March, 1918 
41 
PAVED FLOORS AND GALLERIES 
Brick , Tile and Cement and the Effects That Can he Gotten 
With Them Inside the House 
THOMAS BRABAZON 
A PAVED floor is sanatory; it is likewise 
fireproof and easily kept clean. Doubt¬ 
less, if one tried a bit, one might discover sev¬ 
eral other sterling qualities to recommend the 
aforesaid paved floors to the favorable consid¬ 
eration of householders and house builders. 
The Gamut of Materials 
To give a short summary of possible ma¬ 
terials, a paved floor may be laid with stone, 
with brick, with tile, with cement or with any 
combination of them that may seem desirable to 
the persons concerned. The general heading 
of stone, of course, includes marble and mosaic, 
and there may be as many kinds of stone floor¬ 
ing as there are kinds of stone and they may 
be laid in as many fashions and patterns as it 
is within the mind of man to devise. Tiles 
afford a well-nigh inexhaustible diversity in 
color, texture and pattern; cement and its cog¬ 
nate compositions, such, for instance, as teraz- 
zo, offer a far greater scope of variety in agree¬ 
able treatments than most people, who have not 
carefully investi¬ 
gated the subject, 
imagine—not at all 
the deadly monotony 
of a repulsive, harsh 
and unsympathetic 
gray surface usually 
associated with raw 
cement, especially if 
tiles be in some way 
incorporated with 
the composition. 
Finally, even the de¬ 
spised and common¬ 
place brick may be 
endowed with digni¬ 
ty and distinguished 
charm if handled in 
a straightforward, 
unaffected manner, 
and kept free of any 
display of labored 
and faddish ‘stunts.’ 
The places for 
which paved floors, 
of any of the varie¬ 
ties just enumerated, 
are obviously and 
eminently suitable 
are halls and long 
galleries or passage 
ways, solaria or en¬ 
closed sun porches, 
conservatories and 
“masters’ ” offices or 
“ dens ” — an un¬ 
pleasant term dis¬ 
agreeably r e m i n i s- 
cent of b o n e - b e- 
strewn lairs—where 
the presence of guns, 
fishing rods and 
tackle, sports’ para¬ 
phernalia and all 
the sundry small 
adjuncts incident to 
country residence, to 
say nothing of emer¬ 
gency footwear for inclement weather condi¬ 
tions and the frequent comings in and goings 
out of gardeners and other retainers in hob¬ 
nailed shoes, would auger ill for a be-rugged or 
be-carpeted or polished wood floor. Outside of 
bath-rooms, pantries and kitchens, the afore¬ 
mentioned places naturally suggest themselves 
to conventionally minded folk as suitable for 
paved floors, but there is no reason why the 
paved floor should not equally well appear in 
any other room in the house, either upstairs or 
down. Thank heaven, we are rapidly passing 
beyond that artificial stage of social develop¬ 
ment in which there must be in every house 
some depressing, unserviceably furnished and 
generally uncomfortable room which nobody 
ever uses when they can help it, call it parlor, 
reception room, drawing room or what you will 
—its actual existence is a libel upon the ideal 
represented by each of these names—and we 
are coming more and more to insist upon 
having only rooms that we can all use, 
all the time if we choose, with pleasure and 
satisfaction. 
The Livable Qualities 
Now, in such a 
genial room, into 
which all the house¬ 
hold can come with 
freedom and in 
whose enticement 
they feel disposed to 
linger, there is no 
good reason why 
there should not be 
a paved floor if the 
owners fancy its 
very human and 
substantial charm. 
The hall floor in the 
residence of Henry C. 
Mercer, Esq., at 
Doylestown, Pa., is 
paved with cement in 
which have been in¬ 
serted decorative de¬ 
vices in dark red tiles 
The library in the 
residence shows the 
use of small dark red 
octagonal tiles studded 
with decorative tile 
medallions showing 
the same color 
In the first place, the idea that it is necessarily 
cold, cheerless and uncomfortable is an utter 
fallacy, as those who have escaped far enough 
from the trammels of convention to try it know 
by experience. One can have as many or as 
few rugs as desired, and from the house¬ 
keeper’s point of view, this arrangement is ex¬ 
ceedingly manageable. Furthermore, children, 
dogs, cats and other personages who will not 
or cannot use the door mat upon entering the 
house, can come in freely on a paved floor with¬ 
out calling forth disapproving glances; grow¬ 
ing plants can be set about and watered without 
the fear of spoiling something; and in every 
other way the daily small things that mean so 
much and make so large a part of family life 
can go on unhampered by the restraint that al¬ 
ways attends the presence of flooring or of floor 
covering of a damageable complexion. The 
right kind of paved floor in a living room is 
really a humanizing factor in family life. It 
possesses a sturdy adaptability to all the moods 
of a room and of the family who occupy it and, 
like an old shoe, the longer it is trodden the 
more friendly and comfortable it grows. Be¬ 
sides all this, a floor is primarily a foundation, 
and the visible solidity of a paved floor carries 
a satisfying sense of conviction to the eye. So 
much for the psychological effect of a paved 
floor upon the people who live with it. What is 
true of paved floors in living rooms is equally 
true of paved floors in dining rooms and in 
other parts of the house. 
Their Decorative Value 
And now we come to discuss paved floors 
from the solely decorative point of view. In 
this connection there are certain general con¬ 
siderations that apply to all paved floors, irre¬ 
spective of their material. To begin with, the 
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