A Brief History Of Wood Floors
According to "THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE" encyclopedia as late as 1625 the ground floor of most European houses still lacked a wooden floor. Most houses had a beaten earth floor that required visitors to wipe their shoes on a entry mat to prevent this natural floor from getting muddy or dusty depending on the weather. The second floor, if you could afford one, had wooden joists and plank flooring sometimes 2 feet wide of oak or elm.
It wasn't until the Barouque Era (1625-1714) that wooden floors became elegant, starting with the French parquetry and marquetry patterns. Illusionistic 3D designs were made from hand cut and laid pieces of contrasting coloured hardwoods. They were then hand scraped of their overwood, scrubbed with sand, stained and polished. These were only found in the most affluent and royal homes of their time. Some of the merchant class would imitate this by painting a plank floor with designs, but few of these floors survive today.
The great abundance of wood in North America brought common use of the plank floor on the main floor during the Colonial Era (1607-1780). At last the new Americans could get off the earthen floors and enjoy the resiliency and warmth of wooden floors.
These floors were not sanded or finisished, but because they were made out of slow growth pine, they were simply polished smooth by the feet of generations of colonists.
By the early 19 th century more parquet patterns were showing up, but only in the richest of rooms. Wooden plank floors remianed the norm and were treated with paint, and in the better homes laid in a tongue and grove configuration. More modest houses would have random width boards simply face nailed to the joists. The advent of the T. and G. meant the boards could be leveled before they were painted. The carpenter would affix a scraper to a 6 foot pole and using his foot as weight, pull ribbons of overwood off the edges of the boards. A final hand sanding, a good shellacking, and a team of servants to wax and buff the floor made these floors glow. All this was labour intensive but at the starvation wages paid to help those days why not if you had the bucks.
Wooden floors didn't get factory mass produced until the American Victorian Era (1840-1910) and then only late in this era. A 1903 E. L. Roberts catalog shows "wood carpeting" consisting of 1 1/2" by 5/16" strips glued to a heavy cotton canvas. These came in rolls about 3 feet wide and were installed by tacking down each board every foot or so. They suggested many patterns of installation, most with fancy parquetry borders. Each of these small brads had to be set below the surface and filled. All these pieces were then scraped, sanded with the hand operated floor brush. This was a 25 pound block with natural bristles on it's bottom. A broom handle attached, you pushed it across the floor, with sandpaper strapped to it. Slow but effective. Varnishes were usually slow curing tung oils introduced from China. These were not durable in themselves so the floors were hot waxed and buffed to a shine with the floor brush.
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According to "THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE" encyclopedia as late as 1625 the ground floor of most European houses still lacked a wooden floor. Most houses had a beaten earth floor that required visitors to wipe their shoes on a entry mat to prevent this natural floor from getting muddy or dusty depending on the weather. The second floor, if you could afford one, had wooden joists and plank flooring sometimes 2 feet wide of oak or elm.
It wasn't until the Barouque Era (1625-1714) that wooden floors became elegant, starting with the French parquetry and marquetry patterns. Illusionistic 3D designs were made from hand cut and laid pieces of contrasting coloured hardwoods. They were then hand scraped of their overwood, scrubbed with sand, stained and polished. These were only found in the most affluent and royal homes of their time. Some of the merchant class would imitate this by painting a plank floor with designs, but few of these floors survive today.
The great abundance of wood in North America brought common use of the plank floor on the main floor during the Colonial Era (1607-1780). At last the new Americans could get off the earthen floors and enjoy the resiliency and warmth of wooden floors.
These floors were not sanded or finisished, but because they were made out of slow growth pine, they were simply polished smooth by the feet of generations of colonists.
By the early 19 th century more parquet patterns were showing up, but only in the richest of rooms. Wooden plank floors remianed the norm and were treated with paint, and in the better homes laid in a tongue and grove configuration. More modest houses would have random width boards simply face nailed to the joists. The advent of the T. and G. meant the boards could be leveled before they were painted. The carpenter would affix a scraper to a 6 foot pole and using his foot as weight, pull ribbons of overwood off the edges of the boards. A final hand sanding, a good shellacking, and a team of servants to wax and buff the floor made these floors glow. All this was labour intensive but at the starvation wages paid to help those days why not if you had the bucks.
Wooden floors didn't get factory mass produced until the American Victorian Era (1840-1910) and then only late in this era. A 1903 E. L. Roberts catalog shows "wood carpeting" consisting of 1 1/2" by 5/16" strips glued to a heavy cotton canvas. These came in rolls about 3 feet wide and were installed by tacking down each board every foot or so. They suggested many patterns of installation, most with fancy parquetry borders. Each of these small brads had to be set below the surface and filled. All these pieces were then scraped, sanded with the hand operated floor brush. This was a 25 pound block with natural bristles on it's bottom. A broom handle attached, you pushed it across the floor, with sandpaper strapped to it. Slow but effective. Varnishes were usually slow curing tung oils introduced from China. These were not durable in themselves so the floors were hot waxed and buffed to a shine with the floor brush.
hardwood flooring atlanta ga