Design Parquet: engineering one of the most stable solid floors

A bit of history about sizes and methods.

There are various types of blocks used for Design Parquet. In older, and still some times in modern days the wood blocks originally used (produced) in the UK were around 20mm thick and came with Tongue & Grooves. These blocks were installed on a thick bed of bitumen where the T&G's kept the pattern together (and when now the old bitumen becomes brittle these same &T&G's makes it rather difficult to only lift up loose blocks without loosening neighbouring blocks).

If you look at main land Europe, a completely different size and method has been used for ages and is still in practice - because of the stability such a floor is able to provide, the simplicity of the method and the "ease" - with professional tools and some experience - of installing any pattern.

"Tapis" floors - carpet thickness, two historical view-points

It was quite common in manor houses to show off your richness. Not by changing the whole decorative style of the "reception rooms" but by changing the oriental rugs (tapis - tapijt) in these rooms when seasons changed. Oriental rugs were much more expansive than 'common' wooden floors and being able to change them two or three times a year really was regarded as the summum bonum of wealth. The rug was not placed on top of a wooden floor, but in fact the wood floor surrounded the rug to create a level surface but with the possibility to change one rug for another. Both rug and wood floor were of the same thickness to prevent tripping of (drunken?) guests or the slipping of the rug itself.

The above explanation is sometimes disputed by other historians who say that the main reason for tapis floors had nothing to do with being able to change the rugs, but everything to do with the size of the rug and the owner not wanting to show the bare and mostly battered floorboards not covered by the rug. Installing wood blocks of the same thickness around the rug to create a large 'mat well' solved this problem in a very easy way.

Hence the name "Tapis wood floor", a 6 to 10mm thick wood floor, the same thickness as the 'tapis' (rug) had, no matter which historical view point you find more believable.