Using wood as a structural building material was much more prevalent in northern climates where larger trees were in great abundance. Wood provided ancient people with the most basic of needs, a means to make fire in order stay warm and cook food. Most houses by that time still primarily used beaten earth as the main flooring material.
This type of flooring required visitors to wipe their shoes on a mat before entering the home in order to prevent the earth from getting muddy or dusty, depending on the weather. If the home owners of the time were wealthy enough to have a second floor, it would have been fitted with wooden joists and then large planks sometimes up to 2 feet in width would be strewn across them. The wood species used for this was most commonly Oak or Elm. Once North and South America was discovered, along with its seemingly endless supply of old growth forests, the use of wood for flooring became commonplace among the settlers living throughout the colonies.
It was in such great abundance that using any other material for common housing was simply impractical. Hardwood floors at that time were mainly built using slow growth pine. Due to the immense size of slow growth trees, it was possible to produce very large sawn planks.
They were not sanded or finished like what we find today, they were simply polished smooth by the feet of generations of colonists. They had to be massive as the subfloors were not used and plank ends had to be nailed to joists. Planks were often as wide as they could be, which resulted in no common standard widths.
By wooden floors began to take on a more elegant flare, introducing French Parquetry and Marquetry flooring patterns. Intricate designs were cut by hand and laid with contrasting colored species of wood. Regardless of the pattern in which they were laid, these floors were typically hand scrapped, scrubbed with sand, stained and polished. This style of flooring required skilled craftsman and painstaking hard labor. These types of hardwood floors were only found in the homes of Royalty and most affluent of the time.
In the early 19 th century more and more Parquet patterns began to emerge, yet still only in the richest of homes. There were many types of patterns for the panels that make up a luxury wood parquet floor. Three of the most popular were Chantilly, Aremberg and Monticello. Examples of some of these patterns are shown below. Eventually the industrial age brought machinery for the finer milling of lumber.
So the wood flooring industry which lost a tremendous amount of market share basically had to get together and come up with a hardwood floor that could be glued or floated directly on a concrete slab and be resistant to moisture… the Engineered Hardwood Floor was born.
You must be logged in to post a comment. Posted On Sep 28, Introducing Timbertop Herringbone Oct 28, Early wood floors, like this one at the Woodlawn Plantation, were typically untreated. Although the wide floorboards were butted together on installation, gaps would open between them due to fluctuations in temperature and humidity, allowing damp, cold air to pass into the living area from the basement.
Small objects were also prone to falling through these gaps, disappearing into the depths below. Now, when the wood shrank and drew apart, the gap was concealed by the edge of the adjacent board.
As decoratively painted interiors became popular in the 18th century, this technique was applied to wood floors, too. They could be monochromatic or fancifully ornamented, with geometrics such as checkerboard patterns a perennial favorite. Decorative painting became all the rage for floors in the 18th century.
The then-recent invention of the power loom meant that carpet was becoming more affordable to the growing middle class: stylish flat-woven carpets called Venetians and Ingrains, and pile carpets known as Wilton, Brussels, and Axminster.
Before the midth century, there were few finished hardwood floors, but the wealthiest of homes might sport hardwood parquet in certain public rooms.
Parquet is the method of arranging pieces of wood in geometric patterns herringbone and diamond being the most common and affixing the pieces to the subfloor with tiny nails. This process was hugely labor-intensive, as each piece had to be cut and fitted by hand. Another benefit of the Industrial Revolution was the invention of steam-driven woodworking machinery that permitted the mass production of finished boards.
Now, dimensional lumber could be milled in fixed lengths and widths, which expedited the installation of floors and gave them a far more finished appearance. Parquet borders were popular for achieving a high-end look; similar treatments are available from modern manufacturers. Along with this technology appeared the process for molding tongue-and-groove floorboards. With tongue-and-groove installation, the nails are driven through the tongue, forcing the boards together; this also conceals the nail holes, creating an unmarred surface.
The interlocking boards also were much more resistant to upward movement, which minimized irregular edges sticking up in the path of passing feet. Appearing first in public rooms and kitchens, finished hardwood flooring quickly spread to bedrooms and other private areas.
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