How to lay parquet: methods, necessary tools and a step-by-step process for proper installation. Parquet board laying with your own hands Parquet board laying from scratch stages

The rich and respectable appearance of parquet attracts the attention of buyers. With the help of a parquet board, you can create a unique geometric pattern that impresses visitors with its exclusivity.

Different ways of laying: herringbone, diagonal, in a run-up make the coating original and original. The finishing material is not only beautiful, but also reliable and wear-resistant. It can last for many years without spoiling its aesthetic appearance, without losing strength.

Previously, the flooring of this flooring was one of the most difficult processes in the arrangement of an apartment. With the advent of massive parquet boards, the ease of installation allows you to do the work yourself in a short time with your own hands. Laying a parquet board is a description of the technology and the video topic of our article. We will share with you our experience on how to properly lay the finishing material, and video clips of our work will introduce you to step-by-step instructions for laying parquet boards with your own hands.

Types of parquet board

The parquet board is massive and multi-layered.

Which parquet board to choose for laying

• pencil;
• square;
• PVA glue;
• wedges;
• roulette;
• hammer;
• wood cutter.

We start the floating laying of the parquet board from the long wall and lay it from left to right, leaving a distance of 1.5 cm between the wall and the board, there should also be a gap between the floorboards, which we make by inserting wedges between them.

When laying the boards, we connect them along the end, and then along the entire length, tapping on it with a hammer or a wooden block in order to firmly connect them together. After laying the wedges are removed.

Laying parquet boards diagonally made in several ways: from the corner from the window to the door, from the center of the room to the left, laying the cord in advance from one corner of the room to another.

We cut off a 45 degree angle from 2 sides of the parquet floor. Apply to the corner of the room, suitable or not. The rest will be a blank for cutting the lamellas. Mark and saw off the next floorboard on the left. Let's insert it into the previous one. Next, go to the right, inserting them one by one. When we approach the right wall, with the help of the workpiece we cut off the right corner. We insert another parquet with a cut right corner.

When laying herringbone parquet board you need to stretch the cord through the middle of the room to set the direction of the Christmas tree. First, lay the first two herringbone parquets at a 45 degree angle to the wall, perpendicular to each other. Put a weight on it. Then we continue to lay the Christmas tree by inserting the spikes into the grooves. Try not to move the Christmas tree during the laying process. As soon as the parquet board is laid in a herringbone pattern, let it mature for 3-4 days, and then proceed to scraping.

The top layer should be sanded 5 times, maybe less. It depends on the type of parquet. The final stage of the cycle is covering the parquet surface with 5-8 layers of varnish. It is applied with a special roller.

The cost of laying a parquet board depends on the range of services provided by professional craftsmen. It includes the preparation of the base, the elimination of creaking, sanding, polishing the surface of the parquet, fixing the baseboards, varnishing the finishing base.

The price per square meter will also depend on the complexity of laying the lamella, its toning. Basically, the price of laying parquet boards will be from 250-350 rubles per square meter, not counting scraping (175 rubles per square meter), toning-160. Installation of a plinth-89 rubles per meter, installation of plywood-160.

Laying a parquet board, a description of the technology and a video will help you make a floor covering with your own hands so that it will serve you for a long time.

Even the most high-quality and beautiful material can be spoiled by illiterate editing - this is the bitter truth of life. Although paying almost the same price as for a purchase, not everyone strives for a construction team: is laying a parquet board really that difficult? Not at all - the main thing is to know the important nuances and do everything step by step. And how exactly - now we'll figure it out.

If you still have questions after watching, read on.

Laying technology: step by step

Let's say right away: laying a parquet board is not laying a parquet or laying a laminate. It really has its own subtleties and nuances.

Stage I. We acquire high-quality material

Today, more than a hundred types of wood are used for the manufacture of parquet boards, and the initial quality is completely different. Therefore, we will give you valuable advice: purchase a parquet board only from those companies that themselves are engaged in such repair work. They will not order material from manufacturers, which then does not fit together and creates a lot of problems. Such is the subtlety. As for the type of parquet board, three-layer is the most popular today. From the name, you already guessed that it really has three layers: the top, also called the front, middle and bottom:

• The top working layer has a thickness of 1 mm to 6 mm (the thicker one will always withstand more polishing than the thinner one). This layer must be coated with varnish or special oil.
• The middle one usually consists of short sheets of softwood, or less often - of special moisture-resistant plywood. It is in the middle layer that all the connecting elements for bonding parquet boards are usually located.
• The bottom layer is already made of pine or spruce plywood 2 mm thick. The main task of the bottom layer is to prevent the parquet board from bending or deforming.

If you are going to lay the parquet board so that it resembles a massive one, then take the material with a solid front layer. The planks of such a parquet board can be glued in the form of "herringbones", "wickerwork", "squares" or "deck". But the most durable is considered to be the lock connection at the Swedish parquet board - the company Khars. The manufacturer claims that such a connection can withstand up to one and a half tons to break.

Stage II. Preparing the base for laying

The most important thing in this matter is to properly prepare the base for the board. So, according to unverified data, up to 90% of subsequent problems with the appearance of the laid parquet are caused by the quality of the subfloor, and not by the marriage of the material itself. So, what is still acceptable:

• 1-3 mm difference per linear meter
• humidity up to 2-3%. To check this value, use a modern moisture meter.

If the base is clearly not even and even has bulges, use special level masses (only based on dry mixes). Carefully inspect the old screed and work on loose areas, defects and dirt. If the humidity value turned out to be more than the permissible value, then overlap the vapor barrier film on the floor, then sealing the joints with construction tape, or apply a special primer.

Experts recommend laying parquet boards at a humidity of 40-60% and a temperature of 20-25°C. It should be noted that the parquet board behaves more stably than solid wood: it reacts less to changes in temperature and humidity, and is more resistant to static and dynamic loads.

Stage III. We put a special substrate

To lay a parquet board in this way, you definitely need a substrate that will separate the unprotected board from the base. It will immediately perform several important functions:

• Evens out small irregularities and defects in the base.
• Provides additional waterproofing.
• It will make the floor of the parquet board even warmer.
• It will become a useful shock-absorbing layer, valuable while walking.

And finally, the underlay performs another valuable function, which is rarely mentioned: it does not allow the parquet board to crawl over the base in case of temperature changes. After all, screed or gypsum has its own expansion temperature, and it differs significantly from the same parameter for the coating. This is the danger of the absence of a substrate on the screed: literally a year after such movements invisible to the eye, the accumulated cement or gypsum dust begins to seep through the cracks.

As a substrate, you can use foamed polyethylene, extruded polystyrene foam, sheet cork or six-felt cardboard. This is from materials known for a long time. But today professional ones are already gaining popularity. Here is a laying master class on such a basis:

The parquet board is also often laid on. After all, this natural and environmentally friendly material still has excellent noise protection. And the technology of gluing such a substrate is extremely simple - as with wallpaper: polyurethane glue is applied to a clean, dust-free surface and the cork is rolled with a roller. After that, you can immediately lay the boards. However, during such work, do not overdo it with glue - otherwise the cork will warp and swell with bubbles.

Stage IV. Getting ready to install

When laying a parquet board on an old wooden floor, be sure to measure its moisture content - this material is hygroscopic. You can direct parquet boards as you like, but more often they are oriented along the length of the room for the sake of organicity of the entire interior design. Although the designers themselves often use the texture of the floor to visually expand or lengthen the space. If the room is perfectly square - lay in the direction of the light. You can even diagonally - however, there will be a lot of waste later.

Tip: if you find specimens with defects or non-uniform coloring in a box with a parquet board, leave them for trimming.

Stage V. Learning to connect boards

Different manufacturers produce their own parquet board and prefer a certain type of fastening:

1. Paste method;
2. Castle connection, also called "click";
3. With fixing brackets or tightening straps.

The most convenient, of course, is the lock connection. The grooves and plug-in combs are joined in this case without any other means - you just need to insert the crest of the board at an angle into the groove of the other, and smoothly lower the first board to a horizontal position. After that, a couple of light blows are enough, and that's it.

Here are the main advantages of this method:

• Fast laying;
• No need for additional equipment or facilities;
• Wood has room for thermal expansion.

If at some point in the room you cannot lift the board for docking, then just use a hammer with a bar. Yes, this requires a lot of precision and accuracy. Tip: when joining the coating with the door frame, start laying with a board wound under the jamb.

The insertion method, of course, loses to the previous one: with such laying, you constantly have to use a bar and a hammer, and replacing damaged boards in the future will take a lot of time. But near heating systems and door frames, it is easier to lay such boards, and grooves and plug-in combs are less likely to be defective.

But laying parquet boards with staples or a belt fastening system is more used for parquet boards that have a thickness of 15 to 21 mm. At the same time, the boards themselves still need to be glued, and in the future it will be difficult to disassemble the floor.

Stage VI. Laying parquet board

So, today parquet boards are laid mainly in two ways: adhesive and floating. Adhesive Adhesive method involves fixing the boards to the base by gluing. So they put it on a cement-sand or concrete floor, on a gypsum screed and level-mass. If you choose this method, be sure to pay attention to the recommendation of the board manufacturer himself - what requirements he puts forward. All this can be found in the attached instructions. Here's how to lay a parquet board with an adhesive method:

• Step 1. We prepare the base: we check for evenness, completely remove dust and process it with a synthetic primer (water is undesirable). In total, it should take you a little more than a kilogram per square meter (it all depends on the screed and the quality of the primer itself).
• Step 2. Lay out the parquet boards from the first two boxes in the order in which you will mount them. Apply glue.
• Step 3. Putting the first board. It must be longer than its width. We leave an expansion gap of 6-12 mm between the wall and the floor.
• Step 4. We knock the second board to the first - through a special bar. Boards need to be glued within ten minutes.
• Step 5. When you cut the last board, immediately use the rest of it to start the next row.
• Step 6. Insert small wedges or spacers into the expansion gap between the wall and the floor (you can see them in the photo).
• Step 7. After you glue a few rows, carefully check if there are any gaps.
• Step 8. When all work is completed, close the seams with acrylic sealant or cork chips. Alternatively, you can also put a special metal threshold.

Tip: for convenience, use a square - only with it you can draw really straight lines.

The so-called "floating" method of laying parquet boards has many advantages. Most importantly, there are important gaps for ventilation and an imperceptible change in the shape of the board when the temperature changes. As evidence: in winter, with good heating, you can notice small gaps between the boards - and in summer they are not visible. Moreover, the wider the board itself, the more noticeable. These are important processes! And, if you chose a parquet board with a high-quality lock, then it will last much longer than a regular glued one. You can see the process in more detail in this photo-instruction:

The "floating" floor from the parquet board is laid in two ways: using the same glue and "castle". In the first method, the boards are not glued to the base, but to each other, and in the second, they are connected without glue. Lock connections also have subspecies: with “turn and click” or with “hit and click”. Say, the speed of such assembly is really impressive - just a couple of hours.

You can put everything on your own:

• Step 1. Start from the left corner of the room with the so-called "latch side" to the wall.
• Step 2. Take the board with both hands, and, holding it at an angle, lay it on the edge of the board of the first row. The edge board that will adhere to the walls should not have grooves - cut them off with a planer.
• Step 3. Start the second row with the rest of the first row. But, if it turned out to be less than 30 cm, cut the new board in half.
• Step 4. When you lay the parquet board at the threshold, check all the time whether the doors open as easily as before.

Just trim the bottom if needed. In addition, there should always be at least a centimeter of distance between the door threshold and the wall. Another important thing - to tightly connect the boards to each other, use a wooden or rubber hammer, only lightly tapping it. Do not take the usual one - damage the floor.

On sufficiently large areas, this laying method is not very suitable - the integrity of the entire coating is violated. The floor will creak and even warp. Therefore, in spacious rooms and halls, parquet boards can only be glued. That's all!

Difficult laying - warm floor and logs

If you are going to lay a parquet board on a warm floor, first of all find a material on sale that would suit the future temperature regime. After all, not all breeds are sufficiently resistant to deformation, especially maple and beech. It is better to give preference to oak or walnut. But keep in mind that the maximum temperature for which any parquet board is designed is 26 ° C. And in order to understand whether the parquet board you have chosen is generally suitable for underfloor heating, look for a special icon “suitable for underfloor heating” and instructions for such installation on its packaging.

All this can help you find and consider a seller or sales manager. If there is nothing of the kind on the material, do not take my word for it. If it is possible to choose, then for such a coating it is better than electric - heating occurs evenly, and the wood expands quieter. True, the floor level will have to be raised high.

If you still decide to lay on, the ease and speed of installation will delight you. You will place the cable on a heat-insulating material (preferably foil-coated), and you can immediately fix a parquet board on top. Convenient to place under the floorboard is also popular: minimal thickness, perfectly even coverage and easy installation. But not many like its radiation. In any case, it is possible to lay a parquet board on such a base only in a “floating” way - after all, the wood will slightly change its parameters from heat. Below is a picture of the installation process.

If you are laying the parquet board on beams or logs, make sure that they are dry and as strong as possible. Miss this moment - over time, the floor will creak unpleasantly, and even deform. It is also important that there is good ventilation under the lags and that water vapor does not accumulate. In general, these are all difficulties. The best way to lay parquet boards on logs is this:

• Step 1. We prepare logs, check for moisture and integrity.
• Step 2. We lay a layer of durable plywood.
• Step 3. We put the parquet board: with glue or on a cork, which will help to slightly remove the static load on the logs themselves (squeak prevention).

Less commonly, but they also practice this method: the parquet board is attached directly to the joists themselves with the help of staples or nails. Then the logs should go in increments of 60 cm, and take the parquet board itself thick enough.

And finally, we will tell you about a newer technology for preparing the base for laying the board - this is. Minimum time and cost: special logs on plastic bases are simply used, which not only slightly raise the floor, but also allow you to carry out the necessary communications under it. Thermal insulation is obtained, of course, much better than a conventional concrete base. Feel free to experiment!

Parquet is a time-tested floor covering. This is an environmentally friendly, reliable material that allows you to make the floor of high quality and beautiful. If you have the strength, time and desire, then you can quite cope with the laying of parquet on your own. The wide selection of parquet boards presented today allows you to make original floor compositions that have gone far from the usual Soviet "Christmas tree".

We prepare the room

Laying parquet is always the final stage of repair work in an apartment or house. Doors, windows, ceilings, walls, heating and other functional systems are already installed and working.

Leave the purchased parquet board unpacked in the very room where it will be installed. This acclimatization period should last at least two days.

We remove the packaging from the parquet board right before the immediate laying of the parquet. Carefully inspect the boards for defects, sort them according to the place of use.

Laying parquet on concrete floor

The concrete floor on which the parquet board will be mounted must not crumble, must be free of cracks and present a flat and clean surface.

According to modern standards for laying parquet boards, the allowable deviation along the plane should not be more than 2 mm for every 2 m. Otherwise, the parquet board will creak unpleasantly.

To implement the "Running" pattern, it is optimal to choose parquet boards 350-400 mm long and 35-40 mm wide. Of course, at your discretion, the planks can have different lengths, but their width must be the same.

If you want an exclusive figured parquet, contact the experts. Just be prepared that such a desire is quite expensive.

Laying parquet using floating technology

"Floating" technology is a type of parquet laying available to any person. The main thing is to carefully follow the instructions and have an assistant.

If suddenly some board in the finished parquet turns out to be damaged, then it will not be difficult to disassemble the parquet assembled using the “floating” technology and replace the board.

The indisputable advantage of this technology is that the room can be furnished immediately after laying the parquet.

Remember only that such a floating floor is installed in a room with an area of ​​\u200b\u200bno more than 50 m². For rooms with a larger area, additional expansion joints should be planned.

So, on the prepared concrete surface we lay a special substrate: composite (quite expensive, but perfectly protects against moisture), cork or cheaper synthetic.

The substrate is needed to protect the board from moisture and provide sound insulation. The maximum height of the material used for the substrate should not exceed 2-3 mm. Otherwise, over time, the floor will begin to creak.

We lay the first row of the parquet board with the upper part of the lock to the wall, be sure to leave a gap between the walls and the edges of the boards of 10-12 mm in size (not exceeding the thickness of the purchased plinth). First, we strengthen them with special wedges, which we will take out at the end of the laying, and close the gaps with a plinth.

Start laying each next row of parquet boards from the rest of the previous row, provided that its length is at least 50 cm. To finish the boards after joining, use a wooden block or a special mounting device, but in no case mounting straps.

Parquet boards are connected to each other by a proprietary locking system. You can additionally glue the joints of the boards - this way you protect the parquet from damage by water or other liquid accidentally spilled on the floor.

The main methods of laying parquet boards

The parquet board is laid either by the floating floor method or by the rigid fastening of the board to the base.

1. floating floor method consists in connecting parquet boards to each other without fixing them to the floor base. The boards are assembled into a single layer, which lies freely on the substrate - a special compensating material located between the base and the parquet floor. This method is the most common, but like any other method, it has its strengths and weaknesses.

Main advantages:

high speed of the assembly process - laying 30 m2 of board takes no more than one day;

cost minimization - the cost of the finished floor consists only of the cost of the board, substrate and parquet work;

fewer requirements for the professionalism of the stacker - laying the board can be done even on your own;

the ability to reuse the board - glueless connection allows you to partially or completely disassemble the parquet floor and lay it again.

Main cons:

insufficient reliability - the mobility of the parquet layer over time can lead to deformation of the interlock and a violation of the integrity of the structure;

when restoring parquet, it will be almost impossible to polish its surface with high quality. The lack of a rigid attachment to the base will not allow it to be done evenly over the entire area;

possible discomfort during operation - the movement of the floating floor in a vertical plane under short-term loads leads to the sound of steps characteristic of the floating floor and, over time, to the appearance of a creak.

2. Method of rigid attachment to the base involves gluing each parquet board to a specially prepared floor base. During the drying of the adhesive composition, the boards are additionally fixed with parquet nails or staples to enhance the strength of the entire structure. This method also has its advantages and disadvantages.

Main advantages:

high reliability of the design - the glued structure of the "parquet pie" will give additional reliability and durability to the floor;

good repairability - the structural integrity of the parquet floor will allow you to repair its surface with high quality;

high level of comfort - the appearance of a creak or a loud sound of steps when walking on the floor is almost completely excluded.

Main cons:

high demands on the professionalism of the installer - the installation of parquet boards by non-professionals will significantly increase the risk of a failed result;

a higher level of costs - you will need to purchase additional materials and pay for the services of professional parquet flooring;

time consuming - layer-by-layer installation technology will require much more time than floating floor assembly;

the thickness of the "parquet cake" - an additional layer of plywood will increase the height of the parquet floor.

Preparatory stage of work

Before proceeding to the main stage of work, a number of important preparatory activities should be carried out.

1. Foundation preparation

Substrate requirements for laying boards in a floating way. As a base for a parquet board, old wooden, tile or stone floors, a base made of concrete or self-leveling mixtures, etc. can be used. Textile coverings (carpet, linoleum, carpet) are unsuitable as a base material. Regardless of the type of substrate used, it must be level, dry, solid and clean. The evenness of the base is checked over the entire area of ​​the forthcoming laying, using a rule of at least 2 meters in length. The gap between the base and the rule should not exceed 2-3 mm over a length of 2000 mm. If necessary, the base should be leveled or sanded in accordance with the specified requirements. The moisture content of a concrete or sand-cement base must not exceed 2%. Underfloor heating should be used with extreme caution. The heating temperature of the surface of the base must in no case exceed +27 °C. Fluctuations in floor temperature during the day should remain within 5 °C. It is not recommended to lay parquet boards made of wood species that are especially sensitive to changes in humidity and temperature, such as beech, maple, olive or wenge, on heated floors.

Requirements for the base for laying the board by the method of rigid fastening. As with a floating floor, the base for hardwood flooring must be dry, even, clean and strong. In addition, it should be as suitable as possible for the full surface bonding of parquet and be able to securely hold nails or self-tapping screws inside. Moisture-resistant plywood, comparable in thickness to a parquet board, will serve as an ideal base. Plywood, in turn, must also be securely attached to a wooden or concrete base with glue and self-tapping screws. The surface of the plywood must be sanded, and the plywood itself must be laid in compliance with the technological gap 5 mm wide between the sheets. Attention! The use of "warm floor" systems under such a base is unacceptable.

2. Laying scheme

Before starting work, you need to make a choice laying directions parquet boards in every room. Usually the board is laid in the direction of daylight falling into the room. In rooms with an elongated shape, it is recommended to lay the parquet board in the longitudinal direction (material waste will be 3-5%). In rooms of complex geometric shape, you can lay the board diagonally (material waste will be 7-10%). If an old wooden floor acts as a base, the parquet should be laid across the boards of this floor. Rooms with different laying directions must be separated by expansion joints, which are then closed with overhead thresholds.

3. Preparation of materials and tools for work

The minimum set of tools. To lay the parquet board, you will need the following tools: a saw with a thin blade, a hammer, a sharp knife, a marking square, a drill, a chisel, a tape measure, a pencil, a wooden or plastic pick (at least 30 cm long with straight edges), wooden wedges, a spatula and mounting foot.

Preparation for the work of the board and related materials. Before proceeding directly to work, prepare the parquet board for laying. Unopened packages with parquet boards are recommended to be kept in the room where laying is to take place for at least 3-5 days in order to better adapt the board to the microclimate of the room. Parquet packs should be opened only in the course of work. Before laying the boards, you need to make sure that they do not have defects. If a damaged board is found, it can be replaced with a board without flaws by contacting the seller, or used at the beginning or end of the row during the laying process. The room in which the laying will be carried out should be well lit and have optimal temperature (18-24 ° C) and air humidity (40-60%). Do not forget to prepare everything for work: the substrate and, if necessary, glue, plywood, hardware, rags to remove excess glue.

Important points to consider when laying parquet boards in a floating way

Before starting work, be sure to read the installation manual and the rules for operating the parquet board, drawn up by its manufacturer. The following are only general recommendations for laying parquet boards, as well as typical mistakes made by inexperienced craftsmen during installation work.

1. Brief step-by-step instructions for floating laying

First of all, you need to measure the width of the room and calculate how many rows of boards you need. If the width of the last row is less than 40 mm, cut the boards of the first row with a saw, reducing their width.

Spread the underlayment on the floor subfloor, if necessary fastening adjacent sheets of material with adhesive tape so that they do not bend during installation.

Start laying from left to right (fig. 1), from a solid wall of the room, placing the first board with a longitudinal tenon against the wall. The distance of 7-10 mm between the boards and the wall must be adjusted using wedges.

Install the next board with the short side facing the previous board. Connect the boards to each other with a spike in the groove (Fig. 2). Continue in this manner until the end of the first row.

Using a saw, cut the last board of the row to size, taking into account the expansion joint, and lay it.

Start the next row (fig. 5) with a piece cut from the last board laid. Adjacent boards should overlap each other by at least 30-50 cm (Fig. 3). For a tight connection, it is necessary to lightly knock adjacent boards to each other with a hammer and a punch (Fig. 8). Attention! Do not use cutting boards as a stump. Continue assembling the parquet board until you reach the last row.

The last row. Measure the width of the last row at several points (taking into account the expansion joint), mark the cutting line and cut the boards to the appropriate size. Lay the boards and press them firmly into place, for example with a mounting foot. Place a protective pad between the wall and the mounting foot to avoid damaging the wall. Install expansion wedges.

Even after studying the instructions for laying a parquet board, many make typical mistakes and miscalculations, namely:

lay a parquet board on a poorly prepared base;

carry out installation work in a room with improper temperature and humidity conditions;

do not arrange a technological seam at the border of the board with other floor coverings and when approaching vertical obstacles (walls, columns, built-in furniture);

use in laying trimming boards smaller than permissible sizes;

leave the distance between the end joints of the boards in adjacent rows less than 30 cm;

loosely connect the docking node (thorn-groove) of the board.

Important points to consider when laying parquet boards in a way of rigid fastening to the base

1. Brief step-by-step installation instructions with gluing to the base

Once again, make sure that the base, materials and tools for laying the board in this way are ready and of good quality.

Carry out the assembly of parquet boards in the same order as for the assembly of boards by the floating method, after applying a layer of glue to the base or back of the board.

Press each glued board firmly to the base with nails or a heavy weight. Do not remove the load until the adhesive has completely dried.

Avoid getting adhesives on oiled or varnished surfaces. Wipe off any excess adhesive that appears on the surface immediately with a damp cloth, preventing it from drying out.

Do not subject the floor to heavy loads in the first few hours after laying until the adhesive has completely dried.

2. The main mistakes during installation work

The method of rigid fastening to the base requires much more experience in parquet work. But even professional parquet floorers sometimes make mistakes:

do not clean the base from dust and dirt, which leads to a deterioration in the quality of gluing;

use poor-quality, improperly prepared or unsuitable glue;

do not control the consumption of glue;

do not press the boards tightly enough to the base, leaving “air pockets” between them;

do not remove glue residue from the surface of the board in time.

Summary

At the beginning of our article, we asked ourselves: what you need to know and be able to get a beautiful, reliable and durable parquet flooring. It's time to take stock.

Laying a parquet board is a time-consuming and responsible process that requires special knowledge and professional skills. Compliance with the following rules will help to achieve success in this difficult task.

Choose the right technology for laying parquet boards.

Acquire the necessary quality materials for laying.

Properly prepare the base.

Determine the laying direction.

Start laying the parquet board only after all wet work has been completed.

Entrust the execution of all the above points to professionals.

Parquet flooring, despite its many years of use and the ever-growing variety of floor materials, does not lose ground and is still popular and in demand. After all, it is unusually pleasant to independently lay out an unusual pattern on a natural wood flooring. For this reason, the question does not lose its relevance: how to properly lay a parquet board with your own hands - then we will consider step-by-step instructions.

The main types of parquet for do-it-yourself laying

The most common types of parquet:

• piece;
• parquet board;
• laminated (laminate);
• modular.

Popularity block parquet pretty big. It consists of dies of small sizes. A parquet board is a multi-layer structure consisting of one or more lower auxiliary layers and an upper front layer, which has a decorative appearance of a characteristic wood structure. Along the perimeter, each plank is equipped with locking elements in the form of a spike and a groove for connecting the planks to each other.

The length of the plates, as a rule, is a multiple of its width, which allows you to create a variety of geometric ornaments when decorating a parquet floor.

Parquet standard sizes:

• width - from 5 to 7.5 centimeters;
• length - from 21 to 49 centimeters;
• thickness - in the range: 14-22 millimeters.

The optimal thickness of parquet for flooring in a residential area is 15-18 mm. With a smaller thickness, the number of scrapings of such a parquet floor is limited, only one processing may be allowed. Thicker planks allow repeated scraping, but do not have elasticity.

parquet board differs from piece parquet only in size. Its average dimensions are as follows:

• width - from 12 to 20 cm;
• length - from 1.1 m to 2.5 m;
• thickness - in the range: 1-2.2 cm.

Parquet boards or modules- on a coniferous basis, a composition of parquet elements fastened together is typed and glued onto it. Such a module has a thickness: from 22 to 40 mm. Usually they are square in shape with side sizes: 400, 500, 600, 800 mm. Laying modular parquet is much faster than laying piece parquet. On the laid flooring it is difficult to determine whether it is piece parquet or modular parquet.

Modular parquet allows you to make the simplest floor luxurious, in the style of the royal palace. Compositions are made up of modules, ornaments are much more complex and interesting than "herringbone" or "wickerwork".

The process of laying a parquet floor contains several stages:

1. Preparation of an old concrete or wooden base.
2. Waterproofing installation.
3. Performing a screed to level the surface of the base.
4. A screed can be replaced by laying a log.
5. Priming treatment of the screed.
6. Sheets of moisture-resistant plywood are glued to the screed or attached to the logs.
7. Laying parquet on plywood.
8. Sanding parquet flooring.
9. Putty parquet.
10. Priming of the surface of the parquet floor under the varnish.
11. Coating parquet with varnish layers (from 3 to 9).

All of these points must be carried out with high quality, otherwise there is no guarantee of long-term operation of the parquet flooring.

Preparing for parquet installation

Parquet material is laid on a rough base, usually it is:

• concrete floor, covered with a screed or without it;
• logs specially installed for laying the coating;
• plywood sheets or plank floor, repaired, sanded.

Before laying the parquet, it is necessary to prepare the rough base, if necessary, to repair it. After the repair of the concrete base, a layer of waterproofing should be laid on its surface. It can be a polyethylene film (200 microns), laid with overlapping parts of about 15 cm, fastened with adhesive tape.

This is followed by the stage of performing a leveling screed, its thickness is about 5 cm. Before the next stages of work, the screed needs time (1-2 months) to dry completely. Haste is unacceptable, since the wood material of the parquet, laid on a poorly dried screed, will absorb moisture from it, which will subsequently cause deformation of the parquet elements.

After drying, the surface of the screed should be primed. The surface of the screed must be flat. Permissible differences in its height: no more than 2 mm per 2 meters of the floor. This is checked by a two-meter flat rail, when it is positioned on the base in any direction, the maximum allowable clearance between it and the surface of the screed is 2 millimeters, it is better if it is smaller. A slope with a limitation of its size is allowed: no more than 0.2%, in fact it is unacceptable to exceed 5 cm.

There is another option: with the help of a self-adjusting floor, the preparation time for the concrete base will be reduced to one day.

Laying plywood under parquet on a screed

Moisture-resistant plywood sheets with a thickness of at least 12 mm should be cut into 4 equal parts.

The functions of moisture-resistant plywood under parquet are quite serious:

1. The surface is almost perfectly aligned.
2. The function of thermal insulation and sound insulation.
3. Adds durability.
4. It is a strong foundation for mounting parquet slabs. If they are attached directly to the screed, then when its surface layer is destroyed, the parquet floors will fall out. Mounting on plywood sheets is strong, holds them firmly.

Possible laying parquet without plywood directly on the screed only by adhesive method:

The plywood sheets must be 5mm thinner than the thickness of the parquet. But a thickness of less than 12 mm does not make sense to use as a base, because it is too small. In such a situation, it is possible to lay plywood sheets in two layers, but with a spaced seam.

Then a layer of glue is applied to the surface of the screed, plywood squares are laid according to the brickwork method, with offset joints, after which they are fastened with self-tapping screws. The caps are recessed 3 mm deep into the plywood to avoid further damage to the grinding machine disc.

Be sure to leave a gap of 3 mm between the plywood pieces to avoid deformation of the parquet from the expansion of the plywood.
Also leave gaps between each wall and plywood sheets of about 1 cm, this is a technological gap. It is possible to insert spacer wedges for stability.

The wedges are not removed until the parquet flooring is laid. After pulling out the wedges, the existing gap should be filled with foam so that the sidewalls of the parquet do not suffer from moisture during the further operation of the floor. The foamed gap will be hidden under the baseboard.

Next, you need to withstand the drying time of the glue - it is indicated on the packaging by the manufacturer. After the glue dries, the plywood surface is sanded at the seams, removing the difference in the levels of adjacent squares.

It is not necessary to pour a leveling screed onto a concrete base, you can use the old proven method: lay the floor on logs. So there is no need to level the concrete base, but waterproofing will need to be done, a dense plastic film is suitable for this purpose.

Then the lag is laid every 40 cm. In this capacity, bars with a section of 50 by 50 mm or 50 by 80 mm are suitable. The lags are attached to the base with corners and dowels. To ensure a constant level of the lag in a place where the level is not observed (higher or lower), you can put backing wedges or, conversely, cut off a little with a planer.

The thickness of plywood sheets should be 5 mm less than the thickness of parquet boards. But, since the thickness of plywood less than 12 mm is insufficient for flooring as a base for parquet, therefore the plywood substrate is laid on the logs in two layers, their total thickness is about 30 mm.

Plywood sheets cut into 4 equal rectangles are attached to the logs using self-tapping screws. It is imperative to observe the offset of the seams between the sheets, as in brickwork. Gaps between sheets of 2-3 mm and a technological gap near the walls of 1 cm are also required.

In a similar way, another row of pieces of plywood is laid on top. When laying the second floor, keep an eye on the offset of the seams: the seams of the first and second rows must not coincide. The bottom row of plywood sheets is processed with a primer, then with glue.

Then they are fixed with self-tapping screws, their size is determined by the thickness of two layers of plywood sheets. The caps are recessed 3 mm deep into the plywood to avoid further damage to the grinding machine disc. When the glue dries, sand the plywood.

Preparing an old plank floor

When laying parquet on an old plank floor, you should definitely inspect it meticulously. Creaks, dips, rotten floorboards are unacceptable. If one of these defects is present, it is necessary to repair the floor and repair or replace the logs.

The repaired plank base must be sanded. You can lay parquet material directly on a leveled plank base without laying sheet plywood.

Parquet flooring methods

The technological process of laying parquet material can be performed in various ways:

• floating method;
• adhesive method;
• flooring with fixation with nails;
• laying on parquet glue with fixation with nails.

At floating method laying parquet are fastened to each other by inserting a spike into the groove. In this case, no fasteners are made to the base. Laminate flooring is laid in the same floating pattern.
So that the “floating” parquet floor does not creak in the future, a soundproof layer, for example, cork, is laid under it.

The parquet floors connected in this way will be able to change their dimensions in the direction of increasing or decreasing with changes in temperature or humidity - without consequences. Such a "floating" parquet is easy to repair - it is quite possible to disassemble and assemble it. In terms of strength, such a floor is not in the first positions: when at least one lock connection is weakened, the entire coating loses its stability and can deform.

Laying parquet with glue- more durable, but it is very difficult to repair if necessary. A sufficiently thick adhesive layer is applied to the base, parquet boards are placed on it, a spike is inserted into the groove. This method requires an increase in labor and financial costs due to the high consumption of glue.

Laying on a layer of glue with fixation with hardware- the most durable and in demand. The floor laid in this way does not deform, because the parquets are fastened in all directions. But this parquet flooring cannot be repaired.

Laying a piece parquet board: step by step instructions

To create a beautiful and even pattern on the parquet, we will develop its scheme in advance on a sheet of paper. We will take the correct dimensions of the room and parquet - on a scale. If on paper any row does not fit with whole strips, then we redo the scheme in such a way that the edged rows are located around the perimeter of the room, and in the center - only whole ones. The beginning of laying parquet is also determined by the pattern.

We consider laying by the herringbone method.

It is possible to continue the work no earlier than after 7 days, it is necessary to allow the glue to dry. Sometimes experts advise to withstand six months, so that the parquet lays down well.

The next stage of work will be polishing the surface of the parquet in two passes or even more. For each run, a different type of sanding paper is used with a decrease in grain size. Grinding is performed until all defects that have appeared are removed. Then the floor is covered with stain (if they want to change the shade of the floor), then varnished in several layers.

Do-it-yourself options for laying piece parquet

Strip parquet lends itself very well to laying in a variety of patterns; for this, the slabs should be placed in different directions and the sequence changed.

The most common are the following types of laying piece parquet:

In addition to the examples given, there are a lot of their combinations with various shapes and patterns.

Video about laying strip parquet:

Do-it-yourself parquet laying

Ways of laying parquet board:

• floating- the boards are interconnected by locking elements: a spike and a groove that are not fixed to the base;
  
• adhesive: the board is laid on a layer of glue applied to the base;
  
• using fasteners.

The technology of laying a parquet board is similar to the technology of laying piece parquet. Consider one of the installation methods - floating. In our case, the preparation of the base has already been completed (see the description of the preparatory work above), we proceed to laying the parquet board with our own hands.

1. The first board should be placed from the corner along the longest wall, but this is not a wall with a door. From the board to the wall, it is necessary to create a technological gap of about 1 cm; for this, wedges with the same thickness can be inserted into the gap. This should be done around the entire perimeter of the room. This will allow the coating to vary in size without consequences - with changes in temperature and humidity.
2. Lay the next planks along the wall to the end of the row. The last board in the row will need to be cut to size to fit into the remaining space. Don't forget to leave a gap.
3. Start the second row with the remaining trim of the last board from the first row. apply each board to the next, inserting the spike into the corresponding groove. To do this, the board to be laid is first held at an angle of 30º. Press forward and down so that the lock elements are connected. Next, with a rubber mallet, you need to tap on the sidewall of the extreme board so that the connection is strengthened.
4. Subsequent rows are stacked by analogy, to the last. Usually the boards of the last row need to be cut in width to fit the remaining space. In the gap between the wall and the last row of boards, do not forget to insert the wedges, providing a gap.
5. When the parquet installation is completed, all spacer wedges can be removed.
6. The last step is the installation of skirting boards that will also close the technological gaps along the walls.

Video of laying a parquet board with an adhesive method on plywood:

Laying a parquet board on a screed without plywood flooring is carried out in a similar way, but with an adhesive layer applied to the surface of the base. Once again, we recall that the base must be carefully prepared, leveled, and the screed primed. Only after that proceed with laying the parquet board on the glue.

This video will help you:

Laying panel (modular) parquet

Modular parquet is much easier and faster to install than piece parquet. The modules are assembled and firmly glued on a rigid base, they are not subject to deformation, like piece parquet.

But when stacking modules, even the smallest mistake will be very noticeable. For this reason, such material is very demanding on the preparation and alignment of the base, the impeccability of the laying process and the professionalism of the master.

Modular material is unpacked before laying. First, the elements are laid out on the floor without fixing to the base for the correct placement of the pattern, this will eliminate errors when mounting on glue.

Start laying from the corner farthest from the door and the longest wall. The glue is applied with a special notched trowel only on the part of the surface on which the coating will be mounted in the next 10 minutes.

The accuracy of the layout of the initial row affects the correct geometry of the pattern, because the following rows adjust to the first. Spacer wedges are inserted from the side of the wall, providing a uniform gap of 1 cm.

So the entire first row is laid on the adhesive surface, with padding for a good connection. You need to constantly monitor the evenness of the row and adjust if necessary. Upon completion of the row, adjusting to it, the subsequent rows are laid out similarly.

When laying, you need to make sure that the glue does not get into the tenon-groove system and onto the front surface of the parquet, and if it does, quickly clean it off using a parquet floor cleaner.

After installing the whole modules, after a short time for the glue to set, the laying of the trimmed modules around the perimeter, called the curb, begins. It starts from the corner farthest from the door. Cut the joints in the corners of the room carefully, without damaging the front side of the module.

Laying the trimmed elements is necessary in the same way as laying ordinary parquet. Do not forget about the technological gap near the walls, keep it even by inserting wedges or adjustable spacers (special spacers).

In the place where the pipe passes, etc. in the parquet modules, a cut is made with a small margin to ensure a gap of 1 cm.

At the end of laying, you need to clean the floor of dust and debris with a vacuum cleaner and treat the floor with a cleaner. Temporarily stop visiting the premises, one day after laying, remove the wedges and you can install the plinth around the entire perimeter. Skirting boards are attached to the wall, not to the parquet material.

Final stage

The technological process of installing parquet floors has enough features. But if you want to: study the materials for the preparatory work and ask how to lay the parquet, you can proceed. It is clear that the first time it will not be so easy. not so fast, but how pleasant the result, made by hand!

We hope that our step-by-step instructions helped you understand how to lay a parquet board with your own hands, how to lay a piece parquet, how to lay herringbone parquet and much more. Good luck!

Laying parquet on plywood: