t is considered.

It is generally admitted that a floor entirely covered with a carpet is
in many ways undesirable, especially from a sanitary point of view;
while a hardwood floor, wholly or partly covered with rugs, has every
advantage. Furthermore, the fashion, which has a great deal to do with
what shall be used, aside from any question of intrinsic merit, has set
strongly in this direction, and in many cases old floors are replaced
with new ones of hard wood for the sole purpose of giving a chance for
the use of rugs in place of carpets. This is one, even if it be a rare
instance of the agreement of fashion and good taste. In working over an
old floor a plain or ornamental border can usually be laid at no great
expense by using the thin wood carpet, manufactured by all the best
makers of parquetry, and the centre can be laid with a pattern or with
narrow strips such as the "roll goods" which are manufactured by S. C.
Johnson of Racine, which are made up of strips usually one and
three-eighths inches wide and five sixteenths of an inch thick, glued to
a backing of canvas.

Patterns of all descriptions made from all the best foreign and domestic
woods can be obtained, as the designs of the best manufacturers include
an almost unlimited choice, and there is no end to the combinations
which can be made from the stock patterns. As an instance of this, the
catalogue of J. W. Boughton of Philadelphia contains a remarkably fine
selection of borders which can be combined and adapted to almost any
requirement, while the designs for the field or centre of the floor are
fully as varied and usable. These designs are made in such shape that
they can be easily adapted to any shape of room and fitted to all sorts
of irregular niches and jogs at slight extra expense.

Owing to the economy of manufacturing floors made from pieces which can
be put together on a system of squares, hexagons, or octagons, most of
the patterns in common use are made up of these units, or of triangles
or rectangles combining to form these figures. Curved forms cannot be
used to good advantage in this way as it is difficult and expensive to
cut or join them properly. Nevertheless, all the principal manufacturers
will execute to order any design desired.

When placed in a new house floors of 7/8 inch or 1-1/4 inch are usually
to be preferred, and are made in sections of convenient size for
shipment at the factory, and finished after they are in place.