too thin for parquet too thick for wood block

[dirtydeeds]

i need some help

ive been asked to look at repairing a small section of an art deco library floor installed in 1928, it was and remains a prestige medical teaching and research establishment, at the time it was state of the art, it had underfloor heating

this place had no problem with money

the repair is about about 2 sq metres, the sub floor is a pine, probably deal

the flooring to be repaired is decorative oak strips and a much darker timber

my initial feeling was that the dark timber is ebonised oak BUT im not so sure this evening because the colour is full thickness



now here come the really odd bits

the oak is 7/32 (5.5mm) its butt jointed and its bedded in bitumin





normally bitumin bedding was used for wood block flooing which was also butt jointed and ussually over 3/4 thick

parquet flooing was normally thicker about 1/4 (6.4mm) with joints and fixed with pins




so has anybody any idea what i am dealing with

[jake]

It's parquet. I'm no expert, but I remember reading this site avidly a few years back and this guy certainly seems to be pretty expert (or talks a good talk at least).

www.wideboards.com/What%20is%20Parquet.php

[Stree]

Is the dark stuff Lignum Vitae? I have seen it used for flooring albeit in 5" T&G boards...........The same house had ALL the woodwork in this timber, seems the owner was best buddies with a timber importer....................House was built in 1950s I think Must have cost a fortune
But the points is, even though it is associated with bowling balls, bushes for ships propellers, etc, it has uses in domestic/commercial joinery as well, although I would imagine quite rarely nowadays....

[jake]

I have 100m^2 of lovely figured wenge parquet (which I bought for £8/m^2) stored away for our living rooms. Couldn't be that could it?

/gratuitous gloat

[thallow]

Great site - very interesting!

[jmk89]

dirtydeeds said:

i need some help

ive been asked to look at repairing a small section of an art deco library floor installed in 1928, it was and remains a prestige medical teaching and research establishment, at the time it was state of the art, it had underfloor heating

this place had no problem with money

the repair is about about 2 sq metres, the sub floor is a pine, probably deal

the flooring to be repaired is decorative oak strips and a much darker timber

my initial feeling was that the dark timber is ebonised oak BUT im not so sure this evening because the colour is full thickness



now here come the really odd bits

the oak is 7/32 (5.5mm) its butt jointed and its bedded in bitumin





normally bitumin bedding was used for wood block flooing which was also butt jointed and ussually over 3/4 thick

parquet flooing was normally thicker about 1/4 (6.4mm) with joints and fixed with pins




so has anybody any idea what i am dealing with

I think that it is parquet and it is thinner because some time over the last 80 years it has been sanded and refinished. I have seen parquet flooring down to 3/32" resulting from this.

[Alf]

stree said:

Is the dark stuff Lignum Vitae? I have seen it used for flooring...

Cripes - self-slip flooring.

[dom]

I don't think it's Lignum Vitae, more likely to be Panga which was used in that era, I believe.

[jake]

dom said:

more likely to be Panga which was used in that era, I believe.

I'll try and get a picture up of my Millettia parquet - whether it is Laurentii or Stuhlmannii, I cannot be sure.

[dom]

I think the name for Panga in common use is Wenge.

[jake]

They are different species, Dom, so I cannot object to your hair splitting ("me sir, I put my hand up first")!

50-60% of mine has a gorgeous feathery 'partridge wing' figure, so I've actually plumped for panga-panga as an ID in the past, but they are very, very similar as far as I can see from the sources I've looked at, and I always say wenge 'cos it is more known. There tends to be less mention of figure in wenge, though, but the rest of my stuff is very straight grained (still pretty contrasts) - seems to depend on how it was sawn.

www.outofthewoods.co.za/panga-panga.jpg

[dom]

Me ? hair splitting.

I don't have enough to do that ;D