Wood Parquet
No other floor grows more beautiful as it ages. Wood is warm underfoot, absorbs sound and brings a living material into the house — one that can be sanded and brought back to new instead of being replaced.
What Is Parquet
Parquet is a floor covering made of real wood, laid as boards, planks or blocks. The product standard is UNI EN 14342, which governs CE marking, reaction to fire and formaldehyde emission; engineered parquet is covered by UNI EN 13489 and solid parquet by UNI EN 13226.
What distinguishes parquet from every imitation — laminate, LVT, SPC — is that the visible surface is wood all the way through its noble layer. It can be sanded and refinished, which means a floor that is repaired rather than thrown away.
The Three Constructions
Solid parquet is a single piece of noble wood, typically 14–22 mm thick. It can be sanded four or five times and lasts for generations, but it needs controlled ambient humidity (45–65%) and dislikes sudden changes.
Engineered parquet (also called pre-finished) has a noble layer of 2,5–4 mm bonded onto cross-laid support layers. The cross-lamination makes it move three or four times less than solid wood, which is why it is the only construction suitable for underfloor heating. With 4 mm of noble layer it can be sanded two or three times.
Lamparquet is the traditional small format, usually 10 mm thick, glued down and sanded in place. It is the choice for historic floors and for basket-weave or herringbone patterns where the design matters more than speed of installation.
Wood Species
Oak is the dominant species today, and not merely as a fashion: a Brinell hardness around 3,7, a grain that forgives scratches, and it accepts any finish from bleached to heat-treated dark. It is the wood behind almost every collection we carry.
Walnut brings a warm brown with pronounced figure; ash is pale and lively, excellent bleached; teak and the tropical species remain the choice for bathrooms and damp areas thanks to their natural oils.
The grade matters as much as the species: how much knot, sapwood and colour variation you accept. A Natur grade has more character and costs less than a uniform Select, and over large areas it often looks better.
Installation
Floating installation clicks the boards together over an underlay, with no glue to the screed. It is fast, reversible and walkable immediately, but the footfall is slightly louder and it transmits a little less heat.
Glued installation bonds each board to the screed with a two-component polyurethane or silane adhesive. It is the correct method over underfloor heating — full contact transmits heat far better — and it is mandatory for large formats and for solid wood.
Before any installation the screed must be checked: flatness within 2 mm over 2 metres, fully cured, and above all residual humidity measured with the carbide method, below 2% and below 1,7% with underfloor heating. This is the check most often skipped, and it causes the majority of parquet failures.
Oil or Varnish
The finish decides how the floor is maintained. Oil penetrates the wood and is refreshed every one or two years, but it can be repaired in patches: a stain or a worn area is recovered without touching the rest of the floor.
Varnish forms a film that resists daily wear better, but once the film is worn through the whole floor has to be redone. For a household with pets or children, oil is often the more practical choice precisely because it is repairable.
Maintenance
Daily cleaning is simple: a barely damp microfibre cloth and a specific neutral detergent. What ruins parquet is abundant water, steam and aggressive detergents, which open the joints and dull the finish.
Two habits are worth more than any product: felt pads under every piece of furniture and every chair, and air humidity between 45% and 65%. Wood kept in an over-dry room in winter will open its joints, and that is not a defect of the floor.
Wood Species at a Glance
Brinell hardness tells you how well a wood resists indentation: below 3.0 it marks easily, above 4.0 it takes heavy traffic. The last column is the one that matters if you have underfloor heating, because not every species tolerates it.
| Sample | Species | Brinell | Weight kg/m³ | Indentation | Origin | Underfloor heating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
European Walnut Juglans regia |
2,50 | 720/740 | 184 | Italia, Croazia, Slavonia, Ungheria, Romania, Francia | not advised |
 |
Cedar Cedrela fysillis |
2,40 | 550/570 | 275 | Argentina, Paraguay, Brasile, America Latina | medium |
 |
Elm Ulmus campestris / americanus |
— | 500/700 (air-dried) | — | Europa Centrale e America | excellent The catalogue gives no Brinell value and shows 3.75 on the indentation row: figure to be confirmed. Three weights are listed (900/1100 green, 500/700 air-dried, 450/650 kiln-dried). |
 |
Lapacho Tabebuia ipè |
5,90 | 950/980 | 160 | Brasile, Paraguay, Bolivia, Argentina | not advised |
 |
Chestnut Castanea sativa |
3,30 | 720/740 | 175 | Francia, Italia, Croazia, Slavonia, Ungheria, Romania | medium |
 |
Oak Quercus petraea |
3,40 | 750/780 | 155 | Slovenia, Croazia, Ucraina, Ungheria, Romania | medium |
 |
European Cherry Prunus avium |
3,30 | 620/650 | 220 | Slovenia, Croazia, Ungheria, Romania | medium |
 |
American Maple Acer saccharum |
4,80 | 630/650 | 165 | Stati Uniti, Canada | not advised |
 |
Doussié Afzelia africana |
4,00 | 800/820 | 212 | Africa occidentale e centrale (Costa d'Avorio, Ghana, Camerun…) | excellent |
 |
Beech Fagus sylvatica |
4,00 | 730/750 | 180 | Slavonia, Croazia, Romania, Ungheria, Austria, Francia | not advised |
 |
Iroko Chlorophora excelsa |
3,50 | 660/680 | 205 | Costa d'Avorio, Nigeria, Ghana, Congo, Zaire, Tanzania | excellent |
 |
Teak Tectona grandis |
3,50 | 690/710 | 264 | Africa, Penisola Indonesiana, India, Giava | excellent |
 |
Wengé Millettia laurentii |
4,20 | 820/840 | 190 | Zaire, Congo, Mozambico, Tanzania | medium |
 |
Larch Larix decidua |
2,50 | 650/660 | 287 | Italia, Austria, Siberia, Europa | medium Medium for knotted larch, not advised for knot-free larch. |
 |
Afrormosia Pericopsis elata |
3,70 | 750/760 | 209 | Costa d'Avorio, Zaire | medium |
 |
Rauli Nothofagus procera |
3,40 | 600/650 | 210 | Cile, Argentina | medium |
How to install engineered parquet
- Check the screed. Verify flatness (2 mm over 2 m), full curing and residual humidity with the carbide method: below 2%, below 1,7% with underfloor heating.
- Acclimatise the material. Leave the packs closed in the room for 48–72 hours so the wood balances with its temperature and humidity.
- Lay the substrate. Polyethylene vapour barrier and acoustic underlay for floating installation; primer and two-component adhesive for glued installation.
- Lay the boards. Start from the longest wall leaving a 10–12 mm perimeter joint, staggering the end joints by at least 30 cm.
- Finish the perimeter. Fit the skirting without blocking the perimeter joint and, over underfloor heating, restart the system gradually.
Frequently asked questions about wood parquet →
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