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 he

http://www.marlow.org.uk/parquet/

Unaffected areas look fine - a little dull through having been under
underlay for at least 20 years, but nothing that a good clean won't
sort out. But we're wondering what the best way of restoring the
paint-spattered areas will be - scraping? sanding? something chemical?
Any advice gratefully received.

Gareth