Parquet par excellence
More than standard "off the rack" flooring
Anyone who orders parquet flooring from the Finnish family business Witick will receive far more than standard "off the rack" flooring. The three brothers – Stephan, Carl and Sixten – offer their customers a stunning range of perfectly designed floorings with passion and a keen eye for detail. The parquet flooring they create is more like a work of art than a conventional parquet floor. We accompanied the team on an order and got to the bottom of things in an interview with one key question: "How do you actually create the perfect parquet flooring?"
Sixten "Datsun" Witick
Owner of the Parkettiliike Witick Ky family business
Sixten "Datsun" Witick is one of the three brothers who run the Parkettiliike Witick Ky family business in Finland, near Helsinki. Their parquet floors are unique and designed entirely to meet the needs of their customers.
Can you tell us a little about the history of Parkettiliike Witick? When was the company founded?
Our father established the business in the 1970s. We three brothers – Stephan, Carl and I – joined in the 1980s. Our father always wanted us to carry on his business. We always found this type of work interesting and exciting, so we jumped right in. Our father was an outstanding, pioneering mentor to us. He shaped us with his professionalism and pride in his handiwork. In all aspects of our orders, the customer is our most important concern. Our work is easily identified thanks to the oak leaf that we work into our parquet flooring. We cut out the leaf by hand and fit it into the floor using the OF 1010 router. Nowadays, my job includes a good many other tasks, such as technical consultation, event organisation and training our more junior employees. I want to put changes in place that will make our work a little easier.
What type of parquet have you laid in this log cabin?
This is a mosaic parquet. The boards are eight millimetres thick and 16 centimetres long. Each piece is 20 centimetres wide. These are standard wooden boards that are initially disassembled and then put back together.
How long does it take to prepare the individual parquet elements?
Around a week. Some craftsmen would rather create standardised parquet elements – but that's not how I like to work. I prefer to work with templates that are correspondingly cut to fit the dimensions of the floor. The available space and the customer's requirements are always unique. What's more, a new floor must always match any existing parquet. It's all down to the overall look.
How long does it take you to prepare the initial cuts?
The beams are cut within a week. During this process, I start off working with a template and adjust the cuts continuously according to the dimensions specified by the customer. I use the CS 70 bench-mounted circular saw for this purpose.
The parquet I lay is everything but standard. Is this the idea at the heart of your business? To make flooring something special?
We have the opportunity to get right to the heart of our customers' wishes because we are a small workshop. There aren't all that many small businesses like ours, capable of doing what we do, here in Finland. This is surprising, since it isn't actually especially profitable for a parquet company to just produce en masse. We put our trust in individual solutions – in this case, our customer ordered ship-style flooring, which of course had to match the rest of the surroundings. From the log cabin, you have a wonderful view of the sea. The flooring therefore needs to suit the maritime atmosphere perfectly.
"Preparing the subsurface is absolutely crucial. If the subsurface is not optimally prepared, this makes the rest of the work much more difficult."
Sixten Witick
What types of wood do you use, and why?
We used oak because the existing parquet is made of oak. The rails are made of ash. The ash is cut from boards into pieces measuring eight by eight millimetres using the C 70 bench-mounted circular saw. These two types of wood are ideal for Finland: They are hard and feature the same wood structure. They are also easy to machine and capable of withstanding the weather conditions in Finland.
What was special about this project?
We had to match the new flooring to the old flooring and match them to each other. As a whole, the two floorings had to flow naturally and elegantly into one another. To make this look more realistic we drilled 20-millimeters holes with the T 18 drill and fitted it oak plugs to the holes. The oak plugs are inserted at an angle relative to the floor pattern so that they project out of the floor.
What are typical characteristics of Finnish parquet floors?
Usually, industrially manufactured, pre-assembled parquet boards are used. Our customers prefer solid wood in a range of thicknesses and widths.
How do you remove the waves from the newly laid parquet flooring?
What waves? Professionals don't have waves in their parquet! [He laughs.]
Parquet flooring is a bit like a puzzle. How do you know how many parts you'll need and how big they'll need to be?
You take the area of the floor and add ten percent. The size of the parts is always determined in relation to the room: A small room needs smaller parts. For a larger room, larger parts. It always comes back to the overall look.
What is the most difficult aspect of designing and laying parquet flooring?
Preparing the subsurface is absolutely crucial. If the subsurface is not optimally prepared, this makes the rest of the work much more difficult.
You also use the CT-VA pre-separator. Are you happy with its performance?
It works really well! It's transparent, which means I can see at a glance whether it's full or not. What's more, I don't need to empty the dust bag as often, because the pre-separator filters out most of it beforehand. I only need to empty the dust bag when it's really full later on. The machine also protects the dust bag, since a lot of materials such as stone and wet or dry dust are filtered out in advance.
The winters in Finland are long, cold and dark. What role does light play in your work?
Light is incredibly important in this trade and I hope that Festool will release even more products with lighting equipment in the future. Alongside the SYSLITE DUO, I use an additional head lamp. We can't just hide away any mistakes we might make, even if it is often dark in Finland. [He laughs.]
What challenges do you face in your everyday work?
There are all sorts of challenges. [He laughs.] We always find it difficult when interior designers have designed a room. Their plans are often tricky to implement. We often have to modify these in more than a few ways in order to make their ideas technically feasible, while staying as true as possible to their plans. Architects and designers often lack experience and technical know-how – that's usually the biggest challenge we face.
Earlier, you spoke about the more junior employees at your workshop. What skills does a good parquet layer need?
A passion for handicraft, creativity and dedication are absolute must-haves. The great thing about this career is that you get to create something with your own hands, leaving something tangible behind. Even though the work is sometimes tough and the days can be long, the result is always worth it.
