For hundreds of years, humans have been using wood as a floor for their homes.
It doesn’t matter what decorating style you’ve chosen for your home, you will be able to find wood flooring that blends seamlessly with your choices. For hundreds of years, humans have been using wood as a floor for their homes. Have you ever wondered how wood flooring started?
In the Beginning
Since humans first started to roam the Earth, we have been using wood to build all sorts of things, from homes and buildings to fires to keep warm. Trees have always been a valuable natural resource. Sticks and bits of wood were used to create huts and shelter. These shelters had dirt floors at first, and for many years.
In the Middle Ages, people finally figured out that they could use flat wooden planks as flooring. They also figured out that with the new wooden floors, they could build homes and buildings on more than one level. These planks were unfinished, but back then wood flooring was pretty much a revelation.
Evolution
The planks for early wood floors came from forests with lots of large, old trees. As a result, the planks could be extremely large. It was perfectly normal back then for a single plank to be sixteen feet long and twenty inches wide. How does that sound for wide plank flooring?
As building practices evolved and refined and newer tools were developed, the planks eventually started to get smaller. Builders also started trying out different species of trees for planks and different finishes.
Around the sixteenth century, builders and homeowners were using wood flooring to make design statements. To have gorgeous wood flooring in your home was seen as a status symbol. The especially extravagant ones even had mosaic-style patterns in them. Patterned wood flooring really took off with the introduction of parquet in the 1800s.
During the Great Depression, wood flooring lost quite a bit of its thunder. The stock market had crashed and no one wanted to spend the little bits of money they had on what they viewed as a luxury item.
Modern Wood Flooring
Wood flooring continued to lose popularity throughout the coming years because at the time it was more labor-intensive to install. Finally, in the mid-1980s and 90s it made its comeback. Homeowners, builders, and designers started to see the classic beauty and versatility of wood flooring and it has been going strong ever since!
Hardwood Flooring Installation and Maintenance from Jason Brown Wood Floors
At Jason Brown Wood Floors, our commitment to quality installation is clear in all that we do, which is why our customers consistently rate us as one of the top contractors in the region. We have been awarded Baltimore Magazine’s Best of Baltimore Award 4 times and have been proudly serving the Baltimore Area for over 16 years. If you’re ready to speak with someone about your hardwood flooring project, we want to hear from you! Contact us at 410-668-9131 or send us a message here.
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