Parquet Sanding and Oiling

Parquet Sanding and Oiling

Parquet Sanding and Oiling: being part of the floor restoration, parquet sanding and oiling is that part that bring back the beauty of your floor. After all, the floor is the very first part of the room to be noticed when entering. It is the only surface of a room to be used so much. For this reason, a regular maintenance has to be done and this postpones any considerable restoration work. Even with the best protected and cared parquet floors it comes on moment when professional workmanship is needed. This is a crucial time when the best choice has to be made in terms of sanding approach, timing and most important type of finish.  All these must be carefully considered to ensure that your precious parquet floor will continue to stand the test of time both physically and aesthetically.
Our recommendation for the parquet floors in your home is the oil finishing. Nowadays we have the Osmo Oils which are more resistant to the modern wear and tear of floors. The oil finish has a unique feature that it leaves the grains to show thus the wood’s character is better revealed. You may have it matt, semi-matt, satin or even glossy.
For a more detailed comparison between types of finishes we recommend to see Oiled or Lacquered blog post.

A brief description of the work involved: our floor restoration and refinishing service is dedicated to bring back the beautiful look of your floor thus extending its lifetime and refreshing your home appearance.

Furniture: we highly recommend to consider clearing the surface which will be restored of all the furniture and items. We know that many times this is not possible or easy to do so we will move the furniture in an area on which we will not work, if available. According to the type of finish requested we can also work having the bigger furniture items around although it is strongly not recommended as we will explain below. Of course polyethylene dust sheets are used to cover the furniture, fireplaces, built-in cabinets and shelves etc.

Existing covering removal: it may be the case that your parquet floor was covered at one point with carpet or laminate. We will remove them carefully not to cause damages to the precious floor underneath.

Wooden floor assessing this stage is of critical importance as it will generate the best approach. Always a proper assessment is done before starting the the work and after removing the existing covering (if it is the case). We will look for information like the type of installation (glued, floating, nailed), the type of the parquet (solid or engineered), the thickness above the tongue level, wood species, installation failures which need repairs, loose or damaged elements that need replacing, gaps to be filled.

Repairs and gap filling: if there are parquet boards damaged to a degree that requires replacing we will use the ones left as spare after the initial fitting was done. This is the ideal case but most of the time there no extra boards left to be used in these situations. In this case we will try to source similar boards. Each repair is like a surgery so it will be approached individually. Also the wider gaps will be filled with elastic polyurethane based filler, colour matched, which is suitable for coating with oil.  

Parquet Sanding stage: we aim to extend the lifespan of your floor through our hardwood floor restoration service. Thus we will start sanding with the least aggressive grit possible so to remove just the damaged surface layer of parquet and not more. For example if your floor is having deep dents and very worn areas a more aggressive grit will be used. Otherwise a lesser one.
Another important aspect is patiently changing the grits from rough to fine step by step and not skipping. The thorough vacuuming between each step is mandatory as it will prevent potential small debris to scratch the open grains. This is the most common source of sanding failures which are visible when the finishing coat is applied.
Between sanding steps filler will be applied to fill any present gaps.
A special care and attention will be dedicated to sanding the edges, corners and other details. Due to our high performance equipment the skirting will not be damaged during our work.

Parquet Oiling: after the stripping and sanding process is properly completed the parquet floor needs to be sealed with oil. If you would like to change the colour of your floor now is the moment because the best results are achieved with the first coat. Is good to know that each species of wood, beside its natural colour, absorbs differently the oil thus influencing the final colour. We always provide samples or tests before the definitive application. With special techniques, darker or lighter variations of the same colour can be obtained. The oil will be applied with the buffing machine especially if is coloured, but also, for maximum result, special brushes may be used for this. Finally, a clear coat of oil will be applied.

Furniture back and felts: now all is done, the equipment loaded and the new floor thoroughly vacuumed and cleaned. We will stick felt pads under the furniture and will rearrange it  as it was initially.

As a few notes about parquet floor restoration:

• Our state of the art sanding equipment will be connected to dust extractors which allows us to work dustless. Indeed it’s impossible to work dust free as small particles may escape in the surrounding air. Yet the amount are negligible.
• Also it is noisy. This is due once again to the friction of the abrasives over the hardwood surface, and not only.

We hope that now you have a more in-depth information about how to opt for a Parquet Sanding and Oiling.