tips on cleaning old parquet floor

Has anyone got any tips for cleaning an old parquet floor? Only want to get it fairly clean as the recent buyers of the house intend to have major work done next year. They just want to make it cleaner and nicer to live with for a while!

Looks solid enough, no loose of missing bits but would a hired cleaner be okay or is elbow grease the best method?

Janet

Reply to
Janet Tweedy
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Wire wool rubbed along the grain of each individual block is the traditional way. It is not quick though.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
Nightjar

Mop, warm water, a little washing powder and just a drop of bleach. The key is simply time, expect to go over it many times, waiting a couple of minutes between each go.

NT

Reply to
Tabby

Cover it with laminate flooring :-)

Reply to
ARWadsworth

an option?

Reply to
newshound

Yes, very much so.

And not just a light sanding either.

you can probably pull 3mm off easily with no ill effects apart from sawdust and nasty varnish dust.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Our parquet flooring had not been looked after for many years when we bought this house. It was looking so bad I thought it needed sanding but a professional restorer said no, that will spoil it. He cleaned it with a "Clean and Buff" from Premier products then hand "Button" waxed it with some horrendously expensive polish. He was right it now looks fantastic and is easy to keep looking nice with a buffing machine I paid about 60 quid for.

Mike

Reply to
MuddyMike

A lot depend on whether you want to keep the patina of age..and how its been treated. If just plaint dirty, then the approach above works very well.

If its been hameredred by 60's stilletos, or a grand piano, had oil and paint dropped on it or has worn away in high traffic areas, sanding may be the better approach.

But I agree your approach is well worth pursing FIRST.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Also a good way to permanently ruin a floor, if it's oak parquet.

Most wire wool is steel. Steel reacts with oak tannnins to make blue or black stains. Although you sweep up and vacuum carefully, you can't remove enough of it to guarantee no future stains. Don't use steel wool around oak - use bronze, stainless, or non-metallics instead.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Depends on whether the blocks are at all loose, and if it's still nicely level.

If it's level and in good condition, a hired floor polisher is good (and quick). Go for the sort with one or two rotating plastic scouring pad disks. Take their advice as to materials - there are very good pad/ cleaner combinations for stripping off old finishes, or putting down new wax finishes.

If it's solid but not level, you can drum sand it. This is slow and a lot of work, but it's a marvellous result. Probably best left in the hands of someone who does wooden floors, and can demonstrate past experience with herringbone parquet. Cack-handed sanding here leaves a poor result. This should only be attempted by someone who knows what they're doing, and even at the DIY level you need to have done a few parallel floorboard floors before going at parquet.

If any blocks are loose, you need to fix these first.ESPECIALLY if you're going to drum sand, because a drum sander will rip up insecure (not even loose blocks) and cause havoc.

Blocks should be stuck down with either hot bitumen (pre war) or solvent bitumen (post war). Hot bitumen is easier to patch up. Both need careful scraping and vacuuming under the block, so that it doesn't rise up relative to the neighbouring blocks. Hot bitumen can be heated and softened with a hot air gun, then the block simply relaid and pressed down with a plank across the top (don't push with fingers, you'll get tilted blocks). Don't use a flame, it'll scorch nearby blocks. Be careful not to scorch the finish on adjacent blocks

- heat shields are useful - I use pieces of wet Melton wool overcoat (fireman's jacket). If you glue individual blocks, you can use Evo- stik 528 (and other) adhesives.

If odd blocks are raised, you can either lift and relay (they're usually cause by previous poor repairs) or you can take these down with a belt sander. This belt sander MUST have an external frame. Don't freehand it, or you will ruin the floor.

Missing blocks are quite easy to fix. Get spares from a local salvage yard and re-install. Commerical flooring people love scare stories aboout how hard this is to do, but really it's OK for any competent joiner and carpenter (you might need workshop joinery machines to resize the new blocks though).

Given your situation, I'd think about the floor cleaner, but I wouldn't do any more than this, at this time.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

If you are going to sand it, and you're not also having to sand it level again, then use a brush drum sander. These are rare as hen's teeth. Only one I've ever seen is by Makita and aboout =A3300. One day I'll buy my own, but so far I hire it.

These are great for cleaning up beams and parquet floors, when "cleaning up" means sanding the surface without reshaping the timber. They have the huge advantage that they will sand a parquet at 45 degrees to the grain and still leave a decent result. Drum sanders, which are so useful on floorboards, have a problem with this.

As always for a finish, an acid cure formaldehyde resin, like Floorcoat, rather than a varnish. Easy to apply, stinks in use, but a couple of hours later and it's cured and hard, with a really hard- wearing surface.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Do you mind your advice here going on the wiki? It could reach a lot more people then.

NT

Reply to
Tabby

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