FLOOR, in building, the underside of a room, or that part we walk on.
Floors are of several sorts; some of earth, some of brick, others of stone, others of boards, &c.
For brick and stone FLOORS, see PAVEMENT.
For boarded FLOORS, it is observable that the carpenters never floor their rooms with boards till the carcass is set up, and also enclosed with walls, lest the weather should injure the flooring. Yet they generally rough-plane their boards for the flooring before they begin any thing else about the building, that they may let them by to dry and season, which is done in the most careful manner. The best wood for flooring is the fine yellow deal well seasoned, which when well laid, will keep its colour for a long while; whereas the white sort becomes black by often washing, and looks very bad. The joints of the boards are commonly made plain, so as to touch each other only; but, when the stuff is not quite dry, and the boards shrink, the water runs through them whenever the floor is walked on, and injures the ceiling underneath. For this reason they are made with feather edges, so as to cover each other about half an inch, and sometimes they are made with grooves and tenons: and sometimes the joints are made with dove tails; in which case the lower edge is nailed down, and the next drove into it, so that the nails are concealed. The manner of measuring floors is by squares of 10 feet on each side, so that taking the length and breadth, and multiplying them together and cutting off two decimals, the content of a floor in square will be given. Thus 18 by 16 gives 288 or 2 squares and 88 decimal parts.