Hello,

We recently tore out our carpet to reveal oak parquet tiles in the entire house (I think it was a lower-end style, and it is in bad shape in places).

Here is my question: is it OK to install either hardwood or engineered hardwood directly over our parquet floors? It is about 900 square feet total and my interior doors can handle an extra 3/4 inch height on the floor. Would nailing down work?

We have a raised subfloor, with over 1 inch plywood sheeting. The parquet has been in since 1969, and seems to be glued down well except for a couple of squeaky spots and some boards that felt loose around the perimeter (we noticed when pulling out the nails from the tack strip).

Will I come to regret it later if we lay a new floor over the top? Would it make a difference which type of floor we chose?

Thanks so much for any input! I have gotten different answers from contractors and don't know who to believe.

If this over a slab I would not recommend that.... makes for a bad sandwich imo.

It is not a slab. We have a raised foundation with a crawl space underneath. It's just dirt under our house. There used to be a water problem under there but we have remedied that a few years ago and now it is bone dry.

Thanks!

OK, while it isn't ideal, you could lay a new nailed down floor over that existing parquet floor. I am assuming the parquet is the thinner variety, about 5/16" thick, and is glued down. I would re-glue any loose blocks/pieces. As far as the type of floor, personally, I'd choose a 3/4" solid nailed down floor using 2" staples to install it. A floating style floor will work as well. I think gluing an engineered would be the riskiest as it would rely on the original parquet being solid and intact. Fix any loose spots and noises and make that existing floor as flat as possible. Then go ahead and lay a new 3/4" solid over it as if installing over a wood subfloor.

That phrase made be think of a subfloor over top a slab.

What Gary said...

Ya, Gary is leading you down the right road.

Get in that crawl space and lay a minimum of 6-mil plastic moisture barrier over the dirt, to redirect ground moisture vapor emissions.

Is that a NOFMA approved installation?
To install over a glue down?

Why not... as long as there is no slab underneath it.

Ray,

NOFMA does allow installing a new floor over an older existing floor. The fact that it is a thin, solid parquet that has been glued does not matter, and in fact, could even be preferred as the fasteners will definitely go through the parquet and into the subfloor. I am thinking that this poster has 5/16" fingerblock oak parquet that has been glued directly to the plywood subfloor. I have seen some companies and installers staple down 3/8" particle board as an underlayment then glue the parquet to that. If that were the case in this situation, then the parquet and particle board underlayment would need to be removed if the customer wanted a nailed down floor. They could have a floating floor installed using a permeable foam underlayment; the type that does NOT have a plastic vapor retarder fused to the foam, commonly called 2 in 1 pad.

Yes, this is correct. The oak parquet are 9" squares, 5/16" thick, and glued down to 1 1/8" plywood. Gary is right on.