ᐅ Parquet grading appears much more varied – is it still within acceptable tolerance?

The material in photo 3 looks more high-quality and resembles wood. However, it also has a stronger gloss.

I also find image 1 visually busy, with a lot of wood texture including knots and similar features. However, I don’t see this as a negative.

Image 3 shows a larger surface area: the eye takes in more than the small section seen in image 1.

Since we are talking about natural wood flooring (which is usually what you want), there may be differences, but they are minor and likely within the acceptable tolerance for natural materials. I assume that natural wood products always include a small disclaimer explaining the issue of “variation due to nature,” similar to how natural stone is labeled.

To me, the parquet looks like it has been black whitewashed, as the grain stands out very clearly. My sister has this type of parquet in her living room. Very easy to maintain. 🙂

I would compare the batches with the offer.

Thank you all for your responses! The material number matched, so all three pictures show the same product.
In the meantime, the parquet has been installed in additional rooms, and fortunately, the sorting in the packages used there was a bit more consistent. This makes the other rooms look much more harmonious, and we really like it 🙂 It seems we just had bad luck with the first packages, where the color differences were much more noticeable.

We have now sorted out the planks we didn’t like from all the remaining packages. That way, there shouldn’t be any unpleasant surprises during further installation.

Maybe a tip here for future homeowners: if possible, be on-site on the day of installation and, if necessary, sort out any planks you don’t like.

It remains a natural product. I could imagine that due to the shortage of good-quality wood (dryness, insect damage), it might become more difficult in the future to obtain more uniform batches (no idea, just a guess). However, I also think that the darkening over the coming months could result in a more consistent overall appearance.

Giraffes schrieb:

Maybe a tip for future homeowners: if possible, be on site during the floor installation day and, if necessary, sort out any planks that you don’t like.

That should be an absolute given. A smart homeowner also brings the workers some coffee and a few rolls; that really boosts motivation.

However, sorting out planks might be difficult—even with coffee and rolls, they probably won’t present every single plank for your approval.

And a tip for homeowners:
If you want the floor to look exactly like the sample, without any color variations... you need to choose laminate or vinyl flooring. Not real wood. Every tree is different.