Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 March 1884 — Waxing Hard-Wood Floors. [ARTICLE]

Waxing Hard-Wood Floors.

“Yes, I deal in antique furniture, and get up new furniture on antique models, • and repair things, and so on, but my principal business is in waxing floors—-hard-wood floors, of course. This is increasing all the time. I don’t have much to do with the floors of dancing halls, because the men having charge of them get into the way of waxing the floors themselves. It is in private houses that my services are in demand. Three years ago there were very few waxed floors in New York residences, but they are all the rage now among New Yorkers who live in good style. Some have them because they are nice fora germanor a small social party; but they are also popular among those who do not dance, for they give an air of richness, of well keeping, and are so much cleaner than carpets ever can be. When you sweep a carpet you send up a cloud of dust and fibers from it, but that cannot be the case -with a waxed floor, which gathers no dust, and the more it is swept and brushed and polished the smoother and brighter it becomes. A hard-wood floor should be waxed thoroughly three or four times a year, besides rubbed occasionally by the servants of the house. “To wax a floor properly we first clean it with turpentine, so, that not a speck of dirt is left either on the surface or imbedded in the exposed pores of the wood. If the wood is rough we sometimes scrare it and give it a coat of shellac, to fill the pores. When it is perfectly hard, dry, and smoothed, we apply the wax in one of two ways, either hard or melted, with turpentine. If the latter, it is laid on with a brush, left to dry two or three hours, and is then polished with brushes. The wax used is common beeswax. Here is one of the brushes, very large, flatland made with very stiff bristles. They cost ?4 a pair, and are made large, so that if desired one of them can be fixed under the foot by means of a strap, and the polishing done ’by wagging the I leg to and fro. That way of brushing is employed in dry waxing, which is much the hardest, and requires most vigorous polishing. “Dry waxing costs about four times as much as the other, and will last two (r three times as long. In either case the wax has to be polished right into the grain of the wood. It will not do to put oil on a waxed floor, as it will render the surface gummy and sticky and nasty. If properly done, oiling makes a floor nice, but is never so good as waxing, and costs nearly as much. Raw linseed oil, mixed with turpentine for a drier, is used. Price? Well, that depends upon the size of a floor, and to some extent on its condition. One say 14 feet by 16 feet will ordinarily cost $5 for oiling, $7 to $lO for waxing, and S3O for dry waxing. There are some floors here that I have waxed regularly for eight years past.”— New York Sun.