How to lay piece parquet: do-it-yourself and the cost of turnkey work

For a long time, parquet flooring has been considered a sign of wealth and even luxury. And this is partly true: the price per m2 of such coverage is quite high. The cost of laying and processing is additional money. However, you can save a lot if you do the work yourself. It's not as difficult as it seems. Laying piece parquet with your own hands is carried out in stages and can be done in several ways.

Substrate preparation for laying parquet

There are several ways to lay the cover:

on a draft or old wooden floor;
on the logs;
on the screed.

Parquet can only be laid on a flat surface. Differences and errors cannot exceed 1 mm per 1 square meter. Therefore, the base is always very carefully leveled. Laying of piece parquet can only be done after finishing and repair work in the room is completed.

The level of air humidity should not exceed 60%, and the base - no more than 5%. Otherwise, parquet planks will swell, deform, and cracks will appear.

Concrete base preparation: screed

If the floor is concrete, it is quite possible to lay parquet on it. To do this, it is enough to make a concrete screed to level the base.

Consider waterproofing first. Usually this is a simple film of 200 microns. The strips are laid with an overlap of 20 cm on each other. The edges are led onto the walls by 15 cm. To prevent the film from spreading, the seams are fixed with adhesive tape. Also, for the period of pouring, polyethylene or a membrane is fixed on the wall with adhesive tape.
Then a screed is poured over the film. Its minimum layer is 5 cm. The absence of drops, holes, bumps and other irregularities is checked. The better the screed, the better the parquet will lay down. The leveling layer must dry completely. It usually takes about a month. After drying, the base is treated with a special primer and dried again.

On a dry screed install waterproof plywood. It is to it that the finishing coating will be attached. The minimum thickness of the sheets is 12 mm, the optimal ratio of the thickness of plywood and parquet planks is 2 to 3. It is most convenient to work with small squares measuring 50 × 50 cm. An acceptable option is 75 × 75 cm.

You can do without plywood, but then the moisture content of the screed should not exceed 3%, and it will be possible to lay the parquet in a tension way, on staples or special elastic glue. In any case, the exclusion of the plywood layer increases the risk of damage to the flooring.

Plywood sheets are laid on a surface smeared with glue and additionally fixed with dowels or self-tapping screws, the heads of which must be recessed. Between the squares, it is necessary to leave a small gap of about 1 mm: this is an allowance for possible deformations and swelling of the laid plywood. Also leave a compensation gap around the perimeter of the room. Here they maintain a distance of 2-3 mm.

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Plywood must be sanded, cleaned of dust and primed.

Preparation of the base with lags

If it is not possible to pour a concrete screed, you can lay plywood on logs, since it is she who serves as the basis for artistic parquet.

First, the floor is also waterproofed: a membrane or film is laid.
Then set lags. It can be a wooden beam with a section of 5 × 5 cm or 5 × 8 cm. The distance between the lags is 40 cm. The beam is fixed with corners and self-tapping screws or anchor bolts.

Logs should form a perfectly flat horizontal surface, so they must be checked with a level. If necessary, the beam is trimmed or, conversely, stands are placed under it.

Between the lags, heat and sound insulating materials can be laid.
Next, start laying plywood.It is fixed with self-tapping screws every 15 cm. A small gap is also left between the sheets.

Parquet on wooden floor

If the apartment has wooden floors, then you can do without additional plywood laying: it is enough to repair the old base. To do this, they eliminate creaks, sagging, repair boards and logs, remove protruding parts, etc. Also, the floor will have to be sanded, removing the old coating from it. On a leveled base, it will be possible to mount piece parquet without any problems. Its installation in this case will be quite simple.

Parquet laying methods

How to lay parquet on the floor with your own hands? There are several ways:

floating method, i.e. without fixing to the floor;
on glue;
on nails or screws;
on glue and on self-tapping screws / nails / studs.

In the first case, the boards are fastened only to each other using the tenon-groove technology. Nothing is fixed on the floor. On the one hand, it is convenient, fast, such parquet is easy to repair and sort out, if necessary, the tree can expand or contract due to temperature changes. But the slightest damage to the lock can lead to damage to the entire coating, that is, this is the least reliable way.

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When laying parquet on glue, proceed as follows: generously and evenly lubricate the base - screed or laid plywood - with an adhesive composition using a special notched trowel. The parquet is connected using the thorn-groove technology and laid on the glue. Also, lockless parquet can be mounted on glue.

When using fasteners, first lay out the boards, and then fix them on the base with self-tapping screws.

The last 2 methods can be combined. Then the coating will be very durable, but it will be almost impossible to repair it.

Laying out the drawing

You can lay out parquet in an apartment beautifully and evenly even without experience, but you will need patience and accuracy. First you need to draw a planned drawing on paper, taking into account the actual dimensions of the room and planks. It can be a diagonal, a French or English Christmas tree, squares, a run, a braid, etc. A novice master should not take on a complex pattern.

It should be calculated so that there is a whole parquet in the center of the room, and all cuts and trimmings are at the edges.

The most common way of laying piece parquet is herringbone. On his example, an instruction will be built explaining in detail how to lay parquet with your own hands.

First, they find the middle of the room and stretch the cord along it.
Then they fold two dies with a herringbone, lubricate them on the sides with glue, and also glue the spike and groove.
Lubricate the base with a notched trowel with glue.
Starting from the far wall, they begin to lay out the Christmas tree: the beacon pair is laid on plywood in such a way that the left edge presses the cord to the floor, and the right edge rests on the cord.
Parquet planks are pressed tightly to the floor, the excess glue that has come out is removed.
The sample is fixed with nails or self-tapping screws, which are hammered or screwed into the groove at angles of 45 degrees. The hat must be recessed, the number of fasteners - 2 pcs. on a 40 cm bar.
Further strips are laid out according to the model. On a small area of \u200b\u200bthe base, slightly wider than the plank to be laid, glue is applied with a layer of up to 1.5 mm. The bar is inserted into the grooves of the previous element, trimming with a rubber mallet.
First lay out the middle row, then the rows on the left and right alternately until the coating is laid up to the walls.
For voids where whole planks do not fit, the material is cut to the desired size.
Wedges are inserted between the extreme row and the wall, providing a gap of 0.2–0.3 mm.

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The cover has been laid. Now you need to let the glue dry, and the parquet - to stand. This will take at least a week.

Sanding, protective coating

The next step in laying the parquet will be its polishing, which allows not only to eliminate all flaws and differences, but also to remove possible contamination. First, rough processing is performed - sanding, - then fine grinding.

After grinding, the parquet surface is primed and then varnished or oiled. To make it clearer how everything happens, it is advisable to watch special training videos.

Cost of work

The price of laying a piece parquet on a turnkey basis will be made up of several points (the approximate cost is indicated, it may differ significantly depending on the region and the contractor):

Foundation preparation. A screed costs approximately 270 rubles / m2, logs - 500 rubles / m2, plywood flooring for a screed - 430 rubles / m2, for logs - 150 rubles / m2, grinding plywood coating - 150 rubles / m2.
Laying parquet flooring in the chosen way. Floating method - 300 rubles / m2, for glue - 450 rubles / m2, for nails, self-tapping screws - 450 rubles / m2.
Sanding, sanding parquet, puttying cracks - 350 rubles / m2.
Priming, varnishing - 60 rubles / m2 - or oil coating - 80-100 rubles / m2