Hopefully it has never been refinished. I'm not sure, but I think parquet is thinner.

If you light it might look like this. Maybe you can add a white to the stain.

Maricara · More Info

Architect - Jack Viks · More Info

This is a darker stain, which I think looks good.

NYC Penthouse · More Info

yes i saw those pics and that's what i'm afraid of! i think we will add a white stain. my concern there is that it will look more painted and less natural. i don't want that either.

9" x 9" laminated black is usually Red Oak. Red Oak can be sanded, bleached and pickled to a nice white color, though it will have a rosy cast. If you're looking for the popular White Oak color that off white with a taupe/white/natural color, it would be nearly impossible to achieve. If Red Oak is pickled but isn't bleached it ends up very pink. Also, it's a piece of plywood so one must determine whether it has a thick enough surface to sand without hitting the next layer.

These floors are hardwood not plywood so it will be ok to sand down. Good point on the pinkish hue. We really want that taupe/white/natural look. But rosy cast is ok as long as it's not orange.

Consider black for a striking look.

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Living & Dining Space · More Info

You can buy red oak parquet squares. Then you can experiment with sanding off the finish and adding white to the new finish. You could also test after sanding off part of the existing floor. It will never look like white oak flooring. It may eventually look like pinkish pickled red oak popular in the 1980's - 1990's.

This is your opportunity to get what you want.

Yeah, these look like plywood blocks. Sanding them can be very tricky as the top veneer can split at the edges.

I’ve renovated houses with this type of flooring; as Timothy Winzell said, it was common.

@Timothy Winzell, interesting. our building is in manhattan and constructed in 1968. it was originally a rental that was converetd to a co-op. most post-war apartments have these parquet floors. but i always thought the older buildings that had parquet floors were real hardwood and the newer ones were constructed with eng wood. is there a way we can find out that doesn't involve removing the current tiles? bc if what we already have is eng wood we would much prefer putting high quality engineered wood on top of this one in the style and color we want.

@Timothy Winzell, so we went back to our apt and looked for cracked edges where we could figure out if this was plywood or not. and lo and behold this is indeed made of eng wood!! wow thank you so much for the warning! it has definitely helped us skip the option of refinishing this floor. It's stuck to a concrete slab. Now the only thing we're wondering is if there is asbestos underneath. if there is, it will rule out pulling out the floors to put real hardwood and we will have to stick eng wood on top of the current parquet floors instead.

1968 construction isn't older. I grew up in a pre WW I home that had actual wood parquet floors that I imagine were installed on site from pieces of wood.

FWIW, engineered wood is hardwood - it is just not solid hardwood but has a layer of wood on top which is what is called the wear layer. The thicker the wear layer, the higher the quality of the wood would be and theoretically you would be able to refinish the wood two times approximately.

I remodeled in a high rise condo and you should check what kind of rules there are for soundproofing of solid floors - e.g. wood or tile. My condo has very specific requirements so that I had to instll a sublayer of cork plus a sublayer of plywood and then the engineered boards.

Not an expert but I think engineered wood is the preferred choice for installation on cement subfloors but a flooring expert could determine that as well as whether you woud install new floors over the old floors. I had wood floors and they were all ripped up and the new flooring was not just installed over the old wood floors.

@Helen yes we're being told the same thing. eng wood is the way to go on concrete slabs or install directly on current floor.

Wow. I did not notice that they were blocks. Good catch Timothy Winzell! Now knknish can get exactly the right engineered hardwood.

From your closeup it looks like there's enough veneer thickness on your floor to refinish though it would probably be a challenge achieving the color you want.

@Timothy Winzell, thanks for your input. we have decided to install new engineered wood floors and get the look we really want. our contractor is recommending we install it directly on top of this floor as it is already in good condition and will not be much different than installing it directly on the concrete slab. If removing the floors isn't going to be an issue due to asbestos, which would be the better option?

Pros and cons of installing directly on top of existing floor according to my online research are

Pros:

- better noise insulation

- faster/cheaper to install

Cons:

- slight reduction of ceiling height (1/2 inch less on top of the already existing floor)

- possibility of warping or cracking when installing on an existing floor

Any thoughts on this?

Is this a gut renovation so kitchen cabinets are being replaced? Changing the floor height will also involve trimming all the doors and addressing all transitions at entrances and bathrooms.

No kitchen and bathrooms were already gut renovated. We tested the floor and there’s plenty of room for the existing doors without having to shave anything off.

What about the clearance for the dishwasher and fridge though?

@HALLETT & Co. we're not installing the floors in the kitchen or bathroom. kitchen has tiles and bathroom has marble tiles. we're only doing it in the living room, bedroom and closets.

I thought of this thread when I read about a house up for sale in the Washington area. It was built in 1959 and was lovingly restored by the current owners. The article is interesting for those who want to read further but the bit about restoring the original parquet floors seemed relevant to this thread.

Mid Century House

The Burtons added a geothermal heating and cooling system but were careful to preserve the house’s architecture. To install new ducts, they brought in commercial concrete cutters from Baltimore to cut through the 13-inch slab and expose the old fiberboard ducts. Because the company that made the original parquet squares for the floors had gone out of business, they found a company to replicate them by gluing strips of black walnut together and cutting them to size. Nancy tried valiantly to save what had been one of the first Thermador ovens, sending it to Georgia for repairs.