Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER TWELVE
poor folks lived on dirt.
And so did lots
of other, more solvent pioneers — at least temporar-
ily. They had no choice during those first hurried sea-
sons of clearing, getting seed into the earth, and mov-
ing out of the wagons that had been home for months.
A dirt floor meant the sill logs were also usually on
the ground, so these cabins didn't last long. I have not
seen a hewn-log house with a dirt floor, and only a few
round-log huts, in the wearing-out days of the Depres-
sion, laid on dirt.
I remember temporary camps and communes built
during the 1970s in which the buildings were set on
dirt for a while, but “back-to-the-earth” movements
were hardly authentically pioneer.
Watered and tamped periodically, dirt served well
enough, apparently, because many of our ancestors
seem to have survived on it. As soon as possible, how-
ever, something more permanent and satisfactory was
added.
Puncheon Floors
The puncheon floor in its pure form was round logs
split down the center, with each half laid in the
ground, flat-side up. The splintery surfaces were
worked with an adze to give a rough but very solid
floor. Sometimes this was rubbed with stones and
sand to smooth it further.
Again, the earth did its work on these timbers, and
they did not last. So, often the puncheons were raised,
becoming a sort of continuous expanse of floor joists,
with ends wedged between the sills and next logs up.
These raised puncheons were fitted more carefully at
Staircase at Page Meadows. Basement stairs are “stacked” beneath
the main staircase. John Beard, of Free Union, Virginia, made the rail-
ings. The floors in the house were in mixed condition. Where possible,
we kept the original, resanding and waxing. Where too deteriorated,
we replaced it with remilled old heart pine.
their edges because drafts and small creatures could
enter there. Typically, these raised puncheons were
installed green, with a handsaw cut run between them
for a close-fitting trim. As they shrank, these were
moved together and another puncheon installed to
take up the space.
