Parquet floor discovered?

last year

We have removed old carpet from a couple of hallways which has revealed original parquet floors. They are complete but not in great condition - what is the best way to go about trying to restore the floors? Is it expensive or better to just lay new flooring on top?

The bottom picture only looks in better condition as we tried to remove the glue from it - it has now dried and looks more like the top picture.

Featured Answer

stephandwayne

last year

Hi, we found same parquet in our 50’s house- sanded it back and went to a nice oak colour, refinished originally with a dead flat varnish but over last 5 years went a bit yellow- recently resanded and finished with osmo white wax oil finish. We had some gaps that we filled with osmo floor gap filler. There were some loose ones that we stuck back down to the bitumen with no more nails which I’m sure is a no no but it worked.

We borrowed a band sander so was cheap to do, but in hindsight you could hire a rotary sander for a day which wouldn’t be too expensive and much quicker. We love it- def worth keeping. The first pic with half and half shows the previous yellow varnish and the others are the raw wood/finished with white oil wax.

Comments (9)

K S
last year
Wow, such a nice surprise under your carpet! :)

Parquet is quite popular these days (and expensive!) so it's definitely worth shopping around for professional sanding and varnishing. It's not cheap but it's surely less than laying new wood floors. Have a look online at before/after pictures for parquet, it really brings it back to life. And it's adding to your home's charm, I'd say.
Ruth House
last year
If it were me......it wouldn't matter how much effort, time or money it took I would restore it and never cover it up. You are very lucky to have discovered this without having paid a premium for it on your purchase price!
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Carol Cahill
Original Author
last year
Unfortunately there is a limited budget for all the renovation works.

We are trying to understand what is required and how much it will cost to do this work.
Ruth House
last year
Hi Carol, I understand about budget...I meant I would be willing to wait however long it takes to be able to afford it. I would chuck a cheap rug over it until you have the funds to return it to its former glory, but wouldn't spend money on flooring that would have yo come up again.
Carol Cahill
Original Author
last year
That looks amazing. How did you get to the edges when sanding?

We have a Cork strip between the sections which will need replacing but not sure where to obtain a new one.
Sarah L
last year
Cork strips like this? These were from Wickes I think
Carol Cahill
Original Author
last year
thank you - will takee a look
stephandwayne
last year
We used a hand detailing sander to get in the edges/corners, ours looked like yours or darker before we started. Start with coarse grade sand paper to get all the old varnish off and then go down to finer grades to get a nice smooth finish on the wood.
Can’t see where the cork strips are in your pic - if they need to come out depending on the size of them then you might be able to use a similar parquet gap filler instead that use squeeze in through a nozzle.

Parquet floor discovered?

stephandwayne

Comments (9)

K S

Ruth House

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Parquet floor discovered?

stephandwayne

Comments (9)

K S

Ruth House

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