Hiya, My cottage is about the same age and I know exactly what you mean. First, I would check and see if it is structural. There is no point in doing all the work, then finding out that you are going to have to replace it in 5/10 years when it folds in on itself. I stripped the floors in one room and it was a massive job. Old floorboards have big gaps and mine had lots of old nails and other bits that I had to remove by hand one by one. Eventually I dark stained them and bought a carpet that leaves a 1m gap around the edges of the room, to give it the period feel, but cover up the not so good boards in the middle. After doing one bedroom, I have screwed Flooring boards (thick special chipboard) to the others. Made it level and reinforced, then bought a good underlay and carpet. To be honest, it looks and feels so much better, I wish I hadn`t bothered with trying to strip the floors in the other room. Please show us pics when it is finished :)

Lovely floor! Yes, it looks like terrazzo to us. Terrazzo can be sanded and polished to revive its original colour. It will definitely make a difference to your floor. Maintaining it like this will also help extend the terrazzo's lifespan, too. Let us know how it goes!

Re infills - I meant if they remove the skirting and you had some spare flooring, you can put small pieces in to cover the larger gaps. However they would have to be glued in place as they might not stay put being so thin. Also need to leave the expansion gap still so it might not be worth it. I think get some ideas on weighing up the cost of buying thin profile beading to match the floor to put around all the skirt or, look to replace the skirting with a thicker one. Beading looks fine and no one will know that you didn't just put the floor down after the skirting was already there. At least it will be uniform. Beading isn't cheap though so get a price for both

Hi Hilary, We can't help but imagine a beautiful parquet floor in that hallway - we agree with colourhappy about having a durable carpet on the stairs too to add contrast. Hallways in old houses just ask for parquet, and you could go modern or traditional with the colour. Here's some inspiration: Goodrich Salted Oak Goodrich Coffee Oak Goodrich Espresso Oak You can order free samples from our website if you'd like to take a closer look. Best wishes, Hannah | Woodpecker Flooring