Restore what's already there first
Under most period carpets is original pine, oak or parquet, frequently in better condition than the owner expects. Restoration starts at £28/m² and keeps the floor the building was designed with. We check board thickness against the fixings before advising — if there's nothing left to sand, we'll say so.
Gaps, movement and old repairs
Gapping is normal and gets filled with a resin-and-sawdust slurry matched to your boards. Squeaks and movement are a fixings and joist matter dealt with before sanding, not by it. Previous patch repairs in the wrong species show up sharply after sanding, so we identify them at survey and plan how to blend them.
- Board thickness checked before any sanding is quoted
- Gap filling matched to your boards, not a generic filler
- Original parquet re-bonded before the machine goes on it
Damp and solid ground floors
Older ground floors may have no membrane at all. Moisture readings come first, and where they fail, a DPM goes into the quote — a solid or bonded floor over a damp base fails from underneath regardless of how well it's fitted.
When you're adding new floor
Extensions and rear returns usually mean new floor meeting old. Narrow boards read as period-appropriate; wide planks read modern. Where a new floor meets a restored one, we colour-match on sample boards on site and get your sign-off before committing.
Herringbone and parquet
Parquet suits these houses because it belongs in them. Engineered herringbone from £89/m² gives the pattern with modern stability, and existing block floors can often be re-bonded and sanded instead of replaced.