Wood You Like F.A.Q. & News

Chaco Wood Commercial and Vertical Parquet

Commercial/Vertical parquet is the new fresh and creative version of solid wood flooring from our Chaco Wood manufacturer. Their Chaco Wood species will give the interior a trendy and artistic look. All these species are FSC certified.

Architects' choice

Since the wood is delivered untreated the most appropriate finishing for your requirements can be applied after installation.

Because of the many wood species and multiple creative options Chaco Wood Commercial and Vertical Parquet is popular amongst architects and interior advisers/stylists. Commercial Parquet is perfect for use a s project

floor in shops, offices, ball rooms, party locations but also as special design floor for your domestic home.

Commercial = 14 x 22 x 250mm (15 strips per tile), approximately 1 sq meter per pack
Vertical = 22 x 8 8 x 160mm (40 strips per tile), appr. 1 sq m per pack

All wood-species available are FSC certified.

Tarara Amarilla Commercial Parquet

Prices etc

For up to date prices give us a call on 01233 - 713725 now to discuss your requirements and accessories (such as suitable adhesive and finishes).

Or request the full colour online Wooden Floor Range Brochure Design Parquet here to view even more large images and interior designs.

Renovating and extending an original parquet floor

We received the following question through our "Ask Personal Advice on Wood" form.

1950's house renovation and new extension

We are renovating the parquet in our 1950's house. We have parquet blocks in our lounge (not T&G) that are stuck with bitumen (3 fingers per square approx 11x11cm per square). We have extended the lounge and I have reclaimed the parquet from another room and would like to lay it in the lounge extension to complete the floor. Then sand and redo the whole floor as one. The new floor will be concrete screed.

My questions are: Can I glue the blocks directly to the screed or should it be sealed or leveled out first? If so with what? The screed is pretty flat but is quite sandy/gritty. Is there a product I can use to glue the parquet which will bond even with the residual bitumen on the old parquet so I don't have to remove it? It's only a thin layer of 1-3mm? I was intending on leaving the existing floor alone as it is sound.
Thank you.

Primer and bitumen advice (again)

Thank you for your question. Starting with the dusty concrete floor, this needs a primer to prevent any adhesive only bonding with the dust and not the concrete. 

If the concrete floor is very new, you have to be aware it takes time - 30 days per inch of new concrete - for it to dry out sufficiently before you can install any floor covering on it.

As for the bitumen, remove as much as possible (leaving just the "stain" of bitumen on the blocks, not actual bits of bitumen) because any residue will have a negative effect on the bonding time of the adhesive.

Have you had a look at our "7 easy steps to repair/restore your original parquet"?

Hope this helps

Kind Regards
Wood You Like Ltd

Grigio Range - rediscovered Artist's Pigments on Oak

Until paint was produced commercially during the Industrial Revolution (circa 1800), painters had to make their own paints by grinding pigment into oil. The paint would harden and would have to be made fresh each day. Paint consists of small grains of pigment suspended in oil.

In portraits and in illustrations of religious and mythological subject matter the great Venetian masters of the sixteenth century manipulated the substance and colour of pigments to achieve naturalistic, decorative and expressive ends.

Introducing the Grigio Range Load-bearing Wood-Engineered boards

Last year our Dutch (Bespoke) Design Parquet manufacturer Lieverdink introduced this new oil finish, Grigio (Italian for Grey) using 5 rediscovered Artist's Pigments to create unique authentic appearance of Oak flooring. From the launch these original finishes have been available in 6mm wood blocks and "tapis" or "overlay" floors in various widths.

Now they - and we - are happy to inform you that the 5 olden colours are now also available in 18mm load-bearing wood-engineered boards in 2 widths (180mm and 220mm).
The 18mm thick board has a 6mm Solid Oak layer, unbevelled (square edged). An extra feature of this new Grigio product is the (unique) dark tongue which gives a shade effect to the boards should there be any (seasonal) gaps appear between the boards.

5 Authentic colours:

From left to right:
Antique Red, Old Brown, Pure Grey, Valed Grey and Slate Grey

Every floor its own certificate

Because of the uniqueness of this range you will receive a Certificate of Authenticity with your floor and the floor itself will have its own production code (printed on the back of the product).

More info

See our dedicated Wooden Floor Range page: Aged flooring - where you can request the full colour online brochure with many more (interior design) images of this new range or give us a call on 01233 - 713725 now to discuss your requirements and accessories (such as suitable underlayment).

Delivery time: between 2 - 4 weeks, so order in time!

Alternatively: visit our showroom in Charing (Kent) where we can show you large samples of this quality range.

Feedback and Tongue-Tite story

Feedback received from (DIY & Professional) floor fitters on Wood You Like's Wooden Floor Installation Manual

From John - Hampshire

Hi Wood You Like!

Floor is now complete, just the beading around the hearth to finish. I read the book from start to finish before starting. Most of the information I had found from your web site before hand but I did refer to it during the installation and for the finishing.

Tongue-Tite screws

Just an observation that you may want to share, I used Tongue-Tite screws to secure through the tongue (I always like my work to be reversible!). Although they claim the screws are 'anti-jacking' I found they did occasionally lift the boards by a millimetre or so. Usually found the next day when walking across the floor and hearing a creak. I lifted sections of floor 5 times to rectify, no joke!
Also the heads of the screws are T10 Torx feature and both heads and bits wear quickly. I found the bit supplied with each box barely did the 200 screws supplied. I found pilot drilling made the bits last longer, but more time consuming.

(Features and Advantages from Elka's own website)

Finished the floor with Osmo HardWaxOil which looks beautiful. Just the hall to do next. The box instructions for the flooring said to allow 10% for waste but I found virtually no waste, all off cuts were used to stagger rows, so I have 5 spare boxes.

Regards - John (Hampshire)

Hi John

Thank you for your feedback and we will definitely use your experience of the Tongue-Tite screws for the benefit of others (as you know we are not very much in favour of screwing floors, but then again have no own experience therefore with these "special" screws).

As far saw-waste: it indeed depends per room/rooms and the length plus width of the board you are using (plus the quality of the product) how much saw-waste you end up with.

Kind Regards and once again thank you for your feedback, much appreciated

Wood You Like Ltd
Karin Hermans / Ton Slooven

Wooden Floor Installation Manual available now!

Buy the 160 page Wood Floor Installation Manual created by Wood You Like. Filled with tricks of the trade to install your own floor like a professional!

Paperback £ 17.97 (plus £3.97 p&p) (secure Paypal payment)

E-version available too! See here for more information and other purchase options

Feedback and case study received

Feedback received from (professional) floor fitters on Wood You Like's Wooden Floor Installation Manual

Hi Karin & Ton

Well done on the ‘Installation Manual’, very informative and to the point.

Most manuals are very general and vague about the details, which are the most important bits if you’re going to be able to understand the reasons for doing or not doing certain things. It’s always essential to understand why you’re doing something so that you know why it’s correct and therefore you can then apply that method of thinking in general.

With regards to my flooring project(s). I had just completed a 55 sq.mt area in a new extension for a client before receiving the manual.

The back of the house had been knocked through and the extension was built across the whole width of the house. One third was the kitchen,

The 18 x 120mm Solid Floor question

Wooden floors come in many types, wood-species, constructions, sizes, quality and prices. One of the more "common" ones is the 18mm thick Solid Oak floorboard, 120mm wide and with random lengths. Popular priced too at many DIY-sheds like B&Q, Wickes or even Floors2Go, but in our opinion the boxes in which they come should carry a big red exclamation mark on it: random lengths, nice but.... know what you are buying can restrict your choice in installation methods.

The problem is, the boxes do not come with that warning. So if you are in the same position as the person who asked the following question in regards of the "infamous" 18 x 120mm you might like to hear this too:

Question received:

Hello , Hope you can help me ? Ive just bought a new solid 120mm wide 18mm thick wooden floor to be fitted in the kitchen/dining room and the sub floor is concrete what would be the best way to fit the wooden floor?

Answer - includes warning

Thank you for your question. Question for you in return: does your floor come in so-called random length, for instance the known 300 - 1200mm? If so, you first have to check how many very short lengths are in a box.

If too many then it is not advisable to install such a floor using the floating method and it would be better to fully bond the floor with flexible adhesive to the level and dry concrete floor. See this article about the short end of the stick/board. Solid Floors - what to note

Hope this helps
Wood You Like Ltd

And flexible adhesive is - compared with combi-underlayment and a few bottles of PVAC-wood glue - higher in price, turning your "cheap" or cheaper wood floor into a more expensive (but not necessary better quality) floor.
See example of what's on "offer" here:

Would you care to count the number of long boards in the image above? Many short boards mean many joints = many hinges when you install this type of flooring floating, making your floor rather unstable and prone to movement.