FLOORS FOR STABLES. 213 



freight, about 6s. a ton. A square yard of flooring, 4 in. 

 thick, would require 108 Ib. of cement and 324 Ib. of granite 

 chips. 



Excellent cement-concrete slabs, 3 in. thick, are made for 

 stable floors by the Croft Granite and Cement Company. If 

 economy be a matter for consideration and the ground be 

 dry, the ordinary concrete foundation may be replaced by 

 one of 7 or 8 in. of well rammed and watered ashes. A 

 convenient size for these slabs is 2 ft. square, and they cost 

 at the works 7d. the square foot, which is equal to 55. 3d. the 

 square yard. These slabs are grooved, in order to prevent 

 slipping, and they preserve during wear a gritty surface. 

 Owing to the exactness with which they are made, they are 

 far less liable to become shifted when forming a floor than 

 blocks made of stone. 



A reliable material for general flooring purposes is hard, 

 grooved blue bricks, which are usually grouted in with liquid 

 Portland cement. They give good results even with heavy 

 omnibus horses, such as those of the London Road Car 

 Company, which use these bricks under their animals. A 

 flooring made from them costs about 75. the square yard, 

 including the concrete. For heavy cart horses, the bricks 

 may be placed edge on ; that is to say, with a surface of 

 27 square inches (9 in. x 3 in.), instead of 40^ square 

 inches (9 in. x 4^ in.). In order to give foothold to the 

 horses which have to stand on them, it is well to have paving 

 bricks bevelled, and to have a groove running transversely 

 across them, so as to divide the bearing surface of each 

 brick into two squares. Blue bricks vary a good deal in 

 quality. 



An admirable flooring can be made with specially manu- 

 factured paving bricks, such as those of Candy and Co., 

 and the " adamantine clinkers " of Towers and Williamson, 

 both of which bricks are buff coloured, extremely durable, 



