Parquet Installation Process

The installation (*1) of your parquet floor of your choice by Wood You Like's professional team will involve:

• laying the subfloor first: on concrete this will often be the mosaic, on existing floorboards at least 12mm ply will be screwed down
  
  
• sanding the subfloor level to create the smoothest surface for the actual pattern. This will reduce the amount of sanding of the actual pattern
  
  
• setting the middle line of your choosen pattern - this is not always the exact middle line of your room, depending on the design and the straightness of the walls in your room. And sometimes we start way out of the middle, making sure the pattern lines up with the most obviouso focal point in your room (think fire-place or another object you will group your settees around)
  
  
• after the first line of the pattern has bonded fully to the subfloor, the pattern will be installed further, making sure that when we nearing the wall (or "obstruction" such as fire place, alcove, built-in book cases etc) the pattern ends and/or continues as eye pleasing as possible and we leave sufficient space for the border (if applicable).
  
  
• if applicable, the border around the whole of the pattern is installed, again as eye pleasing as possible. This sometimes means cutting the last border pieces in an angle to continue along the next wall, or keeping a straight edge here. The same applies for any "obstacle" we meet.
  
  
• once the whole pattern and border has had time to fully bond with the subfloor we'll bring in our "work-horse": the professional belt-sander with continues sand-belt.
  The first sanding round with a coarse grit will take care of any height differences and remove any excess parquet adhesive, plus our "greasy" finger prints. The sanding goes from one wall to another, then walking back on our tracks. When we proceed forwards again, the earlier thread will be overlapped. Once the whole room is "walked" this way, we turn 90 degrees and do it all over again.
  Those areas the big sander can't reach will be done by the edge-sander (which means going down on our knees)
  
  
• the collected sand-dust is removed from the dust collecting bag of the sander and the sanding belt is replaced by a less coarse one. Now the "walking" of the room starts again to smooth down the wood even further. Again, areas where the "work-horse" can't reach are sanded with the edge-sander. This time the collected sand-dust is kept for the next step:
  
  
• although the individual pieces of the tiles and/or blocks are very precisely cut in the factory and our professional team makes sure all fit as tight as possible, some tiny gaps can appear during the time the adhesive bond the wood floor to the subfloor.
  But because we use the sand dust from your own floor and mix this with a special filler which is then "plastered" over the whole floor - and not cumbersome filling gap by gap as some imagine we do, would take forever! - after this special mix has dried your whole floor will look "solid" and gapless (any slight colour differences between the wood and the wood-filler will fade quickly).
  
  
• to remove excess wood-filler and prepare your floor for the finish application, the work-horse is replaced by a finishing sander which consists of 5 individual spinning sanding disks. The grit of the sanding paper is again finer than the last sanding round. This, in combination with the individual little disks spinning at heigh speed will give the floor the smoothness it needs before we apply the natural oil finish.
  
  
• The finishing touches!
  If you've opted for Oak, your floor will receive two coats of Natural HardWaxOil to bring out its natural character as best as possible.
  For tropical wood-species we apply what we've started to call the "tropical-combo": first coat of very thin oil, followed - after the oil has dried - one coat of hardWaxOil. The reason for using a thin oil here first is the fact that tropical wood is more oily than Oak (or other "blond" wood-species) which will interfere with the normal working of the HardWaxOil.
  
  
• One final buffing (with the finishing machine, now with buffing pads attached to the 5 disks instead of sanding paper) to bring out the full character of your new original, one in its kind, Design Parquet floor:

And remember: when Wood You Like's own professional team installs your wooden floor, you'll receive our unique 4-seasons guarantee on the works executed. Why a specific 4-seasons guarantee and not just a 1-year guarantee? Simply to explain that during the changes of the seasons, your floor will adapt to the changes in humidity every season brings with it. This is a very normal and natural process.
However, if you think your floor isn't behaving as it should, during the first 4 seasons you simply give us a call and we'll visit as soon as possible to see what is happening. Extra peace of mind for you.

Request the special (on-line) brochure, filled with interior design images of most patterns available and even more information - such as wood-species available (or browse the 3 main types of patterns here first):

*1 = We have to limit the area we cover with our installation service to Kent and bordering parts of the surrounding counties such as East-Sussex and Surrey.
(Providing adequate accommodation for our team is of course also possible, if your property is further afield and you are unable to find professional installers of the same caliber nearby.)

• Call us on 01233 - 713725 to discuss your preferences of unique natural wooden flooring and options with us
• Or drop by in our showroom in the lovely village of Charing(nr Ashford, Kent) for a face-to-face meeting, fresh coffee served.