Floorists:

We have a concrete floor covered with horrible old floor tiles (which I believe could have asbestos in them). I’m looking for a new floor covering, and have seen some nice solid oak parquet. I rather fancy a nice herringbone floor through the downstairs (not the kitchen). I’ve been reading up on the pros and cons of this over engineered wood (not found any that looks as nice!), but can’t quite establish whether this stuff is a viable DIY option.

I’d appreciate any views on this. In particular:

The tiles are fairly thin but in reasonable nick. Can I leave them down or are they better coming off?

Does the solid oak need glueing to the floor?

Will learning as I go leave me getting someone qualified in to fix the mess I make?!

If we were doing a parquet floor for a customer old tiles would have to come up, at home I might chance floating over them with a good quality flexible latex self levelling compound, your call!
If the existing tiles are the old Marley type ( brittle) then they do have a small asbestos content, again, up to you if you’d want to take them up yourself or get a specialist firm in. (Quality dust mask, lots of water, double bag and label everything).
The actual fitting of proper parquet flooring is fairly labour intensive, and once glued down needs filling, sanding and then several coats of quality sealer, all in all quite an expensive flooring system but looks great when done well.
Once you’ve got the sub-floor perfect spend time making sure it’s set out exactly as you want it. Best of luck.

Thanks singlesman, useful. The jigsaw puzzle element appeals to me, but also looks like it could get frustrating!

Whether the tiles have to come up depends on a lot of things. Personally, I nearly always advocate taking existing floor coverings up, checking sub-floor for moisture content and starting from there. As for asbestos content, I don’t know, I’ve been on a few asbestos awareness courses now, and if it’s involved, I’d walk away from that part of the job. I just don’t know enough about the procedures for uplift and disposal.

Finally, a parquet floor is one of the best floors you can have and if done properly, will last as long as the house is standing. However, and this is with the greatest of respect, it’s one wood floor that isn’t really for the DIYer/amateur. I’m not saying, “No, you can’t…” but they are hard work and if **** up, a bugger to put right.

Given the amount of labour that goes into a proper parquet floor, what’s an approx price to expect to pay per sq m?
Labour only or labour and oak tiles and associated base, treatments etc. would be great if you could. I’d like to get an idea on viability 🙂
House is modern, concrete floor afaik

CS, if you want to drop me an email to deadlydarcy at gmail dot com, I can give you some ideas. (Not pitching for work here as you could be at the other end of the country).

Thanks DD. I’m in two minds now. I am inclined to get rid of the tiles anyway – just seems sensible. I’m looking at about 25sqm, plus the hall. I expect to be able to lay engineered wood myself with a mate helping, even if it takes a few days to prep and redo skirting. I need to decide whether to tackle the tiles myself, and probably whether the cost of getting parquet fitted is manageable, or whether to just go for a floating engineered job. Decisions, decisions…

I should probably get some quotes!

I put laminate over Marley tiles, with no problem. recently removed that and a friend tiled over them with limestone. His opinion was that they probably should come up to do a proper job, but it would work (in our house) with them down and once sealed under we could effectively forget about them. My Dad worked for a housing association as a sparky, and their guidance was to call specialist removal if found.. but as singlesman said, the risk was small enough that we were prepared to do it in our house as a one off if necessary.

Removing our parquet – great floor, but having fiddled with it and looked at the cost of extending it into the other rooms on the ground floor plus the fact is is a dark finish in a not well lit part of the house means it’s added up to going. I’d definitely have got DD (or other professional :-)) in to do it, I think it’s an investment floor, do it once do it right.. ours is nigh on 50 years old and neglected yet still looks great in parts.

I did one, it’s great but never again…

We’re getting parquet laid next week. 🙂 The wood is sitting in the room just now.

I don’t mind having a go at DIY with cheap things, but sometimes it’s better to get the pros in. The labour isn’t the expensive part of the floor anyway.