I Have Been Offered Reclaimed Parquet Flooring Blocks

I have been offered a reclaimed parquet floor. The blocks are tongue a groove, but these blocks have a flat side where the tongue should be. Can these still be laid? or would you not advise me to buy these blocks? If they can be laid, what steps would you need to take to compensate for not having a tongue?

Hi there,

It is better not to have the tongue, as many of these used blocks will not fit back together properly, increasing significantly the waste.

On reclaimed blocks, there will be more glue required. The finishing process will start with sanding floors with 24g or 16g abrasives, which means the top wearing layer is significantly reduced with the first sanding. Gap filling, which will be inevitable, will require double, or triple the amount that is usually required.

All of the above increases the floor finishing work duration and adds on to the cost.

So, the question will be if the price you are paying for the blocks is good enough to compensate for the rest and make it worth it.

Sometimes people may consider reclaimed blocks, due to cost (you can find new ones quite cheap), but do not include in their original estimate, the effort and respective cost of parquet floor fitting.