Newly sanded parquet & bubbling bitumen

CindyCB

We recently paid almost £1500 to have our large lounge and hall parquet flooring sanded back and sealed with an oil finish.

This is original finger block parquet that was under all of the carpet throughout. My husband did the hallways by hand when we first moved in five years ago but needed redoing along with the lounge, which had only just been 'exposed' as part of recent decorating.

This job was completed by a recommended company and only completed about a month ago, finished in a matt oil finish.

Initially it looked great and we were happy with the job but we have a LOT of bitumen bubbling up and making a huge mess now. We literally can't walk on the floor for fear of it smearing and sticking to our feet/socks. We're spreading it around our house just by walking over it.

I've emailed the company that did it and am awaiting their response but what is right here? Is it just part of owning parquet flooring (I agreed I did not mind some of the marks already on the wood as we already had some in the hall) but surely the extra bubbling isn't right?

We paid a lot of money for someone else to complete the job so it would be hassle free for us. Not looking that way now.

Jonesya

No it isn't a normal part of owning a parquet or any other wooden floor, the bitumen should set to a solid and stay solid.

Oil is a solvent and will dissolve bitumen so my guess is that some of the new finishing oil has worked its way between the parquet blocks, down to the bitumen adhesive and has softened/dissolved it, allowing it to bubble up when you push down on the blocks.

First I'd be asking about the details of exactly what finishing oil was used (make/product type) and then checking whether it is compatible with bitumen adhesives to confirm whether the finishing oil is the cause.

southcoastrgi

as above, i hope the co you got in are insured cause this isn't going to be a cheap fix

Tosca3

Is the area that is bubbling up near a heat source ?

I say this because something similar has happened in my Dads living room.

The flooring is about 60 yrs old and perfect everywhere else apart from where he has pushed a sofa right up against the heating vent. Lots of gooey stuff has started to come up between the parquet joints.

cattie

Definitely not normal. I had the similar block parquet floor in my new home professionally restored in September & have had no problem whatsoever with it. I'm more than happy with the result.

It was a lot cheaper than what you paid too, though I had mine done in satin varnish rather than oil. So it is quite possible that the oil has reacted in some way with the bitumen, but if this was a possibility & it's a reputable company, then it's something that you should have been warned about before going ahead.

I hope you get it sorted & quick.

CindyCB

Thanks for the speedy replies.

I thought this didn't seem right. There were fairly large gaps in some areas which they filled with the saw dust from where it was sanded which initially looked really good.

I can only presume the bitumen is reacting with the oil as I've noticed it coming up in areas that were clear before.

It was oil recommended by them as one of two options, the other being a varnish.

The lounge is a fairly warm room in general with a large south facing window however hasn't been too warm in December, especially as we haven't moved back into it yet due to waiting for new sofas to arrived so the heating has been low in there. Plus the areas in the hall are not in sunlight or near heating.

If it's likely that all the joins will end up black I'll be seriously annoyed as it looked better when my husband did it by hand.

The company is insured but will they be able to blame it on our flooring or the large gaps etc and get away with that?

Captain_Flack.

If the gaps were too large as to cause the problem any professional should have realised this before they started.

cattie

Filling the gaps with saw dust is quite common, but with large gaps, it is far better to use pieces of wood, which is what the guy who has done the floors in my current & last homes does.

It is good news that the company is insured & let's hope that they just agree to come & redo the floors or give you a refund rather than having to go down the route of making a claim on their policy.

CindyCB

We did discuss the gaps being large and he thought they could be filled with sawdust but we had plenty of spare fingers of parquet to use as he filled in around our hearth where we'd made it smaller.

Still waiting on a response from them, guess they are closed for Christmas currently.

In the mean time should we try and tackle any of it so we can walk in the lounge or best left until they've seen it?

cattie

Personally I'd leave it 'til they can send somebody to look at it. I think It would be a horrid job for you to try to tackle & you'd probably have to use some kind of solvent which could end up reacting with the oil the wood has been treated with.

CindyCB

Thanks Cattie,
Yeah that's what I was thinking. Sigh. This seems to be a the icing on the cake of a run of bad luck. Ah well, I guess I need to just sit tight and see what they say in due course.

Thanks everyone, you've been a huge help.