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8€ THE DAILY TIMES-GAZETTE, Saturday, March 26, 1955 Quality of Materials Is Very Important Venetian Blinds Offer A Modernizing Short Cut | VENETIAN BLINDS and a metal lath room divider shown at left make a modern dining nook. A SHORT CUT in modernizing home Interfors--once you have decided on your wallpaper and painting scheme--is to install venetian blinds. You can do a lot of decorating tricks with vene- tian blinds, By using a little ingenuity, you can employ blinds in ways that will save you real money. These contrivances can make? windows seem much larger than they actually are.They can give you the decorative appearance of a window where there is no window. They can cut down drafts in the winter and help with air cooling in the summer. Here's how the indoor ap- arance of a window can be en- arged. Suppose your window is 3 feet wide. Hang a venetian blind 4 feet wide in front of it. Build a box valance 5 feet wide to accommodate the blind when it is raised. Hang your draper- ies from a rod inside that cor- nice so they will cover a foot or so on each side of the window. The result is that you have a window 5 feet wide at far as interior appearances are con- cerned. An Old Camouflage Trick Architects have used the same kind of camouflage on the out- side of windows for generations by employing shutters which people do not use, The same tactics indoors produce the ef- fect of a wider window without cuting an expensive hole in a house. Faking a window where there is none 1s just as easy. Suppose you have two small windows at the end of a room. They may be separated by a space that could have been used for a third window, if it wouldn't have made the exterior design look lopsided. You can treat that space as a third window and keep a venetian blind closed over it. Or you can treat he en- tire room end as a window wall, hanging a wide venetian blind ' across it with draperies down = the corners. As-for stopping drafts, blinds act almost like storm windows. When closed they create a buf- fer space and diffuse whatever gah leaks in by acting as baf- es. In summer they insulate in another way. Tests have shown that when the slats of venetian blinds are tilted at 45-degree angles, they can reflect much heat while letting air circulate and edd an insulating value varing from 20 to 35 per cent at the window. Painting the Siats A decorating advantage of venetian blinds is the possibil- ity of painting the indoor sides of the slats any color to harmo- nize with a room scheme, while leaving the exterior sides a neu shade to unify exterior appearances. A California man- ufacturer has been making metal venetian blinds for some time in 10 or more colors on the | a inside with an ivory finish for uniformity on the outside. You can do the same thing with almost any type of vene- tian blinds. Remove the slats and place them inside-up on newspapers on the floor. New lavtex base paints will cover them neatly without brush marks. Or if you can get the exact shade you want in one of the new aerosol spray cans, you can spray paint them as neatly as a factory job. As for suspension tape, you can get that now in virtually any contrasting or blending color you want. Or the ladies can die it as easily as they tint their frilly frills. Add Strength To Wood Frame Screen Corners WOOD FRAME window screens are easily reinforced at corners by using angle straps such as these, available at any hardware store. Brass with brass screws will insure against rust, Keeping New Doors From Warping Proper care 1s required to keep new doors from warping. Under the standard guaranty of the National Woodwork Man- ufacturers' Assn., paneled doors of ponderosa pine are warranted against a warp or twist of more than Y%-inch upon delivery. To maintain that standard, this treatment is recommended: (1) Store doors only in a dry room--never in a new building where plaster is wet. (2) Apply rimer coat immediately after delivery. (3) Never cut a lock mortise deeper than within one inch from the inside edge of a|- door stile. (4) Give the top and bottom edges of a door at least two coats of paint or varnish immediately after the door has been fitted, ardwood Can Floor You AYING a hardwood floor is one of the few phases of home rnization that has master. But that doesn't mean that the householder who pays the bill should not know what he is paying for by knowing how a quality floor is laid. And when a man is experienced in wood- working, the laying of a hard- wood floor is a challenge he will accept: An authority in the National Oak Flooring Manufacturers' Assn, puts it this way: "A fellow who is adept at working with wood can lay a hardwood strip floor with en- tirely satisfactory results, pro- vided he studies the approved rocedures in advance and fol- ows them carefully. Since the job does require skill, however, it is not recommended for the novice. Nor is even an advanced amateur advised to under' k a large scale installation, . as laying hardwood floors ug an entire house." New Trend in Floors Now that there's a lot of talk about styles changing and that women are talking about pol- ished floors instead of complete carpeting, you might want to know how strip flooring is laid, whether you swing the hammer or pay a man to do it. Most strip flooring nowadays is tongued and grooved at sides and ends so that the pieces join snugly to form a strong, solid unit, This material, whether it is oak, hard maple, birch, beech or pecan, comes in random lengths and in widths from 1% to 3% inches. The 2%sinch size is used most extensively. Uni- form widths a customarily used, although unusually dis- tinctive results can be achieved by using mixed widths. The material is available in several thicknesses. Your lum- ber dealer probably will rec- ommend the 25/32-inch thick- ness, since that is the size used mostly in new construction. Thinner sizes can be used over old finish floors. What Grades Mean There is a choice of several grades, both in unfinished stock ard in the prefinished variety. Prefinished flooring is complete- ly treated at the mill, even to the waxing and polishing. It is ready for service as soon as | it is laid. Unfinished flooring, of course, calls for sanding and finishing after installation. In unfinished oak, for exam- ple, you may select from amon three grades of quarter-sawe: stock and four grades of plain- sawed. Then there are three rades of prefinished oak. The ower grades cost less and are more than adequate in durabil- ity and all-around service, but the higher grades are more uniform in grain pattern and other natural appearances. Sound subflooring beneath strip hardwood flooring is a must for a top quality job. Con- ventional joist construction found in attics and throughout most houses calls for a subfloor of a good grade of lumber. The boards should be about an inch thick and not more than 6 inch- es wide. Wider boards are sub- ject to excessive expansion and contraction. Square-edged rath- er than tongue and grooved boards are preferred, since snug joining is avoided in subfloor- ing. Nailing a Subfloor The boards should be spaced about Y-inch apart and face- nailed solidly at every bearing point with two tenpenny nails. Plenty of nailing is of para- mount importance to avoid floor squeaks. For maximum firmness of a subfloor, arrange all boards so that joints always rest on bearing points. No board ends are allowed to hang between joists. In the best subflooring, boards are laid diagonally. This not only adds bracing strength to the building, but permits lay- ing the strip flooring either A lengthwise or crosswise in a [Steps Show Skill Needed To Get a Quality Floor FIRST SWEEP a subfloor clean and cover it with 15-lb. asphalt sat- urated felt. Stretch a line be- tween nails placed 8 inches out from a sidewall. This will be a guide for the first course. In many rooms the walls are not perfectly true. FIT THE GROOVE e strip over the tongue of preced- ing strip. Toe nail at 10-inch inter- vals at an angle of 50 degrees where tongue leaves the shoulder. Countersink all toe nailing. Screw- type nails are preferred for hold- ing power. TO FIT flooring around a door frame, place it flush with frame as shown here. Measure the gap and scribe carefully. Here the gap was 1 inch. Mark off the same dis- tance on the strip to be fitted around the frame and saw out along the mark. placed with groove edge facing the sidewall and groove end to- ward the endwall. Space to be hidden by shoemold is left for ex- pansion. This strip is face nailed every 10 inches. Measure from the string, then toe nail it. fot lig IPE ESE AEs 2 £5 AVOID GROUPING joints closer than 6 inches apart. Select sew eral varying lengths before nail ing. To cut a piece to finish @ course, reverse the strip when measuring. Always cut off the tongue end. Groove end must be retained for end joining. SPACE will not permit toe nailing the last two courses. So the next te the last course is merely fitted with- out nailing and final strip is face nailed. It is pulled up snug with a crowbar. Baseboard or wall is protected with cardboard. room. In a rectangular room, the finish flooring generally presents the most attractive ap- pearance when it runs in the direction of the longest dimen- sion. The laying of a hardwood floor should be delayed until other construction work is fin- ished. All plumbing, electrical wiring, plastering and painting must first be completed. In this way the floor will be protected from marring. Also the hard- wood will be guarded against excessive expansion and con- traction because of wet plaster. An excellent precaution is to have hardwood Booring deliv- ered at least four or five days before it is to be laid. In cold or damp weather maintain a temperature of about 70 de- rees in the room and pile the oring there loosely. This will condition the wood so that its moisture content will be ad- justed to that prevailing in the room. It possible, arrange for de- livery of your hardwood on a diy aay. If that is not practic- able, at least make sure that it is well covered from the time it leaves the warehouse until it is placed in the room. A Scrap Block Saves the Edge Of Floor Strips cohol--not anti-;