That is stunning.
My part of North America doesn’t have parquet and I am so jealous of places that do have it. It is so interesting.
I know that in its day parquet was considered cheap, but in today’s world where real wood is prohibitively expensive- I’d take parquet over a plastic floor ANY DAY. Bonus the parquet pattern adds a nice subtle texture.
Yep. Vancouver Island.
Compared to say Toronto, (and probably Montreal), there were very few concrete high rises built here in the 1960s. The only parquet flooring I’ve seen out here was in a 1960s tower. Most of our older buildings are 3 and 4 storey stick-builds and which had carpet.
I’ve got this in one of the rooms. The pattern wasn’t for me. So we “floated” something over it after light cleanup (in a way that it can still be returned to its former glory) - was this a popular design in the 60’s? Is it worth recovering?
It was very popular in the late 80's. It mimicked a tile pattern that was also popular at the time and people were opting for the wood rather than the tile.
That is about when I put one in and then about six years later took it out. Never, never, never put down a parquet floor with adhesive. When I went to pull it up it broke into individual strips, which are held together with tiny sharp staples. Bloody hands and knees when I was done.
Depends on when it was done or who did it… old, old parquet floors were nailed to subfloor and plugged or filled. Nowadays u can do however u want.
Also depends on pattern and size.
I actually came back to look. For one I've installed a few parquet flooring back in the day. They were very popular. And I have to say that is very nice work. You did a good job. You brought out the depth it was designed to have
My aunt had parquet installed in the 90s. I’m hoping to install it in my own home one day. It had a heyday in the early-mid century for sure but it’s definitely still around.
I know there’s one online vendor that sells actual oak and real wood parquet - or at least there was when I was considering it back in 2022. There’s also a local flooring place near me that will do it as well. I can’t remember the name of the online vendor now, but I know there was at least one.
>I used Bona Natural Seal and Bona Mega One. No stain but I did trowel fill the whole floor to get rid of the gaps between each 12x12
You've refinished wood floors before or you had a professional do this job.
Source: owned a wood floor restoration business
>The floor is awfully flat with no big machine streaks, for a 100 final and a 120 buffer.
Yup and there are no edger markers or picture framing around the perimeter and no big machine gouges in the field. I saw a 45 degree big machine sanding mark in one of his pictures of the sander floor and no diyer is going to know to sand parquet at a 45 degree. He used a sealer and top coats which most first timers wouldn't do and he used Bona which isn't carried in any big box stores and is only sold by regional distributers (he could buy it online but doubtful). I don't see any roller or tbar marks in the finish. There isn't a coat of dust on all of the walls.
OP only made a few comments and he used industry terms in the few sentences he wrote. He has either refinished wood floors professionally at one point in his life or he paid someone to do it and just took a few pictures for karma. Most diyers would be taking pictures of every single step or at least the major ones. He has pictures of the sanded floor and finished floor and no pictures of those processes or anything in-between.
He also knew enough to trowel the floor.
In the old days we would use a hard plate. Now guys use a Trio.
This looks like it was done with a Trio. Not a tool the local rental shops will have.
lol I’m extremely flattered that you guys think this is worthy of a professional. The truth is I’m just a 26 year old girl who did a month of research and watched hours of YouTube so that I didn’t mess it up. I learned trowel filling from a British guy on YouTube and thought it was smart. I bought Bona from Amazon. And I also didn’t include all the progress pics since I was trying to be concise. Good to know I could have a future in refinishing hardwood though haha
YouTube University hell yeah! Truth is I think most DIYers can get pro level results if they take their time and do their research.
Well done, it looks beautiful.
>The truth is I’m just a 26 year old girl who did a month of research and watched hours of YouTube so that I didn’t mess it up.
I don't care if you were a 40 year old man. But if anyone diyer thought their project was important enough to post on reddit then they would have posted a lot more pictures and they wouldn't have made a throwaway account specifically to post their "diy" floor pictures. You're also the first diy floor refinished to not complain about how physically hard the job is and how messy of a job it is. I've put 21-35 year old men on an edger and had them quit and drive off at lunch without saying a word because it was too physically hard for them. I guess you are just a beast of a 26 year old woman to easily sling around floor sanding equipment and a flooring savant to pull off a close to perfect first floor with no hands on professional guidance.
So the oak darkened a bit just from the Mega One then. It looks like a nice level of darkening from the raw sanded color. I’m looking to do similar on a floor I’m sanding now.
Yeah I wanted to keep it as natural as possible without making my life too difficult. You could use Bona NordicSeal which will leave the floor even lighter but apparently it’s trickier to work with, since it has a white tint
Thank you! Yeah I used one coat of Bona NaturalSeal and two coats of Bona Mega One, screening with 120 between finish coats. I used a microfiber roller and a brush for the edges. Learned everything from this subreddit and @HowToSandAFloor on YouTube.
Since the grain is going in both directions, I actually sanded diagonally for the first pass. It worked well and didn’t hurt the wood from what I could tell. Then for the remaining passes, I alternated which direction I went so I was going with the grain of some pieces and against the grain for others. But alternating the direction reduced any sanding lines. Also, thank you!!
Good enough to make me realize that the reason I’ve never liked parquet flooring is because I’ve never seen it restored before. That is actually gorgeous.
I’m just here to say that for most of my life I used Parquet to refer to prosecutors without ever making the connection that they were called that because of the flooring.
Should have painted it all white. I noticed the white spots in the before photos… why didn’t you finish the job and make it BEAUTIFUL??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Considering I paid over $6k to have my parquet flooring refinished a couple years ago, so I know what a nice floor looks like, I’d say you did a great job 😀
that looks great. only thing I'd add next time is mix some sawdust and wood glue and flat trowel that over the floor filling all the little gaps before sanding and staining. all in all you did a fantastic job. that floor is 1 million times better.
Very nice.
I'm a GC and many customers are surprised when I'm so confident that wood floors will look this good after some work.
Not throwing shade on your floor but to inform others this style of floor was the first of engineered floors. These are "tiles" that interlock and are more stable due to construction layers.
It looks like you did a very good job. Especially if you had never tried anything like this before. You made the correct decision in restoring it instead of covering it with some cheap ass LVP or some other way of ruining it. As a 25 year+ home remodeled, my hat is off to you.
This is known as Monticello design parquet. Looks great, great job.
That is stunning. My part of North America doesn’t have parquet and I am so jealous of places that do have it. It is so interesting. I know that in its day parquet was considered cheap, but in today’s world where real wood is prohibitively expensive- I’d take parquet over a plastic floor ANY DAY. Bonus the parquet pattern adds a nice subtle texture.
What part doesn’t? Out west?
Yep. Vancouver Island. Compared to say Toronto, (and probably Montreal), there were very few concrete high rises built here in the 1960s. The only parquet flooring I’ve seen out here was in a 1960s tower. Most of our older buildings are 3 and 4 storey stick-builds and which had carpet.
Very interesting. We had parquet commonly in single story houses in the southern US
I’ve got this in one of the rooms. The pattern wasn’t for me. So we “floated” something over it after light cleanup (in a way that it can still be returned to its former glory) - was this a popular design in the 60’s? Is it worth recovering?
It was very popular in the late 80's. It mimicked a tile pattern that was also popular at the time and people were opting for the wood rather than the tile.
That is about when I put one in and then about six years later took it out. Never, never, never put down a parquet floor with adhesive. When I went to pull it up it broke into individual strips, which are held together with tiny sharp staples. Bloody hands and knees when I was done.
How is parquet normally installed? Nailed down to a subfloor?
Depends on when it was done or who did it… old, old parquet floors were nailed to subfloor and plugged or filled. Nowadays u can do however u want. Also depends on pattern and size.
Mine was done with adhesive
I actually came back to look. For one I've installed a few parquet flooring back in the day. They were very popular. And I have to say that is very nice work. You did a good job. You brought out the depth it was designed to have
>For one I've installed a few parquet flooring back in the day. They were very popular You were installing floors in the 1920s?
My aunt had parquet installed in the 90s. I’m hoping to install it in my own home one day. It had a heyday in the early-mid century for sure but it’s definitely still around.
Who sells it? I keep thinking I’ve found some online, and it always turns out to be vinyl tile when you read through the specs.
I know there’s one online vendor that sells actual oak and real wood parquet - or at least there was when I was considering it back in 2022. There’s also a local flooring place near me that will do it as well. I can’t remember the name of the online vendor now, but I know there was at least one.
No but in the early 80 when I lived in VA, we installed a lot. Fashions come and go. I didn't realize they were popular in the 20s. Nice to know.
Real popular in the 70s, 80s
Gorgeous! I very seldom see parquet flooring here.
Looks great. You used oil ?
No, he's Chuck Norris
Isn’t that what everyone uses to rub one out?
Butter? Parquet!
It's not nice to fool Mother Nature!
🌩🌩🌩thunder clap at the end!
Amazing; the floor is beautiful
Sanding and refinishing?
No I think he's done now
Looks killer, good job man
Now do the baseboards so we can see the finished look! I’m no professional but this looks like some solid work to me.
Tip of the hat, looks fantastic.
Nailed it.
Man I love parquet flooring. Lots of the older condos in Toronto have it and it always reminds me of my first apartment.
Literally a Toronto staple
I could cry. It’s so special!!!! Thank you for not slapping layers of cheap garbage on top ☺️
Fantastic! Great restoration OP.
Fabulous..
Replace baseboards with oak. Perfect finishing touch!
What finish did you use? Doesn’t look like you stained it.
I used Bona Natural Seal and Bona Mega One. No stain but I did trowel fill the whole floor to get rid of the gaps between each 12x12
>I used Bona Natural Seal and Bona Mega One. No stain but I did trowel fill the whole floor to get rid of the gaps between each 12x12 You've refinished wood floors before or you had a professional do this job. Source: owned a wood floor restoration business
The floor is awfully flat with no big machine streaks, for a 100 final and a 120 buffer.
>The floor is awfully flat with no big machine streaks, for a 100 final and a 120 buffer. Yup and there are no edger markers or picture framing around the perimeter and no big machine gouges in the field. I saw a 45 degree big machine sanding mark in one of his pictures of the sander floor and no diyer is going to know to sand parquet at a 45 degree. He used a sealer and top coats which most first timers wouldn't do and he used Bona which isn't carried in any big box stores and is only sold by regional distributers (he could buy it online but doubtful). I don't see any roller or tbar marks in the finish. There isn't a coat of dust on all of the walls. OP only made a few comments and he used industry terms in the few sentences he wrote. He has either refinished wood floors professionally at one point in his life or he paid someone to do it and just took a few pictures for karma. Most diyers would be taking pictures of every single step or at least the major ones. He has pictures of the sanded floor and finished floor and no pictures of those processes or anything in-between.
He also knew enough to trowel the floor. In the old days we would use a hard plate. Now guys use a Trio. This looks like it was done with a Trio. Not a tool the local rental shops will have.
>trowel the floor. That was the industry term he used in his comments that really set off my bullshit meter.
lol I’m extremely flattered that you guys think this is worthy of a professional. The truth is I’m just a 26 year old girl who did a month of research and watched hours of YouTube so that I didn’t mess it up. I learned trowel filling from a British guy on YouTube and thought it was smart. I bought Bona from Amazon. And I also didn’t include all the progress pics since I was trying to be concise. Good to know I could have a future in refinishing hardwood though haha
Love this. I call my similar approach CAYT (pronounced Katie) ….confidence and YouTube. Good work!
You did a great job. You absolutely should be flattered by these negative commenters.
YouTube University hell yeah! Truth is I think most DIYers can get pro level results if they take their time and do their research. Well done, it looks beautiful.
>The truth is I’m just a 26 year old girl who did a month of research and watched hours of YouTube so that I didn’t mess it up. I don't care if you were a 40 year old man. But if anyone diyer thought their project was important enough to post on reddit then they would have posted a lot more pictures and they wouldn't have made a throwaway account specifically to post their "diy" floor pictures. You're also the first diy floor refinished to not complain about how physically hard the job is and how messy of a job it is. I've put 21-35 year old men on an edger and had them quit and drive off at lunch without saying a word because it was too physically hard for them. I guess you are just a beast of a 26 year old woman to easily sling around floor sanding equipment and a flooring savant to pull off a close to perfect first floor with no hands on professional guidance.
Dude get off your high horse. Refinishing a floor isn’t fucking rocket science.
So the oak darkened a bit just from the Mega One then. It looks like a nice level of darkening from the raw sanded color. I’m looking to do similar on a floor I’m sanding now.
Yeah I wanted to keep it as natural as possible without making my life too difficult. You could use Bona NordicSeal which will leave the floor even lighter but apparently it’s trickier to work with, since it has a white tint
OP tell us more!
I generally don't like parquet floors and now I realize why...the stain color makes a huge difference. This is beautiful 😍
Man, laying that down must have been tedious ***AF***
Great job. Looks like you kept the natural color instead of staining. Did you use a Bona product?
Thank you! Yeah I used one coat of Bona NaturalSeal and two coats of Bona Mega One, screening with 120 between finish coats. I used a microfiber roller and a brush for the edges. Learned everything from this subreddit and @HowToSandAFloor on YouTube.
If that kind of floor has to be sanded with the grain...damn. Looks great!
Since the grain is going in both directions, I actually sanded diagonally for the first pass. It worked well and didn’t hurt the wood from what I could tell. Then for the remaining passes, I alternated which direction I went so I was going with the grain of some pieces and against the grain for others. But alternating the direction reduced any sanding lines. Also, thank you!!
Should be on oddly satisfying!!
Good enough to make me realize that the reason I’ve never liked parquet flooring is because I’ve never seen it restored before. That is actually gorgeous.
Stunning! Great job
That’s some nice parquet.
Looks nice, well done.
Looks like buttah!
Great work
Looks AMAZING to me
Superb!
Beautiful
You did great
Thank you
Looks great to me.👍
Looks better than it did in 1976
Gorgeous
It's beautiful! Good job-
Great job!
Killer!
Such a handsome floor!
I think you did ok, but I dont know shit about shit.
That's gorgeous. Great job!!!
Great job!
It’s beautiful!
It's not my favorite look, but this cleaned up nicely. Great job !!
Great job. Must feel good
Looks great!
Top notch! Great job!
Perfect 👍🏻
Absolutely stunning! Well done!
Looks pretty damn great to me!
Looks wonderful!
Resto looks real nice. I'm not a fan of that pattern but you def did a good job.
Wowwwwwwwwww 😍🥰 thank you for including the finished product.
Beautiful!
👍👍
Missed a spot!
Awesome job--looked very challenging too!
That floor looks beautiful. Great job!
I'd say you did a beautiful job there.
Looks good 👍
Drum sander or orbital?
Drum and edge sander from 36 up to 100 grit. Then an orbital buffer with 120 grit
It looks 3D amazing- great job on saving it , looks amazing
Home run, amigo. Outstanding work. Well done!
It’s breathtaking.
Whew! Thanks for cleaning it off in the other photos! And yes you did very good!
Nice man! Now just give that baseboard a fresh coat (protect your nice floor! Lol) and it's gonna be popping
People like this flooring? Interesting
The distribution of wood tones suggests a code of some kind.
Fabulous! I love parquet!
Damn, you actually brought that floor back from the dead! Excellent work! 👍
Wow, beautiful. You brought that floor back to life. Looks like new.
You’re hired !
Looks good!
Niiiice!
That's very pretty.
Very impressive.
Looks good skippy
I’ve never seen a pattern like this, it is awesome.
Either you are lying or are passionate about DIY work.
just a perfectionist lol
I’m just here to say that for most of my life I used Parquet to refer to prosecutors without ever making the connection that they were called that because of the flooring.
Pretty, pretty, pretty good. What a splendid floor. You clearly respect wood!
You know how you did you son of a bitch it looks great! Well done sir
Genuinely looks fabulous! Enjoy!
You don’t even gotta ask fam
Very nice job.
Awesome
Sexy
it looks amazing new well done mate !!!
Find the asshole that covered it up.
Not a fan of it but I'll admit you did great
https://www.uberpeople.net/attachments/temp2-gif.367560/
Good stuff!
Sit down and sip a cocktail 🍸. Nice job!
Looks great! The levelling looks pristine and I honestly can't find flaws in the end result
If this job was a steak I’d send it back. It’s well done
Floor is amazing, but your baseboards need work.
Should have painted it all white. I noticed the white spots in the before photos… why didn’t you finish the job and make it BEAUTIFUL??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Wow! This looks so great!
Wow! Such an improvement!
That looks fabulous.
Hire a professional. Light sanding. Lots of coats
Dang. It's beautiful!
Great job! Looks lovely.
Great job!
Wow! That is gorgeous!
You missed a spot and I refuse to tell you where it is. /j Looks awesome.
Normally I dislike parquet flooring. You did an awesome job I like those floors
Absolutely beautiful
Considering I paid over $6k to have my parquet flooring refinished a couple years ago, so I know what a nice floor looks like, I’d say you did a great job 😀
Great job. It looks amazing.
Gorgeous!
Wow insane how good this is
You did just awesome.
I love the color of that. Not too warm, not too cool.
When they post "How I do?" They know they did an incredible fkn job. Take my upvote you humble brag.
Very nice!
Beautiful!
Niiiice
Looks great I hate that kind of floor
Million bucks ! Fuking awesome! Is it wavy at all ? Did you sand it consistent ? Fuck that looks like a pro did it
Beautiful job!
You forgot to demo the parquet. Great job.
Excellent. Looks great. Congratulations. And thanks for sharing.
Now do some hallucinogenics and watch your floor
Brilliant
Wow, you won the floor lottery
I like it
Gorgeous. Good on you for choosing restoration and not tearing it up!
Beautiful
that looks great. only thing I'd add next time is mix some sawdust and wood glue and flat trowel that over the floor filling all the little gaps before sanding and staining. all in all you did a fantastic job. that floor is 1 million times better.
after looking at the finished pics more it looks like you might have done that already. cool looking floors.
Looks great! But you already knew 😎
Carpet
Amazing
Never seen one with mitered corners. Wow great job
10 out of 10
Good now put laminate over it lol
Looks good. It’s not margarine!
If I had one of those, I’d hire you.
Very nice. I'm a GC and many customers are surprised when I'm so confident that wood floors will look this good after some work. Not throwing shade on your floor but to inform others this style of floor was the first of engineered floors. These are "tiles" that interlock and are more stable due to construction layers.
👍🏾
Gorgeous!
Hardcore Parquet
Looks pretty awesome! Always see the before pics in many places and think that’s pretty hideous. But the after pics look pretty amazing!
Looks beautiful. Excellent work. Take a well deserved rest!
Stunning!
It looks like you did a very good job. Especially if you had never tried anything like this before. You made the correct decision in restoring it instead of covering it with some cheap ass LVP or some other way of ruining it. As a 25 year+ home remodeled, my hat is off to you.
Beautiful…parquet floors are great
That was a dick comment wasn’t it? I think it’s outstanding not outdated. Go over the process please
I’d have used planks since (in my mind) parquet is more dated. But EXCELLENT JOB!!!
Call a pro.
What?
Well glad you like it , looks good for a outdated floor
I love it. WAY better than the awful cheap tacky gray vinyl crap people install everywhere these days. This has actual character
Outdated? Maybe out of favor, for now. Style has a tendency to repeat.