Intro - Materials - Prep - Floor Preparation - Layout - Adhesive - Tiles - Rolling the Floor
Margin of Error: 1/4"
Most Common Mistakes
- Not using layout lines.
- Not making the 6" adjustment when needed.
As with vinyl floor tiles, you need
to mark your floor with "layout lines" that will guide you in installing the parquet floor tiles. Two lines are used that cross approximately in the center of the floor and divide your room into four equal quadrants. The files are then laid out from the center where the lines cross toward the corners. Do this process correctly, because it will affect the final outcome of the project considerably.
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First, find the center of the room and establish your layout lines. Walls A and B are 20'6". Wall D is the wall of highest visibility, having a wide opening from the dining room, so you will want a full tile at this opening. Using increments of a full tile (usually 12"), measure along walls A and B from wall D approximately half the room, 10'. Snap a chalkline AB at these points. This is your first line. Now find the midpoints of walls C and D and snap your second line.
You may now need to make some adjustments to these lines. You want border tiles along walls A and B that are equal in width and more than half a tile. To do this, measure line AB (176"), divide it by two, then divide that result (88") by the size of the tile (12"). If more than half a tile remains along walls A and B, do not offset your chalklines. If, however, the remainder is less than half a tile, as in our example, 4" (88 divided by 12 = 7'4") you would end up with two 4" border tiles and 14 full-size tiles.
Remember, we want border tiles that are 6" or more. To do this, offset the center chalkline by half a tile (6"). This will now be our second layout line, CD, which will leave a border tile of 9" in our example along walls A and B. (You can also check this out by simply dry laying your tiles to see how they will work out.)
Before proceeding, however, you must check to be sure these two layout lines are perfectly perpendicular to each other. If all the walls were perfectly parallel, the lines would be at right angles. This is rarely the case, and usually the walls are off parallel a little.
Use a 3-4-5 triangle to check this. A 3-4-5 triangle has one side that is 3 (feet, inches, miles, etc.), another that is 4, and the third, 5, so that the angle across from the 5 side is a right angle. (You can multiply these by the same number and it will work; i.e., 6-8-10, 15-20-25.
Start at the intersection of the two lines and measure 6' along line AB, and then 8' along line CD. Mark these points and measure the distance between them. If this distance is 10', the lines are exactly parallel. If the distance is other than 10', adjust only line CD until you have arrived at an accurate 3-4-5 (6-8-10) triangle. Do not move line AB or you will have odd-cut tiles at the visible doorway.
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