Hi,
My rental townhouse has some relatively old (~30 years?) parquet wood floors (6"x 6" squares, tongue and groove). As the weather warmed up my tenant noticed a section in the middle of my living room where a line of the squares were lifting up at the joints, creating a small arch.

I've removed the section of squares where they were lifting up (see pic). Obviously this is an expansion issue in warmer weather, but I don't want to remove the all the baseboard and cut back the edges - which is much more involved.

Is there a simpler strategy to fix just that area? My thought was to cut back some of the squares slightly (e.g., 1/8") to provide more clearance for expansion, and glue the squares down with adhesive. As long as the squares lay flat, the appearance doesn't need to be perfect since that area is always covered by a rug. Thoughts?

 

It appears that the tile/flooring were originality glued down? If so I think you have the best short term solution. May not need a full 1/8 around the perimeter, more like 1/16, the thickness of a thin washer.

 

Seems a little odd that it would just start lifting now, wonder if something got spilt on the floor?
The parquet in my dining rm came in 1' square tiles [four 6" squares] and was glued down. I had 1 or 2 tiles that didn't stay stuck for some reason so I used my pneumatic staple gun to fasten them back down and puttied up the holes. That was 20 yrs ago and it hasn't lifted back up.

 

what is the best way to cut back the squares by 1/16" to avoid splintering? Miter saw? Should I just cut off the tongues to be able to re apply the squares?

 

I don't think I've ever had to patch a parquet floor but would assume you'd do it like you would regular hardwood and cut off the bottom half of the groove. I've cut parquet with both a miter saw and table saw. Go slow so you don't rip out the little pieces of wood.