Of Laying Floors. 215. In our remarks on construction, we must not omit to say a few words on laying floors, because it will give us an opportunity of pointing out a defect which might be easily remedied. The advice of Evelyn, to tack the boards down only the first year, and nail them down for good the next, is certainly the best, when it is convenient to adopt it, but, as this is very seldom the case, we must expect the joints to open more or less. Now these joints always admit a considerable current of cold air, and also, in an upper room, unless there be a counter floor, the ceiling below may be spoiled, by the accidental spilling a little water, or even by washing the floor. To avoid this, we would recommend a tongue to be ploughed into each joint, according to the old practice; and, when the boards are narrow, they may be laid without any appearance of nails, in the same way as a dowelled floor is laid, the tongues serving the same purpose as the dowels. In this case we would use cross or feather tongues for the joints. We have had oak floors laid in this manner instead of with dowels, and we find it to be a much easier method. Parquet Floors. 216. The fashion of laying floors with various coloured woods, disposed in patterns, seems now to become more general in this country. It has long been much in use in France, and such floors are often called parquet floors; though that name only applies to such as are framed in compartments of about 3 feet square each, divided into small square or lozenge pannels, with the pannels grooved in so as to be flush on the upper surface. The imitations of the parquet floors which have been done in this country have often been done with thin boards, about half an inch thick, glued, and nailed or screwed down, on a common deal floor. Lately, however, another method has been adopted; it consists in devising a pattern so that its joints shall coincide with the joints of a floor laid with boards of equal breadth. The thin boards which form the pattern are then glued to the floor boards at the bench, and screwed to them from the under side, and afterwards the boards are laid either by dowels or tongues as a plain oak floor would be done. The patterns are formed by disposing the grain of the wood of the pannels in different directions, by making the pannels of black wood, or by making the different parts of different coloured species of oak, and when the smaller divisions are of the rich dark brown varieties of English oak, and the others of fine Dutch wainscot, such floors are uncommonly beautiful. INDEX AND GLOSSARY OF TECHNICAL TERMS USED IN CARPENTRY AND JOINERY; WITH REFERENCES TO THE PAGES IN WHICH THE VARIOUS SUBJECTS ARE TREATED, AND THE WORK. A. ABUTMENT; the meeting surfaces, in the joint, of walls that are circular on the plan, 54. Ashlering; perpendicular quartering from the B. BACK of a hand-rail; the upper side of it. Back-shutters or Back-flaps; additional breadths Back of a window; the board or wainscoting Balusters, 117. Base-mouldings, 106. Basil; the sloping edge of a chisel, or of the Batten; a scantling of stuff from two inches to seven inches in breadth, and from half an Bead; a round moulding, commonly made upon Bead and but, 96. Beam; a horizontal timber, used to resist a force Bearing; the distance of the supports by which a beam or rafter is suspended in the clear: thus, if a piece of timber rests upon two opposite walls, the span of the void is called the bearing, and not the whole length of the timber. Beech timber, 59. Bench; a platform supported on four legs, and used for planing upon, &c. &c. Bending-mouldings, 89, 103. Bevel; one side is said to be bevelled with respect to another, when the angle formed by these. two sides is either greater or less than a right angle. Binding-joists, 22. Birch timber, 60. Bird's-mouth; an interior angle, formed in the end of a piece of timber, so that it may rest firmly upon the exterior angle of another piece. saw is Blade; any part of a tool that is broad and thin; as the blade of an axe, of an adze, of a chisel, &c.: but the blade of a generally called the plate. Blockings; small pieces of wood, fitted in, or glued, or fixed to the interior angle of two boards or other pieces, in order to give strength to the joint. Board; a substance of wood contained between two parallel planes, as when a baulk is divided into several pieces by the pit-saw, the pieces are called boards. The section of boards is sometimes, however, of a triangular, or rather trapezoidal form; that is, with one edge very thin; these are called feather-edged boards. Boarding circular roofs, 39. Bond-timbers; horizontal pieces, built in stone or brick-walls for strengthening them, and for fixing the battening, lath, and plaster, &c. Bond-timbers should only be inserted where they are absolutely necessary. Book-doors, 97. Bottom-rail; the lowest rail of a door, a sash, or a casement. Boxings of a window; the two cases, one on each side of a window, into which the shutters are folded, see 101. Brace; a piece of timber, used in truss-partitions, or in framed roofs, in order to form a triangle, and thereby render the frame in movable; when a brace is used by way of support to a rafter, it is called a strut. Braces, in partitions and span roofs, are always, or should be, disposed in pairs, and placed in opposite directions, 21. Brace and Bits, the same as stock and bits. spandril or pendentive, 46. Bracketed-stairs, 110, 112. Brad; a small nail, having no head except on one edge, the intention is, that it may be driven within the surface of the wood, by means of a hammer and punch, and the cavity filled flush to the surface with putty. Breaking-up; in sawing, is dividing a baulk into boards or planks; but if planks are sawed longitudinally, through their thickness, the saw-way is called a ripping-cut, and the former a breaking-cut. To Break-in; to cut or break a hole in brickwork, with the ripping-chisel, for inserting timber, &c. Breaking-joint is a joint formed by the meeting of several heading-joints in one continued line, which is sometimes done in common floors. Bressummer or Breastsummer; a beam support. ing a superincumbent part of an exterior wall or building, and running longitudinally below that part, 24. Bridged-gutters; gutters made with boards, supported below by bearers, and covered over with lead. Bridges, centring for, 48. Camber-beams; those beams used in the flats of truncated roofs, and raised in the middle with an obtuse angle, for discharging the rain-water toward both sides of the roof, 30. Cantilevers; horizontal rows of timber, projecting at right angles from the face of a wall, for sustaining eaves, mouldings or balconies, sometimes they are planed on the horizontal and vertical sides, and sometimes of rough timber and cased with joiner's-work. Carriage of a stair; the timber-work which supports the steps, 110. Carcase of a building; a term applied to the naked walls, and the rough timber-work of the roofing, flooring, and quarter-partitions, before the building be plastered or the floors laid. Carpentry defined, 14. Carry-up; a term used among builders, or workmen, denoting that the walls, or other parts, are to be built to a certain given height; thus the carpenter will say to the bricklayer, Carry-up that wall, carry-up that stack of chimneys; which means build up that wall, or stack of chimneys. Casement-windows, 98. Casting or Warping; the bending of the surfaces of a piece of wood from their original position, either by the weight of the wood, or by an unequal exposure to the weather, or by unequal texture of the wood, see 62. Cavetto, 84. Ceiling-joists, 22. Centring for Bridges, 48. Chamfering; cutting the edge of any thing, originally right-angled, to a slope or bevel. Chesnut-tree, 61. Circle, methods of drawing a portion of, 1. Circular-sashes, 99. Clamp; a piece of wood fixed to the end of a board, by mortise and tenon, or by a groove and tongue, so that the fibres of the piece, thus fixed, traverse those of the board, and by this means prevent it from casting; the piece at the end is called a clamp, and the board is said to be clamped, 88. Clear Story Windows, are those that have no transom. Cocking or Cogging, 30. Cohesive Strength of Timber, 65. Columns, method of fluting, 103. Cone, 7. Cone, to develope, 11. -, enlarging and diminishing, 90. Cot-bar, in Sashes, 99. Cove-Bracketing, 45. Cross-grained Stuff, is that which has its fibres running in contrary directions to the surfaces; and, consequently, is more difficult to make perfectly smooth, when planed in one direction, without turning it, or turning the plane. Crown-Post; the middle post of a trussed roof.See King-post. Curling-Stuff; that which is occasioned by the winding or coiling of the fibres at the bough of a tree, when they begin to shoot from the trunk. Curtail Step, 111. Curves, method of Transfering, 5. Dormer, or Dormer-window; a projecting win- lap, 86. mitre, 86. Dowelling, 99. Drag; a door is said to drag when it rubs on the Dragon-Beam; the piece of timber which sup- Dragon-Piece; a beam bisecting the angle formed E. EDGING; reducing the edges of ribs or rafters, Elevations, 7. Ellipsis, to draw, 2. false, 3. Elliptical Stairs, 113, 127. Expansion of Timber, 62. Enter; when the end of a tenon is put into a F. FACE-MOULD; a mould for drawing the proper False ellipsis, a mode of drawing, 3. Feather-tongues, 87. Fence of a Plane; A guard, which guides it to Filling-in Pieces; short timbers, less than the full Fine-set; a plane is said to be fine-set, when the Fir-Timber, qualities of, 60. Fir-Poles; small trunks of fir-trees, from ten to laying, 132. parquet, 132. Float, 86. Fluting, 84, 103. Flyers, 107. Framing, in Carpentry, 14. in Joinery, 86. Franking, 99. Free-Stuff; that timber or stuff which is quite French Windows, 101. Frowy Stuff; short, or brittle and soft timber. G. GABLE-ENDED Roofs, 30. Girder; the principal beam in a floor for sup- Globe or Sphere, Section of, 7. Glue; a tenacious viscid matter, which is used as Gothic Arches, methods of drawing, 3, 5. |