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Hardwood Flooring 



UNDEVELOPED POSSIBILITIES IN FINE HARDWOOD 

 FLOORS 



Flooring manufacturers, especially those who are continually de 

 voting more time and attention to the parquetry branch of the busi 

 ness, have begun to realize that this is a field which offers a big op- 

 portunity for the designer and the artist. The creation of figures 

 that are really harmonious and beautiful is no mean task, and com- 

 binations of the natural colors oflEered by the myriad of hardwoods 

 from which the manufacturer may select may be produced in great 

 variety and beauty. 



A well-known parquetry expert admitted recently in conversation 

 with a Hardwood Record man that the old castles in Europe offer 

 many suggestions for the parquetry designer, for they are full of 

 panel-work and wood-carvings which show that the interior finish 

 men of those days possessed not merely mechanical skill but also 

 artistic appreciation. Their designs can readily be adapted to floor- 

 ing work, and the volumes in the libraries which illustrate the inter- 

 iors of these famous old structures can be made immensely valuable 

 to the parquetry man. 



Regardless of the many substitutes that are being applied to other 

 divisions of labor now involving the use of wood products, there is 

 little danger of flooring ever being pushed out of the way. The use 

 of tiling and concrete is large no doubt, but it is used almost en- 

 tirely from a standpoint of utility. Where real beauty, luxury and 

 the intimate touch of the home are desired, hardwood flooring is in a 

 class by itself. The cold, resisting stone does not lend itself readily 

 to the expression of the feelings that find so appropriate an outlet 

 in the warm colors of well-designed parquetry, and the hard mag- 

 nificence of the tiled lobby of the hotel or theater loses its appeal 

 when contrasted with the human, sympathetic tones of hardwood 

 flooring. 



As a matter of fact, the wise flooring manufacturer realizes that 

 there is no need for him to worry because his work is not going into 

 sections of buildings where exposure to changing temperatures and 

 the whims of climate might affect its appearance to a serious extent. 

 His field is so large that he can resign that part of it to the worker 

 in stone, tile or concrete without misgivings, reserving for himself 

 the treatment of interiors which are not so exposed, and which will 

 insure the permanence and satisfactory service of his product. The 

 entrance to a big ofiice building will be found floored with tile, and 

 this may be true of the halls as well; but the owner of judgment 

 and the architect of discrimination let the limit be placed there, and 

 floor the individual rooms of the building with hardwood as the final 

 touch which gives the offices the proper atmosphere of dignity and 

 elegance. —i 



Getting back to the. proposition of designs, the parquetry manu- 

 facturer has as many colors to draw upon, almost, as the painter who 

 uses a full palette in spreading a mammoth canvas. The array of 

 domestic and imported woods now going into the finest products of 

 the flooring mill presents colors which suggest the whole gamut of the 

 spectrum, and the designer can combine these in a way which %vill 

 be not merely attractive, but very effective. 



The handsome residence of today demands something more than 

 marble pillars, stone walls and massive stairways. Its floors are 

 being given more attention, and if designs in keeping with the 

 general character of the structure can be offered, there is no reason 

 why the floor should not be considered generally, as it is by the dis- 

 criminating few, as worthy of the most careful consideration and 

 attention in its treatment and construction. In this connection it 

 may be pertinent to suggest that the parquetry man not confine his 

 offerings to stock designs illustrated in his catalogs; but for big jobs, 

 such as a $50,000 residence or a .$100,000 club, offer a wide array of 

 original and striking drawings, which will give the architect and the 

 builder a chance to choose that which fits most perfectly into the 

 general scheme of the building. 



The architect is frequently accused of neglecting knowledge of 

 flooring and its value as part of the building most exposed to the 



gaze of the observer. It is perhaps true that the designer of build- 

 ings is prone to regard hardwood flooring simply as hardwood floor- 

 ing, and to class the product of every mill together. However, recent 

 evidences show that the architect is beginning to give closer thought 

 to the floors of his residences and other buildings, and that the 

 manufacturer who can offer excellence of design with perfect work- 

 manship will not need to worry as much about the prices at which 

 his competitors are offering material as he has had to do in the past. 



Just think what color schemes, for example, can be worked out 

 by the designer who is at liberty to include the rich, tropic reds of 

 mahogany, the pallid tone of the white maple and the more active 

 effects of figured white oak ; who can use teakwood and ebony, Eng- 

 lish oak and Circassian walnut, walnut and cherry, red gum and tulip, 

 lignuni-vitae and holly, heart of persimmon and tigerwood, red oak 

 and rosewood and all of the other beautifully colored hardwoods which 

 nature has produced in such a wide variety of colors and textures 

 as to make it possible to carry out the most bizarre design that may 

 suggest itself to the mind of the draftsman! 



The working of these woods involves difficulties, and the flinty, 

 tough structures of many of the imported varieties makes it extremely 

 hard to prepare the stock for the use which the parquetry manu- 

 facturer puts it to. ~ But the beautiful results which follow careful 

 designs and painstaking workmanship find not only reward in the 

 artistic achievement thus realized, but in the actual market value at 

 which such output, properly exploited, may be disposed of. 



Here is a field wliich the flooring trade has only begun to develop. 



According to the opinion of the sawmill boys along the Kentucky 

 river, government locks are a sort of log-dam nuisance to timber 

 tralfic, and do more to make good jobs for the government employes 

 than to benefit iiiillmen. 



When a millman piles his lumber a little better than seems neces- 

 sary, it doesn't mean that he is going to extra expense for nothing. 

 It is more likely that he will make an extra profit out of it. 



# tt * 



The Ulan who thinks that the more than forty-eight thousand saw- 

 mill men in the United States can be gotten into the same notion 

 at the same time has another think coming. It is a sure thing he never 

 tackled the job of getting even a portion of them to agree on uniform 

 rules of hardwood inspection, or he wnnldn 't think a lumber trust a 



remote possibility. 



* * * 



Saw-milling and woodworking combined makes up the country's 



largest manufacturing industry, and employs more wage earners than 



any other line of manufacture. TJiat's saying something, but it is 



what the Bureau of the Census says. 



w * * 



It is now the open season for lumber association meetings and a 

 good time for those with trust-busting proclivities to go journeying 

 after luniber trusts. They might, by hanging around the corridors of 

 hotels, find out many things they didn't know about luuihor trusts 



that don 't exist. 



« » « 



The gatherings of lumber retailers should have more interest for 

 hardwood men this winter than ever before, because both yard men 

 and planing mills are using more hardwoods than formerly, and the 



))rospects look good for further extension. 



« * * 



There are too many avoidable accidents happening around wood- 

 working machinery, and too few rational safeguards being employed. 

 It is time to face the issue squarely and eliminate some of Ihe danger 



traps. 



« tt « 



The hiirdwood door is not having a very hard ri)« to hoe to (ind 

 |i(ipiihirity those days. 



—40- 



