The Revelation of the 1930's Parquet Flooring

It was another weekend of steaming ahead with the DIY.  And look what we have revealed in the lounge - a lovely bit of parquet!



We knew that there was some parquet under there, but weren't sure of its condition.  It's pretty good!  It's a different colour around the edges, and splattered with paint, so will need sanding back with wire wool, reglazing and waxing.  But it should come up lovely with a bit of care!




We will also need to get a section of skirting board made to match the missing piece that was behind the built-in TV stand. From the first photo, you may think this was an easy process so far.  It was not.  Here are the in between bits.







We had to chisel out the tiles from the hearth and TV stand.  It turns out that I am pretty good at this, and managed to get lots of tiles out intact, which we'll save for a future project.  Next, we had to knock out the TV stand, which was a brute force job, with sledgehammers and more chisels.  It turns out that the construction was basically a breezeblock shelf, filled with rubble, or 'hardcore'.  Not only were there bricks, bits of concrete, and the usual scrunched up newspaper, but also bits of electric cable, cigarette butts, sandpaper, and roofing felt.  Unbelievable!! Still, it was quite interesting to read on one of the newspapers that in 1966 you could buy a 3 bedroom house in Cardiff for £3,500 and a Ford Anglia for £450.

Some fragments of vintage tiles were in the mess, not sure how old they are, but late 1960s at the latest.



It took us quite a while to clear up the rubble, which is currently stashed at the side of our shed, because we didn't know what else to do with it!  There wasn't enough to warrant a skip.

So, we're nearly there with the preparation for the woodburner, there's just one more bit of concrete to come out and then the wallpaper to strip.  There are also a few puzzles to solve, such as some extra electric cables encased in plastic.  Where do they go?!

It's possible that the floor was taken up and re-laid at some point, because there shouldn't have been any concrete in the hearth.  The floor does look almost exactly the same as the dining room, which I'm 100% sure is original, but there are a few more little gaps, so maybe it was put back in a slightly different order?  Hmm.

It's pretty exhausting work, but we feel proud that we're working together to better our home, and with no arguments!  This bit of progress was celebrated with home-cooked moules mariniere and a rather lovely bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, followed by dancing on the parquet (no stilettoes allowed).