CLEANING AND REFINISHING WOOD FLOORS Cracks in Floors. — Place in a saucepan 1 pound of pastry flour and rub up with a little cold water un til free from lumps. Add 3 quarts of boiling water, place on the stove, bring to a boil, and stir in 1 table spoonful of alum. Cut a quantity of newspaper into fine bits and stir it into this paste until it is about as thick as putty. Boil and stir until the mass is of a uniform consistency. Fill the cracks with this by means of a putty knife. Or a case knife with the point broken or filed square across will answer the purpose. Be sure to crowd it into the crack as deep as possible and finish level with the surface. This hardens like papier mache, is of similar appearance and nearly as hard as the wood itself, and is very durable.
Or make a strong glue size of 1 ounce of glue to 16 ounces of water, and while boiling hot stir in bits of newspaper as above; or equal quanti ties of fine sawdust and prepared chalk; or plaster of Paris, and apply as above. Any of these may be mixed with coloring matter to match the boards.
Or cracks may be filled with putty. But this is not equally good, since with shellac or varnish it shows through, and is of a slightly different color than the wood.
Oil for Floors.—To oil floors, use linseed oil boiled. First remove all previous wax, paint, or varnish, wash the floor clean and let it dry. Ap ply the oil with a paint brush, keep ing it at the boiling point by means of a small alcohol stove or other wise.
One or two coats of oil, applied twice a year, will greatly improve kitchen or other rough wood floors, and the addition of a coat of wax will improve the finish and prevent the oil from soiling anything.
An oiled floor should be cared for in the same manner as a waxed floor, without the use of soap, washing powder, or an alkali.
To Color Floor Oil.—Add table spoonful of burnt umber to each quart of oil to darken it. Or an equal amount of yellow ocher to make it light.
Stains for Floors. — Ordinary oil and lead paints are not suitable for floors for two reasons: they tend to soften the wood, and also to crack, chip, and peel, or wear away in spots that are most trodden, so as to give the floor an uneven appearance.
Hence suitable stains (which are the same colored pigments that are used in paints thinned with oils so as to penetrate into the fiber of the wood, but without lead) are better for this purpose.
Or the pigment may be applied in a vehicle of glue size.
Or various dyestuffs, as aniline and other dyes, may be applied, either dissolved in water or oil.
But the following will be found the most generally satisfactory: For d floor 16 feet square, or ap proximately 250 square feet of floor space, one heavy or two thin coats, mix 2 quarts of cold-drawn linseed oil and 1 quart of turpentine, to which add 4 ounces of Japan dryer. Stir in about 2 heaping tablespoon fuls of any desired pigment or mix ture of pigment, or enough to bring the whole to about the consistency of ordinary lead and oil paint, and bring to a boil over a slow fire. Dis solve with gentle heat 2 or 3 ounces of yellow beeswax in a little tur pentine, taking care that the tur pentine does not catch fire. Stir in the wax, remove from the fire, and when about lukewarm, thin with tur pentine to about the consistency of new milk. Try the stain on a piece of the same kind of wood as the floor before using, to see if the color is right. Soft wood like pine will absorb more of the color than hard wood like maple. Hence it is im portant to thin the stain to the right consistency to get the desired effect. Take care to apply the stain evenly with the brush, as in painting, and lay it on freely the way of the grain, rather than against it. The addition of turpentine causes the stain to strike into the wood.
Or in place of cold-drawn linseed oil with turpentine, use boiled linseed oil mixed with any desired pigment, and apply boiling hot. Keep the oil at the boiling point by means of an alcohol stove or otherwise.