Parquet Grout And Glue

[sleepyjohn]

Hi I want to help renovate a parquet floor. It's made up of the smallest standard size teak tiles about 7inch by 1 1/2 inch.

The condition is:

Maybe two dozen loose tiles which move in their space.

About 20% of the floor the grout has come loose.

The floor has previously been sanded down and bleached and stained a beautiful honey yellow. It's then been finished in two part epoxy varnish. This all means resanding it all may be difficult or dangerous as the tiles may get too thin. Also means individual tiles can't be sanded as they'll revert to their natural darker colour. Which also means that if possible I'd like to reset the individual tiles in their spaces and bed them to the same level as the surrounding, then carefully scraping out old grout and re-grouting wherever necessary.

I'm aware that redoing the whole floor is the best option but it's too much hassle and expense so a good touch up's on the cards. So:

1. What glue do they normally use for sticking down the tiles?

2. As the traditional glue is obviously not great quality are there any better alternatives ?(two come to mind......latex glue and epoxy.....but I'm bearing in mind that the bed underneath needs to be sound for the glue to do it's job....I'll check that today).

3. What is used for grout?

4. What could I use for a better grout? (I'm thinking fine wood dust mixed with something)

5. Thoughts on the grout being compressible to allow expansion of the wood in wet season?

6. If the bed underneath is not too sound thoughts on some coating which might soak in and strengthen it(A100?)

cheers

[splitlid]

you can use sikaflex to bed the tiles on. it sticks to anything.as long as they are both dust free.a bitumen based adhesive will also work well.

for the grout, mix the sawdust with a pva glue and apply.

you can seal the base if it is not too clever with a pva and water mix.

[bkkbill]

Don’t know if this will be of help but I had some lose parquet flooring and use white latex glue. Think it was TOA brand. Just poured some where the grout had come out. It slowly disappeared then wipe the excess off with a damp cloth. Did this two or three times and that area has no movement and seem solid. This floor had also been re-sanded and finished.

[Crossy]

I've had some small experience of fixing parquet. In my experience it's pretty difficult to get 'loose' tiles out and darn near impossible to get them back in.

I would go with BKKBill's suggestion of running some PVA glue down between the tiles. You can dye it with water based dye and dilute it with water to make life easier getting it in the space.

[sleepyjohn]

Thanks for the answers I shall experiment.

I'm guessing the Sikaflex, from it's name, stays rubbery maybe like silicone after it's dry. Is that so?

[splitlid]

yep thats right, sika make heaps of good stuff, homepro and the like sells it, its usually around the silicone tubes area. as it comes in a tube also.

[sleepyjohn]

yep thats right, sika make heaps of good stuff, homepro and the like sells it, its usually around the silicone tubes area. as it comes in a tube also.

Here's what I'm thinking though.....

Oh....first I had a good look at the floor.

There's plenty of loose or missing grout. That's one issue.

When I pull up one of the perhaps dozen loose small parquet tiles the floor underneath varies from perfectly sound to crumbly.

I'm thinking that a flexible bed will allow the tiles to move when walked on thus busting the grout unless it too is really quite flexible.

SO I'm considering this:

When I renovated a wooden yacht back when I used a lot of epoxy.

You can mix various fillers with the basic clear epoxy for various uses, but when you start with some rot in say a beam end the thing to do is use straight epoxy mix. When you first mix it it is quite runny (which is one reason for the fillers). The epoxy is runny enough to soak into any rot. When it goes off of course you have strength in that piece again.

My thinking is to get the tiles all as flat as possible. Then use a syringe to run the newly mixed epoxy down through the grout gap (or even through a small drilled hole) so gravity takes it underneath. It would solidify any crumbly mortar bed and also bed the tiles down very solidly.

Then do the grout separately. If the tiles can't move at all the grout doesn't really have to be very strong.

Now this is all a bit of a job, and I don't even know where to buy straight epoxy

(as in http://www.westsystem.com/ss/product-selection-chart/)

so if Sikaflex can work that would be great. But seems to me that PVA glue dries off pretty inflexible so as a grout it would easily crack if the tile moved.

Thoughts?

Clear Epoxy source?

thanks again

Edited April 11, 2010 by sleepyjohn

[splitlid]

could do, but not sure how effective it would be,give it a try and let us know. the bitumen method may be better if your not confident to use sikaflex.

the butumen allows for the expansion of the wood and also proides a cushion.as would the sikaflex, not sure if the epoxy would allow for this.

[jackr]

Rip em up, knock off the old glue and remove dust from substrate, bung on some Pattex adhesive allowing to dry for about 15 minutes before flopping your bits back in. I've found car body filler works really well for filling in and goes absolutely solid. Can get them with yellow or red hardeners. Traditional tile grout on parquet would be about as much use as tits on a kipper .

Autobody filler, 80/100 baht

Pattex adhesive, around 140 baht tin:

[sleepyjohn]

thanks for all the input....

I went to buy epoxy and because of price (1050bt/about 500ml) I came out with polyester resin (fibreglass without the glass, 130bt/750ml). The high ambient temperature is a help in curing right now.

I got some syringes I have used for my dog, didn't use the needle it was too narrow, but the plastic tip that the needle fits on sticks out nicely into a suitable hole. It's about an eighth of an inch.

I have so far tried a test corner.

Tap the tiles to test for hollowness underneath.

Scrape out any loose grout and hoover.

I drilled holes in the floor mostly at corners of the tiles wherever they sounded hollow. The syringe nipple fits tightly in the hole so you can pump the resin in and under. Pump it in until you see the resin rising up a little between the tiles. After a test I made up resin mix with ample hardener as I want it bone dry in a day (polyester has a tendency to remain tacky). It actually hardened fully in hours and I tried using a wood filler from Homepro (59baht) to grout the same evening. The filler seems to be quite strong. The holes looked very noticeable when drilled but when filled are pretty camouflaged.

The only disadvantage with polyester against epoxy, that it shrinks a little on drying, doesn't so far seem to have mattered. Also I went to the vet to get much larger syringes (25ml) as with 5ml one's constantly filling otherwise.....and you need to keep moving as the rubber gasket starts degrading. If you get plenty of syringes you can use them for measuring the polyester liquid too. You need to do it in no more than 10 or 15 minute goes then chuck the syringe and make a new batch. If you let it start gelling it may still come out of the syringe but I'm thinking it won't run properly to wet through the substrate which is essential.

If it goes well from here this will save the ripping up and relaying (including mortar bed) sanding and bleaching and staining and varnishing of a whole floor.

So far so good going back for inspection today.

Edited April 15, 2010 by sleepyjohn