Help settle out difference of opinion on parquet floor

[JenaWren]

Can you help settle a difference of opinion on this parquet floor?

We recently moved into a new house and then found we had a few unexpected carpet moth housemates.

We’ve just taken up the carpets and found this. The floor is in reasonably good nick - I suspect it might be original 1970s based the age of some of the carpet.

It’s an ugly dark colour but I think it could be repaired and restored to something lovely.

DH says it reminds him of his parents house and he can’t get past the old fashioned vibes.

Please help settle the argument - do we restore or do something else (carpet or new hardwood floor).

I love parquet! Whatever you decide, please don’t rip it up. Cover it but leave it intact, as future owners will feel like we do uncovering Victorian tiles etc. All these things are cyclical and 1970s houses will have their day soon, you can guarantee it. Big rooms, decent sized gardens, and original floors will be the cherry on top.

I’d give my right arm for a lovely parquet floor.

It'll look lovely once it's refinished. Like this:
www.luxurywoodflooring.com/projects/teak-mosaic-parquet-restoration/

It looks lovely. It won’t look dated if you style your decor accordingly. Sanded and treated it would look very stylish. Mid century style is very on trend.

Definitely restore. I love 5 finger parquet and I bet it will be back in fashion soon. Dark flooring is good as well, I've stained floors dark before and love it, less likely than light wood to discolour and go orangy.

FWIW I think fake plastic herringbone is now everywhere which means it's about to go out of fashion, but real period flooring will always be classy.

Keep it but have big area rugs

I'd kill for this! I'm 41 but love mid century modern styling.

Oh wow - lots of great views on here. Thank you all so much.

I think I already said this but it’s great that most of you agree with me about its potential. It will need a fair bit of work - I only posted the best bits. There are some quite damaged areas but as it’s in 2 rooms (sorry to make some of you even more envious!) I think we might have some options.

Thanks to you lovely lot, DH has softened a bit. Next step is to get the professionals in.

I’m very excited!

Your parquet is seriously lovely. I would rather ditch the DH than the parquet 😄

Gorgeous mid century floors ! Your oak doors are really beautiful too. Are they original?

OP, my son renovated a mid century appartement in France with this flooring in 2019. He ripped out the old ceramic tiles in the kitchen; made a great room and was able to easily purchase brand new parquet ones to match the mid century ones- exactly like yours. So if you need some more they do still exist. Only about €50 a square meter if my memory is correct.

We have 100 year old oak herringbone parquet in every room, all we’re the colour of a conker - very shiny dark brown.
A specialist sanded the floors and put a clear matt ‘varnish’ on them and they are now a light oak and look great.

Same. Hate it.

I love it, but we’ve just had parquet installed throughout our downstairs… we’re in our 40s and live in an Edwardian house, but where we’ve got this is a new extension bit…

Ours was discovered in the hall under the carpet. The hall is so dark we decided against it. Putting down a white karndean scandi. And putting in glass doors which transformed it.

But if you have a good source of daylight and both like it, then give it a go.

Lucky you! What a gorgeous floor of parquet tiles! Accessorise with Persian rugs for that international look and remember that you will need to re-varnish regularly (the rugs add colour and protect the surface of the wood). I confess we had laminate put down in our house on the ground floor, it looks that parquet but is much more durable, given that we pass through the house all the time. That, of course, is why we avoided carpeting on the ground floor, far too hard to keep clean. In my childhood home we had parquet floors everywhere, my already busy (full-time job) mum varnished all floors every year

Absolutely love it! My first house was a cheap old terrace in a northern city. It had been lived in by the same couple for 50 years then was a student house for a short while. When we took up the carpets we had perfect wooden floors- this was at the time every one was sticking laminate down. I grew up with wooden floors and parquet and just loved the look so we had them sanded and varnished and they were bomb proof. They also helped sell that house. Pay a professional- it is not a DIY job whatever people say about hiring a sander for the weekend.

We have these exact floors in our house which was built in 1987! Living room and dining room. Would like to get it restored soon but would never cross my mind to cover/remove. I was early 30s when we moved in a decade ago.

Its gorgeous and people pay a fortune for this kind of floor . Professional restoration and some lovely rugs. Cant believe people would put plastic floors over this beautiful wood.

Can I ask why you think that? When I had this floor I never considered it at all against the colour of the walls. It looked completely neutral to me so would go with anything. We had grey and teal.

What are the colours you think it restricts?

It's beautiful and very likely to come back into fashion fairly soon because it's what went under all the Scandinavian mid-century modern furniture. Most people haven't reinstalled it because it's soooooo expensive. It would be madness to put something cheap and less durable down instead. Get some rugs to break it up if it's a bit much

that sander would kill it it’s too thin for a drum sander
you need to hire one of these

I had very similar in my first flat which was built in 1961. The bedrooms had awful black vinyl tiles but I decided they would be better than the swirly, dirty carpet in the living room and hall and lo and behold, when I took them up!

It was 1981 and I was skint having spent all my money on a deposit, a bed and a fridge. I hired a sander for £20 and bought a tin of sealant/varnish for about a tenner as recommended by the man in the shop. It was teak so sands clean but not lighter. The sanding took about an hour, then a hoover and wet cloth to get rid of the dust. I put the varnish on with a brush working towards the front door and went out for four hours. It took about four hours to do, looked fab and meant I got decent curtains as I didn't have to buy carpets. The living room was 12 x 18 and the hall about 4 x 7.

I have another update!

I sent some pics over to a local, highly recommended professional parquet floor restorer and they came back overnight.

They think it’s mahogany and sent some beautiful examples of similar restorations. It will be quite spendy to restore but it’s a large space, there is some damage and I think it’s worth a bit of investment.

They’re coming for a closer look. I’ll let you know what they say (and hopefully there might be a an after pic in the future!).

💀👵🏻🏚️

We get the keys to ours next week, and also hoping to find this under the carpets!