When the wainscot requires scouring, it should be done from the top downwards, and the water be prevented from running on the unclean parts as much as possible, or marks will be made which will appear after the whole is finished. One person should dry with old linen, as fast as the other has scoured off the dirt, and washed off the soap.
12. To give to Boards a beautiful appearance.—After washing them very nicely with soda and warm water and a brush, wash them with a very large sponge and clean water. Both times observe to leave no spot untouched; and clean straight up and down, not crossing from board to board; then dry with clean cloths, rubbed hard up and down in the same way.
The floors should not be often wetted, but very thoroughly when done; and once a-week dry-rubbed with hot sand and a heavy brush the right way of the boards.
The sides of stairs or passages on which are carpets or floor-cloths, should be washed with sponge instead of linen or flannel, and the edges will not be soiled. Different sponges should be kept for the above two uses; and those and the brushes should be well washed when done with, and kept in dry places.
12a. To extract Oil from Boards or Stone.—Make a strong ley of pearlashes and soft water, and add as much unslaked lime as it will take up; stir it together, and then let it settle a few minutes; bottle it, and stop close; have ready some water to lower it as used, and scour the part with it. If the liquor should lie long on the boards, it will draw out the color of them; therefore do it with care and expedition.
13. To scour Boards.—Mix together one part lime, three parts common sand, and two parts soft soap; lay a little of this on the scrubbing-brush, and rub the board thoroughly. Afterwards rinse with clean water, and dry with a clean coarse cloth. This will keep the boards a good color: it is also useful in keeping away vermin. For that object, early in the spring, beds should be taken down, and furniture in general removed and examined; bed-hangings and window-curtains, if not washed, should be shaken and brushed; and the joints of bedsteads, the backs of drawers, and indeed, every part of furniture, except polished mahogany, should be carefully cleaned with the above mixture, or with equal parts of lime and soft soap, without any sand. In old houses, where there are holes in the boards, which often abound with vermin, after scrubbing in, as far as the brush can reach, a thick plaster of the above should be spread over the holes, and covered with paper. When these things are timely attended to, and combined with general cleanliness, vermin may generally be kept away, even in crowded cities.