How to install reclaimed parquet flooring

Looking to renovate your home with timeworn parquet flooring? Tom Hart from LASSCO shares his advice

There’s bitumen on most reclaimed parquet flooring – what can be done about it?

You’ve got two options. You can either scrape it by hand with a chisel, which is laborious, but gives you a cleaner block; or, if the bitumen’s not too thick (which it doesn’t tend to be because the people who used it were sparing with materials), you can use a self-levelling adhesive.

Can you lay the parquet straight on to the floor?

You’d be best advised to get a sub-floor, a 15mm-plywood sub-floor or similar.

Do you need a specialist to install it?

It depends on the customer. Anybody can fit it, but it requires sympathy and perseverance. Generally, customers that fit it themselves are on a budget and have a DIY spirit. They’re not pushed for time or frustrated if they make mistakes. If you have any inclination towards convenience, you’re going to want to get someone to fit it who is familiar with reclaimed floors, because it’s a restoration job as well as a fitting job.

How do you look after it afterwards?

Your floor fitter will provide an aftercare guide. You’ll need to decide what finish you want. If it’s going to be in a high-traffic area with lots of people walking on it, you’re going to want a more robust finish, up to a varnish perhaps. But if it’s a domestic setting, you could go with a wax or wax oil.

Anything else to keep in mind?

You need to order 10 per cent extra for wastage, and the blocks are sold by the square metre, not as individual bricks. When we come to pricing the blocks, at LASSCO we consider the condition, the age and the timber. We also consider the provenance. If it’s from a building of interest that will add to the value because it costs more for us to reclaim. For instance, we reclaimed flooring from Bush House in London, the former home of the BBC World Service.