I just bought a house that has extensive parquet flooring in the rec room and den. I don't know a lot about this kind of flooring, but it appears to have been placed little piece by little piece in the typical off set pattern, not with 4 squares to a tile, so to speak. I would like to refinish, but all of the little pieces have tiny gaps etc. so I thought I should sand first and fill these "gaps" with a urethane sanding dust mix and then finish as a normal wood floor.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.......should I start with 60 sand paper as opposed to the usual grittier paper, so as to minimize the marring of the cross grain?

thanks in advance...Rob

Rob,
There are many different parquet patterns aound. Most all are put together at a factory and the pattern is held together with either paper, mesh, or wire. But yours could be a custom made pattern done on the job. Parquets typically have thin gaps between the pieces and do require filling. Sawdust and glue can work but you have better options. First, proper sanding is important. The floor must be sanded at a 45 degree angle to the direction of the blocks or squares. You idea of using 60 grit is good. Start with that and go at a 45 one way. Then trowel fill your floor using a factory made full trowel filler. Woodwise and Timbermate are a few of the available brands. Be sure to get the right color for your wood species. Then sand the floor again in the opposite 45 direction, edge your perimeter, the sand the floor again with 120 grit going parallel with the direction of the squares. This will cause some cross grain marks but thats parquet. Scrape your corners then screen your floors well with 100 grit sanding screens to remove those sanding marks. After cleanup, your ready for finishing.

Thanks a bunch for the info

Would you recommend a square buff sander or a more conventional drum sander? Just trying to get this right the first tme.

Rob

tag,

Hire a pro, parquet floors are harder than the straight strip floor.

Gary, Your sanding technique is excellent, as usual. The only thing we do different is to hardplate thoroughly after final sanding(edger,Hummel) then screen. The hardplate will take out the streaks caused from sanding across the grain and help to flatten the floor. As you know, heavy screening may cause soft grain dishout on some wood so we go easy on the screening.
We now repair,sand and finish many parquet floors that my dad installed mostly in the 60's and 70's. They are easy to repair and look new after refinishing.
We installed the 4 3/4" five slat Harris Bondwood parquet in 300 homes in one subdivision. We put it in every room in the house. When I would get out of school for the summer I would usually end up on one of the parquet trucks installing. My dad would let me sand the strip floors but not the parquet.
One problem we have with some of these floors is when you trowel fill then put on the finish it can lock in moisture vapor from the slab and cause the floor to buckle. So if your wood is on a slab check for possible moisture problems and if you find a problem do not fill the gaps.
Good Luck
Buddy

You make some great points Buddy! I didn't bring up hardplating because I thought it to be too much for a novice. They have a difficult enough time handling the buffer with screens. Can you imagine a first timer hardplating with 100 grit? Probably put the buffer through a wall! But your right! Hardplate would be the ticket, especially on parquet. I did alot of that bondwood myself. I recall doing 5000 sq.ft. in a clubhouse over a slab and another one in a museum with 4000 sq.ft. It was popular in it's time. Good pointer about filling over a slab. Since Tarketts bondwood parquet adhesive ( Mark 10, right?)was a watery, rubbery concoction, I always thought it was adhesive failure. In residences around here, we were always on underlayment over wood subfloors so moisture wasn't paid attention to. Anyway, Tag, perhaps the square buff would be better for a first timer. Pros don't use 'em much because they are not very fast or effecient but if your floors aren't in too bad of shape, it may be just the right tool for you. You'll still need to rent an edger but not the buffer if your going with a square buff sander. Good luck!