Skip to content
Home » Blog » The process of restoring French parquet

The process of restoring French parquet

  • by

A few years ago, Parfait Parquet had one of those a-ha moments, which totally changed the way we approached the challenges faced when dealing with French parquet floors for our clients.

We were always being asked about saving attic floors and barn floors for conversion projects, or historical floors in properties across France, but found that people enquiring were telling us that most French Artisans didn’t want to travel out of their regions or areas for such work. This left a huge gap in the professional market for this kind of work across France.

Our machines for restoring your parquet

Every business has that ‘eureka’ moment, where something makes your business change so much that you never look back. This was one of those moments for us. As someone who loves travelling and meeting people, travelling long distances has never been a problem for me, and I would have the added bonus of saving a beautiful parquet floor for a client. It was a no-brainer, I enjoy the challenge of this work, love the experience of meeting new people and, above all, leaving a job with a totally transformed home.

We quickly realised that if we really wanted to develop our Parfait Parquet business in France, we needed to invest in new equipment. Without it, we’d be limited by the floors we could restore and save for our clients across France.

So, in 2019, we invested €12,000 into the amazing Pallmann Spider Sanding System and new Festool machines and sundries. This would ensure our exclusivity in being the only company offering distance restoration works for the loving restoration of floors and staircases.

Staircase restoration for a cherrywood staircase.

Having these machines proved to be an absolute game-changer for both our business and our approach in dealing with client project requests. And, after seeing the finished outcomes of our work on our website and on social media, it also changes the way people look at their newly purchased homes. They know they can have a stunning result, even if the floors look a bit dilapidated when they first move in.

As you can see in some of our projects We are asked to provide services in beautiful homes that are often newly painted as you can see here in some of our project video’s  We have to be able to say 110% we don’t leave any dust on your floor or walls. https://vimeo.com/showcase/9586415

here, we regularly take on floor projects in beautiful homes which have often been newly painted! This would be a challenge for most floor restorers, but as we have invested in the right kind of machines, we can say, 100%, that we don’t leave any dust on your floor or walls. This is why the Spider is the best in its class for quiet, dust-free sanding.

Oak chevron parquet finished with the Pallman spider sander.

We are the only flooring company in the region to have invested in this system, and we hope our work shows you why this system gives results that other companies cannot offer.

The key benefit of the Spider is its ability to sand bathrooms, hallways, and ancient floors, where a drum sander cannot work. Other benefits include

  • Other benefits include
  • It can add texture to newly installed parquet, or restore ancient uneven-planked floors. 
  • It cleans and polishes stone and tiled flooring.
  • It can flatten and grind concrete floors and concrete screeds.
  • It’s quiet and dust-free, like no other sanding machine.
  • It sands floors faster and allows us to work in small spaces. In turn, this makes us more efficient, and so shortens the time we take to finish a project in a client’s home or business. 
Our Pallman brush system shows how we texturize old parquet to restore it instead of sanding the parquet.

Our clients have been amazed and impressed by the results the Spider creates for their parquet. Quite simply, the outcomes we achieve and present to our clients on completion of a project has made our business stand out from the crowd.

Brad has spent the last few years on forums sharing his expertise and gaining trust from those forum members…so much so that the business is now known for giving solid, reliable advice and support to restoring old French homes. We get regular referrals, and if they feel we are the company for them, then we are more than happy to provide that service.  

The main focus of Parfait Parquet is to save and restore old floors, rather than see them being replaced. Since we relocated to France, we have sanded over 10,000m2 of floors and restored 60 staircases of all shapes and sizes.

We always advise that when you buy your dream French home, you look at the floors – to us they are just as important as checking on the roof of a property you’re buying. Parquet floors are often overlooked and not listed as part of the works needed when people buy a home. We feel that those old, sometimes 200-year-old, floors deserve the TLC we give to keep it in good condition, so you get many more years of pleasure out of it. There is nothing better than seeing a newly finished and restored parquet floor. Its smooth, silky, satin finish adds refinement to a room, and when you can sit back and enjoy your Parfait Parquet again, it really lifts your spirits.

We hope you enjoyed reading about the services we provide and why we enjoy what we do so much.

Thank you,

Brad Quarless

business.