Wood flooring (parquet)
A wood floor — parquet — is a finish of timber boards, warm and alive underfoot. Solid or engineered, bonded or floating on a flat, dry base, it brings the warmth of a natural, renewable material that can be sanded and refinished decades later. Its charm is the wood; its success is all in controlling moisture, because timber «moves» with it.
Technical section of the system, from inside (left) to outside (right).
A wood floor — parquet — is a finish of timber boards, warm and alive underfoot. Solid or engineered, bonded or floating on a flat, dry base, it brings the warmth of a natural, renewable material that can be sanded and refinished decades later. Its charm is the wood; its success is all in controlling moisture, because timber «moves» with it.
A wood floor — parquet — is a finish of timber boards, warm and alive underfoot. It can be solid or engineered (pre-finished), bonded or floating on a flat, dry base. Its charm is the natural material; its success, the control of moisture.
Wood expands with humidity and shrinks when dry: so parquet is laid seasoned to the right moisture and with perimeter gaps that allow its movement, hidden by the skirting. A screed too wet, or no vapour barrier, makes the boards cup and the joints open — the commonest defect.
Everything depends on the base: a mature, dry (measured) and flat screed. Fully bonded laying gives stability and good acoustic behaviour; floating is faster but «noisier». Below, a resilient mat improves the impact sound to the room beneath.
Over underfloor heating, suitable woods and thicknesses and a bonded laying are needed, so as not to insulate the heat. The finish (oil or lacquer) protects and sets the look. Wood's great quality is repairability: years later it can be sanded and refinished, like new again.
Why it works
Wood moves with humidityWood is hygroscopic: it takes up moisture from the air and gives it back, swelling when humid and shrinking when dry. A floor laid too wet shrinks as it dries and the joints open; one laid too dry swells later and can cup or lift. This is why parquet is laid seasoned to a moisture in balance with the room, on a dry, measured screed and over a vapour barrier, and why a perimeter expansion gap — hidden by the skirting — is left so the whole floor can breathe and move as one without pushing on the walls. Control the moisture and the wood behaves; ignore it and it is the commonest defect of all.
Warmth underfoot
Comparison · insulantsNodal details
Critical junctions · sectionsOn a dry, flat screed a moisture barrier is set, then the boards are bonded with full adhesive coverage — no voids, which would sound hollow and let the board move. A resilient mat below the screed cuts the impact sound to the room beneath. The dryness of the screed, measured, is the precondition for it all.
- Timber board (parquet)
- Adhesive (full coverage)
- Vapour barrier
- Screed
- Resilient mat
- Structural slab
At the wall the boards stop short, leaving an expansion gap that lets the whole floor swell and shrink without buckling or pushing on the wall; the skirting covers it. It is the small, invisible detail that keeps a wood floor flat for years.
- Wall
- Skirting
- Perimeter gap (expansion)
- Board (last row)
- Screed
- Perimeter resilient strip
Installation controls
Specification · checklist01 · Substrate
02 · Acclimatisation
03 · Laying
04 · Radiant (if any)
05 · Finish & care
Recurring defects
Diagnostics · siteComponent materials
The network · materialsReference regulations
2 norms- D.P.R. 380/2001Consolidated Building Act (Testo Unico Edilizia)In force
- UNI EN 13501-1:2019Fire classification of construction products and building elements - Part 1: Reaction to fireIn force
Informational links to the regulatory framework. Always verify the current text on the official source.