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The development of wood flooring. Art versus practicality in flooring. |
The Development of Flooring |
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/: Flooring, from time immemorial to the industrial age, was always a hand-made product. In Portugal, it was known as ‘soalho à portuguesa’, or Portuguese flooring. It was constructed in a range of widths in order to make better use of the raw material, which was usually taken from the forests of the local region. With the arrival of industry, flooring began to appear with regular, narrower widths – the so-called ‘soalho à inglesa’, or English flooring, after its country of origin. Quality construction work often uses solid wood plank flooring, but this does not always result in a good finished product as it is not always used in the best conditions, and due to the natural physical reactions of the wood. |