Is parquet floor....Traditional or trendy/tacky?

[Freshlasagnesheet]

Dh and I have finally saved enough money to change floors and paint etc.

We have kids and dogs, so I want something low maintenance and something timeless and traditional. I don’t want a passing trend as I won’t be able to change floors again in a long time.

I mentally settled on light wood parquet, as was told light wood is less likely to show scratches. But now seeing parquet all over Instagram?

Has herringbone parquet become trendy to the point we will look back and think it’s become tacky? Should I just go with classic dark wood planks?

Help please!

(Also not a jab at anyone with parquet, I obviously love it too)

Personally I don't like it , fussy and reminds me of school

I like herringbone/chevron - it’s definitely having a moment right now, but it will pass.

Good quality engineered is fine no matter what snotty people say.

Personally I’d go pale - whitish, greyish.Or dark grey, black. Not bright yellow/orange/dark brown wood colour. All looks very passé.

You can waterproof a wood floor and a friend of mine has had hers done, looks fine but I’ve never tried it.

I think it depends on the quality of the parquet.

Have you looked at solid (or engineered) bamboo?
We love ours: strand woven, natural bamboo. Really hard wearing, lots of shade options, and better environmental credentials than oak.

Parquet is timeless, laminate is tacky.

Traditional! Grey Karndean is trendy tacky. It's all I see when I'm viewing houses at the moment. My heart leaps when I see real wood floors and even better, parquet. The only fake wood floor that looks ok ish to me is the parquet effect one.

I love it. In our last house we sourced some reclaimed Victorian parquet (from an old school gym, complete with sticky backed plastic which had been used for the sports courts ), and had it cleaned up and laid in our living room. sanded down and then stained a gorgeous rich dark brown. It was a big selling feature of the house, everyone remarked on it. The buyers covered it within a week of moving in [weep].

So in the house we moved to, we did the same thing, although not reclaimed parquet this time, I couldn't get anyone willing to clean and lay it. It's a natural oak colour and looks gorgeous. I've used solid wood, as I'd like it to be a floor for life, and thus should withstand several sandings as required.

So IMO, timeless. Was going to mention the parquet floor in Versailles as evidence of timeless, but with the excesses of Louis XVI, maybe it would be considered tacky .

Engineered is perfect have it in my hall and living room, ( and have under floor heating) with two very active dogs, very easy to keep clean and hardly any scratches. Went with one near the top end pricing. Had solid in my old house destroyed with scratches. Said never again. Where are you putting it though ?I wouldn't put wooden floor in a kitchen, it will get water damage. I have tile in my kitchen

We bought an old Victorian house which we're slowing doing up room by room, I really really really wanted parquet floors, the house had them but they were ruined. As luck happened, I work for a construction company and we refurbished a building which had parquet floors and it was in fantastic condition. The client was going to scrap it bizarrely so I asked if I could have it and they let me have it, it did the whole bottom floor of our house apart from near the front door as that has the original tiles. I love it, it looks beautiful now it's been sanded and treated

My oak floor cost over £5k. It was to tie in with the rest of the house. Very hard wearing at a price!

Ps my work's floor(church) is valued at £145k for catastrophic loss, real floors are very expensive

I love herringbone but it does remind me of the school hall.

@EmmaStone do you have a Vlog? I used to watch a vlogger who had reclaimed gym flooring complete with random coloured floor markings and it looked amazing.

Here's the parquet in our kitchen - the hallway is original (1929ish) but I think this was laid in the early 90s by the previous owner. Its gone through two sets of kids. THERE are some scratches which I've tried to show in the pic, but it's pretty tough!

Thanks all!

Positive comments and my house is 1930s so hopefully will suit its character. (unfortunately no original parquet flooring, that would have been amazing!)

I’m rethinking the floor in the kitchen though, as so many have advised against it. So may have to rethink what to do there, problem is it’s open plan.

@JammyDodgersandPeas I love it! Can’t see any scratches that look bad, just adds some character really.

We just had our 60s teak parquet floor restored (it was under carpet laid by previous owners). It looks nice and is light and airy and I think fairly classic. Plus it cost half as much to have it restored as it would have cost to have Amtico put in that looked like it!

I like it but in my opinion it’s only good when coming in tile form and even then just in the corridor (and even then only if you don’t wear shoes in the house). Proper parquet scratches like fuck and is so difficult to maintain - still remember how untidy school assembly floors looked.

Got original mosaic parquet floors in apartment (not in UK), personally I see than as classic. Unfortunately we didn't realise how delicate that can be, and have slightly damaged one floor with the dining table chairs.

Maybe put some rugs down where the parquet is going to get worn?

Following, as I also want to lay herringbone engineered oak parquet over wet underfloor heating in our new kitchen/dining/family room extension (across the back of a Victorian terrace).

OP, if you search my recent posts I put a link to a product I found with a commercial-grade varnish on it and a 25-year residential guarantee.

Have it. Love it. Get a robot vac though 😜

Its ok to like something trendy, you're hardly going to rip it up in 5 years!

[quote Freshlasagnesheet]@JammyDodgersandPeas I love it! Can’t see any scratches that look bad, just adds some character really.[/quote]
Exactly, it's definitely characterful! A huge selling point too, I wanted the house as soon as I saw it!

Parquet is beautiful. I dream of pulling up the marble we've got (Italy) and putting beautiful warm wood everywhere.

Laminate should be illegal.

Second the idea of a good hoover- hard floors show everything!

Watch out for kids though, it dents fairly easily and is probe to damage with toddlers dropping stuff. Same for having it in the kitchen, if you drop a jar you can guarantee a dent.

we have original parquet in our hallway and Im about to run it through into the living room and dining room.

Engineered parquet is a layer of real wood on top of other layers of wood and board to make it less susceptible to warping, It is real wood and isn't tacky.

However - you must make sure you have a decent thickness of the top layer (5mm min) otherwise you won't be able to resand it. I'd also recommend an oiled surface since refinishing a a lacquered surface is difficult and costly. Oiled surface can simply be sanded and re-oiled.