Now this might not sound like the most interesting topic, but you might be surprised!
Take a look down at your floor. Hopefully you’ve got some nice, lovely flooring there, whether you’re at work or at home. But obviously flooring hasn’t always looked like that. In fact, it’s changed quite a bit over the years, and by ‘years’ we mean literally thousands of years.
This infographic takes a look at just how much flooring has changed, and on the whole we can count ourselves pretty lucky that it’s come on as far as it has.
Let’s start at the beginning. Obviously back when we were cavemen and communicated through grunts and cave paintings, there was no such thing as carpet or wooden flooring, and so the floor of houses or huts or caves or wherever they lived was simply just earth or stone. Earthen floors were pretty common for quite a long time, up until around the 14th century, particularly for poorer people.
Stone and concrete were the next logical steps and many houses, temples and other buildings adopted stone and concrete floors. The type of stone varied, so some might have posh marble floors, whilst others might have granite, limestone or slate. As with most things, the Romans were pretty forward thinking in this area and actually used a substance very similar the same kind of cement we use today. Major landmarks such as the Pantheon in Rome used the substance and is still there today.
Then we come onto carpets, which were actually primarily used to decorate walls and tables until they become popular to put on the floor in the form of Persian rugs in the 17th century. Carpet on the walls; who’d have thought it?
Ceramic tiles were also pretty popular with the Romans, which is why you can see them in the absolutely amazing Vatican. They didn’t become really popular in Europe, however, until the mid-19th century.
Then we come to hardwood floors, which have been around for a lot longer than many people believe. We’re looking at around 1600AD where the wood was supported on joists over a dirt or stone underfloor, but stunning parquet floors soon followed and are still considered a more indulgent option.
Fast forward a bit and we get to linoleum in the 19th century, which was incredibly popular before World War II but is actually increasing in popularity again now. And then there’s wooden floor that many of us have in our houses today in some form, whether that’s engineered, solid wood or laminate.
So there we go. See, that was a little more interesting than you originally thought, wasn’t it?
