Parquet

As a decorative alternative to strip flooring, one occasionally comes across parquetry. The term 'parquet' refers to parquetry in its traditional form where each block is laid separately and the floor can be designed in any pattern that the modules will work to. These are commonly herringbone or basketweave, but can be laid to incorporate motifs or borders if desired. This is a labour intensive and expensive exercise, however, and the most common way to lay parquetry is in the form of mosaic parquetry tiles where small blocks of wood are pre-arranged in a pattern in tile form. These are made of rimu, Southland beech or Cyprus pine manufactured in the South Island or imported in Australian bushbox and tallow hardwoods. The patterns are either basket-weave, hadden and hall, or hexagon. Several costs of polyure-thane ensure a hard-wearing finish.