Beautiful Art Deco Room With Our Parquet!

One of our lovely customers sent us these photos of their recently laid mahogany parquet floor, block as supplied by us here at Parquet Parquet. The room is very stylish and the quality of the block adds a warmth and depth to the room, complementing the furniture perfectly.

This gives you an idea of the successful application of parquet in a period house witha bit of patience and vision. We have many wood types available, walnut, oak, teak, maple all of which would look wonderful in a Deco house, perhaps using a contrasting block on the border edge. Just an email or phone call away!

Stunning Mixed Teak Floor

This is to show you parquet fans how beautiful a floor can be! 

This mixed teak floor was recently laid in a mid century house near us in Lincoln and suits it really well, all the colours and grain of the wood giving a vibrancy and warmth to the room. An exciting floor and beautifully laid in herringbone with a double line border. The whole thing took about a week to do for one man, but there were 7 doorways!

These photos just illustrate how reclaimed parquet is a lovely quality, very classy flooring with just a bit of time and patience.

Oak from North and South

School in Plaistow

We have recently acquired some reclaimed English oak, from a school on the Queen's West Road, Plaistow on the edge of London. A nice clean block which is selling out fast. Then we have travelled all the way up the length of the country to Middlesborough to source another nice oak block, slightly larger in size, but also a great looking block

For very good aesthetic reason, oak is the favoured timber for many customers. However our customers often tell us that whilst you can source Chinese oak in a new block, it is very satisfying to have the character of proper English oak which is reclaimed and has travelled no further than a few hundred miles. The other big plus is that it doesn't shrink the way a new block will, so as you would expect from English oak - it is reliable!

A fab oak basketweave floor done by one of our customers

Oak! We have oak for sale at last!

It has been a long time since we last had some nice English oak coming into our yard, but here it is and well worth the wait. It is what we get asked for more than anything and yet it is so hard to find in good condition and sufficient quantity. So roll up, roll up and get you reclaimed oak here!

Contact us at info@parquet-parquet.co.uk for futher details.

Stock handling in the yard

This is a photo of the storage looking tidy and looking good! Here you see how the parquet is tipped into large crates where they are kept under cover and ventilated, keeping jobs separate. Eventually the wood block is processed - grading each block to check that the size is consistent and any badly damaged block is rejected.

However we retain block with scratches etc. because once the sanding is completed, the marks will all be gone, and it makes no environmental sense to destroy something perfectly useable. Once the grading and calculating of area is done, the pallets are shrink-wrapped, strap-banded and labelled ready for sale.

New at Parquet-Parquet - Chevron Beech Block!

Chevron Parquet Block

We are always looking to improve our range here at Parquet-Parquet and therefore we have recently been working on supplying a lovely chevron parquet block, in reclaimed beech, with tongue and groove sides and with a very clean underside. The effect is fabulous and French in design style. For those looking for something a bit different, this might be it!

Beech has an interesting pale colour tone with a slightly pinkish tinge and a nice, generally even grain. It is an excellent timber for a modern floor, especially if you want something sustainable, which this is. All our timber is reclaimed in the UK and hand-graded by us here at Parquet-Parquet ready to send out to our customers.
And despite all that care and attention, it is still a very reasonably priced flooring material! Take a look at our website to see what is currently available.

Mini Video of Some Parquet Fun in Kent!

Take a look at this little time lapse film!

A little more 'how to lay a parquet floor'

 

Opepe parquet laying - Part 2

So, here is part 2:
After cutting your straight edge - allowing 2 blocks wide for the border - and trimming back the overlapped pieces, you then glue the border blocks into position, either forming mitres into the corners, or running straight into the right angle.

First sanding of the blocks

Once laid, leave the glue to go off, preferably overnight, because the sander is a big beast and ideally the glue should be well-bonded by the time you run it over the floor! So you sand the floor, at least 3 times, once with a heavy duty 30 grit, to level out the floor, remove the surface and scratches, then a 60 grit, then a fine 120, to get a smooth, fine finish.

Applying first coat of polish

This then gives you the surface for filling the small gaps that are unavoidable in reclaimed parquet floor laying, and become imperceptible once filled and once again sanded. Finally, the polishing, two layers, not put on too thickly, so you get a better surface, and hey presto! four days of serious graft and you have a fabulous floor. Simples.

Finished opepe floor

More parquet fun, this time Opepe in Kent! Part 1

Starting the laying process

Opepe is a fabulous wood type; a Central African hardwood, principally commercially grown in West Africa. It is a strong timber with a pale yellow sapwood and golden brown heartwood with a slightly stripey figuring. It has exceptional strength but reasonable working qualities - according to our notes about wood types on our website!

This is a small job, about 14 m2 which we are time-lapsing for another little film on installation, to give a bit more detail on laying techniques for our customers. The blocks are cleaned in the grooves by hand, stacked ready for laying and then the fun begins. Having established the middle line, the central herringbone panel is laid, the special  bonding glue has to dry, then you lay the pattern out to the edges, keeping the fit as tight as possible. At this stage there is some cutting to do to create a straight edge for the border block.

This shows the blocks scraped clean on the sides and grooves

Watch this space, more details to come!

New in stock: Quality Teak, Sapele and Mahogany

We have just lifted some gorgeous teak fron the Crown Woods School, in the Eltham area of London. It is tongue and groove edged, and dates from the sixties, so the quality and condition of this vintage 50 year old block is good!

There is also some nice c 1950 sapele block available in large quantities, sourced from the Sedgefield Community College at Stockton-On-Tees.

And finally a beautiful and very clean, excellent quality mahogany block which has come from McKechnie Brass Social Club, based at Aldridge near Walsall. The mahogany is again from the 1950's - we have sold a lot already, there is only about 130m2 left!

 End product after lifting, bagging, transporting, sorting and palletising, the panel above shows how it will look as a floor. Stunning!

Lots of Parquet Fun in Southwold!

Check out our new video showing us laying a Beech floor with a Panga Panga border - it took 3 days and as you can see we worked hard...and some of us had hangovers...but the results were great (wait till after the end of the action to see the final floor). Enjoy watching us work!

An Arts & Crafts Post Office, Suffolk

Beech & Panga Panga floor recently fiited in an Arts & Crafts Post Office

Just thought we'd share with you a gorgeous floor that we have just fitted for a friend of ours, Anthony Geering from Puritan Values, a leading expert in Arts & Crafts antique furntiure and artefacts. The room is the actual Old Post Office in Wangford, Suffolk, which Anthony has restored keeping all the original features. The parquet floor is reclaimed and supplied by us, very effective warm beech with a bold panga panga border edge. By not over-sanding, the floor still has a lived -in look of an old floor. There are more pics to come, we have captured a time lapse of the process to show our customers what it takes to fit a reclaimed parquet floor and that will be posted on our website - with luck next week.


Anthony has appeared in a couple of TV programmes dealing with antiques, Channel 4's Kirstie's Home Made Homes being the most recent where his expertise has been called on. He has got an interesting Eco-Project underway and is very convinced about reclaimed parquet, so will be using it in the future within the project. This completed room just goes to prove how warm and welcoming parquet flooring is, and how suitable for an original late Victorian building.

Elle Decoration March 2011 Issue - Insider Guide

Deep charactered Rhodesian Teak, reclaimed and relaid

There is an article in the fab designer's magazine, ELLE Decoration this month all about reclaimed floors, more particularly focussing on parquet and all the processes. Parquet-Parquet gets a mention as one of their suggested suppliers and our favourite fitter Simon Waplington even gets his photo in it! 

The great thing about ELLE Decoration is that it exposes parquet to a wider audience of stylish specifiers who are looking for something different for their clients, and which fits the environmentally friendly bill completely, as it is totally sustainable and available in really good quantities and varieties. If you get a chance, check it out or go to our website www.parquet-parquet.co.uk and see what we currently have available.

Pretty and elegant Afrormosia reclaimed and relaid
Photos copyright by our favourite photographer Spadge UK

Watford parquet - Casio Campus

West Herts College, Casio Campus, Watford

Our latest parquet lift is from the college above where we spent a couple of days lifting and bagging some very attractive Panga Panga as well as a stunning African Banga Wanga, always a winner with the customers who are looking for an unusual or rare reclaimed floor.

As you can see from below, the parquet has to be lifted with a special tool with some care in order to ensure that there is minimal damage and therefore minimal wastage, then it has to be bagged and loaded before being taken back to our yard for processing. The work is intense and grubby but the results worth it - these are quality floors!

There is more to come in phase II.