Cleaning Floors In The 19th Century

Whether painted or naked wide board softwoods held the floor in houses grand and small well into the middle of the 19th century.

Cleaning floors in the 19th century.

By the last decade of the 19th century and well into the 20th hardwood floors became the norm for all new construction. What radically changed the look of floors during the second half of the 19th century was the shift to tongue and groove strip flooring. Cleaning wood floors presents a quandary. On the golfields the early arrivals had to contend with the most basic of dwellings.

Melville bissell invented a carpet sweeper in 1876. They re the ultimate in hard wearing surfaces go round a stately 19th century home and you re likely to see many original boards. Turn a blow dryer on high heat the area where the crayon was applied and buff it with a soft cloth. If there are scratches that stand out after cleaning the hardwood floor simply take a crayon the color of the floor and rub it on the scratch to fill the gap.

Spare a thought for 19th century housekeepers for whom spring cleaning involved considerable time elbow grease and disruption. You may be sure your work is well done then and you may proceed to dry the floor with a clean mop or clean floor cloth. It made it far. Then continue to rinse your floor with clean water until the water is colorless.

Some enterprising families and businesses would use crushed quartz for flooring as. Carpets were mass produced in britain from the mid 19th century and they became much cheaper. In 18th and 19th century london flanders tile and hearthstones were sold by street vendors with hand carts. Plain strips of tongue and groove flooring usually in oak was now throughout most custom made and spec houses in hallways ground floors and upper floors.

Yet if you don t clean them correctly they can warp rot and become permanently stained. You had to hang up the carpet and beat it with a carpet beater a handle and large flat paddle usually made of cane. However cleaning carpets was no easy task in the 19th century. When the industrial capabilities of mass production made tiles widely available at the end of the 19th century tile floors were more widely installed and have remained a symbol of the era itself.

The big enemy is water. Not too long ago as i was researching information on hardwood floors and finishes during the 1800 s in north america when i stumbled upon a great online library that had thousands of old books periodicals catalogues postcards brochures and photos amongst other cool things from that era. Topsy turvy the order of the day american writer susan fenimore cooper daughter of james fenimore cooper described the upheaval involved in spring cleaning in cooperstown new york in april 1848. This warm and cozy kitchen sits in a converted 19th century barn.

Sweeping beating and scrubbing keeping the floors clean in the 1850s was a never ending challenge.