Parquet - true definition?

[Psycho_Hamster]

Am in a bit of a quandary.....

New house, ordered parquet floor for hallway. Being new to this I looked at the options in the nice display area and selected what was labelled as Beech parquet flooring. The sample was about 12 inches square and had some nice grain and what I can only describe as being made up of narrow planks about 5mm thick glued onto what looks like pine backing. Since then I have seen the full product and it is installed as large planks of the pine (with smaller beech planks on top) which fit together via a tongue and groove arrangement. Sorry for the description - as said I am new to all this!

Looking at the sticky post this seems to be 'Wood Engineered' board rather than parquet. Could what I have been supplied in any legal sense be described as parquet?

Also, as a ball park figure for average quality beech parquet, what would a cost be per square metre compared to a wood engineered board? Would like to just size that up with what I am being charged.

Thanks for all and any help.
PH

 

[WoodYouLike]

There is a lot of confusion and mis-use of terminology around, I agree.
Parquet, translated from Dutch or German (Parket), means wooden flooring; parquet in Uk normally means (solid) woodblocks (even 5 or 7 fingers mosaic) in a pattern (brick, herringbone, Chevron etc).
What you have seen (and although I'm guessing cause I didn't see the display you mentioned I'm pretty sure I'm right) is what we would call 3-strip Wood-Engineered.

As professional natural wooden flooring installers (originating from The Netherlands) we try very hard to 'educate' people to use the right (English) terminology, but if then manufacturers 'translate' there products 'wrongly' it doesn't help much

As for prices, 'standard' 3-strip beech Wood-Engineered boards (standard grade) costs around £ 33 - £ 39 (ex VAT) per sq m (NOT meaning the DIY-shed quality, but proper 14mm thick boards with 3.5 solid top layer: a ready to lay product with T&G's))
Beech parquet (wood blocks 6 - 10mm thick) would cost around £ 40 - £ 42 per sq m (ex VAT, ex other materials like adhesive, finish materials etc).

Hope this helps.

 

[Psycho_Hamster]

WoodYouLike,

Thanks for the quick response. Keep educating people as it is extremely difficult for the end customer to know exactly what they are buying!!

Paying a couple of thousand for an upgraded floor that is described as parquet (about 40 sq m, if that) and then getting wood engineered board and then being told 'it is parquet but not in the traditional wood block sense' seems to be to be on the verge of misrepresentation. It was only after seeing the sample (small) and then seeing it laid down in planks that the alarm bells started ringing that all was not as described. At least I took a picture of the sample that is clearly labelled as 'parquet floor' to try and get what I thought I ordered!

PH

 

[WoodYouLike]

Good luck with it.
Was it a typical brand name? If so, I might be able to tell you where the original company is based and how they normally 'advertise' their products. Or perhaps you care to tell us the name of the company you bought it from? Sometimes manufacturers sell their 'brand' products under a different name to larger retialers/DIY-sheds.

 

[Psycho_Hamster]

I thought the name of the manufacturer was a bit strange - I got something like 'Griffindor' and are German I believe - seemed to sound a bit like that anyway but imust have had Harry Potter on the brain! Have not seen any manufacturing stickers/labels as it has been delivered unwrapped.

If that does not ring any bells then I will look around when I get back.

Thanks,
PH

 

[WoodYouLike]

could it have been: Grundorf?
They do call their Wood-Engineered boards Fertig Parket (ready wood flooring).

 

[Psycho_Hamster]

That's the one!!

So if they describe the floor as 'Parket', although it is wood engineered as we have established, and the sample has a label on that says 'Beech Parquet' then they are correct that it is parquet and I have no redress???

 

[WoodYouLike]

What's in a name?
I'm not sure about your legal rights about terminology used. As long as the floor installed is the same as the sample in the display, I think your chances of redress or nill.

 

[Psycho_Hamster]

Thanks for all the info WoodYouLike - has been really informative. Shows the danger of not having some sort of standard catagorisation for these floors. Continue with your education of the masses, I now consider myself informed (misled by vendor but that is a different issue!!).

Thanks,
PH

 

[WoodYouLike]

It's a pleasure
While we're on the subject of educating: we are planning to launch 'technical' booklets on natural wooden flooring in the near future.
Would there be a general interest? (we think there is, hence our plans, but 'wood' like to know from the DIY-ers site (side )
Anyone?