DIY Brothers Create Herringbone Parquet Worth £2000 For £100 Using Old Pallets
- Harry Wright, 35, and Charlie Osborne, 29, wanted to treat their mum to a new parquet floor
- They had to be creative when their engineered oak flooring became damaged
- They managed to use old free pallets from Facebook Marketplace to give her a brand new herringbone floor for just £100
When it comes to wooden flooring, herringbone parquet is as luxurious as it gets - but it’s certainly not cheap, costing thousands of pounds.
However, one DIY-loving brother duo managed to overhaul their mum’s living room, installing a gorgeous herringbone parquet flooring for just £100.
Harry Wright, 35, and Charlie Osborne, 29, both carpenters from Bury St Edmunds who run East Anglia Carpentry, had to be creative with their flooring project.
The pair sourced old pallets for free on Facebook Marketplace and set about processing the pallets to turn them into floorboards.
They then stuck them to the floor and finished them off using an oil sourced from eay.
Harry told money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk: "We were renovating our mum’s living room to update it and make it comfortable.
"We had some reclaimed engineered oak flooring in our shed, however this had become water damaged.
"We wanted to create a classic herringbone parquet, so we had to think outside the box.
"We used around 50 pallets that we’d got for free using Facebook marketplace.
"The process of turning pallet wood into something worth putting on the floor was very labour-intensive.
"We first had to process an enormous amount of pallets, using a planer thicknesser to get them to the correct thickness.
“Then we used a pass through the table saw to get the width and finally each block was cut to the exact length using a chop saw.
"Once we had our blocks we stuck them down using adhesive and a nail gun.
“It took a week in total to finish.
"In total, we probably spent the most on the finish, and probably around £100 in total for the whole floor.
"We used Tung Oil which is available in bulk from ebay.
"My biggest tip for anyone attempting this is to make sure that all of your blocks are cut as accurately as possible.
"Use sharp tools and get some knee pads - I didn’t use any and regretted it!"
Harry is delighted with how the herringbone parquet has turned out, and says his mum is over the moon with her new flooring.
"It’s a real showstopper of a floor: we get compliments about it all of the time,” he adds.
"I think it would have easily cost more than £2,000 had we replaced the engineered oak that was water damaged, but we managed to do this for £100.
"This project is great for the environment as it repurposes a pallet into something that will be used for significantly longer.
"It also saved us a huge amount of money as we got all the pallets for free.
"It was such a beautiful project to do together, our first as a team.
"It has also led to us getting some interesting carpentry work using reclaimed materials.
"Charlie’s a pro carpenter - he took me under his wing and this was our first project out of the gate!
"It’s a really special one to have done as it’s for our mum and she really loves it."
Tom Church, co-founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, comments: “There are certain things, such as parquet flooring, that it seems impossible to ever really get for a discount.
“However Harry and Charlie have definitely proved me wrong!
“The clever pair have not just saved thousands of pounds by making their mum a gorgeous herringbone floor from pallets, but have also given a masterclass in repurposing.
“They rescued old pallets, which didn’t just save them a fortune, but is also great for the environment rather than adding to the endless piles of waste out there.
“Even if you’ve never done a DIY project before, take inspiration from these two and look around your home, or search on Facebook Marketplace or Freecycle for old bits of furniture that you can practise upcycling.
“There are so many DIY tutorials on YouTube and Pinterest to follow - with a bit of practise, you’ll be able to transform old, unloved items into gorgeous statement pieces for your home."
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Well done guys for doing an excellent job on your mum's living room floor, using old pallets. I hope many others will take inspiration and reuse old wood to make parquet flooring. 