Hanging house in the Southwest Palatinate - Our House Construction 2.0

congratulations on your parquet decision!

My brother (solid wood planks), my nephew, and I all have parquet. Some of it has been there for over 15 years. None of us have ever regretted it. Some time ago, a lot of water leaked under my brother’s kitchen from an extension hose of the dishwasher. The result was a puddle but no lasting damage. So no worries.

We currently have vinyl in the office; we also had these protective mats, even quite high-quality and expensive ones. But they were removed for exactly the reasons mentioned. I installed different casters and now directly on the vinyl. Without these stains. No problem. But don’t think I would recommend vinyl. In the new office there will be carpet (industrial needle felt?). I know it from other office spaces and find it better than vinyl and tiles. With tiles, the casters get caught on the small or larger joints, even if just slightly, which is annoying. Carpet is also foot warmer and with suitable casters and high-quality carpet, this works in thousands of offices (even with large and heavy people on the swivel chairs ;-)

Maybe also suitable for the office (I think it’s great) is this beautiful directly glued parquet made from end grain wood. It’s super hard and durable. It’s installed in the rooms of my physiotherapist and also in those of my osteopath. If it’s suitable for that, it will probably last...

I would also recommend nice tiles or some kind of industrial carpet for the office. It just requires different casters on the office swivel chair. Both options, however, do without any protective mats. I find that somehow counterproductive per se, floor and then protective mat ;).

I thought of a small carpet for the problem that should be placed in the rolling area in front of the desk

That’s how we have it too. Parquet flooring in the room and a small carpet where the office chair stands.

I have thought of a small carpet for the problem that should be placed in the rolling area in front of the desk

It may sound ugly, but it doesn’t have to be: Would nice (they really exist :) ) "dirt-trap-like carpets" also be an alternative? They have a rubber edge that you cannot trip over and that holds them firmly on the floor. If you take something like that in a solid color and the edge is the same color as the mat itself, then it could look good in the favorite color and fulfill the purpose. However, I have not tried that yet. Just an idea.

I thought of a small carpet for the problem that should go in the rolling area in front of the desk

That’s how we do it too. Parquet in the room and a small carpet where the office chair stands.

I had that in our old, old house (where we rented for a long time). There was lacquered parquet in the office (already somewhat older when we moved in), and I had placed a carpet over the area of the office chairs and fixed it with double-sided adhesive tape to protect the floor. After 10 years of use, the carpet still looked quite decent, but the parquet underneath had real holes in some places. So the casters had damaged it so badly that it looked pretty awful. I was surprised because the "carpet for protection" that lay over it actually looked fine.

It’s perhaps also hard to compare with other people’s situations because we also use the office very intensively in our non-scheduled free time. We almost never watch TV when it’s just the two of us; we mostly play games. Accordingly, we spend our entire working time daily in the office plus often a few more hours in the evening. Over the years, that really adds up to a lot of rolling time.

Maybe I’ll really do tiles there, and we can put a large-area carpet over them if we find it ugly / uncomfortable.

I would also recommend nice tiles or some kind of industrial carpet for the office. It just requires different wheels on the office swivel chair. Both options work without any protective mats. I find that somehow counterproductive per se, floor and then protective mat ;).

Me too, I just can’t quite wrap my head around it. In the old house, we had those mats, and they really looked terrible. I’m glad we protected the floor; we sold the house afterward. But in the new house, that’s too ugly and too dangerous for me.

I had that in our old, old house (where we lived for a long time as renters). There was varnished parquet in the office (already somewhat older when we moved in), and I had placed a carpet over the area of the office chairs and fixed it with double-sided tape to protect the floor. After 10 years of use, the carpet actually still looked quite decent, but the parquet underneath had real holes in some places. So the wheels had damaged it so badly, it looked pretty bad. I was surprised because the "protective carpet" that lay over it actually looked okay.

Then in 10 years a new covering will be installed. We got our parquet very cheaply and did not glue it down. The worst task is rather emptying the furniture.