DIY parquet laying: step-by-step instructions

In a huge variety of flooring, parquet occupies a special place. It has a lot of positive qualities: durable and practical, beautiful and environmentally friendly. Parquet floors have been known for several centuries, but until recently, their installation in the apartment was very difficult. With the development of technology and the advent of a cheaper, but worthy analogue - parquet glued boards - it became possible to perform this work quite simply, without the help of professionals. The main thing is to know how to properly lay a parquet board.

Material selection

Before giving step-by-step instructions for laying parquet board do it yourself, you should get to know this material better. The main difference between this flooring and the usual parquet is the manufacturing technology, due to which the price of the material becomes more affordable. Such boards are not made of solid wood, but have three layers glued together.

• The upper part is made of the most valuable types of wood, it is she who gives the product an exquisite appearance.
• In the middle, made of coniferous species, there are elements of fixation of parquet boards between themselves.
• The lower part is often plywood. Its main purpose is to reduce the influence of temperature and humidity fluctuations on the material, to give it a certain rigidity. The material of this plywood is most often a Christmas tree.

Parquet planks are classified by the number of strips of the upper layer, the number varies from one to four.

• The floor from single-lane boards (the most expensive) laid in the Christmas tree is almost impossible to distinguish from natural parquet.
• Parquet elements with two or three stripes allow you to create very beautiful ornaments.
• Four-lane dies are made from various wastes, so their scope is limited. So, professionals do not recommend using them in unheated rooms.

Layout and material calculation

Before you lay the parquet board yourself, you need to decide on the laying scheme and calculate the required amount of material.

Single-lane elements imitating parquet can be laid in the style of "herringbone", "braid", "squares", "oblique deck", etc. But such beauty requires very significant sacrifices: it requires not only more complex installation, but also leads to an increase in the amount of waste. Most hosts prefer a simpler styling scheme where the elements are arranged in parallel.

How to arrange the floor elements, along or across the room, decide depending on the visual effect that you want to achieve. It is recommended to arrange the dies so that their direction coincides with the direction of incidence of light: then the seams between the elements will be almost invisible.

Calculation of the amount of material with this scheme is easy to produce, it is recommended to purchase it with a small margin.

Foundation requirements

Do-it-yourself parquet boards can be laid both on a wooden floor and on a concrete base. Installation technology requires the following conditions:

• The base must be strong and perfectly flat. The permissible deviation is not more than 2 mm for every 2 meters of the surface length.
• Mandatory presence of a substrate and high-quality waterproofing. This will not only help protect the material and improve thermal insulation. Thanks to the substrate, the floor covering will be able to move slightly relative to the base, which will prevent its damage due to different expansion sizes under the influence of external conditions.

The concrete base must be checked for cracks and bumps. Minor defects must be repaired; if necessary, fill in a new leveling screed. Further work is possible only after it has completely hardened.

If you plan to mount a parquet board on a wooden floor, you will need to conduct a thorough audit of it. If the condition of the coating is close to perfect, you can limit it to polishing. Elimination of significant defects may require more extensive repairs, up to a complete overhaul of the floor.

The wooden floor is poor in the relative freedom of movement of its individual elements, so it is recommended that the parquet board be laid on plywood, it is better moisture resistant. She will give him the required integrity.

Possible use plywood and for leveling concrete floor: it is attached to it by means of special mastic and dowels.

Hydro and thermal insulation substrate

The most important point is the arrangement of the substrate and waterproofing.

• The waterproofing film spreads in strips so that the elements are located with an overlap of 15–20 cm. Also, it must be brought to the walls to a height of at least 5 cm.
• A heat insulator consisting of foamed polyethylene, polystyrene or cork is laid on top. Between themselves, individual strips are connected by tape.
• A compensating gap of 10 mm width is left between the heat insulator and the wall.

For the glueless method, nothing more is required, and when using glue, the top layer of the substrate is moisture-proof plywood attached by dowels to the base.

Laying Finish

How to put a parquet board correctly? As already understood, there are two ways to lay parquet: “floating” and glue. Mounting on glue is more reliable, but elements of such a coating are much more difficult to replace if necessary. The glueless method allows you to produce effortlessly parquet strip replacementworn out. These methods differ only in some nuances.

Important! It is mandatory before laying that the material must be allowed to mature in the room for at least two days, so that the boards adapt to the microclimate. Only then can installation be started. Indoors, the temperature and humidity parameters recommended by the manufacturer must be observed.

Glueless (floating) method

To visualize how to lay a parquet board with the "floating" method, you can watch a video tutorial.

The sequence of actions is as follows:

• The first row of parquet planks should be separated from the wall by a thermal gap not exceeding the width of the future baseboard. It is very convenient to use special plastic inserts placed every half meter.
• At the first row, it is necessary to carefully cut the upper lock - this is exactly what the side of the board will face the wall.
• The first element is laid in place, after which a second board is brought in from the end. It is necessary to connect them using a special wedge lock. To do this, it is enough to tap lightly at the junction with a hand or a rubber hammer. So the whole line is phased in. To complete it, it may be necessary to saw off part of the parquet strip, for which an electric jigsaw is used.
• The second row should be located with some offset relative to the first. To do this, you can use the scrap left over from the first row: its length should be at least 500 mm.

You can fasten each board of the second row in order, but you can collect the entire row as a whole and then connect it to the first.

• To fix the rows between themselves, the boards of the added row are turned at a slight angle, and then lowered, closing the lock. If you need to slightly knock out the elements, then this operation is performed through a wooden block.

In places where it is necessary to bypass pipes or other communications, cuts are made. They should provide a gap of 1-2 mm between the board and, for example, the pipe. When laying in the area of ​​the door, it is necessary to make a cut not only in the parquet strip, but also in the box, and then insert the coating element there. To connect the flooring in different rooms use special sills.

Glue method

The glue method is characterized in that before laying each parquet row, a layer of special glue is applied to the base, slightly wider than the stacked parquet strip. Also the joints between the elements are glued. Walking on such a coating is possible only after the curing composition has completely hardened.

A more detailed presentation of the process of installing such a coating with your own hands will help the video.

At the final stage, the restrictive wedges are removed, the protruding waterproofing is cut and the skirtings are attached.

It’s quite possible to lay the flooring yourself. The scale of savings can be estimated if you find out how much it costs to lay a square meter of parquet flooring in local construction companies.

Cost

The price of laying a parquet board by the floating method in Moscow is 270-350 rubles / m2, in St. Petersburg - 170-350 rubles / m2.

The cost of gluing installation is 550–850 rubles / m2 in the capital and 300–550 rubles / m2 in St. Petersburg.