laying Parquet Flooring

[lner jp]

Greetings all.

I am a first time poster, so should introduce myself as a 38 year old owner of a 1840 house in the NE of engerland.

I'm thinking of laying a reclaimed Parquet flooring in my hallway, current flooring is carpet on a concrete base (so not original then), however my St Bernard dog is killing the carpet so I need somthing more durable. My question is this - does Parquet need to be laid under the skirting to allow for expansion, or can it just be butted up to the existing skirting, which for various reasons I do not want to remove and lift, and even if I did lift the skirting the Parquet would still have to be butted up to the staircase?

Thanks in advance J.P.

 

[DJH]

Welcome aboard! I don't think it matters JP although ideally under the skirting but a cork strip will suffice and won't look out of place either.

Doug

 

[LadyArowana]

Hello and welcome, new members posts get moderated first, so just bumping this up the ranking. Also a quick reminder that we all like pictures, preferably of the house, but failing that ones of the dog will suffice :lol:

 

[Feltwell]

Welcome!

If you didn't want to go under the skirting then you'd have to allow for expansion in another way. Lay your parquet hard up against the skirting on both sides and you'll end up with gaps or the floor turning into a replica of the ocean waves!

Either use cork as Doug suggested, or leave a gap but then pin a moulding to the skirting to cover the gap. Either will do. If you're feeling a bit more ambitious and really *really* don't want to remove the skirting, you can trim it in-situ with a an oscillating tool, such as:-

http://www.cel-uk.com/mt3.html

With a round blade such as this, you'd get through several - one of the little pictures shows skirting being trimmed:-

http://www.cel-uk.com/celwork/ac13-2p.html

 

[lner jp]

Thanks for your help and advice, as requested a picture of the dog, showing why she does not get on with carpet too well. And for information she weighs in at 13 stone.

J.P.

 

[Baron de Gynes]

Personally, I would say that the best way of laying such a floor would be to remove the skirtings. The overall finish will be (in my opinion) infinitely higher than if one were to cover the gaps with quadrant.

One day I hope to remove the carpet in the downstairs rooms here and replace with oak flooring or parquet (parquet by preference, but I fear it may be too expensive) and should that happen, the interior woodwork will be removed and replaced at the same time.