STAINED AND PAINTED FLOORS.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17939, 6 December 1923, Page 5

STAINED AND PAINTED FLOORS.

NEW DEPARTURES IN PAINT

Bare floors need not look uninteresting; well kept and well polished, with good rugs about, they can look better covered and more interesting than many an arid stretch of carpet. Much can be said in their prr.ise; the eye 'a satisfied, so also are the claims of hygiene; perhaps economy comes into it, too. But a bare floor demands the right treatment, otherwise it is better left alone.

Stain 13 one form of treatment, paint is another; yet while few people evor consider the use of paint for their floors, all believe that they know about stain. Beady-mixed v arnish stain i 3 the usual medium employed. This has a glaring shine when fresh, which soon wears off at the door 3, and grows dull along the skirting, mid since no amount of polishing can give it the' right look, we can only apply a fresh coat of stain; and so it goes on till the grain of the wood is- obliterated by a thick opaque greasy brown that has little meaning, and no charm. This is "staining" in its worst and commonest form. But at its best the process is a beautiful one.

To begin at the beginning: The object of stain is to deepen or to alter the colour of the wood, also to emphasise the beauty of the grain. Parts of tho wood are softer &nd more porous than others, and absorb more colour, so when stain is applied it will reveal lights and shades and varying depths of tone which are scarcely perceptible in the raw wood. The colours used for a stain, then, must be transparent, and either oil or water may be used to mix the dry pigments. Certain dyes (tumeric, for example, logwood, and some aniline powders) mix better in spirits of wine, methylated, or naphtha, than with the other mediums. Otherwise "spirit staining" is much the same as oil staining. There are other processes, but for most floors ,one or the other of these is generally the best Oil stains on the whole, are safest for wood that has already been treated. - Water stains are the cheapest and easiest to make, but they have a tendency to roughen up the wood, which must be seen to. In such a case fine glasspaper will be necessary to smooth the surface. For either medium, the floor must be cleaned, so that no trace of grease or wax remains. The stain should then te put on, evenly and fairly liquid, one or two coats, according to circumstances. Tho floor should now present a flat surface of colour, through which the figure of the wood shows up clear with all its contrasts of light and shade so fully revealed, that in certain woods there is an appearance like watered silk. Having achieved this, the staining has done its work, and must on no accounfbe repeated; regular polishing with wax or oil. will do the rest. Both wax and oil tend to enrich and deepen the colour, while they also aci as a preservative. When signs of wear appear, a little of the dry colour —Vandyke brown ; or indigo, etc. —should be mixed wi;h the polishing wax and rubbed well into the wood, then polished over with the rest till the worn spot disappears. Wax gives a brighter polish than oil, and is, on the whole, the most practical for floors; but oil, though undoubtedly slower in effect, certainly produces a beautiful soft shine.

Such a floor is an abiding joy; nothing can really spoil it, except prolonged neglect. Given reasonable care, time will only increase its beauty. With new boards the colourist may, if so minded, abandon nature, and let himself go with strange hues and aniline dyes. They will not be garish; more often the trouble with a stain is to get the colour vivid enough. For example, if the floor is to be stained cerise or violet, the wood should be "blued" first in order to neutralise its yellowness. This can be done with Eeckitt's blue applied boiling hot, and, while still flowing wet, wiped off with rags; this gives a beautiful clear surface for the cerise. Two or more thin coats of any colour must always be used in preference to one; by this means avoiding streakiness and hardness, and ensuring the right tone and depth that you can "see through." For the subsequent polishing of a cerise floor white wax is best; beeswax for a yellow floor, and so on. A little experimenting is advisable before embarking on these colours; aniline dyes are sometimes tricky to deal with, and the different kinds and qualities of wood give different results. A black stained floor should not be recommended, but if the wood is first stained a vivid green, and then given a thin glaze of black, the grain should show up clear with a very beautiful and unusual effect.

Of course, it is obvious that stain cau only be successfully used on a floor which is in reasonably good condition. When the floors are old, and poor in quality, with gaps to be puttied and holes to be patched, or when they have been spoiled by successive applications of bad old stain, then is the time for using paint. There is nothing new about this process, yet for some reason or other the painted floor, compared with the stained, is rare. Why should this be? So far from wearing off, it is very much more dur-" able than the usual varnish stain. It does not look odd; it lends itself to ' any scheme of decoration, and it is the most efficient disguise for defective

flooring. Further, while it gives tnc "furnished look-" that some peon;e uv sire, it also does, in some degr.-. deaden the sound of feet whicn drawback to the bare door. '. ori'ii.i..it costs more than stain, and (e<ma uncertain) it is not a speedv process, nm! cannot be hurried over with any prt—pect of success. Firsr the boards be cleaned thoroughly gaps ■ "■■■ tween them must bo 'Died, :uid n-ti.-holes stopped, and any roughness -he:: <t be -nlaned awav. Thivc. or even Uyn, coats of paint must then be app.ie.., and each coat must dry .iron-hard fore the next goes on. Finally t\v> coats of hard varnish, the second r,c\ to be laid on till not the faintest Irr,-..-of stickiness is left on the first. If these conditions me observed. ■; painted iloor will keep in perfect eo-mi-tion for vears. As a rule, waxinu' •< not necessarv at first; later, the i.oor may get a little dull with use. .inthen regular waxing and polishing m the usual way will keep its lustre up to the mark. The t'-st of a really bright floor lies in the strength uv i clearness of its reflections. Pale colours undoubtedly tend to get diny after a time; when this happens, the floor can be washed without any risk of damage. Soda must bo used sparingly for fear of removing the vanns.i, for once that protection is worn oft the paint begins to go, too. With regard to colours, the choice is entirelv a matter of taste. A black (or ebonised) treatment is very good and practical, the same may he said of dark blue, while i:. certain rooms red Chinese lacquer has been successfully imitated. In homes where rush mats aro used, yellow looks better than white, which is apt to be chilly m appearance, besides needing more attention than it is generally possible to give." —"House and Garden."