How to Install Parquet Flooring
Parquet can be glued down or floated, laid straight or in herringbone – and those choices change how much you buy and how you set out. This guide walks through it step by step, and shows you how to work out the exact board count and waste for your pattern first.
Work out your material first →
With parquet it is the pattern that drives the cost: herringbone and other decorative layouts waste far more than a straight one, so the first thing to get right is how much to order. Draw your room in the free planner, pick your pattern, and it counts the boards and the waste for your actual floor – then follow the six steps below to install it.
Installing parquet in 6 steps
Acclimate the wood and work out the material
Wood moves with the room it lives in, so let the boxes lie flat and unopened in the room for a few days to settle to its temperature and humidity before you start. Meanwhile work out the quantity: a herringbone or other pattern wastes far more than a straight lay, so draw the room in the free planner, choose your pattern and let it count the boards and the waste for you.
Prepare and moisture-check the subfloor
The base must be clean, flat and – above all – dry. Measure the moisture in the screed with a calcium carbide test; solid parquet and underfloor heating in particular demand a dry, stable subfloor, because wood laid over a damp base cups and gaps. Fill low spots with self-leveling underlayment and let it cure fully.
Choose the method: glue-down or floating
Full-surface adhesive bonds every board to the subfloor and is the right choice for solid parquet and for floors over underfloor heating, where it gives the best heat transfer and the calmest surface. Engineered boards with a click profile can instead float on impact-sound underlayment, without glue – faster to install, but a little more resonant underfoot.
Set out the room
For herringbone, don't start at a wall: strike a center line down the room and build the pattern symmetrically to it, so the two halves mirror and the offcuts fall at the edges. For straight planks, pick the laying direction first – usually towards the daylight, so the joints catch less light and the boards read as one surface.
Work across the floor
Glue or click each board to the last, keeping the pattern tight, and stagger the end joints from row to row so no two seams line up. Start each new row with the offcut from the previous one wherever its length allows – with herringbone especially, feeding the offcuts back in is what keeps the waste down.
Sand, seal and finish the edges
If the wood is raw, sand it flat and then oil or seal it; pre-finished boards need only a clean. Keep the expansion gap to every wall and fixed edge – parquet expands and contracts with the seasons – then pull the spacers and cover the gap with baseboards, never screwed through the boards.
Know the board count and pattern waste before you shop
Herringbone and decorative lays make waste hard to guess. Instead of area × a rule-of-thumb factor, the free planner places every board at real dimensions for your chosen pattern, counts the cut pieces and gives you the exact board count and waste for your room.
Open the free planner →Frequently asked questions
- How much waste does herringbone parquet need?
- Far more than a straight lay. A simple straight floor might waste 5–8 %, but herringbone and other patterns often run to 12–15 % or more, because every board meets the border and the field at an angle and has to be cut. Rather than guess, let the planner count the real cut pieces for your pattern and room.
- Glue-down or floating parquet – which should I choose?
- Glue down solid parquet and any floor over underfloor heating: a full-surface bond transfers heat best and keeps the boards calm and quiet. A floating click floor suits engineered boards in ordinary rooms and is faster to install, but feels a little more hollow underfoot and isn't ideal over heating.
- Which direction should parquet run?
- Straight planks usually look best running towards the main daylight, so the joints catch less light and the room reads longer; in a corridor, run them lengthwise. Herringbone is set out to a center line instead of a direction. You can try the options in the planner before you commit.