Reclaimed Oak Parquet

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Phillykitty

New Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2020
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3
Location
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
My neighbor ripped out all of the oak parquet in his rowhome and asked me if I wanted it so I said yes. It is long strips of about varying lengths
that are 2 inches wide and 1/4 inch thick. My dream is to have a herringbone floor like in a Paris apartment as seen in the photo. From what I've been reading its tricky to sand herringbone as the boards are at an angle. I was wondering it makes any sense to pre-sand before installation using a bench-top belt sander. So I would cut the pieces to 24 inch lengths and then go through the grit sequence. I know that this would be extremely time consuming. I also wonder if I would have to worry about the boards being of unequal thickness. Or I was also thinking I could sand the unvarnished side of the wood and install it "upside down". I figured that would minimize the amount of sanding I would have to do as their wouldn't be any finish that would have to be removed. The downside of that is the larger nail holes that will have to be filled. My neighbor who is an older carpenter told me that back in the day used to mix the saw dust with something and then sweep it across the floor to fill in the nail holes when installing oak parquet. Any advice would be much appreciated.
 

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That's beautiful floor. Wonder why he tore it out. I have no ideas. I have parquet flooring (different pattern) that is falling apart but some of it is still good so I'm also open to ideas for repurposing it.
The stuff in your picture looks like it would make a nice tabletop or wall backsplash. or both.
 
I would assume a herringbone would be sanded the same as any other floor but maybe with a different sander for the final sanding. I don't think you'd want to send them individually because then every board would be uneven when placed together. You wouldn't want all this stored in a cold, damp garage while you're deciding on what to do.
When cutting the boards to length you would want a high quality blade and an absolutely perfect stop so that every board is dead on the same length.
When wood floors are installed before sanding instead of some sawdust concoction, they make wood fillers that are designed to be traveled on and once dry the floor is sanded.
 
One other thing I just thought of. All of those boards will definitely not be the same thickness. When a wood floor is first installed then finish sanded with a drum sander and possibly a final screening with a disc sander, the sanding will not be perfectly consistent from one end of the room to the other nor from side to side. There will be slight variances in thickness because of that. In the end it most likely would need to be finished sanded by a professional which is not going to be cheap. That said, I'm one of those do-it-yourselfers and if something needs to be done I'll figure out a way. Maybe you're like that too.
 
I also noticed you said your neighbor had wood parquet then you mentioned various length strips. I'm guessing this was a traditional looking wood floor and not parquet?
Also if this floor was a prefinished wood floor, the boards would all be the same thickness.... or pretty close. Most prefinished floors have a slight bevel called a micro bevel on the edges. That makes it slight variance in thicknesses and non-issue.
 
I also noticed you said your neighbor had wood parquet then you mentioned various length strips. I'm guessing this was a traditional looking wood floor and not parquet?
Also if this floor was a prefinished wood floor, the boards would all be the same thickness.... or pretty close. Most prefinished floors have a slight bevel called a micro bevel on the edges. That makes it slight variance in thicknesses and non-issue.
Thanks for your responses. I wasn't clear about that photo--that is the look I am going for. The actual floor looked like this although that isn't my neighbors house. It is old flooring-no bevel. And no tongue and groove as it is only 1/4 inch thick. I think it makes sense to install upside down and not try to get rid of the varnish-shellac that is on there. Either way I do it there will be nail holes. No way to avoid that. And yes, I will definitely need a good blade. Was thinking of the diablo ultra finish blade for my chop saw. Or perhaps rigging up something for my table saw. I just got a table saw though and only do very basic ripping. But it might be faster to do all those small pieces on a table saw.
 

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The most difficult part with a table saw would be setting up a stop to make all your cuts the same length.
I use a Diablo blade to install a wood flooring just a couple weeks ago. it made excellent cuts. It was a 12-in 48 tooth general purpose blade.
There's another type of blade that works really well I'll see if I can dig up a picture.
 
https://www.amazon.com/Irwin-Tools-1807381-84-Tooth-Circular/dp/B008OJJY88It's made for hard materials and it has alternating teeth one being flat and another one being angled in a wedge shape. The wedge shape is slightly taller than the flat top. It cuts out the middle of the cut and the square edge only has a chisel out the edges to make a clean cut. That said a Diablo blade that's made for finish cuts should do fine.
 
One thing you should do is take a ruler or something that's got a small perfectly straight edge on it and lay it on the top of the board then across the bottom of the board and see if it has any cupping.
If you have a lot of material you could also get a 3-ft square piece of particle board or something that is smooth set up a jig in your saw and make a bunch of practice cuts and nail the pieces in whatever pattern you plan on and with this test done it would tell you what you're getting yourself into. You could even practice sanding that to see the effect that sanding has on it.
Sanding that quarter inch board with something like a random orbital sander might actually work pretty good. Most wood floor guys don't like to stain their wood floors before finishing. The reason is that the swirl marks will show because the stain absorbs into those, and clear finishes don't. Stan can amplify the tiny scratches of the sandpaper.
but if you have plenty of material I would definitely mock up on a piece of particle board or some other smooth surface, then do some sanding and finish on it so that you know exactly what the end result will be.
 
One thing you should do is take a ruler or something that's got a small perfectly straight edge on it and lay it on the top of the board then across the bottom of the board and see if it has any cupping.
If you have a lot of material you could also get a 3-ft square piece of particle board or something that is smooth set up a jig in your saw and make a bunch of practice cuts and nail the pieces in whatever pattern you plan on and with this test done it would tell you what you're getting yourself into. You could even practice sanding that to see the effect that sanding has on it.
Sanding that quarter inch board with something like a random orbital sander might actually work pretty good. Most wood floor guys don't like to stain their wood floors before finishing. The reason is that the swirl marks will show because the stain absorbs into those, and clear finishes don't. Stan can amplify the tiny scratches of the sandpaper.
but if you have plenty of material I would definitely mock up on a piece of particle board or some other smooth surface, then do some sanding and finish on it so that you know exactly what the end result will be.
I will have a lot of waste material because I will be cutting 24 inch lengths from boards of varying lengths so I figured I would use those to do sanding and staining tests. But I don't have a huge surplus of useable material. I will probably end using monocoat. If I were to flip the wood and use the face that has never been finished what sequence of sandpaper would you suggest I use?
 
For sanding sequence and the grit of the paper you might want to look at wood forums or wood floor forums.
The grip you use for finishing might be determined by the type of sander you use. I'm sure we would be different with a random orbital than it would be with a big drum sander. And with quarter inch board I don't think you'd be using a big drum sander, especially since it's not tongue and groove.
 
Get a thickness planer to take the finish off and make sure they are all the same thickness before nailing them down. The store I worked for years ago that the lady didn't like tore it all up and run it through a planer and resold it unfinished.
 

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