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I'm thinking that you might sublet may be the deciding factor: Isn't parquet flooring more durable than strip hardwood flooring? I'm thinking that that's why so many rental buildings have it.

I haven't heard very many people at all claim to prefer parquet. I certainly don't. I think that I would probably not change them out if they were in good shape, but the truth is that if you own the place, you really should make it as nice as you think it should be, and can afford.

Because if there is more than one apartment in your building on the market at any given time, and if everyone else's looks one way, and yours looks the other way AND it's what you like, then someone else will like it, too.

If you did decide to keep them, but you wanted it to appear less busy, you could stain them darker, which I almost NEVER see, and which might be kind of interesting, and it would lessen the contrast in the grain. However, if your potential buyers didn't like it dark, they might feel like they were looking down the barrel of a stripping project.

If you kept them, and you didn't like them (and if you were ME), you'd probably figure out creative ways to make them work, like committing to some interesting basket-weave motif elsewhere, just to make it seem intentional. But then you would have fleshed out a vision based on a very core thing that you weren't crazy about.

Bottom line? I say change them out if you afford to.

If you do new hardwood, I'd definitely stick with something neutral and not overly expensive if you plan to sell/rent. i looked at a condo that had rosewood floors, and while expensive, they aren't my taste. I like the parquet, but I like hardwood better...but again, a matter of personal taste.

Instead of investing in new floors, why not get some great rugs you can take with you if you sublet or rent?

That is not a parquet floor that you have, it is parquet tiles, which are cheap and ugly and are glued directly to the concrete without a subfloor. They add absolutely no value to your apartment either. However, the strip wood floor that you are considering with a proper plywood subfloor will a lot of value.

I never actually heard anyone say they preferred parquet flooring. In fact, I have generally heard just the opposite that they prefer hardwood floors.

I agree with you that the floor is busy. If you can afford it, I would definitely change it, especially since you own it.

What is your decorating style going to be? Something simple and modern? (I'm just assuming that since you're on this site). Then you'll want to change it.

I can't tell much from your photo, except that it appears you have some lovely bedding. Trust your instincts and go with your gut.

my first apartment had strip hardwood (as well as my mother's house before that), my second apartment had parquet, and my current apartment has what was said to be brandnew strip hardwood - which it was probably brand new 2 or 3 years ago - brand new for the apartment, not for me.
to tell you the truth, if I were to buy a place right now and had to choose what kind of floor to put down - I would probably put down parquet because the very old parquet in my second apartment looked beautiful, but was old. the dents and scratches - in my opinion, that is - looked nice. in my first apartment, the scratches and whatnot are INCREDIBLY noticeable. in my mother's house, the washer over flowed in her laundry room and there was a leaky drain pipe by the back door and both spots are completely ruined (i'm talking half the wood is missing or sticking up 2 inches off the floor) and it's too expensive (for many reasons, one is that they don't have this kind of wood anymore) to replace it. but, although i like form, function comes first everytime - unless it's hideous and i absolutely hate it more than anything else - which is not the case with parquet. just my opinion, though.

i would 100% keep them if you plan to rent it out.

One thing to keep in mind is that older parquet floors are going to be a higher quality of wood - and much thicker - than a replacement installation. Consider sanding, adding a sealer coat and then staining a darker colour for harmonized woody goodness.

I have a 50's era co-ownership co-op in Toronto, Ontairo and the refinished parquet floors are far better quality than most of the flooring currently on the market. They're an inch thick. You can't buy wood like that anymore.

The only reason I'd pull up what you've currently got would be if you were adding a sound-proofing layer under the new floor. _That_ is an excellent investment in good neighbourly relations... and would allow you to hold great galloping group dances on the newly nekked floors.

I think parquet floors are common in rental buildings because they are inexpensive, not because they are particularly more durable than other types of wood floors; they use smaller, less expensive pieces of wood than strip flooring. An expression that I have heard is "nothing says cheap like parquet" (I think I was introduced to it here on AT!)

Brazillian cherry or walnut sound beautiful, and are my personal favourites for flooring.

I had floors exactly like these when I moved into a 60's-era condo on the UWS. I looked into replacing them with bamboo but given the exhorbitant estimates (not one below $10K for an 850-s.f. apartment) I received chose to refinish them in a darker color instead.

I was quite happy with the darker color and found the tiles very durable and easy to keep clean; plus, I ended up redoing my entire kitchen (original to the building complete with gold-speckled Formica) for not that much more than the floors would have cost. And when I moved out less than 5 years later, I definitely feel the kitchen helped my resale value far more than the floors would have.

Overall, I would not recommend splashing out for a new floor given your situation. The location of your apartment is another concern - Jackson Heights doesn't have a ton of high-end real estate, so buyers probably will not be looking for designer touches like expensive floors. I find it very unlikely you will get back what you spent upon resale, particularly given the current state of the market.

If you are considering subletting, I would keep the parquet. If part of it would need replacing down the line it would be a lot cheaper and easier to replace the smaller parquet pieces.

what is "strip hardwood flooring"? Are you referring to prefinished laminate flooring? I am not a big fan of prefinished flooring, it doesnt really look quality to my eyes. I much prefer solid wood flooring finished on site... My opinion is that the quality of the floor you have, and of pre-fininished stips is that they are the same thing, why bother changing them? Have you all ever seen the really amazing true parquet floors you find in france? it is short pieces of wood layed out in a herringbone pattern, each piece individually, when the floor is a a bit worn and shows some texture they can be really amazing...

I second Eeek. Keep the parquet and get some nice rugs or maybe refinish.

I prefer parquet flooring!
That's for all those above who never heard anyone voice that opinion. And it's true. I especially like the older, smaller-squared parquet. It's a little harder to maintain, I think, but so rich and visually interesting.

That said, I don't think installing new wood floors would harm the value of your place at all.

Just be aware that a new strip floor will look different from an old strip floor. You won't get the same patina of age, but more noticeable is that new floor planks are much shorter in length by several feet than old floor planks. The grainier the wood, the more obvious the difference.

quite truthfully, floors like this have kept me from renting apartments in the past! they are so busy and distracting to my eye that i have purposefully looked for apartments that do not have these floors. but that's just me, i've seen some very nice ones before (mainly in brownstones) but these look fairly standard and replaceable. seems like good advice from others to keep them if you are not planning to live there--if you are planning to live in the apartment, i vote to make it your own and replace them!

Rental buildings use parquet tile floors because it is the cheapest possible wood floor you can install and it's easy to patch; the materials are a few dollars a square foot vs. $10-$20 for a typical hardwood strip flooring. The hardwood strip can be sanded down and refinished a few times, the parquet must be pulled up and replaced. Ask any broker, the strip hardwood is a feature that will add value as long as you don't go crazy on very expensive flooring. Avoid engineered wood flooring or laminate, especially if you are going to sublease; the engineered wood flooring can't generally be sanded and refinished. The laminate floor is literally that, plastic laminate, it can't be refinished or touched up (think scratchy old kitchen counters). Lots of people are turned off by parquet tile floors, personally, I think they look cheap. If you have old "true" parquet floors, that are hardwood pieces hand-laid, often with borders and intricate patterns, you should probably save that and have it sanded, restored and refinished - they were highly labor intensive, and quite valuable.

On the west coast these floors are also common. We have them and a few great rugs help. We stained ours ebony and they look cool.

Planking is about to become like granite countertops......so 5 minutes ago....

Based on the photo, I'd recommend that for now, keep the parquet and spend the money instead on some furniture and other home accessories first. (TV stand would be good start)

Is the Brazilian timber you are considering a rainforest or plantation timber?

It is really obscene trucking timber thousands of miles when there is bound to be a local (US) timber that is just as good, is sustainably farmed, and stainable to the colour you want.

I personally think plank floors are vile, although AT recently showed an apartment with the planks set diagonally across the room, which visually increased the width and created some interest.

REAL parquetry is set in wonderful pattterns with borders and looks like timber carpet.

If the floor is sound, I'd stain it andput money into all the other stuff a new home needs.

It all depends on your personal taste if you're not planning to sell your property right away, I'd say if you have a few dollars to spend and like brazilian cherry or walnut strip hardwood floor, then go for it! It sure beats what you have on there now! Even though the parquet floor is in Oak, it's not antique or anything worth keeping.
Having said this, if you can live with the original floor pattern then give it a sand and new polish/stain, it will also come up great and save you a few bucks. You'd be saving the planet too!

I think these floors could look really cool if they were sanded and stained a warmer color. Doing that might also bring most of the tones closer together and cut down on the visual "busyness".

Thank you for your all comments. Although I can not make up my mind yet, it is encouraging to hear that the parquet is not so popular. but just for clearification, my parquet floor is not tile floor. It is really true thik OAK hardwood floor which my contractor advised to keep it. It was actually resanded before I moved in. Is Oak floor supposed to be that valuable?

oh, the post above is by me, Kozo..

sand it, stain it darker and varnish it. I did it and it looks far classier than any old hardwood flooring, althpugh maybe not as up to the minute. However, I think these floors wear better: here is a picture

http://flickr.com/photos/93704471@N00/392019898/

However, my parquet is mounted on wooden sort of "rails" and consists of hardwood pieces (I checked-they are oak) which have to be individually mounted by a parquet specialist. However, before I sanded and stained it it looked just like yours, I think.

Personally I HATE parquet floors - they just look like school gyms - I would take points off for this kind of floor if I was looking to rent/buy this place - but changing them would indeed be a huge expense and the cash could probably be used better elsewhere

A matter of personal taste, but I'm just not a big fan of the parquet.

You might want to consider the environmental impact-- if you're not going to be there forever, and your next owner probably wouldn't mind much one way or the other (esp if the location and other features are good), go with staining it a darker color or finding another way to live with it. That's a lot of wood to throw out, and a lot of wood that has to be cut down to put in.

Such passion! all I can say is that fashions change and tastes change with them, so the floors you hate today may be tomorrow's must-have.

Most of the places I had lived before I bought my apartment had hardwood "plank" floors, or when I was living overseas in hot climates stone or stone composite, My apartment is in a 1960s building, had parquet tiles which had been abused, and I decided to keep, refinish and repair them -- because they suit the period and layout of the apartment and because my stuff has a lot of square or rectangular shapes with slight roundings on the corners (furniture, patterns on rugs, a wrought iron gridded screen). I think that you ought to consider the place you're living and the things you plan to put in it when you're deciding what to do with the floor. It's a gestalt.

most parquet floor is cheap. Go with solid wood strips whenever you can afford to. Parquet floors are like exposed brick: been there done that, move on.

jako - I lived in France as an exchange student and you are totally right - it is B-E-A-UTIFUL there! The wonderful woman I lived with initially had in her apartment this 80s gray square tile with blue speckled throughout. it was hideous. she had it replaced with parquet while i was living there and the difference was so great, you never would have thought there was anything else.

Hi Kozo, I am also looking into buying a co-op in queens and all I see the majority of the time are those parquet floors. Since I also plan to live in the property it really bothers me if I dont like it. I say go with the pre-lam floors even if you are going to rent it out or sell.

I have never been a big fan of parquet floors....until I recently saw them stained very dark, they looked GORGEOUS and expensive. I was shocked.

I subscribe to a very "work with what you have" decorating sense so, I'm with Curtis, Velochic and Sofia - keep them and go dark.

Or, someone else had suggested great rugs. I was wanting a dark floor and ended up using Flor carpet tiles in Gerbil - I love it. Gave me the dark look I was after and I can reuse them elsewhere when I'm ready to redo the floor underneath.

Flooring trends do follow fashion, but I believe people have preferred the look of wood strip hardwood over parquet for a long time. Judging from NYC developers, no one has any interest in parquet floors today. If you are sure you will be selling your coop in a few years time, the interest will be stronger with the wood strip hardwood. Had I known that I would remain in my condo for 9 years, I would have made the upgrade to wood strip hardwood before I moved in. Instead, I have spent as much money on carpets (and carpet cleaning) to hide the dreaded parquet.

If you change them for something quite pricey and then sublet, you might be very unhappy with how your floors are treated.

Does anyone thing that it's a bit silly to have a post about green design and then have someone advocate for replacing a perfectly good floor? The greenest thing we can do (most of the time, exceptions being things that use a ton of water or power) is to use what we have until is broken and then try to repair it. Keep your floor and be glad it's not laminate.

How come everyone is making a distinction between parquet and hardwood floors? Those two words are not two distinct types of floors rather attributes of the floor, one describing the pattern in which the wood is laid and the other the material.

From the picture it seems this particular parquet floor is not the 99 cent variety you see on the shelf at Home Depot.

Anyways, the floors look great. I almost put down hardwood parquet floors in my apartment but they were just too expensive.

I agree with changing your apartment if you do not like the floors though. But I think the demolition of these floors might get a little messy. I guess you can always install them over the existing floors. Just do not go too trendy in the type of wood floor you choose.

Good luck!