68 
House & Garden 
THE NEWER PERMANENT FLOOR COVERINGS 
JJ ood y Metal , Concrete, and an Infinite J T ariety of Composition Floors 
in many Colors and Textures 
HENRY COMPTON 
W E demand a great deal of our floors 
these days, not merely that they 
should be clean, warm, dry; we also 
want them comfortable to walk on, attrac¬ 
tive to look at, inconspicuously sanitary 
to live with. We even expect these prac¬ 
tical modern floors to be immensely inviting 
in soft mellow, old tones or with bright, 
pure, invigorating colors. 
In a vast variety of materials and forms, 
these modern floors bring back to us recol¬ 
lections of the weather-beaten tile floors of 
old French cloisters, of the fine concrete 
floors in the 12th Century houses of Ba¬ 
varia, or that rich wood floor that ornament¬ 
ed the stately room at Fontainbleau where 
the little Austrian Queen listened to the 
sweet tinkle of Rameau and Gluck on her 
fragile painted spinnet. We like these 
memories but we want them to develop 
practically today; a floor may look like 
Versailles or Rothenburg or Florence, but 
can it be ordered by the square foot from 
a manufacturer, with adequate instruction 
for laying, ready for your house in a few 
days or at the utmost a few week’s notice? 
We may envy today the beauty of these old 
palaces, but we would not enjoy building 
them, an occupation that held a crafts¬ 
man for a generation. 
S OME of the most remarkable of 
modern permanent floor coverings, 
once thoroughly waxed and kept in 
order, have the lustre of deep black velvet, 
or of sombre old Italian marble. And our 
new metal tiles are as warm and tawny 
as a December oak leaf, with veins show¬ 
ing in brilliant edges that announce these 
tiles to be the new copper floor covering. 
Because of the immense variety of new 
ways of finishing floors, this article will 
be limited to what we are going to call 
permanent floor coverings. The actual con¬ 
struction of a floor we have already treated 
in the March last issue, going into the de¬ 
tail of the laying of the floor and preparing 
it for this permanent covering, which may be 
later on further decorated with carpets and 
rugs, or the covering itself may be so beau¬ 
tiful that it does not desire or require 
any further decoration. 
It is worth considering that the floor of 
your house is the only part of the actual 
construction that is used. The walls and 
ceilings are for comfort, convenience and 
beauty, just as essential as the floors; 
nevertheless, only the floor is a matter of 
utility, and utility here must include such 
qualities as resilience, dustlessness, a ca¬ 
pacity for withstanding pressure, moisture 
and cold. It must also stand for fireproof¬ 
ing, odorlessness and noiselessness and be 
insect proof. In addition you hope for 
distinction and insist upon economy. 
When it comes to selecting the style of 
floor you want, counting upon durability 
of course, the type must be suited to the 
kind of architecture, to the furnishings you 
will put in your room, to your color 
scheme, and, of course, (which almost goes 
without saying) to your climate. There is 
an immense variety of different materials 
to be had in permanent floor coverings 
and these in turn are being made increas¬ 
ingly to suit different styles of rooms, and 
their appropriate furniture. It is quite 
extraordinary what can be done today with 
wood, metal, concrete and composition in 
the matter of adaptability to period or mod¬ 
ern schemes of decoration. 
Y OUR floor should be planned when 
your architect is writing the speci¬ 
fications for the house, not only the 
construction of the floor but the outer 
permanent coverings, so that they are 
included in the money you intend to 
spend in making your home a com¬ 
fortable, practical and attractive place 
to live in. If floor covering is left until 
you begin to furnish, you are very likely 
to do it with too economical a spirit; be¬ 
cause, of course, your first heavy expense 
is what the architect demands in his speci¬ 
fications. You must know how you want 
your house finished from the beginning, be¬ 
cause at the beginning you decide 
upon the style of the exterior; and if the 
house is to be effective, the interior must 
correspond to the period of architecture. 
Having decided upon the style of your 
floor then take up the question of ma¬ 
terial. Will it be stucco, wood, metal, com¬ 
position, will it be covered entirely with 
carpets or is it intended to have a floor 
so interesting that you will only want an 
occasional rug in harmony with your 
scheme of furnishing? These things should 
be understood and decided upon from the 
start. It will save you money, time and 
the worry and expense of many changes, 
because a haphazard floor is never very 
satisfactory. 
I F a very personal and unusual 
house is being built, the floors will 
be thought out very carefully. If 
your architect has planned a French or 
Italian structure (which is actually often 
done in America) he will undoubtedly 
suggest that your floors be a fine hand- 
laid mosiac in white and green, gold and 
brown stone or marble. This will be 
expensive, but very beautiful; or for your 
Italian dwelling you may have a com¬ 
position floor in huge squares of lus¬ 
trous black and white which will look 
quite antique after a few thorough waxings. 
For a house fashioned in the old Tudor 
way, stone slabs could be laid, at least for 
the entrance, either in neutral or warm col¬ 
ors and sometimes combined with marble, 
producing an effect infinitely rich and unu¬ 
sual—the blocks being obtainable oblong, 
square, with uneven edges, roughly dressed, 
and laid with wide joints, either in formal 
or informal patterns. 
Ever since the making of beautiful 
houses began in Italy, France and Eng¬ 
land, wood floors have been greatly in favor. 
The earliest reference to the use of par¬ 
quetry work for floors is in the diary of 
John Evelyn in 1678 in which he says that 
the palace of the Duke of Norfolk had 
rooms parqueted with cedar, yew and 
cypress. The oldest parquetry floors to be 
seen today are in Italy, and it is from 
Italy that they came up to England, France 
and Germany. Of course, in those days 
they were only in great houses, and it took 
a remarkable craftsman endless time to 
get them down. Each floor being planned 
individually. It is really almost a miracle 
the way in which these beautiful parquetry 
floors are planned today, closely imitating 
the finest of the old world floors, and yet 
ready to use, so that an entire house can 
be laid and finished with little more trouble 
than putting down the simplest floorcover- 
ings. And with but reasonable care these 
wood floors need only be put in order 
twice a year. 
I T is interesting, too, to know that 
these parquetry floors are not im¬ 
mensely costly but are adjusted to 
the moderate priced house both in style 
and expense. And they certainly add a 
note of elegance to the simplest home. 
Of course, hardwood floors are also laid 
with beautiful effects without patterns. 
Plain oak, birch, maple, are some of the 
hard woods now being manufactured today 
ready to put down in a great variety of 
tones and textures. Longer service un¬ 
questionably comes from the hard woods, 
but excellent soft wood floors are being 
manufactured today, so treated that they 
will last almost the lifetime of a house and 
of course they rank economy as one of their 
virtues. Wooden floors that come in blocks, 
creosoted are considered eminently durable, 
economical and sanitary. They are com¬ 
fortable to walk upon and are particularly 
safe where there is any possibility of mois¬ 
ture on the floors. 
(Continued on page 86) 
