Parquet or strip floor

[triturus]

I know there are some very knowledgeable floorers on here, so ...

I'm wanting to lay a solid timber floor to my living room (asphalt floor) and dining room and hall (concrete screed floor). The house was built in 1950 so does have a dpc. Budget restricts me to using reclaimed flooring. I was originally thinking of parquet, though wanting to lay it in strip pattern rather than herringbone or other more complex pattern. As the total area is about 50m2 there would be rather a lot of work in scraping off the old asphalt to parquet. I do know that strip flooring can be fixed with adhesive, though I'd be very wary of doing that with long lengths of it. As narrow maple strip flooring 57-75mm wide is fairly readily available secondhand, I was wondering if that might be suitable, but cutting the lengths as appropriate so that the lengths used are quite flat. The flooring then would look like a random (short length) strip floor rather than regular parquet block floor.

There would be few tongue and groove end joints because of the cutting, so would this be a problem, though the long joints would all be T&G? Cutting end tongues and grooves, whilst simple on workshop machines, is not to easy using routers and jigs, so if possible I'd want to not do that.

Would this be a suitable method or are there any pitfalls that I should be aware of?

Thanks in advance.

 

[mac391]

Basic theory not too bad. A solid fix using spreadable adhesive is prolly your best method but.... 2 different sub-floors!! Ashphalt needs to be primed and screeded to get a decent fix and concrete needs to be below 50% relative humidity to fix direct to.

When was the concrete insatalled and how deep is it?? And how are you sure the subfloor has a dpm?

I would personally apply a liquid dpm to the concrete (if no dpm is prestent), then prime the ashphalt and screed the whole lot leaving a flat, level and protected subflloor.

I would leave the maple flooring as is and keep the t&g ends. Try "dry laying" some randomly so you can see how it will look, if you have different lengths you will be able to spread the joints and it should look great.. Be careful on choice of finish, oil lacquer etc...

 

[triturus]

Basic theory not too bad. A solid fix using spreadable adhesive is prolly your best method but.... 2 different sub-floors!! Ashphalt needs to be primed and screeded to get a decent fix and concrete needs to be below 50% relative humidity to fix direct to.

When was the concrete insatalled and how deep is it?? And how are you sure the subfloor has a dpm?

I would personally apply a liquid dpm to the concrete (if no dpm is prestent), then prime the ashphalt and screed the whole lot leaving a flat, level and protected subflloor.

I would leave the maple flooring as is and keep the t&g ends. Try "dry laying" some randomly so you can see how it will look, if you have different lengths you will be able to spread the joints and it should look great.. Be careful on choice of finish, oil lacquer etc...

Thanks for your reply.

The concrete slab/concrete screed floor does have a dpm - I had to remove the skirtings in the entrance hall and could see where it had been lapped up. Seems to have been done to a reasonable specification, as has the whole house. It is also dry and level, and laid in 1950, so no longer green! So that part should be straightforward.

Thanks for alerting me to the potential problem with the asphalt floor. That is not quite so level, though it is not badly out, and being softer has indentations where heavy furniture has been. Unfortunately ceiling height, thresholds, fireplace, radiator pipework etc rule out adding a screed. I think my best move is to contact the technical guys of the adhesive manufacturers, see what they recommend for there.

And just spotted the typo in my original post. I was intending keeping the tongue and groove joints, it was just where I'd be cutting the lengths down as necessary where any timber had slightly warped where they'd be lost. The timber is actually very good, though so I don't anticipate too much cutting into shorter lengths will be needed, and I can lose some at the row ends anyway. I've used some elsewhere, secret nailed to joists and he's still got plenty in stock - very good condition indeed.

I used Bonakemi Mega satinmatt finish on a solid birch strip floor in a kitchen a few years ago and it was very durable and looked good, and could take the type of cleaning that kitchens need. I'd tried a test with hard oil but prefered the lighter look of the Bonakemi on the light wood. And maple and birch are quite similar in appearance, so I'm going for that.

I'd used Auro hard oil elsewhere on pine floors and that also looked good and had natural oils rather than manufactured chemicals but did attract the dirt (do I mean 'patina' ? ) It is swings and roundabouts, I discovered. Both types of finish have pros and cons. I will be sanding the pine floors upstairs and haven't quite made up my mind for that.