Floorboard

“ The Floor-Supports
must be of sufficient length to reach from the front sill-log to the back sill-log. Nail each joist at each end to the sill-logs, and place them about two feet apart. If it is thought that the flooring of the cabin makes too much work, you may build one with a “mud-sill,” by using the hard earth for floor and foundation. Abraham Lincoln [121] lived in a “mud-sill” house, and there are hundreds of such houses in the Southern States. ”

“ Seven feet in from the ends of the raft lay cross-stringers, three by six inches, at distances of eighteen inches apart, on which to place the floor of the house. This flooring may be of narrow spruce boards, planed on one side and having matched edges.
The uprights for the house construction are placed on the flooring beams and sills, and securely pinned to them, and the cross-beams at top of house should be placed the same distance apart as the floor beams to sustain the weight above, as the top of the house or upper deck will be the open-air living-room. ”

“ One should be careful not to lay oak flooring while the walls and plaster are damp; in fact, if you have to do much remodeling, [Pg 200] the floor should be the last thing attended to, as it is a better plan to get everything else done and thoroughly dried—even to painting, wall hangings, and decorating.
Hard pine is best for the kitchen, as it does not splinter, is more reasonable in price, and has fine wearing qualities. It must be taken into consideration that oak flooring is cheaper in the end than carpet. ”

“ To get an adequate idea of a floor filled with cabins, you have merely to magnify a layer of the pasteboard pigeon-holes of an egg-crate till each pigeon-hole is seven feet in height and otherwise properly dimensioned, then place the magnified layer on the floor of a large, barnlike room, and there you have it. There are no ceilings to the pigeon-holes, the walls are thin, and the snores from all the sleepers and every move and turn of your nearer neighbors come plainly to your ears. ”

“ The floor was composed of earth mixed with lime, trodden into a hard substance, such as is often employed in flooring our modern barns. For about one quarter of the length of the apartment, the floor was raised by a step, and this space, which was called the dais, was occupied only by the principal members of the family, and visitors of distinction. For this purpose, a table richly covered with scarlet cloth was placed transversely across the platform, from the middle of which ran the longer and lower board, at which the domestics and inferior persons fed, down towards the bottom of the hall. ”

“ When expensive hard wood polished floors are laid, pains is taken to provide against shrinkage by kiln-drying the floor boards and by laying them where the air and sun unite to take up extraneous moisture in the rooms and in the floor boards used.
[6] Narrow strips of sufficient thickness to receive the lath and plaster, placed on the frame and other places where needed.
Comparatively few persons can afford hard wood floors, but this fact does not preclude having floors without wide cracks, which serve to retain dangerous and filthy material. ”

“ Imagine an exquisite room long and narrow. The walls are painted white or light gray—a warm golden gray for the relief and pleasing of the eye. The floor is comfortable to the feet, sanitary, easily cleansed and durable. There is an iron ring in the floor where the cover to the chute is lifted down which the dust is to be thrown. There is another for the ash chute, lined with metal for protection from fire by [Pg 138] means of the hot coals that may sometimes be left in the ashes. ”

“ There is no ceiling, nothing between the floor and the thatch and rafters, except perhaps at one end, where there is a kind of loft. The floor consists simply of the earth itself rammed down hard, or sometimes of rough pitching-stones, with large interstices between them. The furniture of this room is of the simplest description. A few chairs, a deal table, three or four shelves, and a cupboard, with a box or two in the corners, constitute the whole. The domestic utensils are equally few, and strictly utilitarian. ”

“ The earthen floor is covered with coarse mats, and sometimes the walls are lined with finer mats; in the roof an attic is often formed for a part of or the whole length of the house and is reached by a rude ladder. The floor of this upper chamber is frequently covered over with a layer of earth and is used as a cooking-place, with much advantage to the lower part of the house, which is thus kept comparatively free from smoke and soot. ”

“ The floors are made of marble and tiles—the carpet is only a large rug in the center of the room, upon each side of which are placed two rows of chairs, most of them being willow-work rocking chairs; also a center-table and sofa, with a willow back and seat, sometimes a piano, embrace the list of parlor fixtures. At night the doors and windows are thrown open for ventilation, the rooms being lighted by gas chandeliers—every thing can be seen, even to the beds on which the family sleep. ”

“ It can therefore be only the floor. It is not clear at first sight how a floor, which is a horizontal plane, can thrust; for to thrust, we must suppose the floor to expand in one direction, which cannot be. But see what happens. Give me your best attention.... Formerly, to compose a floor, large beams were laid from wall to wall, and upon these beams lighter pieces of timber, called joists; then on these was laid a bed of earth, gravel, or sand, and upon that a surface of mortar to receive the tiling. ”

“ Where a very small vestibule is substituted for the reception hall a parquetry or tile flooring would be left uncovered. Over a cheap floor a good quality of linoleum, costing about 50 cents per square yard, may he placed. A small mat of neat design, if such can be found, will take care of those persons who have the foot-scraping habit, regardless of what they scrape upon, though the mat outside should do the important work. Serviceable mats are seldom things of beauty. ”

“ In whatever grade a wooden floor is used, it has the disadvantage of needing attention. It always needs refinishing. The better the floor the more attention it will need. It will splinter eventually and show marks if things are dragged over it. Although the scraping down and refinishing always make the floor look like new, the wooden floor is better in any room in the house than the kitchen, laundry or pantry. ”

“ In using a hardwood floor, it is well, if possible, to lay it in a pattern with small blocks, as where the floor is laid without a pattern, using long strips, there is found to be more wear and tear in certain places than in others and it is more difficult to replace a worn patch in a floor laid in this manner than where there is a definite pattern which permits taking out a small portion and laying new pieces in that place. ”

“ A large arch frames a graceful stair, which winds up to the third floor in a circular movement. Newel post and stair ends are carved. While woodwork throughout the house is elaborate, the difference between the first and second floors is marked. That of the first floor is massive, rather more dull than interesting, but the second floor, especially the large room, is startling in that mantel, door trim, chair rail, and baseboard are carved with the delicate lightness of Adam. ”

“ No rug will ruck on it, no slipper stick to it. Needs no weighted brush. Self-shining. The only perfect Floor Wax known. One box will do all the floors you have."
Indeed, half a box did all the floors we have. No slipper would stick to the paste, but the paste would stick to the slipper; and the greasy Prince did in spots all the floors we have: the laundry floor, the attic floor, and the very boards of the vegetable cellar.
I am young yet. I have not had time to collect my twelve two-horse loads. But I am getting them fast. ”

“ Like the walls of a room, the floor is a background: it should not furnish pattern, but set off whatever is placed upon it. The perspective effects dear to the modern floor-designer are the climax of extravagance. A floor should not only be, but appear to be, a perfectly level surface, without simulated bosses or concavities.
In choosing rugs and carpets the subject of design should be carefully studied. The Oriental carpet-designers have always surpassed their European rivals. ”

“ When the floor-boards are up it is not a very costly matter to have them put in, and then when the furniture of a room is altered from the position originally assigned to it, as is so often done with a new house, it will not be found that the writing-table or sofa is on the opposite side of the room to the plug to which the lamp required to light it is attached. ”

“ The medieval floor (fig. 27) consisted of the framed floor with wood girders, binding, bridging and ceiling joists; and the underside of all the timbers was usually wrought, the girders and binders being boldly moulded and the other timbers either square or stop chamfered.
Flooring is strengthened by the use of strutting, either herring-bone (fig. 28) or solid (fig. 29) . Herring-bone strutting consists of two pieces of timber, usually 2 in. × 2 in., fixed diagonally between each joist in continuous rows, the rows being about 6 ft. apart. ”

“ Blocks of oak fixed upon the inside of the movable floor-board fit with great nicety into their firm oak sockets in the beams, which run at right angles and support the landing, so that the opening is so massive and firm that, unless pointed out, the particular floor-board could never be detected, and when secured from the inside would defy a battering-ram. ”

“ A good machine can run from 9,000 to 11,000 sup. ft. of 6-in. or 61⁄2-in. by 11⁄8-in. flooring per day, or 4,000 sup. ft. of narrow flooring. All 11⁄8-in. material is taken from 21⁄2-in. battens, whether broad or narrow. Flooring above 11⁄2 in. thick is sometimes run with two grooves instead of one, and slip feathers are employed in place of the solid formed tongue. This plan saves 1⁄2 in. on the breadth of each board.
Fig. 366.—Direction of Grain for Least Shrinkage of Floor-Boards. ”

“ If your floors are old and you intend using a large velvet square, paint the edges of the floor white, or some pale shade to match the colour of the walls. Or, use filling all over the floor. If you cannot afford either and must use small rugs, stain or paint your floors a dark colour, to be practical, and use only necessary rugs; that is, one before bed, bureau and fireplace.
Sofas are always expensive. That is one reason for advising that beds be treated like "day-beds." ”

“ A second set of shorter posts, similarly supported bv partially buried stones, holds up the platform that is the floor, a wooden deck of closely fitted planks set about two feet above the earth. The outer perimeter of the flooring becomes a veranda or walkway, called the engawa, and the inner space is partitioned into rooms by light walls of paper, plaster, and wooden grillwork. The outer walls of the house, which serve no structural purpose, are sliding latticework panels called shoji, which are covered with translucent white rice paper, bathing the exterior rooms in a soft daytime light. ”

“ That is to say, it is obvious that it is theoretically more possible to exist in a house with no carpets, than in a house, say, with no tables and chairs, while a floor covering is perhaps less of a necessity than wall-paper or curtains. ”

“ The floor is completely covered with carpet, but what that carpet covers can only be conjectured, the nails with which it is fastened to the floor having never been removed: and this circumstance, together with the black dust which lies in heaps round the edges, and works up through the thinner parts of the fabric, has led many to suppose that a manufactory of charcoal is carried on below! The tables you will find still more worthy your attention. ”

“ The best plan for flooring is to place an impervious flooring resting on the solid ground. This is more secure against rot than the boarded floor, and affords no space for dirt and vermin to lodge. Such an impervious floor may be formed of concrete over a layer of asphalte, as in the well-known terrazzo flooring. This is very suitable for corridors, pantries, etc. For living-rooms wood-block flooring is placed over the cement, molten pitch connecting the two. The blocks are 2 to 3 inches thick. If the wood is soft, as deal, it must be kept clean by washing ”

“ The objections to their common use is the first cost of good cement floors. Cheaply constructed floors will not last. Board floors are very common and are preferred by many poultrymen, but if close to the ground they harbor rats, while if open underneath they make the house cold. Covering wet ground by a board floor does not remedy the fault of dampness nearly so effectually as would a similar expenditure spent in raising the floor and surrounding ground by grading. ”

“ The dining room may be treated with a room-size floor covering matching or harmonizing with the living room rug or linoleum or with a single large rug. Some housewives prefer to leave the floor [Pg 192] bare, except for two or three small rugs. With figured linoleum the practice is unobjectionable, except for the loss of the sense of physical comfort and hospitality created by pile carpets under foot. With hardwood floors it is open to the objections that it is inhospitable; that it is too weak in a decorative sense to support the weight of the relatively large and heavy furniture ”

“ The addition which a fine hardwood floor makes to the attractiveness of a room is appreciated by some architects, but good floors are not by any means as common as they should be. The expense of hard wood is not so much more than that of a cheap floor as to stand in the way of its use when the final result is considered. ”