Solid wood flooring has been around for hundreds of years. It was at this time that the first settlers landed along the Eastern Seaboard from Europe, fell their own trees, began to build homes, and settle what would become the United States of America. We’ve come a long way in the last 400 years, from hand saws, live edge pine boards, antique nails and turpentine sealer. Instead of it taking over a year to prepare flooring to be installed, you can have new floors installed the very next day – thank goodness for modern manufacturing!
When you look at the history of solid wood flooring throughout the world, another equally famous wood floor is oak. If you travel throughout Europe, you’ll find country manors and castles with solid oak flooring. Like the first floors in America, oak flooring was installed to serve a utilitarian purpose – lay the foundation to build a home or barn, build a strong structure and help keep it warm.
Around 1684 though, solid wood flooring evolved from purely utilitarian, to becoming an intentional architectural design element. It was at this time when the “parquet de Versailles” flooring was introduced at the Palace de Versailles in France. This design features interlacing geometric shapes for a very distinct look – no wonder it shows up so prominently in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.
