ᐅ Parquet flooring installed with numerous small holes (woodworm)
Created on: 11 Dec 2024 10:51
H
haeusle-in-bw
Hello everyone,
We bought a house and had 120 sqm (1,292 sq ft) of new hardwood flooring (Joka country-style oak planks with knots) professionally installed by a flooring specialist. The flooring looks really beautiful and was expertly glued down, but over the past few weeks, on closer inspection, we noticed that a large portion of the planks have small holes in the wood, similar to those caused by woodworm damage. Some of the holes are filled with putty, while others are not.
I assume that some of the holes are too small to have been detected and filled during the machine-based puttying process. So: I don’t believe there is any active woodworm present (we haven’t seen any beetles, frass, and the planks were treated by the supplier anyway). However, it seems likely that woodworm was once present, and I’m quite bothered by the number of holes. Dirt can get in everywhere. Of course, we paid a significant amount of money for these 120 sqm (1,292 sq ft) of new hardwood flooring! About half of the planks are affected.
Therefore, my question is: is this considered a defect that we are justified in complaining about? Or is this within the acceptable range of “tolerances” or “natural imperfections”?
If yes, should we address this with the flooring installer or directly with Joka?
I look forward to hearing your opinions.
Best regards
We bought a house and had 120 sqm (1,292 sq ft) of new hardwood flooring (Joka country-style oak planks with knots) professionally installed by a flooring specialist. The flooring looks really beautiful and was expertly glued down, but over the past few weeks, on closer inspection, we noticed that a large portion of the planks have small holes in the wood, similar to those caused by woodworm damage. Some of the holes are filled with putty, while others are not.
I assume that some of the holes are too small to have been detected and filled during the machine-based puttying process. So: I don’t believe there is any active woodworm present (we haven’t seen any beetles, frass, and the planks were treated by the supplier anyway). However, it seems likely that woodworm was once present, and I’m quite bothered by the number of holes. Dirt can get in everywhere. Of course, we paid a significant amount of money for these 120 sqm (1,292 sq ft) of new hardwood flooring! About half of the planks are affected.
Therefore, my question is: is this considered a defect that we are justified in complaining about? Or is this within the acceptable range of “tolerances” or “natural imperfections”?
If yes, should we address this with the flooring installer or directly with Joka?
I look forward to hearing your opinions.
Best regards
chand1986 schrieb:
How is waste defined here? ...hardly the appearance, .... Ha, you have no idea how much these holes would catch my eye every day. And just knowing that I poured my money and the workers’ efforts into this Swiss "cheese" would really bother me.
C
chand198623 Dec 2024 09:59K a t j a schrieb:
Ha, you have no idea how much these holes would catch my eye every day. And just knowing that I invested my money and the craftsmen’s work into this Swiss "cheese" would really bother me. @KlaRa already explained how they can be sealed almost invisibly. Otherwise: do you scan the floor every day? This is one of those things people tend to overlook unless they are actively looking for it.
chand1986 schrieb:
@KlaRa already explained how they can be sealed almost invisibly. Otherwise: do you scan the floor every day? This is one of those famous issues people tend to overlook unless they actively look for it.If that’s the case, you might as well just lay down wall-to-wall carpet. And yes, I would be upset forever about burning so much money on something like that. Just as I enjoy my carefully selected wooden staircase every day, I would resent having a floor full of holes. But as I said before, times are changing. Quality seems less important to many people now or has shifted to other areas of consumption. The next generation prefers travel and experiences over high-quality interior furnishings.
ateliersiegel23 Dec 2024 13:21K a t j a schrieb:
Quality no longer seems to be important to many peopleThe assumption that someone does not care about quality just because they have different priorities seems inaccurate to me.... ;-)
C
chand198623 Dec 2024 17:50K a t j a schrieb:
Quality doesn’t seem to be as important to many people anymoreOr maybe there’s just a different understanding of quality. Small tiny holes that could easily be sealed wouldn’t be completely unimportant to me, but they would be more of a tertiary concern.H
haeusle-in-bw31 Dec 2024 20:46K a t j a schrieb:
Quality doesn’t seem to matter as much to many people anymoreI need to respond to this!!
Quality is definitely very important to us!! Otherwise, we would have just gone with laminate flooring or installed 2mm wear-layer DIY laminate-style flooring ourselves.
At the same time, after buying a house, the budget is naturally limited (at least for average buyers like us), so you HAVE to make compromises. In this case, we chose a knotty, lively parquet because it was simply much cheaper (€50 vs. €90 for the smoother option).
Joka is, as far as I know, a mid-range manufacturer with solid quality, and we had it glued down by a local master parquet installer. The workmanship is top-notch, and overall the parquet looks great... except for the minor issue with the small holes. We didn’t know about these, and the installer didn’t show us the product documentation. The term “wormholes” never came up during the consultation or sample viewing. (By the way, no noisy kids were present.)
This is frustrating in hindsight, but I don’t blame the installer because he did a good job, and we don’t feel he tried to deceive us. I think this is just “normal” nowadays. Apparently, wormholes are a new phenomenon. I can also imagine that this is a result of sustainability practices and the sharply increased price of wood...
Anyway, we’re no longer upset about it, we’re happy with our still very nice, high-quality parquet, and we will remember: next time, ask all the questions carefully / read all product info / leave nothing to chance!