sheets of plywood are laid on top of the lags. They must be fixed with self-tapping screws, twisted into logs in increments of 180 millimeters. It is important to ensure that the edge of each sheet falls in the middle of the log.
After any of the methods presented earlier, a parquet board is laid.
If you chose the second option, then before attaching the coating to the logs (without a plywood board), you need to take care of purchasing special nails that are equipped with an anti-corrosion coating. Their size should be selected depending on the thickness of the parquet board used.
Next, you need to lay out the cover across the lags.
Each board is laid out across the joists. Further, nails are hammered from the side of the ridge. You need to drive them underan angle of 45 degrees. The same rule applies to the use of screws. But only from the side of the groove.
All that remains is to install the remaining flooring in the same way.