ᐅ Installing Engineered Wood Flooring / Tips

Hello everyone,

after receiving the cost estimate from the parquet supplier/installer for my current house project and almost falling off my chair, I’m seriously considering installing the parquet myself (4mm (⅙ inch) oak on the ground floor, the rest oak veneer parquet). It saves at least €20 per square meter (about $22) that I’d rather invest in the bathroom fittings :-)

At least on the ground floor, possibly also upstairs, I plan to glue down the parquet for various reasons: impact sound insulation and underfloor heating, for example. But mainly, my wife vetoed the aluminum transition strips, which are usually needed at all door thresholds with floating installation. With glued installation, silicone joints should suffice.

I still have the following questions and would appreciate your help and tips:

• How difficult is it really to glue down parquet? I have often read that it’s quite easy, but just as often that only professionals can do it properly… A video I saw suggested that amateurs can do it as well. I am a fairly skilled DIYer, and I can manage with a laser measuring device, chalk line, and circular saw… what are your experiences?
• We have doors that run diagonally to the floor plan and accordingly angled screed joints between two rooms where parquet will be installed. At these screed joints, a silicone joint must be installed in the parquet, which means the parquet needs to be cut very straight so the edge looks neat. How is this done? Lay the parquet roughly first, then cut over it from above with a mitre saw? Install it continuously first and then mill the joint? Start installing right at the joint? …

Thanks in advance for your help!

Best regards,
bjoerngiesler

Oh yes, this is about click-lock laminate flooring, not solid hardwood planks!

Your parquet installer charges only 20 € per sqm (square meter) for his work... I wouldn’t do anything myself in that case.

But it is possible to do it yourself. You just have to expect a lot more waste than a professional, and that there will be areas that aren’t so easy. Your wife might have to put up with that 🙂

Personally, I wouldn’t glue it... Wood expands and contracts and needs to be able to move.

No, unfortunately the parquet installer does not charge only €20 per m² (about $21 per sq ft) for his work... that number is purely a calculation based on what the developer reimburses me and what I pay for the materials. Unfortunately, the parquet installer is significantly more expensive.

I understand that you wouldn’t glue it down—but not because wood expands and contracts? In the past (before click-lock flooring and similar), all parquet was glued down, and that also expanded and contracted, didn’t it...?