Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-01-20
FLOORS.
WHAT KIND OF FLOORS SHOULD WE
LAY7
New Ideas About Floors and Carpets
Questions Of comfort-Mattsrs
of Economy.

the great attention now paid to floors.
This is in reality revival of an old and
satisfactory fashion of thoroughpess which
had rather gone out of date. Every one
familiar with the notable houses of Europe,
especially of those built during the
fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth cent.
uries, will recall the extreme nicely of
finish about them, particularly in the mat.
ter of floors. And it is only in England
and America that the custom of bestowing
great care and attention upon them fell
into disuse, for the reason probably that
everywhere fashionable and popular. The
rapid increase in the population of great
cities in both countries, and the consequent
demand for cheap houses, has been another
and perhaps more formidable obstacle to
the bestowal of great attention upon minor
details. Any one who takes the trouble to
inspect half. finished houses in any crowded
district cannot fail to be struck by the
roughness of the ordinary foorings. And
every householder knows to his cost the
unevenness and knottiness of the boards
which it is his privilege to cover with car
pets. So thoroughly has it been under.
stood that floors here are full of ridges and
edges that it has become q general custom
to lay thick paper under expensive carpets,
and in London no one would dream of
emitting this precaution against destruc.
tion to handsome floor coverings.
GERMAN AND FRENCH FLOORS.
In this respect the builders of Germany
and France have until recently been greatly
in advance of those both of England and
America, and this mainly owing to the
example that to, day great change in this
direction is manifest. 1t is indeed some
times quite amusing to read of the SUBJ
stantial floors of foreign houses for
example, in the house long owned by Rem.
brandt the kitchen floor is of inlsid
marbles, but without anticipating any
such splendor in the ordinary house of to-
day, we are certainly justified in asserting
that a very marked improvement is taking
place. The fact of the matter is that in
these days of great competition and of ex.
acting demand builders cannot afford to
omit one detail which shall add to the at
traction of new dwellings or public
buildings. An educated public taste de.
mands an increasing observance of all that
tends to make up home comfort, and the
time is not 80 far distant when the insight.
ly plank boards which are still too fire.
quently seen in our houses will be looked
for in vain.
QUESTION OF COST.
There is ne reason why this should not
be the case. If tessellated and mosaic
pavements are expensive, and marble floors
beyond our highest dreams, parquet and
I fancy board floor coverings are Inexpensive
enough to be within the reach of the least
ambitious builder. 1t has already been
realized that fiat houses rent more readily
on account of the greater attention which
is paid in building them to minor details
than the lowest-priced houses, and yet, as
matter of fact, every tenant prefers a
house to himself if it can be had at the
same rent, and offers the same advantages.
But this is precisely what ordinary low
rented houses fail to do, and, in conse.
quence, we find people willing to pay com.
paratively high rents for small floors rather
than take houses at the same price. Now,
one reason among many for this, and by no
means the least reason, is that it costs 30
much less to furnish a fiat. Every house.
keeper knows that in estimating the cost
of home the floors play most important
part, and often enough the idea of the
yards of carpet which must be bought to
cover the unsightly boards of passage ways
and rooms is the deterrent agent which
prevents the indulgence in the luxury of a
house. 1t is said that this fact has never
yet been fully realized by builders, yet
there is abundant evidence of it every
where.
THE CARPET QUESTION.
d. ~
sells, in fact everywhere but in English
cities, families 60 to housekeeping without
any great outlay. There the carpet ques-
ton affects the luxurious only; persons of
moderate means are perfectly content with
the polished floors of their sitting and bed
rooms and the inlaid borderings of their
halls. In some of the more recently erected
fat houses in New York the same system
prevails, the floors are colored and have
borderings of striped boards, affording
tenants with moderate means good excuse
for the absence of carpets at least until
later on. We feel no hesitancy in affirm
ing that if such fioorings were universal it
would make perceptible difference in the
value of house property. For halls and
vestibules, parquet flooring is far better
than anything else excepting tiles, and tiles
will probably never be at the command of
those to whom moderate rent is a necessity.
Where, for satisfactory reasons, it is not
possible to provide colored floors, it is al
most always feasible to have bordering
of striped or inlaid boards, and such Dor.
behring's are a very great improvement and
assistance in furnishing. Even in kitch-
ems, where bricks or boards have alter
nately commanded the respect of builders,
it would be noticeable improvement to
substitute parquet flooring.
sNow-wHTTE BOARDS.
Scrubbing is in reality barbarous form
of service and ought to be abolished, all
the exigencies of cleanliness are met by a
liberal use of soap and water. Our imme.
date ancestors prided themselves upon the
snow-white boards of kitchen and passage.
ways, but there seems no good reason for
our continuing the practice upon that &C.
count. Moreover, our boards are never
white. Everything that tends to tighten
labor is an advantage in busy lives, and
snow-white boards are only attainable in
cities at the cost of most unnecessary
wear and tear of flesh and blood. They
ought to be abolished, and if an enterpris-
ing builder would once set the example of
providing house from attic to cellar with
inlaid striped or colored foorings, for
which carpets were not an absolute neces.
sity, the result would be far better in.
terest upon his capital than he realizes at
present. So far, large and handsome
houses have monopoly of parquet floor
ing, and in them it is usually only found
in certain rooms, halls and passage-ways,
Another most satisfactory use of striped
wood is as a substitute for ordinary VAIN
sooting, for which purpose it is now used in
many fiat houses. For dining-rooms and eat
ing halls THERE'S nothing SO suitable as a par.
quet floor, while in billiard-rooms and public
buildings it is gaining in favor. Oae ad-
vantage may be noted in regard to this
particular style of flooring, that it can al
ways be laid down at the option of the
tenant upon the surface of the boarded
floor; but then tenants rarely enjoy max
ing improvements at their own expense.