Real wood floor

Bring nature into your home. Whether solid wood or engineered parquet, a wood floor is not only durable and resilient, it also lends every room an especially cosy atmosphere. Oiled, sealed, white or brown, real wood parquet comes in the most varied types. But what does real wood parquet mean in the first place? Do not be misled, there is no such thing as parquet that is not real. The wear layer of a parquet floor, which is made from precious woods, must have a minimum thickness to be classed as parquet. Modern parquet floors from HARO are constructed as multilayer parquet. This technically optimised parquet has a distinct advantage over solid wood floorboards.

Solid wood flooring or engineered parquet?

Regardless of whether wood parquet in oak or beech, engineered parquet with a multilayer construction has no disadvantages compared to solid wood flooring – completely the opposite. Parquet from HARO is available exclusively as multilayer planks. Wood is a living material directly from nature, which breathes and changes over time. Solid wood flooring is therefore prone to deformations and the formation of gaps. The multilayer construction of our parquet ensures a high level of dimensional stability of your new floor.

Every two or three layers of engineered parquet consist of wood. The upper wear layer, which is made from high-quality and often slow-growing precious woods, such as oak, maple, cherry or beech, can therefore be tailored to the intensity of use. This means we are not consuming any valuable resources. On the other hand, a large proportion of precious woods are used in the production of solid wood flooring. We are therefore remaining true to our sustainability philosophy with multilayer parquet.

Moreover, multilayer parquet offers a broad selection of surfaces, with the result that you are guaranteed to find a floor covering in our product range that suits your personal style. Thanks to the click system, DIY enthusiasts can also install our floors themselves without difficulty. In addition, engineered parquet is ideal for installation over underfloor heating, since it compensates more effectively for temperature fluctuations.

All the advantages and disadvantages of real wood parquet

Advantages

HARO Parquet is a 100% natural addition to your home. Parquet is made fully from wood and is therefore ideal for healthy and natural living. Even people with allergies can breathe easily with real wood parquet. Thanks to the low electrical conductivity, wooden floors do not give rise to electrostatic charges. Dust and dirt particles therefore do not adhere to the parquet floor.

Another positive benefit of wood is that it can absorb water vapour from the air and release it again. Not only does this create a pleasant indoor climate, it can even help to prevent hoarseness and colds.

A real wood floor is also climate-friendly. Just one pallet of parquet can absorb around one ton of CO2. In addition, parquet contains very low levels of grey energy. That's the energy that is expended over the entire life cycle of a product, including manufacture, transport, usage and disposal.

Wood floors also impress thanks to their long life span. The floorboards can be refurbished easily owing to the real wood top layer. Real wood parquet also ensures a cosy atmosphere in the home because of its natural look and pleasant warmth underfoot. What's more, floorboards are timeless in design. You are therefore assured to always be on trend with this floor.

Disadvantages

One disadvantage of wood parquet is its lower wear resistance compared to a laminate floor or tiles. If the care instructions are not observed, this floor is generally more susceptible to dirt. Parquet in general is the highest-quality but also most expensive flooring. Laminate or vinyl are therefore less expensive in comparison with real wood parquet.

Parquet or laminate: Which flooring is better?

Parquet and laminate differ essentially in terms of their top layer. In the case of real wood parquet, the top layer has to be real wood. The top layer in the case of laminate, on the other hand, consists of a style layer and a melamine resin layer, which accounts for the extremely high resilience of our laminate. The substructure, however, can often consist of the same material with both laminate and parquet floors in the form of a HDF board. In contrast to laminate, every layer of high-quality real wood parquet is manufactured from wood. The boards used in our parquet floors consist of a precious wood wear layer, a middle layer made from solid softwood strips or a HDF board and a softwood backing.

Whether laminate or parquet, both floors are easy to maintain. Wood parquet impresses thanks to its originality and natural character. Every board is unique in terms of nature. At the end of the day, however, the decision as to which floor best suits your home is all down to personal taste.

How strong does the wear layer have to be with parquet?

The top layer of real wood parquet must be at least 2.5 millimetres or more in accordance with standards. If this is not the case, boards may not be called parquet. The thickness of the top layer determines how durable a floorboard is. Real wood floors with thicker top layers can be sanded more often than those with thinner top layers. A high-quality and enduring look is guaranteed if the boards are oiled again or sealed professionally after sanding. Oak incidentally is one of the most popular wood species for the wear layer of floorboards.

Cleaning and caring for real wood parquet is just as uncomplicated.

Whether oak, ash, maple or another wood species, cleaning boards made from real wood is easier than you might think. It is usually sufficient to dry-clean floorboards using a dust mop, soft broom or vacuum cleaner. But even more ingrained dirt is not a problem. Simply damp-mop your real wood floor with a cleaning product for parquet floors. Use the Wischwiesel mop to also apply additional surface protection without difficulty.

How often does wood parquet need to be oiled?

Have you decided in favour of a parquet floor from HARO? Then you have nothing to worry about in terms of re-oiling when it comes to installation. Our floors are delivered pretreated and ready for use and do not need to be oiled again after installation. The intensity of use determines when a floor has to be oiled again in order to preserve the characteristic look of the wood surface. If you have opted for parquet with an oiled surface, we recommend re-oiling the floor usually every one to two years. The boards can also be oiled more frequently however in case of heavier wear.

Installing floorboards with a single click

What is the proper way to install real wood parquet? This question should not give you any sleepless nights since installing a parquet floor is easier than you might think. You can install your new floorboards using a floating or glue-down method. Boards fitted with our Top Connect installation system are also suitable for floating installation by DIY enthusiasts themselves. Glue down installation is best left to a specialist installer however. This applies for example for our 2-layer boards, which must always be glued down.

How expensive is real wood flooring?

Compared to solid wood flooring, boards with a multilayer construction are often less expensive. Because only high-quality wood species such as oak, beech or ash are used for real wood parquet, these boards are more expensive than laminate and design floors. The complex process involved in manufacturing multilayer parquet is another reason for the higher costs. Flooring made from vinyl also is often less expensive, but not always good for your health. You will only find healthy living flooring in our HARO product range. Toxic adhesives or plasticisers are not used in the production of our floors.