Restoring and Finishing Parquet Floors: A Decorator's Guide

Parquet floors in London homes

Victorian and Edwardian London left a significant legacy of parquet flooring — herringbone and basketweave patterns in solid oak, beech, and teak, laid originally in entrance halls, drawing rooms, and dining rooms. Many of these floors are still in place beneath layers of carpet, linoleum, or later floor coverings, and uncovering them is one of the more rewarding discoveries in a London renovation.

Restoring a parquet floor is a specialist task that sits at the boundary between a decorator's work and a dedicated floor contractor's. The decision about who should carry out the work — and which finishing system is appropriate — depends on the condition of the floor, the intended use, and the finish you are trying to achieve.

Initial assessment: what are you working with?

Before any sanding machine goes near a parquet floor, carry out a proper assessment. The key questions are:

How thick are the individual blocks? Original Victorian parquet blocks are typically 19 to 25mm thick and can tolerate two or three full sandings over their lifetime. Later parquet from the 1950s and 1960s is often thinner — sometimes as little as 8 to 10mm — and may not be suitable for aggressive machine sanding. If you can expose an edge of a block (at a threshold or an area of damage), measure the thickness before proceeding.

Are any blocks loose, raised, or missing? Loose blocks need to be re-adhered before sanding. Raised blocks indicate moisture movement in the subfloor and need investigation. Missing blocks need to be replaced with matching timber before the floor is sanded; sourcing matching old-growth timber is increasingly difficult and may require specialist suppliers.

What is the existing finish? If the floor has been wax-polished for decades, the wax must be stripped before sanding — machine sanding wax into the wood creates a contaminated surface that resists any new finish. Use a white spirit or wax-stripping solvent first, then allow the floor to dry completely.

Sanding sequence and equipment

Parquet sanding is harder than strip-floor sanding because the blocks run in multiple directions; a drum sander used parallel to one section of the pattern will be cross-grain to another. This is why parquet is almost always finished with a belt sander or a large orbital machine that can work at 45 degrees to the dominant grain direction.

The typical sequence for a heavily worn or previously varnished floor: start with a 24 or 36-grit abrasive to remove all old finish and level any unevenness between blocks, then step through 60-grit and 80-grit. Finish with 100-grit or 120-grit for a final smooth surface. Edge work with a smaller orbital or detail sander; never use a belt sander close to the skirting boards on a parquet floor. Final hand-sanding in the direction of each block's grain removes any swirl marks from the orbital.

Between the 80-grit and 100-grit stages, dampen the floor lightly with water and allow it to dry — this raises the grain and allows the final sanding to produce a markedly smoother surface.

Staining parquet

Many parquet floors benefit from a light stain to even out colour variation between blocks, to enrich a pale beech or ash floor, or to achieve a specific decorative effect. Bona Craft Oil, Osmo Wood Wax Finish, and Rubio Monocoat Oil Plus 2C are all appropriate products for colouring and finishing parquet simultaneously in a single system.

For staining before a lacquer finish, use a water-based or spirit-based wood stain and allow it to fully dry before applying the topcoat. Test the stain on an inconspicuous area — stains behave differently on different timber species and different cut orientations within a single parquet floor.

Oil versus lacquer: Osmo Polyx-Oil versus Bona Traffic

This is the central specification choice for parquet finishing, and the right answer depends on the lifestyle of the household.

Osmo Polyx-Oil is a hard wax-oil that penetrates the wood fibre rather than forming a surface film. It gives the floor a natural, close-to-the-wood appearance. It is relatively easy to maintain — spot repairs are possible without full resanding, and the floor can be refreshed with a maintenance coat of Osmo Polyx-Oil 3029 (maintenance version) every three to five years. The limitation is durability under very heavy traffic: a high-footfall hallway with children and dogs will show wear in the finish more quickly than it would with a lacquer.

Bona Traffic HD and Bona Traffic Anti-Slip are two-component water-based lacquers that cure to an extremely hard, durable surface film. They outperform oil finishes significantly in abrasion resistance and are the right choice for busy family hallways or anywhere subject to frequent wet mopping. The trade-off is that repairs require sanding back to bare timber — spot repairs are not possible with a lacquer system. Bona Traffic is available in matte, semi-gloss, and satin sheens; matte is the most sympathetic finish for original Victorian parquet.

When to call a floor specialist

If the floor has significant structural problems — widespread loose blocks, extensive damage to the substrate, block thickness below 10mm — the work requires a dedicated floor contractor rather than a painter and decorator. The same applies if you are considering a heat-reactive or chemically reactive finishing system that requires specialist equipment.

A good decorator can sand and finish a sound parquet floor to a high standard. The ambiguous zone is a floor in fair condition that needs light remediation: assess case by case, and be honest about whether the required preparation is within scope.

For advice on restoring and finishing floors in your London property, contact our team or request a free quote. We work throughout SW1, SW3, SW7, and the surrounding areas.