The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Kitchens & Kitchen Remodeling
Walls And Floors
OF ALL the factors that go to making our present-day kitchens gay and cheerful, nothing, save the walls, plays a more important part than the floor. The time when a floor was just something to set furniture on has passed, and it is very generally recognized to-day that the beauty of any room depends to a certain extent on its floor.
In considering this very important kitchen question, the housewife finds a bewildering array of materials, finishes, and colors. Two points should guide her: the floor should be a good floor (one that will wear well) and should be one that can be kept clean with the least labor. Good floors call for a rather large share of the building fund in the new house, but it will be found an investment for such floors not only add comfort and beauty to the house but add to its resale value, as well. The most commonly used floors in the modern kitchen are of linoleum, wood, composition, tile, and cement.
Let us consider the wood floor first. When one is building a new house the selection of the floor is an easy matter. If wood be used, it comes to a choice between hard and soft wood, with the preference as a rule given to the hard woods, since they seem to make better floors. They do not splinter easily, they wear evenly, and will take fine and attractive finishes. The most commonly used hardwoods are oak, maple, beech, and birch.
The finish of a floor is very important. If stained or painted, then varnished and waxed, the natural beauty of the wood will be preserved, since its pores will be closed, precluding the possibility of any dirt working in, making of such a floor one easy to clean and keep
in good condition.
Woods are not only designated as hard and soft; they are also classified as open or close grained. The close-grain woods are beech, birch, cypress, pine, maple, gum, and cherry.
The open-grain woods are oak, ash, and chestnut. If the floor be made of an open-grain wood, a good paste filler should be rubbed in before the finish is applied. This filler is put on by brushing it lengthwise of the grain of the wood; it is then allowed to dry, when it should be rubbed crosswise of the grain with soft burlap. It should then dry thoroughly, allowing four or five days, if necessary, for this. It is now ready to be sand-papered with number 0 paper, after which is ready to receive its finish of stain, varnish, and wax.
