What flooring - considerations

[menousername]

Hi All

Wondering what you would recommend for my flooring needs.

I have a smallish house with a kitchen-dinner accessed via double doors from the living room. So no separate hallway etc.

It has old and not particularly suitable parquet (the square style that, in this house, makes it feel like an old school or something)

The floor (concrete) is generally flat but has a small drop off in a couple of corners.

We laid click vinyl as a temporary solution over the parquet which has expanded and pinched between the double doors.

So for something glued down we would need to remove the parquet, get all the glue/tar up and re-screed and feels like a big job for a small house that I am not sure deserves that much spent.

I am committed to removing the parquet but wonder if its worth the full glue removal and re-screed.

Any alternatives? Anything like engineered wood that isn't going to pinch again?

All advice and experiences welcome.

Also anyone with a similar layout with the same style floor running between living room, dining room and kitchen? What styles did you go for? Did you create division with different styles?

Thanks!

[DonkeyApple]

If you're going to remove the parquet then best to do it properly and ensure the concrete surface is perfectly flat. That said, I agree completely that some old parquet does look very dated but it can be taken back to bare wood and stained so as to look far more modern. I saw a 60s property a while back that had the classic 4 finger block parquet that in its original brown does look grim in some surroundings now but it had been cut back and stained grey and looked superb.

[GasEngineer]

Why was the click vinyl only a temporary solution? There are many styles and types available which sound ideal for your need.

If its expanded it may be that it was not fitted properly with an expansion gap etc.

[Mr Pointy]

menousername said:

We laid click vinyl as a temporary solution over the parquet which has expanded and pinched between the double doors.

Was it fitted correctly? Did you remove the skirting & trim the door architrave so the flooring had an expansion gap all around the room? If not, that may well be why you are having issues.

If the parquet floor is generally flat & sound then there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to lay over it as long as you do the rest of the job properly, allow for expansion gaps & can cope with the change in level, which it sounds like you are at the moment. As has been said getting the existing floor properly sanded & treated could be worth considering as well.

[Zetec-S]

Having had a water leak just a couple of weeks after our new kitchen was completed, I'm immensely relieved we chose LVT flooring rather than wood.

[menousername]

Thanks

The grey stain idea is a good idea but the nature of the house means the parquet just does not work. Just does not suit the house for some reason - very subjective.

The (correction) laminate was probably laid OK. Expansion gaps are there and skirting went on after. But it was cheap and cheerful a few years ago and happy to change it.

[clockworks]

I've got 5 finger oak parquet in the lounge and front hallway. It was fitted by the first owner, nearly 60 years ago. It looked nasty. A bit uneven, severely water-stained in some places, sun-bleached in others. I considered replacing it, but it seemed criminal to rip up real wood and replace it with plastic.

After a proper sanding, and 2 coats of clear Osmo satin, it looks wonderful. Nice contrast to the "modern" grey walls and white trim. Good to go for many more years.

[Crumpet]

Sounds like you want LVT. It looks a bit out of place in a properly old house because it can look too perfect but I’ve absolutely no regrets about putting it down in our kitchen. They’d probably just overboard yours with ply and then glue down the LVT (click is crap).

[Sheepshanks]

We had parquet in the hall, dining and living rooms, but it was carpeted over. Concrete floors. When we had a kitchen / diner knock-through and extension it was taken up in the hall and dining room and replaced with LVT.

On the exisiting concrete floors the LVT is very cold - it's fine on the floor of the extended parts of the house as the new floor is insulated. It's mid-range Kardean and we find it can be slippy in stocking feet. We have to warn people who come in and insist on taking their shoes off - if you "test" it, it seems fine, then suddenly they'll slip.

The other thing is because of the height the parquet was there's now a height difference of maybe 15mm between the kitchen/diner and living room (with carpet on top of parquet) floors. There's a strip edge across the living room door but it looks a bit of bodge.