fidobsa

I am trying to find a supplier for a small quantity of parquet flooring strips to patch existing floors where there are areas of rot. This type of flooring is so common in Hungary that I thought there would be lots of places selling it but so far the ones I've tried are only selling laminate flooring. There are 2 sizes I need, the biggest is 355 x 55 x 22mm and it looks to be ash. This appears to be one of many standard sizes but I don't know if the tongue & groove details vary for a given size of strip. Any advice much appreciated.

mawood47

Fidobsa> I thought I was going to give soon good news regarding the Parquet Flooring but not, next door apartment their is some wear 30m2 but it's in small panels a bought 20cm×20cm panels free of charge witch saddle do,s not match in with what you have, but at least I thought of your problem digger47

Rural Hungary

We had a nightmare trying to find this for a friends house and ended up giving up. Have you tried any of the building material reclamation yards?

fidobsa

No, I don't know of any.

fidobsa

Today I went to a parquet specialist in Bjelovar, Croatia. They had the large size strips in stock and they can machine down larger strips to make the 250x45x22mm ones I will need later on. It was about £26 per square metre which is not bad when you only need a small amount. Unfortunately the tongues are slightly thicker than on the original strips but I'm hoping to be able to shave a bit off with a small rebate plane I have (if I can find said tool).
As usual in Croatia, the lady who served me spoke good English.

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mawood47

I am glad to hear fidobsa flooring resolved, digger47

fidobsa

The new patch of flooring is now in place but I would like to sand the whole floor and stain/varnish. I have found a tool hire place that can hire me a floor sander for 7620 Ft per day but I'm wondering how much it would cost to get a tradesman to do it with his own machine? I seem to recall someone mentioning a job like this on the forum but I can't find it now.

Peter_in_Hungary

This is about the same as the good quality laminated hardwood flooring - so for the real thing I think the price is OK.

I would expect the tradesman to charge between 2500 and 3000 /hour and about a morning to do an average room (say 25m2) or a bit longer if 2 grades of sand paper are used. If there are edging strips around the wall to be done then count on a day. If they are varnishing as well than I would expect sand and first coat on day 1 and light sand and second coat on day 2 so maybe 20,000 to 30,000 plus materials
I have hired a floor sander. the ones locally are drum type not belt. Care has to be taken to keep an even speed of movement otherwise the drum will sand dips in the floor which are v. difficult to remove. Because of this problem next time I will probably hire a big belt sander and give my knees a hard time. (the drum sander is stand up to use) - you will be surprised how much sawdust is collected and also how much the machine fails to collect

fidobsa

Thanks for the prompt reply, peter. I did wonder it there was some skill needed, I thought it might not be like pushing a hoover or floor polisher around the room! If the sandpaper is on a drum, is it a case of cutting some off a roll and loading it in? I do have a big roll of 115mm wide 60 grade Bosch Redwood.
I did also wonder about how close it can get to the edges. If it does not get right to the edge I could perhaps go round with a flapwheel or something. There was a moulding round the edge but I have removed this and am fitting skirting board to hide the central heating pipes. This is pine but I want to stain it to match the hardwood parquet.
I will also consider the belt sander approach. With that I would be more concerned about my lungs than my knees. I've tried various face masks over the years, including a modern version of the WW2 gas mask but none have ever sealed well against my face, so I always inhale loads of dust. The room is about 16 square metres.

Rural Hungary

We once did the floors in a Victorian terrace house - can't remember if it was drum or belt but it wasn't as easy or quick as I had hoped. The paper kept tearing and in places it didn't sand evenly though it did do close to the edges. Guess it depends on the existing floor condition and the machine itself. For the rest of the floors we used a hand sander.

Fib, you could always try one of the original WW2 gas masks from the market - if you do, you must take a photo and post it!

Peter_in_Hungary

The drum sander I hired used 20cm wide sandpaper which was cut to the right length by the hire shop and given out on sale or return. I used 60 grade first and then worn out 60 grade to finish. The machine went to about 6 cm from the wall (providing you don't mind going across the grain at both ends) I then used a belt sander for the left out bits (close to the wall and under radiators) as this has the belt right up to the edge.
For the varnish I used the water based floor varnish (saves evacuating the house due to fumes) applied with a (new) paint roller - remember to finish at the door!