People who have practicality, good taste and do not want to save on their comfort, often choose parquet as a floor covering. After all, with proper care, it is very durable and has a beautiful appearance. Moreover, due to the production of 100% natural material, parquet is absolutely environmentally friendly.
But the correct laying of parquet requires professionalism, and any person will not be able to do it. Everything changed when the production of parquet boards began in the 90s. Now the wood floor has the form of panels that close together and can be installed by anyone who knows how to use a tool and will follow the installation rules. Further in the article, we will try to figure out how to properly lay a parquet board and what are the nuances when working with this material.
Material description
Start with the right understandingparquet board as one of the types of wooden flooring. According to its structure, it represents wooden planks glued together from different tree species, which are located perpendicular to one another. This was done in order to increase the strength of the flooring and make it resistant to temperature extremes.
Parquet board usually consists of three layers of wood:
- Sanded and coated with several coats of varnish or oil. It is typically 4mm thick and is made from precious woods for an aesthetic finish.
- Considered basic and up to 9 mm thick.
- The third (1.5-3 mm) ensures the stability of all planks and, together with the second layer, is made of softwood. Recently, plywood has been increasingly appearing instead of the third layer to reduce the cost of coating.
Types of parquet boards
Before laying the parquet board, you need to make a choice and know its varieties. So, it differs in the upper layer of valuable wood species, which can consist of one to three bands. From here, the parquet board is single-strip, two-strip and three-strip.
The top layer of a single-layer parquet board is solid and consists entirely of one sheet along its entire length. Since it is the most difficult and expensive for the manufacturer to make such a layer, the board has the highest cost.
In a two-strip parquet board, the top layer consists oftwo strips of the same width, evenly spaced along the entire length. The cost of such a board is inferior to a single-lane look.
The cheapest will be a three-strip type of parquet board, the top layer of which also consists of precious woods, but has three strips of the same width.
Pros and cons
The described type of coating was invented in order to create an alternative to parquet. There is no doubt that the parquet board consists exclusively of natural wood with all its advantages. It is sold completely ready for laying, as the material supplied for sale is panels that are equipped with locks for easy installation and do not require additional processing.
The advantages of parquet boards include less susceptibility to temperature changes relative to parquet, which in the warm season due to increased humidity often swells, and in winter, due to the use of space heating, it begins to dry out and may even crack. The design of the parquet board allows it to bend and thus withstand deformation.
In terms of cost, parquet board also outperforms parquet due to the use of less natural material for manufacturing. But the disadvantage is a significantly reduced service life (10-15 years) of this material. It is also noted that the floorboard cannot replace the feeling of warm wood while walking on the floor.
Preparing the base
After choosing and purchasing a parquet board, the most important stage of preparing the base begins, sinceit is allowed to lay a parquet board only on a carefully prepared surface. It can be wooden or concrete, laying on logs or plywood is also used. But all expectations of the delights of a new comfortable floor will be groundless if the rough work is not done to prepare the base according to the following rules:
- The base must be perfectly flat and solid. If the surface is strong, but has many minor differences, then self-leveling building dry mixes are used. If the base has significant differences, it is necessary to perform a screed.
- Wood does not tolerate moisture, so the substrate must be dry and free from microorganisms (mold, fungus).
- No cracks, lifts or peels are allowed. Cracks are covered, delaminations are cleaned and brought to the ideal level of the base, rises are removed and cleaned.
- Surface must be free of dirt and dust.
- The parquet board is laid exclusively on the substrate. It can be polyethylene foam or pressed cork. In rooms with high humidity (toilet, bathroom, sauna, etc.), a 0.2 mm polyethylene film with an overlap of 20 cm is additionally laid on the base.
- It is recommended to leave the floorboard in the room where it will be installed for two weeks before installation.
It is also allowed to lay parquet boards on heated floors, but there are some nuances here.
Laying on heated concrete floor
The parquet board is capable ofdistribute heat evenly. Therefore, heated floors will be a good basis for it. But before laying a parquet board on a warm floor and during further operation, it is important to perform a few simple tasks:
- It is necessary at least 2 weeks before laying to turn on the floors at 2/3 of their rated power, and a couple of days before laying, transfer to a level of 18 ° С.
- When using the floor, it is important not to allow heating above 27 ° C, otherwise the temperature will adversely affect the coating - the floor dries out and the wood may shrink.
- Changes in temperature throughout the day should remain within 5 °C.
- Wood varieties of beech, maple and jatoby react more than others to moisture and temperature changes, and therefore it is not recommended to lay such types of parquet board both on heated concrete floors and in wet rooms.
Compensation seam
As already mentioned, due to its naturalness, wood reacts strongly to the level of humidity and ambient temperature. The result is the process of swelling or shrinkage of the material, which must be taken into account during installation in order to prevent deformation of the floor.
To do this, an expansion joint of 7 to 15 mm is left between the edges of the board and the wall, pipe, door casing, etc., which will prevent the board from abutting against the wall when it swells. In the future, it is easily closed with skirting boards or thresholds.
In order to prevent gaps between the baseboard and the board in the winter season (when the floor dries out), whenwhen choosing a skirting board, it should be ensured that its width is one third more than the width of the expansion joint. It is also worth making sure that, after laying, cables or other objects that interfere with its intended purpose do not fall into this seam.
Laying direction
To determine how best to lay the parquet board, you need to be guided by the direction of the incident light in the room. If the room has an oblong shape, it is better to lay the board longitudinally. When laying on a wooden base, the direction of installation is determined by laying the parquet boards across the subfloor boards.
How to lay parquet board: technology
Laying should start by calculating the number of rows, based on the width of the room. If the width of the last row is less than 4 cm, then the first row should be cut. Since it is only possible to properly lay a parquet board taking into account the expansion joint, its size must be taken into account when calculating the number of rows. Also, to comply with the expansion joint from the boards of the first row of laying, the ridges that are provided for fastening with other boards should be cut off.
Speaking about laying technology, it is worth noting that its implementation does not require professional knowledge of the builder. Of course, having experience in such work, you can cope with the installation of a floor from a parquet board much faster, but lack of experience will not be an obstacle. So, now we will figure out how to lay the parquet board on our own:
- First along the walls wherelaying, wedges are set that will withstand the gap between the boards and the wall. They can be bought or cut into the desired size from the same parquet board.
- It is better to start laying from left to right, from a solid wall, placing the first board with a cut ridge against the wall in a corner. After that, the first row is laid, attaching the short side of the other board to the first short side of the board. The latter should stand at an angle to the first and rest with its spike against the groove of the first. Carefully pressing down, we lower the second board, and its spike falls into the groove, forming a lock between the two boards.
- Then, the first row is laid in the same way. If the lock snaps into place with difficulty, then a slight rocking of the board is allowed during lowering. But this must be done carefully and without harm to the castle as a whole.
- The last board of the row is cut with a saw or grinder, taking into account the expansion joint and fits into the next row.
- Next, the second row is formed, and its longitudinal spikes are gradually inserted into the grooves of the first. In places where the locks do not snap into place tightly, it is allowed to knock the board with a rubber mallet. To do this, a small wooden block is attached to the opposite side of the board, and it is gently knocked out with a hammer until the lock is completely closed.
- The transverse joints between the boards in both rows must not match. It is necessary to ensure that they are at a distance of at least 30 cm from each other. This is how the laying goes to the end of the room.
Methods of laying parquet boards
Another significant difference between a parquet board and solid or piece parquet is the variety of ways of laying it. Such opportunities contribute to the wider use of parquet boards as an alternative to parquet flooring. Depending on the substrate for laying, there are 3 main ways to lay the parquet board:
- Floating.
- Glue.
- On the logs.
Floating way
It is worth noting right away that this method is similar to the method of laying laminate and is the simplest and most inexpensive. Boards are placed on a special substrate and are not attached to the base. But due to the deformation of the substrate or the imperfection of the base, over time, deflections of the parquet board will be formed one way or another. It is thanks to them that a board laid in this way cannot be restored without complete dismantling.
In case of installing a large amount of furniture or other heavy objects, this installation method is not recommended, as gaps may form between the joints of the boards.
Glue installation method
Used when a solid subfloor is absolutely necessary or when laying over large areas. When using this method, nothing will be better than laying a parquet board on plywood, preferably moisture resistant. To do this, glue is applied to an absolutely flat surface and plywood is laid in a checkerboard pattern with sheets up to 80 cm. Small gaps from 3 to 6 mm are left between them so that the material “breathes” and does not occurdeformation with temperature changes. Next, the plywood is screwed with dowels and self-tapping screws to the base. Now you can lay the parquet board, but only after 2-3 days after the glue has completely dried.
The board is attached to plywood with polyurethane glue. Laying a parquet board both on glue and on a base without it is equally simple. This process fits easily into the overall laying technology. The main thing is to prevent the glue from drying out and immediately remove its remnants from the seams.
Laying on logs
This method makes it possible to quickly and reliably arrange the base for the parquet board. With a flat surface, the logs are attached to the floor at a distance of up to 900 mm. If the base is uneven, then bars are screwed into the logs, which are adjusted by bolts in height.
The base for the parquet board is laid on the logs in order to distribute the load. It can be made of fiberboard, chipboard or special large parquet boards.
Also, there are options for direct laying parquet boards on logs. Further, the process is carried out according to the general technology.
How to lay a parquet board on a wooden floor
The difficulty of this work is the lack of perfect fastening of the wooden floor to the base, resulting in kinks, squeaks, gaps, etc. You can deal with this with coarse putty mixed with sawdust. All gaps, joints and junctions are clogged with this mixture. After followspolishing the base with special equipment.
Plywood is often used to smooth out all irregularities and remove gaps, fixed with self-tapping screws to the floor. Laying parquet boards is done with glue.
Existing ways of laying a parquet board allow it to be used in almost any conditions, and in appearance it is not inferior to parquet. At the same time, the costs will be much less than the costs of parquet, especially if you lay the parquet board with your own hands.
