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Parquetry is a geometric mosaic
Mosaic

Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other material. It may be a technique of Decorative arts, an aspect of interior decoration or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral....
 of wood
Wood

Wood is an organic material; in the strict sense wood is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of woody plants, notably trees but also shrubs, etc....
 pieces used for decorative effect. The two main uses of parquetry are as veneer patterns on furniture and block patterns for floor
Floor

A floor is the walking surface of a room or vehicle. Floors vary from simple dirt in a cave to many-layered surfaces using modern technology. Floors may be stone, wood, bamboo, metal, or other material that can hold a person's weight....
s. The patterns of parquet flooring are entirely geometrical and angular— square
Square (geometry)

In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular polygon with four equal sides and four equal angles . A square with vertices ABCD would be denoted ....
s, triangle
Triangle

A triangle is one of the basic shapes of geometry: a polygon with three corners or wikt:vertex and three sides or edges which are line segments....
s, lozenge
Lozenge

A lozenge , colloquially known as a diamond, is a form of rhombus. The definition of lozenge is not strictly fixed, and it is sometimes used simply as a synonym for rhombus....
s. The use of curved and natural shapes constitutes marquetry
Marquetry

Marquetry is the craft of covering a structural carcass with pieces of wood veneer forming decorative patterns, designs or pictures. The technique may be applied to case furniture or even seat furniture, to decorative small objects with smooth, veneerable surfaces or to free-standing pictorial panels appreciated in their own right....
 rather than parquetry. The most popular parquet flooring pattern is herringbone.

nch parqueterie, from parquet.) The large diagonal squares known as parquet de Versailles
Palace of Versailles

The Palace of Versailles, or simply Versailles, is a royal ch?teau in Versailles, the ?le-de-France region of France. In French language, it is known as the Ch?teau de Versailles....
 were introduced there in 1684, as parquet de menuiserie ("woodwork parquet"), to replace the marble flooring that required constant washing, which tended to rot the joists beneath the floors.






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Parquetry is a geometric mosaic
Mosaic

Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other material. It may be a technique of Decorative arts, an aspect of interior decoration or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral....
 of wood
Wood

Wood is an organic material; in the strict sense wood is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of woody plants, notably trees but also shrubs, etc....
 pieces used for decorative effect. The two main uses of parquetry are as veneer patterns on furniture and block patterns for floor
Floor

A floor is the walking surface of a room or vehicle. Floors vary from simple dirt in a cave to many-layered surfaces using modern technology. Floors may be stone, wood, bamboo, metal, or other material that can hold a person's weight....
s. The patterns of parquet flooring are entirely geometrical and angular— square
Square (geometry)

In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular polygon with four equal sides and four equal angles . A square with vertices ABCD would be denoted ....
s, triangle
Triangle

A triangle is one of the basic shapes of geometry: a polygon with three corners or wikt:vertex and three sides or edges which are line segments....
s, lozenge
Lozenge

A lozenge , colloquially known as a diamond, is a form of rhombus. The definition of lozenge is not strictly fixed, and it is sometimes used simply as a synonym for rhombus....
s. The use of curved and natural shapes constitutes marquetry
Marquetry

Marquetry is the craft of covering a structural carcass with pieces of wood veneer forming decorative patterns, designs or pictures. The technique may be applied to case furniture or even seat furniture, to decorative small objects with smooth, veneerable surfaces or to free-standing pictorial panels appreciated in their own right....
 rather than parquetry. The most popular parquet flooring pattern is herringbone.

History

(French parqueterie, from parquet.) The large diagonal squares known as parquet de Versailles
Palace of Versailles

The Palace of Versailles, or simply Versailles, is a royal ch?teau in Versailles, the ?le-de-France region of France. In French language, it is known as the Ch?teau de Versailles....
 were introduced there in 1684, as parquet de menuiserie ("woodwork parquet"), to replace the marble flooring that required constant washing, which tended to rot the joists beneath the floors. Such parquets en lozange were noted by the Swedish architect Daniel Cronström
Daniel Cronström

Daniel Cronstr?m was a Swedish architect working in the Baroque style influenced by the French style of Louis XIV of France..He was sent to Paris in the 1690s as a kind of cultural ambassador whose duty it was to seek out, record in drawings and buy as much as he possibly could of first-rate material related to the decorative arts....
 at Versailles and at the Grand Trianon
Grand Trianon

The Grand Trianon was built in the northwestern part of the Ch?teau de Versailles at the request of Louis XIV, as a retreat for the King and his ma?tresse en titre of the time, the Fran?oise-Ath?na?s, marquise de Montespan, and as a place where the King and invited guests could take light meals away from the strict etiquette of the Cou...
 in 1693.

Materials

Timber contrasting in color
Color

Color or colour is the visual perception property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, yellow, blue and others....
 and grain, such as oak
Oak

The term oak can be used as part of the common name of any of about 400 species of trees and shrubs in the genus Quercus , which are listed in the List of Quercus species, and some related genera, notably Lithocarpus....
, walnut
Walnut

Walnuts are plants in the family Juglandaceae. They are deciduous trees, 10–40 meter s tall , with pinnate leaves 200?900 millimetres long , with 5–25 leaflets; the shoots have chambered pith, a character shared with the wingnut but not the hickory in the same family....
, cherry
Cherry

The word cherry refers to a fleshy fruit that contains a single stony seed. The cherry belongs to the family Rosaceae, genus Prunus, along with almonds, peaches, plums, apricots and bird cherry ....
, lime
Tilia

Tilia is a genus of about 30 species of trees, native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere, in Asia , Europe and eastern North America; it is not native to western North America....
, pine
Pine

Pines are Pinophyta trees in the genus Pinus, in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species....
, maple
Maple

Acer is a genus of trees or shrubs commonly known as Maple. Maples are variously classified in a family of their own, the Aceraceae, or included in the family Sapindaceae....
 etc. are sometimes employed; and in the more expensive kinds the richly coloured mahogany
Mahogany

The name mahogany is used when referring to numerous varieties of dark-colored wood, originally the wood of the species Swietenia mahagoni, known as West Indian or Cuban mahogany....
 and sometimes other tropical hardwood
Hardwood

The term hardwood is used to describe wood from non-monocot flowering plant trees and for those trees themselves. These are usually broad-leaved; in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen....
s are also used. While not technically a wood, bamboo
Bamboo floor

Bamboo floors are manufactured from the bamboo plant. The majority of today's bamboo flooring products originate in China and other portions of Asia....
 is also a popular material for modern floors.

Parquet floors were formerly usually adhered with hot bitumen. Today more modern cold adhesives are usually used.

Pop culture

One of the most famous parquet floors is the one used by the Boston Celtics
Boston Celtics

The Boston Celtics are a professional basketball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, playing in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association ....
 of the NBA
National Basketball Association

The National Basketball Association is North America's premier professional men's basketball league, composed of thirty teams: twenty-nine in the United States and one in Canada....
. The original floor, which was installed at the Celtics' original home of Boston Arena
Matthews Arena

Matthews Arena, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the oldest surviving indoor ice hockey arena in the world. It opened in 1910 on what is now the east end of Northeastern University's campus, and is currently owned by the university....
 in 1946, was moved intact to Boston Garden
Boston Garden

The Boston Garden was a famous arena built November 17, 1928 in Boston, Massachusetts. Designed by boxing promoter Tex Rickard, who also built the third incarnation of New York's Madison Square Garden, the arena was originally called the "Boston Madison Square Garden", but eventually got clipped to the Boston Garden....
 in 1952 and used there until the team moved to what was then known as FleetCenter
TD Banknorth Garden

TD Banknorth Garden is a sports arena in Boston, Massachusetts. It is named after its sponsor, TD Banknorth , and is often simply called The Garden, or the traditional Boston Garden and formerly known as the FleetCenter and the Shawmut Center....
 in 1995. The floor remained intact and in use until it was cut up and sold as souvenirs in 1999, after the 1998 demolition of Boston Garden. The Celtics today play on a parquet floor that combines old and new sections.

Cleaning

Wood floors may be brushed clean, and mopped when necessary. Upright vacuum cleaners can scratch and wear the surface, as grit particles become embedded in the spinning brushes.

Repair

Parquet floors are usually long lasting and require little or no maintenance.

Unstuck blocks are re-glued. Bitumen glued blocks require use of either hot bitumen or a cold bitumen emulsion, as other glue types do not adhere to bitumen.

See also

  • Wood flooring
    Wood flooring

    Wood flooring is a type of flooring made from the timber of hardwoods, or of spruce or hard pine. There are two basic manufactured types of hardwood....
  • Tessellation
    Tessellation

    A tessellation or tiling of the plane is a collection of plane figures that fills the plane with no overlaps and no gaps. One may also speak of tessellations of the parts of the plane or of other surfaces....
  • Hardwood
    Hardwood

    The term hardwood is used to describe wood from non-monocot flowering plant trees and for those trees themselves. These are usually broad-leaved; in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen....
  • Marquetry
    Marquetry

    Marquetry is the craft of covering a structural carcass with pieces of wood veneer forming decorative patterns, designs or pictures. The technique may be applied to case furniture or even seat furniture, to decorative small objects with smooth, veneerable surfaces or to free-standing pictorial panels appreciated in their own right....
  • Tunbridge ware
    Tunbridge ware

    Tunbridge ware is a form of decoratively inlaid woodworking, typically in the form of boxes, that is characteristic of Tonbridge and the spa town of Royal Tunbridge Wells in Kent in the 18th and 19th centuries....