Waxed Parquet Block Floor is Sticky and Picks Up Dirt

Hello and Welcome to another Woodfloor-Renovations Blog Post.


Today I'll show you a couple of pictures from a recent Floor Sanding job of ours and explain a few things that many end users often do and wonder why what they have done looks rubbish and doesn't last.


Our client had previously done the floor sanding and sealing works herself, with poor results, and was asking many questions with regards to sanding/finishing/products etc.etc.


When she had last sanded/sealed the floor, [only 12 months ago] which is an original Pine Parquet Wood block floor, fitted in the diagonal herringbone pattern with no border approximately 90 years old, the area was, to cut a long story short, basically sanded and waxed, which had unquestionably been applied too thickly by our client, [a common DIY mistake] which was the reason the floor looked blotchy, felt sticky all the time, was difficult/impossible to clean and attracted dirt like bee's to a honeypot...[picture below] 

This picture [above] was taken about 30 minutes or so after we started sanding the floor, and you can clearly see the high traffic area's in the middle of the picture which were basically bare wood as the old seal had completely worn through.

The picture below is the floor in its finished condition, immediately after the 3rd coat of lacquer had been applied to this floor.

 Our client had specified a high traffic lacquered finish for this project, and in this case we applied 1 x coat of a solvent based primer to seal in any wax residues and negate any contamination of the new lacquered finish, this was then followed by 2 coats of Lobadur WS 2K Fusion which is a high performance 2 part lacquer, famed for its durability, which looked superb and will serve our client well for many a long day.

Looks a bit different from the first picture doesn't it !

Thanks for reading...Regards Gary

Parquet Block Floor Sanding Wirral

This is a Brown Teak parquet block floor in its finished condition, much to my shame we never took a picture or Video of the floor/room in its pre-sand condition.

In my rather flimsy defence, we did have a fair bit of work to do before we even started sanding the floor, as 75% of the first row of border blocks around the perimeter of the room were loose, this was caused by the client removing the gripper rods...it happens a lot.

So we had to clean the blocks off and re-adhere them all back into position before we could start with the sanding works...well thats my excuse for forgetting to take a 'before' picture, and i'm sticking to it.

Rest assured the floor was looking much the worse for wear and really did need the full sand and seal treatment, which we of course gave it.

Kind thanks to our client Annabel for her kind hospitality over the course of a long day.

Thanks for viewing & reading.

Checkout the main Woodfloor-Renovations Website

Parquet Flooring Repair and Restoration Cheshire

Another Woodfloor-Renovations Parquet Floor Restoration project, this one was in Cuddington, Cheshire.

In this video clip you can see the areas of blocks which we have just repaired [with the white masking tape on] and the other voided area which we were about to repair.

Check back to see the second video where you can see the completed project.

Thanks for viewing. 

How Do I Lay Parquet Flooring Adhesive ?

Hello and welcome to another Woodfloor-Renovations Blog Post.

Today I'll talk a little about a rather sticky subject [excuse the pun] which most people attempting to use professional Parquet Flooring Adhesives for the first time may be in for a bit of a shock.

The question today is "How do I lay parquet flooring adhesive ??"

For the first time amateur DIYer its just not as easy as you think, just about all good quality parquet flooring adhesives are incredibly sticky and have an annoying habit of going everywhere.

ALWAYS use vinyl/plastic gloves because if you don't the glue takes some removing from your hands.

The adhesives we use regularly are Lecol 5500, Laybond L16 and Sika 5500s.

These are all excellent products and all basically do the same thing, which in this case is to properly stick Wooden Parquet Blocks to a subfloor.

We did a comprehensive article on this very subject a few months ago which goes into detail about the products, methods and the tools needed to get the best result possible for your project. Have a look at our Parquet Flooring Repair Tips and Hints page.

Hope this helps, Thanks for reading and enjoy the article.

What Flooring Adhesive To use for my reclaimed parquet floor ?

Hello and Welcome to another WFR Blog Post.


Today's offering is something we get asked often, as it's something alot of people try and do themselves to save some money.


The question today is "What Flooring adhesive to use for my reclaimed parquet floor ? "

There are many very good flooring adhesives out there in the big wide world of wood flooring, but there are exactly NONE that claim to be able to fix back into place reclaimed parquet flooring that have bitumen on the back of them NONE.

Most non professional end users will have a different perception of what is a properly prepared sub-floor surface or parquet block in readiness for the blocks to be relaid, if the prep work isn't done properly then your project will almost certainly be doomed to failure, even if you do use adhesive from quality manufacturers.

That brings me nicely on to the adhesives that I would recommend, there are three, and I'm only mentioning 3 as I know these work if used correctly, I dare say there are many more products out there that work just as well, but I haven't used them so I can't say whether they are any good or not.

The three products I use regularly are Lecol 5500, Laybond L16, and last but no means least Sika 5500s. All these products I have found to work very well if the correct prep work has been done, click Here to see our full article on proper methods & correct prep work and tools.

When trying to effect block repairs you really do need to do your homework and find out the correct processes and products which will greatly minimise the likelihood of failure with your project, done properly with the correct products and know-how your project can have a professional finish and should last for many years.

Always always take time to read and understand the manufacturers product instructions in respect of how much product to apply to either the floor or the block, too much and it may be weeks before the adhesive dries properly, too little and the block likely won't adhere at all, make sure you use the correct sized notched trowel to apply the adhesive with as well.

Remember...which ever adhesive you use to fix your loose blocks you will get NO Guarantee  from any manufacturer, so if your project fails...it fails...Do Your Homework.


Hope this helps.....Thanks For Reading.

How Do I Get the Bitumen off The Back of My Parquet Blocks

Hello and Welcome to another WFR Blog Post


Today's post is something I come across alot, where people are trying to do something they are pretty much clueless about, but obviously want to save some money and still do as good a job as they can.

Linbide Tungsten Scraper....

The question today is "How Do I Get the Bitumen off the back of my Reclaimed Parquet Flooring ? "

If the bitumen on the back of your blocks is pretty dry then you may be in luck and the method that I recommend should do the trick for you. However.....if the Bitumen is still very tacky, almost still wet then I'm afraid that you have no easy solution, there are a few things you can do, but its a time consuming and very tedious process. Basically the best way to do it yourself would be to heat up the Bitumen on the back of the blocks with a heat gun / blow torch type of set up and scrape it off when its runny and almost liquid like....Not nice at all.

The other way and I feel for most people the best option, would be to send the blocks off to a company who specialize in the removal of bitumen from the back of parquet blocks. Checkout Bitumenremoval.com these guys may just be the answer to your prayers [or nightmares] and from around £12 per m2 [depending on the amount] will clean up your blocks nicely and have them ready for laying.

You need to weigh up this option against how long you think scraping maybe thousands of individual blocks will take you, bearing in mind that these guys can clean up maybe 50m2 in a few days.....its worth thinking about anyway. I'm not allied to www.bitumenremoval.com in any way whatsoever, a client I did a Floor Sanding and Re-Finishing job for had used them for the bitumen removal process, that's how I know of them.

If the Bitumen on the back of your blocks is quite dry and you want to do the scraping yourself then here goes.....Your new best friend will need to be the splendid ''Linbide Tungsten Scraper" [image near top of page] its ideally suited for the scraping of bitumen from the backs of the parquet blocks, bear in mind that it's still a repetitive and tedious process but it does make a big difference to how the blocks sit and line up when you come to re-install them.

There is no automated easy way of doing this particular element of the job i'm afraid, its messy and creates bitumen dust, takes time but needs to be done, dont take more than 20-30 seconds per block, after you have done about a dozen of them you will get the hang of it and speed up. You don't have to scrape off every bit of bitumen residue, just the worst of it.

This process creates alot of dust and bitumen residue's so have plenty of ventilation available and vacuum up on a regular basis to keep the dust down....ALWAYS wear a DUST MASK ,GLOVES & GOGGLES.

Hold the block at one end with the other end butting against the floor, with the scraper laid flat against the bitumen surface push away and then back towards you until most of the residue is removed, then give the butt joints a quick scrape as well to remove any nibs or spots of bitumen.

Scraping the butt joints will help when you are re-laying the cleaned blocks in that they will butt up against each other much better and leave less gaps.

To do a good job I recommend you need / use the following items....

• Linbide Scraper
• Dust Mask
• Goggles
• Vinyl Gloves
• Hammer
• Chisels [old]
• Wipes
• Vacuum Cleaner
• Dustpan & Brush 

Hope this helps......Thanks for reading.

I've already written a full article for Scraping Parquet Blocks and Re-Installing Them  check it out on our website by clicking the above link.

Parquet Flooring Repairs - How to fix loose blocks in my wood block floor

Hello and welcome to another WFR Blog post


This Blog is about another very frequently asked question that we have been asked numerous times.


The questions is:- "How Do I Fix the loose blocks in my Parquet Flooring ? "


I have already written a comprehensive guide on this subject on the 
Woodfloor-Renovations website, so to save a couple of hours in front of the computer I'll link you directly to the page on our site.


Let me know what you think of the review...Parquet Block Repairs


Thanks for reading