MyHammer Newsroom UK

With some care and attention, laying parquet flooring can be a DIY job.

So you bought new flooring and now it’s time to fit it. If you need to spend your time doing something else, we recommend finding a floor fitter or handyman at www.MyHammer.co.uk. You will most likely save yourself time and money! However, if you still want to fit it yourself, below are some rough guidelines.

Parquet flooring is naturally made from wood and as such is sensitive to changes in humidity. When you have purchased your flooring it is important to remove it from the packet and leave it in the room where it is to be laid for 3-4 days prior to fitting. While the flooring is acclimatizing you can make sure that the sub-floor surface is smooth and flat. If your sub floor is concrete you can screed the surface to make sure it is flat. If the concrete was recently laid, i.e. new builds, then you should cover it with a damp proof membrane. If the sub floor is wooden you can flatten the surface with either a sander or by laying hardboard tiles over the top. If you are laying onto a tiled surface, the best thing to do is use a self leveling compound to ensure that grouted areas between tiles are flush.

It’s important to measure the size of the room so that you can establish the width of the last row to be installed. We advise laying the floor tiles in a dry run. If the last row needs to be cut to less than half its natural size, we suggest cutting the first row a little to ensure a stable and more professional looking finish. NB: Because of wood sensitivity to humidity, it is important to leave a minimum gap of 10mm between the tiles and the wall – this allows for any floor expansion.

Make sure you have a suitable underlay, then lay the tiles from the centre of the room. Build out from already laid tiles. We suggest that you lay away from the door and work your way towards it in order to avoid walking on the freshly laid tiles. If this isn’t possible, place a cloth on the freshly laid floor area and then put a piece of hardboard on top. By kneeling on the hardboard you spread your weight over the tiles and reduce the likelihood of them shifting. If you hammer the tiles to ensure that they sit together tightly, use a piece of scrap wood to avoid damaging the flooring tiles. If you have to cut tiles to fit them around awkwardly shaped corners, we recommend using a piece of cardboard to gauge the shape and then use that as a template for cutting your tile.

Once you’ve laid all the flooring you will need to go around the edges and fill your expansion gap with a cork expansion strip, then hide this with edge moulding. You could avoid the edge moulding, but that would require you to remove the skirting board before starting. Once you’re done, you can fit the skirting board and cover the cork expansion strip.

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Tags: DIY, parquet flooring, wood flooring

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