In preparing for floors, it is not unusual to make arrangements for preventing the passage of sound. This is done by deadening. The usual method is to nail strips about two inches and a half from the top edge of the joist, on which are laid one-inch boards. This leaves an inch and a half between their surface and the upper edge of the joist. This may be filled in with concrete, mineral wool, or other non-conducting material. Either is very effective in preventing the passage of sound from the floors to the rooms below. In a dwelling-house where two floors only are in common use, it is only necessary to deaden the second floor.
A permanent sheathing floor of the same material that is used for rough siding may be placed over all joists of first and second floors for a floor during the plastering of the house. This does not act as deadening, unless concrete or mineral wool be placed over it. It is well to have a floor of this kind for use during plastering. It also makes the lower floor warmer. It should be covered with building-paper before the finished floor is laid. Finished floors should extend throughout the first and second stories and the attic. They are commonly of pine or other soft wood. The material is tongued and grooved, secret-nailed, and should be smoothed off after laying. The boards should never be wider than five and a half inches, nor less in thickness than seven-eighths of an inch. They should be free from sap, large, loose, or black knots. Hard-wood floors may be of hard pine, oak, maple, or other hard wood that is readily obtainable or desirable. This material should not be more than two and three-fourths inches in width, nor less than seven-eighths of an inch in thickness, and should be tongued and grooved, secret-nailed, and smoothed off and scraped after laying. A better grade of pine flooring than that mentioned may be had if desired. It is best that all floors be laid after plastering. However, this is not the common practice. The carpenter should cut out flooring as directed, and prepare for hearths in proper places. Other inside dressed wood-work should never be placed in position until after the plastering is finished and dry.
The following table is from a specification in use by myself, and shows the kind of lumber, style of doors, finish of wood, painters’ finish, and rooms supplied with plate glass, and the general style of hardware. The detail specification makes clear the points here outlined. The filling out of the blanks indicates the range and style of finish which frequently occur. The lettering of the doors and finish refers to drawings and details, a part of which are given in this connection.
| FLOORS. | KIND OF LUMBER. | DOORS AND FINISH. | THICKNESS OF DOOR. | PAINTERS’ FINISH. | ROOMS WITH PLATE-GLASS. | STYLE OF HARDWARE. |
| first floor. | ||||||
| Front Hall | Qu. Oak. | A | 1¾ | — | — | — |
| Parlor | “ “ | A | 1¾ | All Oil. | — | — |
| Sitting-Room | “ Sycamore. | A | 1¾ | — | — | — |
| Library | ““ | A | 1¾ | — | — | — |
| Rear Hall | Gum. | A | 1¾ | — | — | — |
| Dining-Room | “ | A | 1¾ | — | — | — |
| Chamber | — — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Kitchen | Plain Oak. | D | 1⅜ | — | — | — |
| Bedrooms | — — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Pantry | “ ” | D | 1⅜ | — | — | — |
| China Room | “ “ | D | 1⅜ | — | — | — |
| second floor. | ||||||
| Front Hall | Gum. | E | 1⅜ | — | — | — |
| Chamber | Pine. | E | 1⅜ | — | — | — |
| " | “ | E | 1⅜ | — | — | — |
| " | “ | E | 1⅜ | — | — | — |
| " | “ | E | 1⅜ | — | — | — |
| Rear Bedroom | Poplar. | D | 1⅜ | — | — | — |
| Alcove | Pine. | E | 1⅜ | — | — | — |
| Bath-Room | Qu. Oak. | D | 1⅜ | — | — | — |
| Rear Hall | Pine. | D | 1⅜ | — | — | — |
| Other rooms | “ | D | 1⅜ | — | — | — |
It may be said, in general terms, in regard to the different kinds of wood used in finishing a house, that, all things considered, hard wood of one kind or another is preferable, for the reason that it stands the general wear and tear of house-keeping with less evidence of the struggle. Soft wood—pine or poplar—is only to be used because it is cheaper than the other. Quartered oak, quartered sycamore, cherry, maple, walnut and chestnut may be classed as the hard woods in ordinary use in finishing houses of moderate cost. Gum is difficult to class. It is neither hard nor soft. Others might be mentioned in this same connection. Pine and other resinous woods are mentioned as soft woods; as is also poplar, called in some sections white-wood. Any of these woods may be oil-finished, according to the general formula indicated elsewhere, or any of them may be stained. Birch stains very nicely.
DOORS AND FRAMES.
Door-frames, when rabbeted, should not be less than one and three-eighths inch in thickness. Sometimes the strip is screwed to the frame. In that case the frame is often not more than one and one-eighth inch thick. One and three-eighths inch, however, is better. Front doors or principal entrance doors are frequently hard wood when all the others are soft wood. All outside doors are generally filled with glass in their upper panels. Sliding doors should be the same general design as other adjacent doors. One additional panel to each additional twelve inches in excess of width of other doors may be provided. Sliding doors should be hung from above. Hard-wood doors are usually solid. All excepting pine are best made of a veneer, one-fourth inch thick on a one-and-three-eighths-inch pine body, as indicated by [Fig. 35]. Sometimes doors are made in two thicknesses of hard wood. This is not as good as a single thickness. Three thicknesses are better. The only door to be recommended, however, is the veneered door. Such doors will not warp; others are liable to do so. Transoms may be hung on pivots, and should be provided with catches, and, if heavy or high, with adjustable lifts. Transoms are sometimes used in doors on the second floor, though this practice is less common than in the past. Where doors with transoms are used, it is not uncommon to have the closet doors extend to the full height of the transom tops, and provide additional top panels. Doors six feet ten inches in height, or less, and not more than one and three-eighths inch in thickness, may be hung on two three-and-one-half by three-and-one-half-inch buts. If higher than this or wider than three feet, they should be hung on three buts or hinges.
Doors in unfinished cellars may be made of two thicknesses of seven-eighths beaded flooring; frames the same as in rooms above. A seven-eighths batten door, with one-and-three-eighths-inch frame, should be provided for man-hole in cellar. Scuttle doors, where required, may be seven-eighths inch in thickness, battened.