Berti Advice: what is parquet sanding? How can I repair the parquet floor?

The one with the parquet is a love relationship: we at Berti Pavimenti Legno, who have been manufacturing and selling parquet for more than forty years, know this well. And like all long-lasting relationships, there is no shortage of doubts, questions and advice: Berti Consiglia, our column on the world of parquet, wants this time to focus on parquet floor sanding.

A little bit of everyone imagines what sanding is: it is, in fact, a maintenance process that is carried out through sanding machines that allow you to remove a few tenths of a millimeter from the surface layer of the prefinished floor.

Choosing a parquet floor for your home can be done with confidence: it is the only material that can communicate warmth and coziness with immediacy. If anyone is reticent about choosing wood flooring for fear that it is an overly delicate material, they should in fact consider that modern production techniques make it possible to have a varnished parquet floor with a finish that can be considered practically eternal. Berti parquet floors boast a high-strength varnish, which gives the product considerable hardness and resistance to wear and tear.

Given these excellent premises, the fact remains that as the years go by, the possibility of scratches or marks arising may occur. In this case, maintenance can be carried out by sanding: you can then repair the parquet floor and restore it to its original state.

It is best to avoid trying DIY sanding: this is an operation that must be carried out by specialized personnel with proper professional equipment. Incorrectly performed sanding could compromise the quality of the parquet and cause damage that cannot be repaired with subsequent corrections.

Let’s see in a little more detail what are the different steps that will be carried out to repair your parquet and make it look as if no one has ever walked on it. First of all, it is necessary to do a thorough preliminary inspection, to check in detail the condition of every centimeter of your parquet floor: this is used to identify any elements that are not fixed perfectly and, if necessary, to refix or replace them. At this stage, as well as in subsequent stages, of course all the rooms in which you will be sanding the floor should be free of furniture or other obstacles.

Once the surface is perfectly stable and fixed, we move on to the roughing stage : during this process, an initial smoothing and smoothing of the entire surface is carried out, thanks to the use of sanding machines that pass the abrasive. The entire room will be passed twice; the second time in a crosswise direction from the first pass. It will be done in parallel bands starting from the central part of the room and ending at the edges.

After roughing, carried out thanks to roller or belt sanding machines, the actual sanding begins, in which the abrasive initially used is replaced by one with a finer grit. This operation is also carried out twice in a row to obtain a perfectly smooth and planar surface.

The next step is identified as grouting, which consists of systematically closing all pores and fissures, as well as correcting any imperfections, using a trowel with binder and wood powder.

We then proceed with sanding, which should be done parallel to the wood fiber using a very fine, sharp abrasive to achieve a uniform, clean surface.

At this point a thorough and deep cleaning with a professional vacuum cleaner is required, and the wood floor is finally ready for finishing, which will be done using either varnish, oil or wax as an alternative.

This is a complex intervention, but one that allows you to totally repair your parquet, and it can also be repeated over time: it depends on how many millimeters of noble wood we go to sand. If you choose to intervene with sanding before the parquet is significantly worn or damaged, and therefore before deep cuts can occur, you can go as far as 3 or 4 sandings. In any case, the minimum amount of noble wood that must be present in prefinished parquet always remains firm: you can never go below 2.5 mm.