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Parquet board

The parquet board - is a kind of floor covering from natural wood.

One of the advantages of a parquet board is that it is sold cut and dried - the board is already polished and varnished or oiled at a factory. Besides to stack a parquet board is much easier and faster, than block parquet , owing to its greater size and special technology of assembling.

The parquet board is a three-layer construction from natural wood with perpendicular arrangement of layers, and they execute a certain function of their own.

The bottom layer of the parquet board is usually made of pine or white deal plywood.

The middle layer consists from coniferous strips of board - pine or white deal. Moreover lamellas of the middle layer are perpendicular to wood fibers of the bottom layer. Such construction makes the parquet board much stronger and firmer to changes of temperature and humidity. Grooves and crests necessary for the connection of parquet boards in one unit are in the middle layer.

The top layer of the parquet board represents a thin cut of fine woods, which are also used in manufacturing of block parquet. This layer is responsible for the appearance and, what is more important, for durability of a parquet board: the thicker the layer is, the more the parquet board can be polished. Besides, the parquet board is necessarily covered with several layers of varnish or oil at a factory. This covering protects the board from external influences, doesn’t let dirt into the wood and helps to make the floor look more beautiful.

The one-strip parquet board can be exposed to polishing up to 7 times and its service life in house conditions is 35 - 40 years.

Parquet board features

Block parquet

The main building material in Belarus and Russia is wood, and the history of covering the floor with parquet goes back to the epoch of nobility, when parquet became an integral part of prosperity and wellbeing. It was functional and at the same time it was a work of art and became a valuable part of the world culture.

The block parquet easily combines beauty and durability, warmth and solidity, art and luxury, and such an important factor nowadays as availability. Excellent qualitative characteristics have given it the deserved popularity.

Although, there are lots of different kinds of parquet, it is possible to mark out three categories of block parquet basing on the saw cut in relation to annual rings - radial, tangential and mixed. For different types of saw cut various output of parquet on volume is characteristic at processing raw material. Parquet of radial saw cut is received in the smallest amount, and an output of parquet of mixed saw cut, on the contrary, is big enough; that directly influences the cost of block parquet. Nevertheless, the basic characteristics of parquet of mixed saw cut, for example hardness and stability of the geometrical sizes, are practically identical.

As it was said before, there are many variants of choosing breeds of wood, further we shall dwell on some of them and give rough characteristics so that it would be possible to compare the materials.

Oak is a traditional Russian breed for manufacturing floors, it is also widespread in Europe, Asia and America. Oak has great varieties, about 200 species. Oak albur is light yellow, and mature wood has shades from light brown up to yellow brown with a beautiful structure on a cut. Its main advantages are strength, durability and stability to external influences. Oak darkens a little with time, which makes it look noble, and at the same time it makes the floor look well-groomed. Oak dries up rather slowly, and at the accelerated drying it may have crackles. Density: on the average about 700 kg/m3, hardness: 3,7 - 3,9.

Traditionally parquet floors are made of beech, and it is widely used in Europe. Wood has light color, with a red-yellow or grayish shade. Due to homogeneous structure of wood the beechen floor visually looks quiet, warm, even soft, though beech is a firm and strong tree which has similar characteristics with oak. It is well processed by the cutting tool and it polishes well. The beech quickly reacts to the change of humidity and in this respect it is a so-called "whim". Wood of beech goes through special thermal processing leveling its painting and giving it redder tones. Density of a beech - 650 kg/m3, hardness: 3,8

Ash grows mainly in the central part of the Europe though there are American and Japanese breeds. Ash wood is light, slightly yellowish, with a specific picture on a cut. It is almost impossible to tell the difference between albur and mature wood. Ash is harder than oak, but is very elastic and consequently is often used for sports buildings. It reacts well on mechanical conversion. Ash may have crackles, that is why its drying should be done very slowly and carefully. Density is about 700 kg/m3, hardness: 4,0 - 4,1.

Cherry grows across all Europe, in Asia Minor, the USA and some zones of Central America. There is also American cherry growing in Canada and Northern part of the USA. Albur of cherry is narrow, yellowish, and mature wood is pink-brown, sometimes pink-gray. Wood has straight fiber with a rather even structure. The wood of cherry is very decorative and has a beautiful warm shade, but it darkens with time. It is much softer than oak, it makes it better for all kinds of works. Density of the material is about 580 kg/m3., hardness: 3,0 - 3,3.

Maple grows in zones with a temperate climate across all Europe, in America, in the Far East and in other regions. Wood has almost white color, sometimes with slightly yellowish shade. Albur and mature wood practically do not differ. Maple gets a little yellow with time. Maple is a refined material for internal furnishing, it helps to contrast the background for dark furniture. Maple can have crackles; therefore it demands very careful drying. Its density: 530 - 650 kg/m3, its hardness can differ greatly.

Walnut grows everywhere, but the basic regions are: the Southern Europe, Asia, and America. Walnut has a light albur, and mature wood has brown grey color with darker impregnations. Walnut has a remarkable quality, it changes color and structure of wood depending on climate and ground, however walnut is always very decorative that is why for a long time it is widely applied for furnishing of interiors and manufacturing of furniture. Walnut is rather firm, but can be worked-up easily enough, alongside with that, it is steady against deformation and at drying does not get crackles. The given material has density from 600 up to 650 kg/m3, hardness about 5,0.

Parquet can have eth following classification, based on the way of manufacturing :

Block parquet consists of separate parquet planks. The planks can be solid (made of one piece of wood) or multilayer (composite). Block parquet can be classified according to the kind of the saw cut:

radial parquet planks

tangential parquet planks

mixed parquet planks

Basing on the quality of planks:

The wood volatile oils create miracle aura in the building . It is even advised to go barefoot on such parquet. There are examples when by means of similar therapy people got rid of illnesses. Development and manufacturing of art parquet on the Russian market of parquet manufacturing is the achievement of the 1990ies. At that time a number of large firms, offering development of new parquet or creation of a copy of the existing historical samples of art parquet, appeared. But there is also another point of view: the art parquet belongs to palaces of the epoch which has gone forever; it is an integral part of the interior created by the well-known architects. Recently in the domestic market the choice of import parquet materials has greatly extended. However there are factories in Russia which make parquet from domestic raw materials (Krasnodar, Adygea, Kirov and Kaluga regions). They have history, traditions and experience of their own. Import or domestic, household or art, the parquet today is fashionable, beautiful, comfortable and ecological (!).

Parquet is one of the most expensive floor coverings. The technology of its stacking is much more complex, than, for example, of linoleum or synthetic covering, it has to be handled carefully. These features are deterrents for many Russians who of all possible covering would prefer parquet. More than 100 large and medium-sized enterprises are engaged in manufacturing of various kinds of parquet in Russia. Total amount of manufacturing of all kinds of parquet on large and medium-sized enterprises in 2000 has made, according to Goskomstat of the Russian Federation, about 2 million m2 (that is14,5 % less than last year).

So, block parquet consists of wooden planks with overall dimensions: length from 200 up to 450 mm, width from 40 up to 70 mm, thickness from 14 up to 22 mm (most widespread - 15 and 22 mm). Block parquet is made of valuable breeds of wood; on lateral and face sides, as a rule, there are thorns and grooves for better sheaf of parquet planks while assembling. The durability of block parquet is defined by the thickness of the "working" layer (distance from facial area of parquet up to thorns). For example, parquet with the thickness of 15 mm has the "working" layer which makes 8 mm, and accordingly, it can be used about 50 years. Advantages of block parquet are, except for its massiveness (uniformity of structure) and durability, the wide choice of variants of its laying: simple ("mitered herringbone flooring", "staggers", "squares", etc.) and art laying ("stars", "borders", "rhombuses", "guilloche", etc.).

The history of parquet is very long . It takes its begging from ancient times when people began to cover the floor with simple wooden logs. Wood easily gave in to working. Certainly, among breeds of wood there were with rare qualities, hence, expensive and elite kinds. If the pine or oak suited simple flooring from logs or "bricks", trees like maple, ash, apple-trees, alder (let alone valuable redwood and hebeny) had to be worked more daintily. Graceful parquet tiles were made of rare kinds of trees.

The word "parquet" is of the noble French origin. However in Middle Ages in France it meant a small park, a little later - part of a carpeted hall used for audiences. Carpets have gradually disappeared, and the name was used for wooden floorings and has extended outside France. Parquet floors became a part of the interior in the European baroque castles in rococo style; they were as skillfully made, as Gobelin tapestries, fretted ceilings, graceful carved furniture. Since XVI century floors in Russia were laid from oak staves, stacked in a picture which was named "mitered herringbone flooring". Staves, as a rule, were stacked on roughly cut basis from soft wood, mostly pines. The primordial and widespread folk art of woodcarving, skills in art work and stacking of floor in old Russian architecture have created all preconditions for fast development of art parquet in Russia.

The European parquet of XVII century can be compared to a carpet or a mosaic: the whimsical ornament manually made from wooden tiles of various shades or was inlaid as wooden basis. Such parquet was called "art parquet". In Russia parquet floors were Peter's I innovation who brought the cabinetmakers from West, in particular, from Germany. Till that time floor in the Russian cathedrals, rich houses and public buildings were covered with wooden boards or stacked with oak bricks. They were put on limy basis, and between parts was lime mixed with pitch. The same oak floor was in Vasily Blazhennogo's Temple built at the times of Ivan the Terrible on the Red Square in Moscow. Soon primordially Russian art of woodcarving was used in manufacturing fashionable in the West parquet tiles, and floors in Russian buildings, since Peter's times, became artistic. At that time the best Russian carvers worked in the Armory Museum of Kremlin. In 1711 Peter I published the decree to close the workshops of the Armory Museum, and carvers were sent to build the northern capital. The innovation applied in laying the floors of the Petersburg buildings, was picked up by the Moscow town-planners. Monuments of parquet art of XVIII century can be seen in the palace of Ostankino manor, the Chinese palace.

Archival documents show , that "the command of architect Chevakinskogo which was making block floors for the Winter palace, consisted of Vladimir Beklemishev's, ship joiners, who knew joiner's works well, and other 38 joiners". (S.Peterburga, fund 470, inventory 209/643, file № 38. 1761)

In 1749, 26 jambs and 64 crosses of oak wood were sent for palace parquet from the Astrakhan province, which were stored in spare Smolny court yard together with jambs of pear tree, cornaceous English elm, plane trees, boxwood, ash and beechen ranges - we learnt about it from the history of the Tsarskoe Selo which was edited in 1827. All that wood was sent to Tsarskoe Selo in 1750 and served as material for the first block parquet. Later the assortment of the trees used for parquet got wider, and alongside with local breeds rare and expensive grades of imported "overseas" trees were used.

In XIX century the well-known samples of art parquet were laid in the State Russian museum and the Winter palace. And in the same century art parquet experienced the decline. There was a fair quantity of the factories specializing on mass production of parquet at the last quarter of the century. There were three factories producing parquet in Petersburg. In Moscow - eight. Gradually the quantity of factories increased, and their geography extended. In 1914 in Russia parquet was made already at 85 enterprises. This time is considered to be the beginning of application of parquet in house construction.

In XX century the factory parquet was widely used in house construction , art parquet almost disappeared approximately up to the middle of the century. Masters of art parquet worked on restoration of monuments of art, and works on creation of new parquet revived only thanks to the construction Moscow "Stalin" high-rise buildings

Right at the beginning of XXI century, despite of the development of science and technology, one can doubt whether all technological secrets of old hardwood floor layers were restored . It can be said, that owing to literally several hardwood floor layers art parquet was saved in our country. The technology changed in due course, details of the ornament and picture today are not cut out manually any more, but with the help of machines and even with the use of laser and computer; there are many machines facilitating work. Its use helps to increase the accuracy of cutting of details, but there are counterarguments: it is considered, that laser damages wood. The factory parquet is produced from not very expensive breeds of wood, such as fir-tree, pine, oak, and is laid like "mitered herringbone flooring ", "deck" flooring or "thong" ("plaiting"). To smooth irregularities on the edge, the border is made, and then parquet is usually varnished or polished.