HARDWOOD FLOORING One of the most notable and useful developments of modern lumber manufacturing is the production of high-grade flooring of maple, beech, birch, oak, tupelo, yellow pine, Douglas fir, and other woods. This flooring is manufactured to exact standard sizes from selected, thoroughly seasoned stock, and is as carefully handled as is interior finish. In fact, a beautiful and durable hardwood floor is an important part of the inside finish of a building, now that carpets have been replaced by rugs.
Since hardwood flooring is manufactured from kiln-dried stock, is stored by the maker in dry sheds, and is shipped in closed cars so as to prevent the absorption of moisture, the user should make every effort to have the flooring carefully handled, correctly laid, and properly finished. Some of the points to bear in mind are to avoid unloading the flooring in damp weather; not to store it in open sheds or in newly plastered buildings; nor to lay it until the building is thoroughly dried out. When an under-floor is used, as is advisable with the thinner sizes, the hardwood flooring should be laid diagonally or across the sub-floor, and the latter should be dressed to even thickness.
The best practice indicates the use of steel cut nails for hardwood flooring. These nails are manufactured especially for this purpose. They should be driven at an angle of 45 degrees; and it is stated that better results are obtained if no nails are placed within six inches of the end of the flooring pieces.
Maple, beech, and birch are close-grained woods of similar structure which give equally good appearance and service for flooring, whether slash- or quarter-sawed. Red and white oak floors are popular in both the plain and quartered forms, depending upon the figure desired; while quarter-sawed or edge-grain yellow pine and Douglas fir are very much better than slash-sawed floors of these woods. Strictly speaking, yellow pine and Douglas fir are softwoods, but edge-grain flooring made from them gives such good service that it is widely used for the same purposes as hardwood flooring.