ABSTRACT
All the kind of painting and varnishing the floor-surfaces is infinitely less costly than any other kind of covering, carpet, matting, or drugget; easily cleaned, and as a consequence infinitely more healthy and satisfactory. Thin “carpet” parquet can now be obtained and laid down at almost the same cost as good Brussels carpet: glued down to the existing floors it forms an admirable non-absorbent covering, is easily kept clean, and is, in every sense, more healthy and more artistic than felt, drugget, or carpets. In most cases the wooden floors of our houses, even where laid in the most careful manner, are liable to shrink, so as to leave spaces between the boards, through which dirt falls and remains boxed up for ever in the spaces between them and the ceilings under, or until the spaces themselves get filled up with soap and dirt after many years. The Manilla matting is also well adapted for floor-covering.
