Parquet finish advice sought

2 years ago

Good morning.

I'm looking for a little advice. I have just fitted a parquet floor and really like how rough it looks. Some blocks are varnished, some aren't, some are discoloured etc. It looks great (to me) when I clean it with a damp cloth and I'd love it to just look like that but I'm unsure what to finish it with. I've tried lots of varnishes and they all just look a bit plastic. I gather from reading that I can't use hard wax oil as many of the blocks are varnished and I don't want to really sand it back and lose how it looks. Whats a good option and is there a way of recreating how rich it looks when it's wet?

(obviously I haven't finished filling gaps and this aesthetic is probably not to anyone else's taste; don't judge me internet!)

Thanks!

Tom

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Comments (7)

Ellie
2 years ago
Just wanted to say I love it!! I actually prefer the lighter/dry floor as I'd have dark furniture on it and the darker floor would probably be too close to my dark furniture colour that I'd prefer the lighter one for more contrast.

Lovely!
HU-498060728
Original Author
2 years ago
Thanks Ellie! Glad someone else likes it. Good point re dark furniture against the lighter one.
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Lucky you - discovering a Parquet floor, this one is Pine, laid herringbone design, it has been previously sanded - not sympathetically though, you can see some chatter marks. Don't worry they will all come out - if you have it professionally sanded - Parquet is a specialist sand as the grain of the wood is not in all the same direction. It can be stained - I would reccommend a water based stain and finished in a clear matt lacquer. If you wanted to paint it white, you would need to treat all the knots with knot primer, followed by a floor primer, then a couple of coats of paint ie Farrow & Ball Personal recommendation a clear finish to highligh the knots and grain of your wood - using white accents Good Kuck - Elaine
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Those are wise words Karen! am so glad it worked out for you. Love to see a photo, what colour or shade did you choose? Jools, The bitumen is a right pig, best way we found is to make it cold, so it becomes brittle, then you can scrape /chip it off. We used a window scraper, coarse wire wool and various sandpaper. We left the window open on a cold night, turned heating off in there, and you could try a cooler fan on it. Putting ice bags on it didn't work as well as we hoped. we used a round sander, but it can cause swirls, it's really awkward ! To be honest a few dips and scratches on an old floor are okay in the end, don't be too afraid of it, they are only pieces of wood stuck down on the floor, not bone china, as long as you try not to break them, or set fire to them, otherwise you can't possibly do more damage than I did, and they recovered!
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Hi Mandy, Thanks for your wonderful compliments - we are a bit smug with it! :-) We have parquet throughout downstairs, the hall had a varnish on it that had a yellow cast and when we took the carpet up in the lounge, the lounge part had been varnished years ago with a dark yellowy brown stain. We were originally going to go with a dark stain but when the sanders actually took the varnishes off by sanding, the wood had a lovely grey natural tone anyway and had lost the yellow look. We were thinking of just putting a clear oil on but this would give it that 'wet look' that we wanted to avoid and also consequently give it a slightly yellow hue. After a bit of research we opted for Osmo 'raw' oil which is clear oil with a white pigment - you need to be careful what wood you put it on as it doesn't work so well with dark woods but we were very happy. Our pro was good but I wouldn't recommend due to a few snagging issues - however I would recommend speaking to The Natural Wood Floor Company in Wandsworth, London for advice if you are SE based - they are a supply shop with excellent advice! I have attached photos of our floor before it was oiled (and not fully sanded back at this stage) so you can see it naturally with no product - would have loved to keep it like that but it would be marked in no time!
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Comments (1)
The floor would need to be sanded thoroughly to remove all previous varnish. You'd start off with say an 80 grit and work up to a 120. If 80's not cutting through it, you might try 60. It's a bit of a pig as the varnish clogs the paper constantly, but it can be done by a confident DIY'er. Basically, the floor needs to be consistent colour and finish all over before finishing ie; Bare wood state. You can then re-varnish or use a multitude of other products including floor oils like Osmo Polyoil or Fiddes Hardwax oil.
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Sonia
2 years ago
I wonder if a matt varnish would look better? It will finish the floor but not leave it all shiny.
Karen B
2 years ago
I think this looks great too! What about linseed oil from linseedpaint.com
Daisy England
2 years ago
I like it too. See if there’s anything on this website. We deal with them regularly and they’re very helpful.

https://www.naturallyoakflooring.co.uk/

They don’t just supply flooring but finishes in all colours too. Good quality product.
HU-498060728
Original Author
2 years ago
Thanks all. Great ideas. I did try a matt Varnish and while it was better than gloss it still Looked like it had a plastic sheen on top. I’ll try the linseed and thanks for the link Daisy.
PRO
Inner Space Flooring
2 years ago
Hi Tom, I really like this look! As the floor is varnished, or part varnished, you can't put an oil or wax on top, it just won't penetrate the wood. If you did sand it back, it would loose that variation that you like, which is from the different finishes.

I would suggest filling in the gaps with some resin filler mixed with saw dust (ideally from the same species of wood) and then buff the surface with a screening mesh and then cover with a polyurethane lacquer. Matt or ultra matt would work really well.

Good luck with it!

Parquet finish advice sought

Comments (7)

Ellie

HU-498060728
Original Author

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Sonia

Karen B

Daisy England

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Parquet finish advice sought

Comments (7)

Ellie

HU-498060728Original Author

Related Discussions

Sonia

Karen B

Daisy England

HU-498060728Original Author

Inner Space Flooring

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

HU-498060728
Original Author

HU-498060728
Original Author