Mechanick exercises, or, The doctrine of handy-works by Joseph Moxon.

§ 18. Of Flooring of Rooms.

THough Carpenters never Floor the Rooms till the Carcass is set up, and also inclosed by the Plaisterer, lest weather should wrong the Flooring; yet they generally Rough-plane their Boards for Flooring before they begin any thing else about the Building, that they may set them by to season: which thus they do, They lean them one by one on end aslant with the edge of the Board against a Bauk, somewhat above the height of half the length of the Board, and set another Board in the same posture on the other side the Bauk, so that above the Bauk they cross one another: then on the first side they set another Board in that posture, and on the second side another, till the whole num∣ber of Boards are set an end: being set in this po∣sture, there remains the thickness of a Board between every Board all the length, but just where they cross one another, for the Air to pass through to dry and shrink them, against they have occasion to use them: But they set them under some covered Shed, that the Rain or Sun comes not at them: for if the Rain wet them, instead of shrinking them, it will smell them; or if the Sun shine fiercely up∣on them, it will dry them so fast, that the Boards will Tear or Shake, which is in Vulgar English Split or Crack.

They have another way to dry and season them, by laying them flat upon three or four Bauks, each

Board about the breadth of a Board asunder, the whole length of the Bauks. Then they lay another Lay of Boards athwart upon them, each board also the breadth of a Board asunder; then another Lay athwart the last, till all are thus laid: so that in this position they also lie hollow for the Air to play between them.

Thus then, The Boards being Rough-plain'd and Season'd. They try one side slat, as by Numb. 6. § 31. and both the edges straight, as if they were to shoot a Joint; as by Numb. 4. § 4. and cut the Boards to an exact length: because if the Boards are not long enough to reach athwart the whole Room, the ends may all lie in a straight Line, that the straight ends of other Boards laid against them may make the truer Joint, and this they call a Beaking Joint. But before they lay them upon the Floor, they try with the Level (described § 7.) the flatness of the whole Frame of Flooring again, lest any part of it should be Cast since it was first framed together: and if any part of the Floor lie too high, they with the Adz (if the eminency be large) take it off, as was shewed § 2. Or if it be small, with the Jack-Plain, in Numb. 4. § 2. till it lie level with the rest of the Floor. But if any part of the Floor prove hollow, they lay a Chip, or some such thing, upon that hollow place, to bare up the Board, before they nail it down.

All this being done, they chuse a Board of the commonest thickness of the whole Pile for the first Board, and lay it close again one side of the Room athwart the Joysts, and so nail it firmly down with two Brads into every Joyst it crosses, each Brad about an Inch, or an Inch and a half within the edge of the Board.

If they should lay more a than ordinary thick or thin

Board at the first, they would have a greater number of Boards to work to a Level than they need, because all the rest of the Boards must be equalized in thickness to the first.

Then they lay a second Board close to the first. But before they nail it down they again try how its sides agrees with the side of the first, and also how its thickness agrees with the first Board. If any part of its edge lie hollow off the edge of the first Board, they shoot off so much of the length of the Board from that hollowness towards either end, till it comply and make a close Joint with the first. But if the edge swell in any place, they plane of that swelling till it comply as aforesaid.

If the second Board prove thicker than the first, then with the Adz (as aforesaid) they hew away the under side of that Board (most commonly cross the Grain, lest with the Grain the edge of the Adz should slip too deep into the Board) in every part of it that shall bare upon a Joyst, and so sink it to a flat super∣ficies to comply with the first Board. If the Board be too thin, they underlay that Board upon every Joyst with a Chip, &c.

And as this second Board is laid, so are the other Boards laid, if they be well assured the Boards are dry, and will not shrink: but if they doubt the driness of the Boards, they (sometimes do, or should) take a little more pains; for after they have nailed down the first Board, they will measure the breadth of two other Boards, laying them by the side of the first. But yet they will not allow them their full Room to lie in, but after there edges are true shot in a straight line, they will pinch them off about half a quarter of an Inch room more or less, according as they guess at the well-seasonedness of the Boards;

by nailing down the fourth Board nearer to the first Board by half a quarter of an Inch (more or less) then the breadth of both Boards are. And though it be afterwards somewhat hard to get these two Boards into that narrow room, viz. between the first and fourth Board, yet they help themselves thus; The un∣der-edge of these Boards that are to join to each other they Bevel somewhat away, and then the first and fourth Board being fast nailed down (as afore∣said) they set the outer edges of these two Boards a∣gain the two nailed Boards, letting the inner edges of the two loose Boards meet, and make an Angle perpendicular to the Floor. Then with two or three Men jumping all at once that Angle, these two Boards with this force and reiterated jumbs by de∣grees press flat down into the superficies of the Floor; or else with Forcing Pins and Wedges force them together: and then with Brads they nail them down, as they did the first Board. Thus afterwards they nail down a seventh Board, as they did the fourth, and then fit in the fifth and sixth Boards, as they did the second and third Boards. And so on, nailing down every third Board, and forcing two others be∣tween it and the last nailed Board, till the whole Floor be boarded.

But if these Boards are not long enough (as I hint∣ed before) to reach through the whole Room, they examine how true the ends lie in a straight line with one another, by applying the edge of the Two-foot Rule to the ends, and where the ends of any Boards keep of the edge of the Two-foot Rule from com∣plying with the whole range of ends, they with the Chissel and Mallet cut off that irregularity, holding and guiding the Chissel so that it may rather cut away more of the bottom than top of the Board, that so the

Boards joined to the ends of the first laid Boards, may make on the Superficies of the Floor the finer and truer Joint.

Having thus Boarded the whole Room, notwith∣standing they used their best diligence to do it exactly, yet may the edges of some Boards lie somewhat higher than the Board it lies next to: therefore they peruse the whole Floor, and wherethey find any irregularities they plane them off with the Plane, &c.