The Middle Ages Hardwood flooring was often placed for functionality rather than beauty. Because oak and pine were widely available, those species are the most common in medieval dwellings and castles. However, red cedar was also used extensively for furniture making and building ships.
People usually made their homes and buildings more comfortable by adding a carpet or hardwood floor to the room. The floor would help keep the room warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. It would also be more pleasant to walk on during rainy days or cold nights.
Castles usually had stone floors because they needed to be heavy enough to support a person walking on it. Wooden floors would not be appropriate for such structures since they would not be able to withstand many visitors trampling over them. However, castles did have one or two rooms with wood floors - usually the king's bedroom and bathroom - because they wanted to be able to decorate them how they liked.
Cabins in the woods had no flooring at all. A bed of some kind of furs or straw was all that was needed to sleep on. If you were rich enough, you could sleep on a mattress stuffed with cotton or silk instead. But even then, there was no need for any kind of flooring.
Although alternative materials such as linoleum were becoming more popular, residences at the time still mostly utilized hardwood flooring. The prevailing trend was 1 1/2 "red and white oak strip flooring. The flooring are either entirely red or entirely white wood, or a combination of the two. Strip floors are laid over an underlay of 3/4" thick solid wood boards. These rooms are easy to maintain because there's no need to sand or stain them like other floor types.
In addition to being easy to clean, these floors last for many years if you take care of them. If you want to give your home a makeover but don't want to spend a lot of money, consider replacing your old flooring with modern alternatives. Not only will new flooring add value to your home, it will also make your house feel newer and more up-to-date.
Hardwood flooring is available in a wide variety of styles and colors. If you want to update your home's decor without spending a large amount of money, consider replacing your old flooring with new flooring that matches or contrasts with your other home decorations. Hardwood flooring is expensive but it will last for many years if you take care of it. In addition, it makes any room it's in feel new and updated.
Flooring options have changed greatly since the 1950s.
What kind of flooring was utilized in Victorian kitchens? The most common materials were stone slabs or unglazed tiles. Around the table, where the chef stood, wooden duckboards were utilized. Hard flooring were especially noisy beneath chairs or in areas with a lot of coming and going, prompting a Victorian architect to observe that "in tiny dwellings...stone or brick are used for the living room floor because they are not easily damaged." In larger houses, wood was usually employed for the main floor.
In rich households, marble, tile, or wood were often used for kitchen floors. These were generally kept clean but were also known to get muddy when food was washed up against them. In less wealthy homes, it was common for floors to be made of mud or dirt that had been mixed with straw or chopped grass. This was easy to clean and durable, but not as nice to look at as the other options.
So, yes, you can eat off a Victorian kitchen floor!
HALLS, SOLARS, AND PRIVATE PARTIES The majority of medieval town homes were timber-framed and had wattled walls. Stone structures were built for the exceedingly wealthy. Glass was used in some windows but most openings were filled with wood or iron. A few cities offered half-timbered buildings as housing options for lower-income residents. These buildings showed up in towns across Europe but they usually have been replaced by modern versions of them.
HOUSE PARTS OFBURDEN/COMMON AREAS Inside many towns you will find streets named after the occupations people engaged in back then: bakers, cobblers, carpenters, etc. These are called "ward" or "district" streets and often turn up first on a map under that name. They are the routes workers took to and from their jobs in the village. Beyond the ward streets are crossroads called "intersections," which were popular places for markets to be held.
PRIVATE PROPERTY In the early Middle Ages it was common for large landowners to give land away to those who helped them fight off invaders or settle disputes. This is how city wards and villages came to be owned by certain families, who would use their political influence to get services like water delivered to their properties.
The principal rooms of medieval castles and huge manor homes are listed here.
230. The Great Hall at Hampton Court is an exception to this norm, demonstrating that first floor areas were occasionally tiled but required the presence of a "large timber sub-floor" (Pg. 230). In other cases, the flooring were boarded with oak boards and plastered over. This was common in older buildings as well as newer ones.
Tudor floorboards were usually made of oak planks that were glued or nailed together. If you look closely at some old floorboards, you can still see the nails that held them together. Sometimes sanded or polished, they made excellent playing surfaces for music or sport. As time went on, manmade materials began to replace parts of the wood flooring, such as Silk Road Inc. today!
In larger rooms, it was not unusual for the floor to be made up of several layers. The bottom layer was often made of compacted dirt or stone. On top of that would go a layer of wood shavings or sawdust. Finally, a finishing coat of oil or wax would be applied to make the room smell nice and keep out any insects that might want to live there.
The upper levels of a building were generally not finished in order to save money. If you look inside many old houses built before World War II, you will see that most floors are made of wood beams that have been coated in plaster. These are known as joists and rafters.
Copyright © 2020 - 2023 BindleyHardware & Co Inc.
