Lynn recently bought a 1960 ranch house and asked me whether I thought her wood parquet floors (small photo to the right) were original. Almost without a doubt I answer: Yes. The lead photo above is my dining room floor. This floor is original to my 1951 colonial-modern ranch. The parquets are each 12″ wide. They are made from fullsize pieces of wood flooring — this is not a thin veneer. In fact, somewhere in my travels I have heard that parquet flooring like mine was more expensive to purchase and install than the more common long runs of oak tongue-in-groove flooring. Wood parquet was more complicated, more fussy, and therefore, more expensive. The adjacent, step-down living room, by the way, got wall-to-wall carpet.
We have explored recently what color stain is most appropriate for your midcentury hardwood floors — the mass, we believe, were done in “natural”, like mine. But we’ve also seen darker stains.
Is $10/s.f. too much? Found this in 2 minutes of online searching — http://www.czarfloors.com/item_details.asp?sku=M29
Thanks for the investigating and the terrazzo idea. $10/sq ft is pretty expensive because we have about 1000 square feet to cover and it is unfinished and doesn’t include a new subfloor or installation costs. I’ll look into the terrazzo, which would be cool underfoot in the summer heat.
You could also do VCT — if you like the casual look throughout the entire house… see our stories on Azrock VCT tile — TexTile and Azrock Cortina Autumn Haze — they have the old skool “jaspe” look. Even less expensive, probly: Armstrong Imperial Excelon VCT. Key to installing these floors successfullly is, I believe, getting the subfloor absolutely positively smooth; consult a pro.
We have the same floors, pictured in the lead photo, in our kitchen. I love how the braided rug looks with it. Do you know where this rug can be purchased? Thank you!
That’s my house — it’s a Capel rug. See this story — https://retrorenovation.com/2009/03/15/braided-rugs-suit-50s-and-60s-style-perfectly-i-like-capel/
We also have written about braided rugs from Thordyke Mills — https://retrorenovation.com/2010/12/08/braided-rugs-from-thorndyke-mills/
Beautiful home! Thank you for the information about the rug.