1346 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



ROUGH FLOORING STOCK 



Seasoning is one of the first and most important processes through whicli flooring is passed in 

 preparation for the planing mill- It may be dried in kilns in a few days, or it may receive its season 

 ing in the air. That process takes longer but the seasoning by air is always popular. 



Its 



pine country many floors were made of that extremely ing. The chief purpose of all is to provide a floor that 

 soft material. It was a favorite wherever it was is practically waterproof, dust proof, airtight, and which 

 known. It was convenient, cheap, and it worked easily, will remain solid and presentahle under heavy wear and 

 A similar custom prevailed in far western regions in for a long time. 



regard In redwood and sugar |nne. Convenience, in Some floors arc laid double, the lower being known as 



the sub-floor, while the upper 

 layer forms the visible finish. 

 The sub-floor is not seen un- 

 der ordinary circumstances, and 

 the lumber in its construction 

 need not be selected witli a 

 view to its appearance. It is 

 not subject to direct wear 

 and for that reason the wood 

 is not required to he hard, 

 though it must be strong enough 

 to safely carry all the load 

 placed on it. Such is really 

 a two-])ly floor, and the Ijoards 

 of the two plies generally cross 

 each other at right angles, or 

 obliquely. The top layer is for 

 show as well as for service, and 

 in most instances a fine hard- 

 wood is selected, one that looks 

 well and wears long. This floor 

 many instances, counted for more than the length of may consist of narrow strips matched side by side and 

 service that might be expected when the wood was laid end to end, and perhaps of less than half an inch in 

 in floors. Even a floor of white pine would last several thickness. It is not necessary to use thick lumber for 

 years, and builders seldom looked farther ahead than that, this top floor because it is supported by the sub-floor. 

 Clear white pine is quite soft and as floors it wears which carries the load. The principal advantage in using 

 rapidly if subjected to much use; but the knots are hard thin lumber for the upper floor is that it eft'ccts a saving 

 and wear slowly. Consequently, white pine floors be- of valuable wood. The thin shell is sufficient, 

 come very uneven after a few- 

 years. Every knot becomes a 

 high place and the clear wood be- 

 tween wears away, leaving val- 

 leys between the knots. Hard- 

 wood floors wear more regu- 

 larly. With them less diff'erence 

 in hardness exists between tln' 

 knots and the clear wood. 



The usual kind of modern 

 floor is known as tongued and 

 grooved, or it may be known as 

 matched. Such has been in use 

 hundreds of years, but there are 

 diftercnt sorts of tongues and 

 grooves. Generally the tongue is 

 cut in one edge of the flooring 

 piece, the groove in the other, block floor ix l.\rge factory 



and these pieces fit edce to ed^e "^^^ floor shown in the above illustration is made of redwood blocks of 4x6 inches surface and a depth 



^ ^ ^ ■ of two and a half inches. It is doing service in a shipljuilding plant on the Pacific Coast. Such 



Sometimes both edsfeS are blocks have become popular in certain kinds of plants where wear is heavy and the elements of decay 



° arc active. 



grooved and a flat dowel, made 



as a separate piece, fits in both and serves as a tongue Manufacturers and users of flooring lumber make 



for both. The Egyptians seem to have been acquainted much use of the term "grain." That word is common 



with that method of joinery, so it dates back a long time, with most people who deal with dressed and finished 



Carpenters and planing mill operators have exercised lumber. The term is not understood in the same way 



their ingenuity in devising and laying new kinds of floor- by all people who employ it, but the flooring people give 



