Wooden Flooring: Pine and Oak Floor Boards, Parquet,

Wooden Flooring

Georgian floorboards would have been made from oak or a soft wood that would have been stained to look like a hardwood. They would of been hand cut and nailed down at right angles to the underneath joists. In the grander rooms, boards of 5 - 8 inches were used and the larger 8 - 10 were used in the less noble rooms and houses.

Most Victorian houses used wooden floorboards. They were laid onto joists and nailed down. The floor boards created a suspended floor, where the air-gap helped to prevent damp.

Edwardian floorboards were narrower than the Victorians. They were butted up against each other or tongue and grooved. Boards were made from pine or deal and stained or waxed to look like hardwood. Bedroom wooden floors would of been parquet or boards painted white with a rug in the centre.

Parquet flooring was popular between the Edwardian and Thirties period. Parquet flooring is most suitable for solid floors i.e. concrete, which would most likely to be on the ground floor of the house like the hall and living space. Parquetry is small blocks of hardwood glued down onto a subfloor providing a hardwearing surface to cater with daily life. The block would be laid down in a geometrical pattern to create a decorative effect; the herringbone pattern was most popular.

Pine and Oak Floor Boards