the reason that red deal battens are, as a rule, kept under cover; orders can be executed and despatched without the necessary seasoning that white deal requires. Red deal is more easily manufactured than white. It is to a certain degree softer and not so tough in the reed as spruce.
Fig. 367.
Fig. 368.
Figs. 367 and 368.—Laying Folded Floors.
Fig. 369.—Cramping Floor-Boards with Dog and Folding Wedges.
Direction of Grain in Floor-Boards.—If a specification does not insist on any particular position of the grain of the wood, it will be complied with by either of the examples shown in Figs. 365 and 366. If the grain is intended to show "annual rings parallel with the edges," words to that effect should be inserted in the specification, or it should be stated that "all boards are to be cut radially from the tree." No doubt the plank shown in Fig. 366 would be less liable to warp than that shown in Fig. 365; but to obtain all like this would mean picking over a very large parcel of boards in order to get the quantity required, and it may be looked upon as impracticable.
Fig. 370.—Floor with Joints broken at 3-ft. Intervals.
Fig. 371.—Ordinary Pattern Floor Cramp.
Laying Floor-Boards.
Folded Floor.—"Floors to be laid folding with the joints broken" means that the heading joints of the boards are not to be in line when laid, but are to be crossed in as long lengths as possible from joist to joist. The system of laying the boards with a succession of joints in line causes unevenness when the boards shrink, and weakens the floor. The term "laid folding" is an old one, and was applied when mechanical means were not available for bringing the joints tightly together. In the absence of a floor cramp the boards may be laid with fairly tight joints by jumping them in, as shown in Fig. 367. The first board next the wall is laid and nailed in its place; then other boards (say five), to make a width of about 3 ft., are laid down. The final position of the fifths board having been ascertained, the fifth board is nailed down ¼ in. inside the line it takes when only hand tight. The four other boards are then jumped in and nailed.
