Parquet: much more than a floor

Parquet is a covering capable of giving a touch of elegance and warmth to any room in the house and, with its variety of wood species available, it is one of the most versatile floors in terms of design and combinations.

The great variety of essences and formats available seems to make the choice of parquet for the home rather simple but, in reality, the mere aesthetic side must not be taken into consideration when choosing a new parquet.

In fact, some woods have characteristics that make them suitable for use only in certain environments in addition to the thickness, the number of layers and the surface finish which must be carefully chosen also in relation to the intended use of the environment in which the parquet will be laid.

Types of parquet

Basically, parquet can be divided into:

- solid parquet

- prefinished parquet

Solid wood parquet is the traditional type of parquet and is made up of boards, usually rough, with a top layer throughout the thickness (usually from 10 to 22 mm). It has the advantage of being, especially if the thickness is greater, an eternal floor as it can be sanded numerous times following any damage.

It is also possible, after sanding, to use a different finishing treatment compared to the previous one, thus completely changing the appearance of the floor.

This type of parquet is laid rough and the boards are left in place for a few days in order to stabilize with the humidity and temperature conditions of the environment: then it is fixed, which can be done with nailed or glued laying.

At the end of the installation, the unevenness between the boards is eliminated with a sanding machine and, after carefully removing the residues and sanding dust, you can move on to the final surface treatment.

Prefinished parquet, on the other hand, is a more modern solution and has a surface appearance that is almost identical to solid parquet. In this case, however, the boards are made up of several layers: the layer of noble wood of a few millimeters is glued onto one or more layers of "poor" wood for a total of 2 or 3 layers.

In the case of 2-layer parquet, the support is glued perpendicular to the top layer so that the plank is stable to changes in humidity.

In 3-layer parquet there is an additional lower board (placed in the same direction as the top layer) to further increase stability.

Pre-finished parquet usually already includes a finishing surface treatment.

Since the top layer is only 4-5 mm, it can be sanded a few times for a duration over time that can be estimated at around 60 years.

The prefinished parquet can be laid floating or with glue.

On Acquaclick you will find parquet from the best brands on the market, such as Bauwerk. Discover the quality of the parquet and ask our interior decorators for a quote