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ProSono offers exotic hardwood parquet floors, crafted from precious African hardwood. These floors last a lifetime (or several!) and add beauty and value to any dwelling.
Below we cover five key reasons to consider our hardwood floors:
- the beauty of African hardwood
- the significant value that the floors add to property
- our unusually competitive prices (we explain what allows this)
- durability and low maintenance, compared to other wood flooring
- the truly unique nature of our hand-crafted floors.
Please note that ProSono is committed to sustainable, ethical harvesting and local processing of all hardwood it supplies. For more details, see our What we stand for page.
What is a parquet floor?
Parquet wood floor is created by arranging small slats, or fingers, of wood in distinct, repeating patterns.
Traditionally, parquet floor tiles consist of wood fingers bonded to a backing material, which is then glued to the subfloor.
At ProSono, our parquet tiles differ. They’re designed to be adhered directly to the floor screed. This results in exceptionally long-lasting floors that are less vulnerable to water damage or lifting. See more details below, in the section about the hardwood floors we offer.
Reasons to consider our exotic hardwood parquet floors
All wooden floors have certain advantages. For example, they add warmth, are easier to keep clean than carpeting and are non-allergenic.
However, exotic parquet floors crafted by hand from beautiful African hardwood are something exceptionally special.
1. The beauty of African hardwood floors
Our most popular hardwood for floors is ebony – the wood of the Pharaohs. Ebony parquet floors may be either all black or incorporate 25% or more of ebony sapwood, which is a light yellowish to white colour.
We also offer mopane, pink ivory and, subject to supply limitations, African cocobolo.
Mopane is a warm reddish-brown colour. Pink ivory is famous for its stunning pink to red colouring.
These hardwoods are often used in parquet floor tiles, to create striking mosaic patterns.
2. A lasting investment, adding value to any property
The Rawson Property Group offers this advice:
“The trend towards natural materials…is especially noticeable in flooring; solid natural wood floors are today one of the first installations undertaken on most upgrades and there can be no doubt that they do add greatly to the value of any home – in most cases instantly adding more than double the installation cost.”
Choosing flooring made of precious African hardwoods takes this further.
These hardwoods…
- are exceptionally hard and dense, resisting damage
- will last many, many times longer than other woods
- require little maintenance
- are uniquely African and prized around the world for their beauty.
3. Unusually low price
Rare African hardwoods like ebony and pink ivory will never be cheap.
However, ProSono is able to offer parquet floor tiles made of precious hardwoods at unusually competitive prices.
This is because the hardwood we use is a by-product of our primary business, supplying tonewood for musical instruments.
Musical instrument makers require fairly large, unbroken pieces of hardwood to make instruments. We’re able to use smaller, remaining pieces of the best-quality hardwood to make parquet floor tiles.
It’s important to note that our hardwood floors must be installed and sealed by a qualified artisan, willing to take the time to do the job properly. This adds to the per square metre cost of hardwood parquet floor.
4. Durability and low maintenance
Our parquet mosaic floors have hardwood layers that are 8 mm thick.
By comparison, engineered wood flooring typically has a very thin layer of hardwood – sometimes as thin as a few sheets of paper. So-called “multi-layer” parquet wood flooring may have a top hardwood layer as thin as 2.5 mm.
Unlike thinner wood flooring, our solid wood parquet floors won’t warp or lift. They are also made of some of the world’s hardest, densest woods, which are extremely resistant to damage.
ProSono’s founder, Philippe Monbaron, notes,
“I have the ebony floor installed in our house. It has been there for 18 years. It looks new. I wouldn’t consider any sanding!”
In case one of these floors is somehow marked – for example by a ladder or something very heavy being dropped – the thickness of the hardwood means it can be sanded many times over.
5. Truly unique wooden floors
Each hardwood floor from ProSono is unique. This is partly because wood is a natural product – every piece is to some extent unique.
It’s also because we offer custom options, to create one-of-a-kind floor designs.
Tile fingers can be laid in different mosaic patterns. Hardwood floor tiles can also include combinations of different hardwoods – or a combination of the dark heartwood and light outer sapwood of a single species.
Details about the hardwood floors we offer at ProSono
Our solid wood parquet floor tiles are 8 mm thick, with hardwood that’s dried to a moisture content of 6% to 9%.
The fingers of wood are perfectly planed and carefully assembled by hand.
We offer five- and six-finger tiles, in one of four sizes, ranging from 250 x 250 mm up to 360 x 360 mm. The optimal tile size will depend on the chosen floor design.
With traditional parquet tiles, the wood fingers are bonded to a backing material, which is then attached to the floor screed. A problem with this approach is that it makes the floor tiles vulnerable to damage. Water can slip through, the underlying tar paper may rot and the parquet may lift.
At ProSono, we use a different approach.
Instead of being glued to a backing material, the carefully arranged fingers of hardwood are topped with a layer of 3M removable adhesive paper.
This enables direct contact between the parquet, polyurethane glue (the kind used to attach airplane wings to the fuselage!) and the floor screed. The paper can be removed by the flooring installer once the glue is dry.
The result is optimal adhesion and exceptionally long-lasting, durable floors.
We deliver internationally and are pleased to have sold our unique hardwood floors to customers in countries across the world – from the United States and Mexico to Russia, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany and South Africa.
We provide prospective buyers with detailed installation instructions, available in four languages.
Contact us for more information about our exotic hardwood parquet floors or, if you’re based nearby, to arrange a visit to our showroom in Fourways, north of Johannesburg.
