Elegant herringbone parquet and much needed stability to a bouncing floor in Richmond TW9
#CraftedForLife
We were delighted to be invited to carry out a project in a charming Victorian semi near the enchanting Kew Gardens. But looks can be deceiving and this project turned out to be one of our biggest ever floor levelling challenges.
Elegant herringbone parquet on the now stable living room floor
Badly bouncing floor
The old wide, dark engineered boards covered a floor that bounced by 5cm
Incredibly the previous floor bounced up to 5cm when it was stepped on hard. The owners showed us how the furniture moved, glasses dangerously shook and parts of the floor squeaked. They explained how they avoided tall, narrow furniture in case it toppled over.
Specialist experience required
The owners did extensive research to find a specialist company with the right level of floor flattening experience. We were contacted to provide an initial consultation, propose solutions and demonstrate that we were capable of carrying them out. We discussed various options and after a careful assessment we concluded the only viable option to flatten the floor was to remove the existing engineered wood flooring to access and correct the subfloor.
Going back to the subfloor
We removed the chipboard subfloor to gain access to the joists and strengthen them. We discovered poor workmanship by the builders with joists that were too short to strengthen the floor. We found the noisy floor was due to friction within the construction of the subfloor. Peeling the floor back to the subfloor was clearly an invasive intervention but the customers were supportive and understood it was the only viable option to deal with the bouncing and bowing. They said: “Alin and his team’s ability to deal with surprises ensured a good end result, we highly recommend them.”
New reinforced joists in the subfloor
An improved more stable subfloor
Careful, detailed planning
We worked on the two reception rooms, the kitchen and the hallway. We rebuilt the surface of the subfloor with large sheets of plywood (not chipboard) thoroughly and carefully screwed onto the joists. As this home had a basement we took extra care to make sure there was no damage to the ceiling below as we were working with the open sub-floor. After careful, detailed planning and work, frequent testing and strengthening we were confident and happy with our repairs. We managed to remove 90% of the noise and eliminate the bounciness although a wooden subfloor will always have its own minor structural vibration.
The old subfloor made of chipboard
We used new large sheets of plywood to strengthen the subfloor
Light herringbone parquet
As requested by the customers we installed a light herringbone parquet with a fresh airy feel. We created a continuous floor with no thresholds which has the effect of making the surface seem larger. Other design features were a single row border mitred at the corners for each turn. We carefully overcame demanding junctions and wonky walls to achieve a beautiful flowing border. We also undercut the existing skirting boards for a smart finish (ref article).
The single row parquet borders are mitred at each corner
The parquet floor has no thresholds
The customers were as delighted with the end result as we were. They said: “Alin and his team are fantastic to work with - great people, incredible work ethic, and extremely skilled. Pricing is very fair.”
The continuous parquet floor runs throughout the ground floor
The light herringbone parquet gives a fresh, airy feel
Location: Richmond TW9