We discovered on moving in to our house a month or so ago, that under a vile red carpet in the living room was some beautiful parquet flooring, presumably dating from when the house was built in 1956. We've now finished painting the ceiling and walls and have lifted the carpet to look at the parquetry more closely.
Clearly, previous owners have shown little regard for it as it has numerous areas of misted paint spattering and others with larger smears and stains of paint. In a few other places, the bitumen layer that the floor stands on has seemed through the gaps in the wood blocks. I have put some photos of this on my website here:
Gareth