As our third lockdown dragged on, I decided to continue with my renovation of our living/dining room. I knew we had a parquet floor beneath the grotty, old carpet that was probably as old as me (30+ years), but I didn’t know what condition it was in. I finally plucked up the courage to investigate.

My daughters got ridiculously excited about this project. They had enjoyed helping me to strip wallpaper and repaint the walls in our home, and they wanted to make a dance floor on the parquet. We decided to do the job during our school half-term holiday since we couldn’t go anywhere due to lockdown restrictions. It took two days of hard work and I came away with a sore back, blisters on my fingers, and aching muscles from exerting myself more than I have for a long time.

The result was spectacular. I knew that there were some loose parquet floor tiles around the edges of the room beneath the carpet gripper strips. A little research suggested I can buy specialist adhesive to fix this minor issue. I was nervous that there might be bare patches or concrete fillings in the middle of the room. Why else would someone cover up such a beautiful floor? It seems they just preferred carpet. When I finally pulled up the carpet in the middle of the room, I was amazed to find not a crack or a scratch in any of the parquet. It looks amazing! There are nail holes in some of the tiles where carpet has been laid previously, but you can only see them on close inspection. I will need a new skirting board because the current one must have been attached after the carpet was laid. But I can do that in time.

Our house was built in 1959 and I presume this is completely original flooring. I don’t know the family that owned the house before we did and I don’t know much about the local history, but it seems likely that this is the case. We have now opened up the original fireplace and installed a multi-fuel stove, replaced the central heating and electrics in the whole house, redecorated the communal living areas and I’m working on the garden. All this in the space of two and a half years. We still have some large jobs to save up for, namely a new bathroom and kitchen, and the windows all need replacing as they are drafty and thin. It feels nice to inject some of my personality into our home. What do you think of the floor?

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