Dating back to the early 1600’s, Parquet Flooring was a luxury flooring where its only real competitor was earth or concrete. In homes of the wealthy, there would usually be marble flooring. Around this time in Versailles, France a new innovation in wooden flooring was created using blocks of wood the knit together in various geometric patterns to create a wooden floor with unlimited designs, colour and texture. Each individual wooden parquet block was hand cut to size using various types of wood and fitted to the floor in different geometric shapes like triangles, squares and diamonds.
The parquet flooring would be stuck to the concrete floor with glue where they are then sanded and finished to produce the right look.
The Parquet Flooring Name
The word Parquet comes from from the Old French parched (the diminutive of parc), meaning “a small enclosed space“. Large diagonal squares known as parquet de Versailles were introduced in 1684 as parquet de menuiserie (“woodwork parquet”) to replace the marble flooring that required constant washing, which tended to rot the joists beneath the floors. Such parquets en lozange were noted by the Swedish architect Daniel Cronström at Versailles and at the Grand Trianon in 1693.
Due to the experience required when installing the parquet flooring and the artistry that was involved in creating new and innovative patterns, this type of flooring proved to be very expensive and only completed by a skilled professional. Like marble flooring, parquet floors were only found in very wealthy homes and the upkeep or maintenance of the flooring would usually be done by the servants to prevent cracking and “cupping” of the blocks
