Parquet flooring in Batumi: solid wood on plywood and adhesive

What we check before the parquet arrives

Parquet is the last finishing material to be brought into the apartment. By then the windows are in, the plaster and filler have dried and the bathroom tiles are laid. Wet work nearby adds moisture to the air, and the blocks would soak it up.

The key figure here is the moisture content of the screed. We measure it with a carbide (CM) tester, taking the sample from deep in the layer rather than from the surface, which dries first. We lay parquet at 2% or below, and at 1.8% over underfloor heating, unless the adhesive instructions are stricter. Until the floor screed has dried to that figure, we don't start laying, even if the schedule says it is time.

We check the strength of the screed with a nail and by tapping. As solid wood shrinks, it pulls on the base, and if the top of the screed crumbles or sounds hollow, the adhesive will tear it away along with the floor. Under plywood, a deviation of up to 2 mm under a two-metre straightedge is usually acceptable, and we take the exact tolerance from the adhesive instructions.

Acclimatising and sorting the blocks

Solid wood leaves the factory dry, made for air drier than Batumi's. We open the packs in the room where the floor will be laid, and the blocks stay there with a dehumidifier running or the air conditioner in dry mode. This usually takes one to two weeks, and the parquet manufacturer gives the exact period. In that time the wood reaches the moisture content it will live with.

Before laying, we measure the moisture of the blocks themselves with a pin moisture meter in several packs. If the readings differ noticeably from the batch specification or from one pack to another, we postpone laying: blocks with different moisture levels will later shrink differently, and gaps will open up in patches. At the same time we sort the blocks by shade and set cracked ones aside for cutting at the walls.

Plywood under parquet and why it is needed

We almost always lay block parquet on plywood. When the humidity changes, solid wood pulls on the base, and the plywood takes that stress instead of passing it on to the screed, which could crack. It also separates the wood from residual moisture in the concrete and gives a flat surface that can be sanded.

We use moisture-resistant birch plywood 12–15 mm thick and cut the sheets into squares: a whole sheet builds up stress and bows over time. The pieces are laid with staggered joints, 3–5 mm apart and about 10 mm from the walls, glued to the primed screed and fixed with anchors. Then we sand the plywood flat. The site foreman photographs this layer, because once the parquet is down it can't be seen.

Adhesive and laying pattern

We use an adhesive with no water in it: two-component polyurethane or one-component silane. It is spread over the whole area with a notched trowel, and each block is pressed down and tapped in so that no void is left beneath it. Open times vary from product to product, so we spread the adhesive in a strip a few rows wide rather than over the whole room.

A deck pattern is laid from the long wall or in line with the light from the window. Herringbone and squares start from a centre line, which we mark across the middle of the room with a string line or a laser: if the first row drifts by a couple of millimetres, the pattern will visibly wander by the opposite wall. A border around the perimeter hides uneven walls but adds cutting. We leave a 10–15 mm gap at the walls and cover it with skirting board. Where the parquet meets the tiles in the hallway or kitchen, we fit a cork expansion strip or a threshold strip.

If you are still choosing between solid wood and multi-layer boards, the difference for our climate is explained in our comparison of parquet and engineered wood.

Settling time, sanding and finish

Parquet is not sanded straight after laying: for several days the floor stays covered and unloaded while the adhesive gains strength. Then it is sanded in several passes, the gaps are filled, and it is finished with lacquer or oil. How we sand and what we finish the wood with is described in detail on the page about parquet sanding and restoration.

How to inspect newly laid parquet

We inspect the floor in two stages. The first is before sanding: we tap the blocks with a hammer handle, and where the sound is hollow, the block has bedded without adhesive. It is relaid straight away, while the neighbouring blocks can still be lifted without damage. With a string line we check that the herringbone lines run straight, and we look at the gap at the walls before the skirting covers it.

The second is after finishing, against the light from the window. Raking light shows ripples from the drum sander, swirls from the edger along the walls, raised grain and bubbles in the lacquer. After sanding, a fingernail should not catch on any step between blocks.

Fine gaps can appear in solid wood during the first season of air conditioning or heating: the wood is getting used to the apartment. If gaps have opened across the whole room, the first thing we look at is the hygrometer and how the dehumidification is working.

How much parquet flooring in Batumi costs

Laying block parquet on adhesive costs from 63 to 78 ₾ per m². This is labour only: the parquet, adhesive, plywood and sanding are not included. Solid parquet as a material costs from 220 to 300 ₾ per m², laying plywood from 30 to 42 ₾, and sanding with a lacquer or oil finish from 42 to 54 ₾ per m² of labour.

Herringbone, modular patterns and borders push the price towards the upper end, as do small rooms with a lot of cutting and exotic species that need a special adhesive. A deck pattern in a large, simply shaped room costs less. If the screed has to be redone, that is added to the estimate too, from 40 to 66 ₾ per m². The final cost is set after measuring up and agreeing the estimate, and each stage has its own price in the contract.