| Edge grain | Flat grain |
| Difference in the cut of flooring boards. | The flat grain in the softer woods is not durable. |
Flooring should be capable of resisting wear and should not splinter. The hard woods as a class are more adaptable than the soft woods, although yellow pine and Douglas fir are used a great deal on account of their cheapness. These latter are divided into two grades: “flat grain,” in which the annual rings are almost parallel to the surface, and “edge grain,” in which the annual rings run almost perpendicular to the surface. The latter is more desirable, since it wears better. The flat grain splinters off, due to the layers of soft spring wood and hard summer wood. Oak flooring comes plain and quarter sawn, which is practically the same as the cut of yellow pine, but since oak is strong either way, the wearing qualities are not very different. Maple is also an excellent wood for flooring, since it is hard and smooth.
Door and window frames may be made from many kinds of wood, although the soft and more durable woods are generally accepted as the best. Specially hard and durable woods should be used for the thresholds.
Doors which are to be used on the exterior should be of a soft and durable wood. The choice of wood for interior doors is limited only by the taste of the designer. The doors which stand best the warping effect of steam-heat in the winter are constructed of white pine cores with a veneer on the exterior made from some hard wood.
Sash and blinds require a soft and durable wood. Sash are subject to the drying of steam-heat on the interior and cold and dampness on the exterior. Sash built of yellow pine sapwood have rotted in a few years, and while soft maple, birch, and basswood have been used, they are not durable, although easily worked. White pine is considered to be the best for sash and blinds.
The selection of woods for interior trim depends only upon the designer’s taste, since neither relative durability nor strength is a requirement. The harder woods in the past have been used more extensively for interior trim than the soft, because of their supposedly better and richer appearance, but this is not so true to-day, for new methods of treating such woods as cypress and yellow pine have shown them to be fitted for the best artistic places. Of course hard woods are not dented from knocks by furniture as easily as the soft woods, and in this way retain their appearance longer.
CLAY PRODUCTS
Bricks.—In considering the essential qualities of bricks for the small house it must be appreciated that those bricks which are used on the exterior must be able to resist the effects of weather and produce the best artistic results, while those which are in the interior of walls or chimney need not be held up to such rigid standards. The determination of the resistance of bricks to frost and weather action is quite simple. A brick which struck by a hammer gives a clear ring is one which has been well burned and has no soft spots, cracks, or weak places. Such a brick can be said to be satisfactory for exterior use, provided that it has the proper form and color desired and is not so overburned as to be twisted and warped. Another requirement sometimes specified is that the face brick made from soft clay should not show a percentage of absorption in excess of 15 per cent, and for the stiff-moulded or dry-pressed bricks not more than 10 per cent. This, however, cannot be a hard-and-fast rule, due to the variation of clays.
Certain red bricks, unless they are burned very hard, show, when built into the wall, a very ugly white surface discoloration, called “whitewash” or efflorescence. This is not entirely due to the brick, since the mortar that is used may sometimes produce it. If it is due to the brick it can be discovered before the brick is used in the wall, by placing a sample brick on edge in a pan containing one inch of either rain or distilled water. As the water is absorbed by the brick, the white discoloration will develop on the top surface after several days of standing if it contains the salts which will cause the whitewash. Those bricks which have been very hard-burned will not discolor under any circumstances. If after passing this test the brick wall should develop whitewash, it can be laid to the mortar. In order to prevent any such occurrence it is necessary to waterproof the joints around window-sills and between the foundations and the wall, so that the minimum amount of water will be soaked up into the wall when it rains. An expensive addition of 2 per cent of barium carbonate to the mortar will tend to fix the soluble salts which cause this efflorescence.
