Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/1037

 INTERIOR FINISHING OF VILLAS. 1013 1810 1811 nothing can exceed the strength and durability of these tiles, and from their appearance we do not doubt it : they are also very smooth, and highly ornamental. Another descrip- tion of flooring tiles for halls, Mr. Peake of Tunstall informs us he has seen at Lillie's Hall, in Shropshire, of which fig. 1813 will give a general idea. Various descriptions of 1812 1813 / / A A plaster floors are in use for villas, which may either be painted in imitation of marble, or kept covered bv carpeting. In some cases the preferable mode is to paint the margin of the floor round the room in imitation of marble or other stone, or of oak, or of some other dark wood ; or to finish this margm with scagliola, and cover the interior with carpeting. A very successful imitation of Portland stone, which docs not cost half the price of that material, has lately been made by Mr. Bagshaw. Were it not for the cold impression made on the feet by stone, slate, tile, or plaster floors, their introduction in all houses whatever would be very desirable, as lessening the risk of danger from fire. 2009. Boards have long been, and probably long will be, the principal covering for the floors of villas in Britain. Three improvements have been made in them. To prevent warping, and to lessen the risk of their being burned through by fire, they are some- times laid down in large houses three inches thick. For the first of these objects, and also to get rid of inequalities, and save the expense and disagreeable labour of continually washing with soap and water, our correspondent, INIr. Robison, proposes, " when the floors are newly laid and in good order, to cover them over with a copious soaking of boiled and hot linseed oil, and afterwards to paint them with two coats of good oil colour. Very little warping will probably take place after this, and a slight sponging with cold water will at all times be sufficient to render them perfectly clean and clean-look- ing." The third great improvement is the use of the planing machine, invented by Mr. Milne, Engineer, Hutehesontown, Glasgow, by which a board of the ordinary width, and twenty feet long, can be reduced to an equal thickness, planed perfectly smooth on one side, and grooved on one edge and tongued on the other, in or.e minute. This greatly lessens the labour of laying the boards down as floors, and insures the ad- vantage of an even surface. 2010. Parquetted, or Inlaid, Floors took their origin from the circumstance of long thin boards being liable to warp. The fii-st and simplest kind of inlaid floor is formed by using boards of three or four feet in length, and three or four inches in width, and disposing of them as in fig. 1814. A second mode employs veneers three feet in length, and from a quarter to half an inch in thickness, interlacing them so as to form a square or panel, in the manner represented in fig. 1815; the smaller squares or quarries being filled in with the same, or with a different kind of wood. A more refined description of inlaying, which the French call marquetterie, consists in the employment of different colours, which are laid down in such a manner as to imitate mosaic work. The practice