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History
The evolution of the kitchen is linked to the invention of the cooking range or stove and the development of water infrastructure capable of supplying water to private homes. Until the 18th century, food was cooked over an open fire. Technical advances in heating food in the 18th and 19th centuries, changed the architecture of the kitchen. Before the advent of modern pipes, water was brought from an outdoor source such as wells, pumps or springs.

Antiquity
The houses in Ancient Greece were commonly of the atrium-type: the rooms were arranged around a central courtyard. In many such homes, a covered but otherwise open patio served as the kitchen. Homes of the wealthy had the kitchen as a separate room, usually next to a bathroom (so that both rooms could be heated by the kitchen fire), both rooms being accessible from the court. In such houses, there was often a separate small storage room in the back of the kitchen used for storing food and kitchen utensils.

The roasting spit in this European medieval kitchen was driven automatically by a propeller�the black cloverleaf-like structure in the upper left.Early medieval European longhouses had an open fire under the highest point of the building. The "kitchen area" was between the entrance and the fireplace. In wealthy homes there was typically more than one kitchen. In some homes there were upwards of three kitchens. The kitchens were divided based on the types of food prepared in them.[1] In place of a chimney, these early buildings had a hole in the roof through which some of the smoke could escape. Besides cooking, the fire also served as a source of heat and light to the single-room building. A similar design can be found in the Iroquois longhouses of North America.

In the larger homesteads of European nobles, the kitchen was sometimes in a separate sunken floor building to keep the main building, which served social and official purposes, free from indoor smoke.

The first known stoves in Japan date from about the same time. The earliest findings are from the Kofun period (3rd to 6th century). These stoves, called kamado, were typically made of clay and mortar; they were fired with wood or charcoal through a hole in the front and had a hole in the top, into which a pot could be hanged by its rim. This type of stove remained in use for centuries to come, with only minor modifications. Like in Europe, the wealthier homes had a separate building which served for cooking. A kind of open fire pit fired with charcoal, called irori, remained in use as the secondary stove in most homes until the Edo period (17th to 19th century). A kamado was used to cook the staple food, for instance rice, while irori served both to cook side dishes and as a heat source.

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Bridgeport
Bridgewater
Bristol
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Brooklyn
Burlington
Canaan
Canterbury
Canton
Chaplin
Cheshire
Chester
Clinton
Colchester
Colebrook
Columbia
Cornwall
Coventry
Cromwell
Danbury
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Deep River
Derby
Durham
East Granby
East Haddam
East Hampton
East Hartford East Haven
East Lyme
East Windsor
Eastford
Easton
Ellington
Enfield
Essex
Fairfield
Farmington
Franklin
Glastonbury
Goshen
Granby
Greenwich
Griswold
Groton
Guilford
Haddam
Hamden
Hampton
Hartford
Hartland
Harwinton
Hebron
Kent
Killingly
Killingworth
Lebanon
Ledyard
Lisbon
Litchfield
Lyme
Madison
Manchester
Mansfield
Marlborough
Meriden
Middlebury
Middlefield
Middletown
Milford
Monroe
Montville
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Newington
Newtown
New Britain
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New Hartford
New Haven
New London
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Norfolk
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North Canaan
North Haven
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Norwalk
Norwich
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Orange
Oxford
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Plainville
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Pomfret
Portland
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Prospect
Putnam
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Rocky Hill
Roxbury
Salem
Salisbury
Scotland
Seymour
Sharon
Shelton
Sherman
Simsbury
Somers
South Windsor
Southbury
Southington
Sprague
Stafford
Stamford
Sterling
Stonington
Stratford
Suffield
Thomaston
Thompson
Tolland
Torrington
Trumbull
Union
Vernon
Voluntown
Wallingford
Warren
Washington
Waterbury
Waterford
Watertown
West Hartford
West Haven
The kitchen remained largely unaffected by architectural advances throughout the Middle Ages; open fire remained the only method of heating food. European medieval kitchens were dark, smoky, and sooty places, whence their name "smoke kitchen". In European medieval cities around the 10th to 12th centuries, the kitchen still used an open fire hearth in the middle of the room. In wealthy homes, the ground floor was often used as a stable while the kitchen was located on the floor above, like the bedroom and the hall. In castles and monasteries, the living and working areas were separated; the kitchen was sometimes moved to a separate building, and thus could not serve anymore to heat the living rooms. In some castles the kitchen was retained in the same structure, but servants were strictly separated from nobles, by constructing separate spiral stone staircases for use of servants to bring food to upper levels. An extant example of such a medieval kitchen with servants' staircase is at Muchalls Castle in Scotland. In Japanese homes, the kitchen started to become a separate room within the main building at that time.

18th century cooks tended a fire and endured smoke in this Swiss farmhouse smoke kitchen.With the advent of the chimney, the hearth moved from the center of the room to one wall, and the first brick-and-mortar hearths were built. The fire was lit on top of the construction; a vault underneath served to store wood. Pots made of iron, bronze, or copper started to replace the pottery used earlier. The temperature was controlled by hanging the pot higher or lower over the fire, or placing it on a trivet or directly on the hot ashes. Using open fire for cooking (and heating) was risky; fires devastating whole cities occurred frequently.
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Avon
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Berlin
Bethany
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Seymour
Sharon
Shelton
Sherman
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South Windsor
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Stafford
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Leonardo da Vinci invented an automated system for a rotating spit for spit-roasting: a propeller in the chimney made the spit turn all by itself. This kind of system was widely used in wealthier homes. Beginning in the late Middle Ages, kitchens in Europe lost their home-heating function even more and were increasingly moved from the living area into a separate room. The living room was now heated by tiled stoves, operated from the kitchen, which offered the huge advantage of not filling the room with smoke.

Freed from smoke and dirt, the living room thus began to serve as an area for social functions and increasingly became a showcase for the owner's wealth. In the upper classes, cooking and the kitchen were the domain of the servants, and the kitchen was set apart from the living rooms, sometimes even far from the dining room. Poorer homes often did not have a separate kitchen yet; they kept the one-room arrangement where all activities took place, or at the most had the kitchen in the entrance hall.

The medieval smoke kitchen (or Farmhouse kitchen) remained common, especially in rural farmhouses and generally in poorer homes, until much later. In a few European farmhouses, the smoke kitchen was in regular use until the middle of the 20th century. These houses often had no chimney, but only a smoke hood above the fireplace, made of wood and covered with clay, used to smoke meat. The smoke rose more or less freely, warming the upstairs rooms and protecting the woodwork from vermin.

[edit] Colonial American kitchens
In Colonial America, the pioneers cooked over a fireplace in a corner of the cabin. The kitchen became a separate room only later. In the south, where the climate and sociological conditions differed, the kitchen was often relegated to an outhouse, separate from the mansion, for much of the same reasons as in the feudal kitchen in medieval Europe: the kitchen was operated by slaves, and their working place had to be separated from the living area of the masters by the social standards of the time. Separate "summer kitchens" were also common on large farms in the north. These were used to prepare meals for harvest workers and tasks such as canning.

Andover
Ansonia
Ashford
Avon
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Beacon Falls
Berlin
Bethany
Bethel
Bethlehem
Bloomfield
Bolton
Bozrah
Branford
Bridgeport
Bridgewater
Bristol
Brookfield
Brooklyn
Burlington
Canaan
Canterbury
Canton
Chaplin
Cheshire
Chester
Clinton
Colchester
Colebrook
Columbia
Cornwall
Coventry
Cromwell
Danbury
Darien
Deep River
Derby
Durham
East Granby
East Haddam
East Hampton
East Hartford East Haven
East Lyme
East Windsor
Eastford
Easton
Ellington
Enfield
Essex
Fairfield
Farmington
Franklin
Glastonbury
Goshen
Granby
Greenwich
Griswold
Groton
Guilford
Haddam
Hamden
Hampton
Hartford
Hartland
Harwinton
Hebron
Kent
Killingly
Killingworth
Lebanon
Ledyard
Lisbon
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Lyme
Madison
Manchester
Mansfield
Marlborough
Meriden
Middlebury
Middlefield
Middletown
Milford
Monroe
Montville
Morris
Naugatuck
Newington
Newtown
New Britain
New Canaan
New Fairfield
New Hartford
New Haven
New London
New Milford
Norfolk
North Branford
North Canaan
North Haven
North Stonington
Norwalk
Norwich
Old Lyme
Old Saybrook
Orange
Oxford
Plainfield
Plainville
Plymouth
Pomfret
Portland
Preston
Prospect
Putnam
Redding
Ridgefield
Rocky Hill
Roxbury
Salem
Salisbury
Scotland
Seymour
Sharon
Shelton
Sherman
Simsbury
Somers
South Windsor
Southbury
Southington
Sprague
Stafford
Stamford
Sterling
Stonington
Stratford
Suffield
Thomaston
Thompson
Tolland
Torrington
Trumbull
Union
Vernon
Voluntown
Wallingford
Warren
Washington
Waterbury
Waterford
Watertown
West Hartford
West Haven

A typical rural American kitchen of 1918 at The Sauer-Beckmann Farmstead, TexasTechnological advances during industrialization brought major changes to the kitchen. Iron stoves, which enclosed the fire completely and were more efficient, appeared. Early models included the Franklin stove around 1740, which was a furnace stove intended for heating, not for cooking. Benjamin Thompson in England designed his "Rumford stove" around 1800. This stove was much more energy efficient than earlier stoves; it used one fire to heat several pots, which were hung into holes on top of the stove and were thus heated from all sides instead of just from the bottom. However, his stove was designed for large kitchens; it was too big for domestic use. The "Oberlin stove" was a refinement of the technique that resulted in a size reduction; it was patented in the U.S. in 1834 and became a commercial success with some 90,000 units sold over the next 30 years. These stoves were still fired with wood or coal. Although the first gas street lamps were installed in Paris, London, and Berlin at the beginning of the 1820s and the first U.S. patent on a gas stove was granted in 1825, it was not until the late 19th century that using gas for lighting and cooking became commonplace in urban areas.

The urbanization in the second half of the 19th century induced other significant changes that would ultimately change the kitchen. Out of sheer necessity, cities began planning and building water distribution pipes into homes, and built sewers to deal with the waste water. Gas pipes were laid; gas was used first for lighting purposes, but once the network had grown sufficiently, it also became available for heating and cooking on gas stoves. At the turn of the 20th century, electricity had been mastered well enough to become a commercially viable alternative to gas and slowly started replacing the latter. But like the gas stove, the electrical stove had a slow start. The first electrical stove had been presented in 1893 at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, but it was not until the 1930s that the technology was stable enough and began to take off.

Industrialization also caused social changes. The new factory working class in the cities was housed under generally poor conditions. Whole families lived in small one or two-room apartments in tenement buildings up to six stories high, badly aired and with insufficient lighting. Sometimes, they shared apartments with "night sleepers", unmarried men who paid for a bed at night. The kitchen in such an apartment was often used as a living and sleeping room, and even as a bathroom. Water had to be fetched from wells and heated on the stove. Water pipes were laid only towards the end of the 19th century, and then often only with one tap per building or per story. Brick-and-mortar stoves fired with coal remained the norm until well into the second half of the century. Pots and kitchenware were typically stored on open shelves, and parts of the room could be separated from the rest using simple curtains.

In contrast, there were no dramatic changes for the upper classes. The kitchen, located in the basement or the ground floor, continued to be operated by servants. In some houses, water pumps were installed, and some even had kitchen sinks and drains (but no water on tap yet, except for some feudal kitchens in castles). The kitchen became a much cleaner space with the advent of "cooking machines", closed stoves made of iron plates and fired by wood and increasingly charcoal or coal, and that had flue pipes connected to the chimney. For the servants the kitchen continued to also serve as a sleeping room; they slept either on the floor, or later in narrow spaces above a lowered ceiling, for the new stoves with their smoke outlet no longer required a high ceiling in the kitchen. The kitchen floors were tiled; kitchenware was neatly stored in cupboards to protect them from dust and steam. A large table served as a workbench; there were at least as many chairs as there were servants, for the table in the kitchen also doubled as the eating place for the servants.

The middle class tried to imitate the luxurious dining styles of the upper class as best as it could. Living in smaller apartments, the kitchen was the main room�here, the family lived. The study or living room was saved for special occasions such as an occasional dinner invitation. Because of this, these middle-class kitchens were often more homely than those of the upper class, where the kitchen was a work-only room occupied only by the servants. Besides a cupboard to store the kitchenware, there were a table and chairs, where the family would dine, and sometimes�if space allowed�even a fauteuil or a couch.

Gas pipes were first laid in the late 19th century, and gas stoves started to replace the older coal-fired stoves. Gas was more expensive than coal, though, and thus the new technology was first installed in the wealthier homes. Where workers' apartments were equipped with a gas stove, gas distribution would go through a coin meter.

In rural areas, the older technology using coal or wood stoves or even brick-and-mortar open fireplaces remained common throughout. Gas and water pipes were first installed in the big cities; small villages were connected only much later.

The Poggenpohl kitchen, 1892To streamline work processes, Taylorism and time-motion studies were used to optimize processes. The German kitchen brand 'Poggenpohl', established in 1892 by Friedemir Poggenpohl, introduced ergonomic work-top heights & storage chutes that were later adopted by Sch�tte-Lihotzk's Frankfurt Kitchen. These ideas also spilled over into domestic kitchen architecture because of a growing trend that called for a professionalization of household work, noted in the mid-19th century by Catharine Beecher and amplified by Christine Frederick's publications in the 1910s.

The Frankfurt kitchen using Taylorist principlesWorking class women frequently worked in factories to ensure the family's survival, as the men's wages often did not suffice. Social housing projects led to the next milestone: the "Frankfurt kitchen". Developed in 1926, this kitchen measured 1.9 m by 3.4 m (approximately 6 ft 2 inby 11 ft 2 in, with a standard layout. It was built for two purposes: to optimize kitchen work to reduce cooking time (so that women would have more time for the factory) and to lower the cost of building decently-equipped kitchens. The design, created by Margarete Sch�tte-Lihotzky, was the result of detailed time-motion studies and heavily influenced by the railway dining car kitchens of the period. It was built in some 10,000 apartments in a social housing project of architect Ernst May in Frankfurt.

The initial reception was heavily critical: people were not accustomed to the changed processes also designed by Sch�tte-Lihotzky; it was so small that only one person could work in it; some storage spaces intended for raw loose food ingredients such as flour were reachable by children. But the Frankfurt kitchen embodied a standard for the rest of the 20th century in rental apartments: the "work kitchen". Too small to live or dine in, it was soon criticized as "exiling the women in the kitchen", but the post-World War II conservatism coupled with economic reasons prevailed. The kitchen once more was seen as a work place that needed to be separated from the living areas. Practical reasons also played a role in this development: just as in the bourgeois homes of the past, one reason for separating the kitchen was to keep the steam and smells of cooking out of the living room.

Friedemir Poggenpohl, led innovation in the kitchen area by presenting the 'reform kitchen' in 1928 with interconnecting cabinets & functional interiors. The reform kitchen was a forerunner to the later unit kitchen, & fitted kitchen. In 1950, Poggenpohl presents the form 1000, the world's first unit kitchen, at the Furniture Fair in Cologne.

Technicalization

Stainless steel home appliances popular in modern western kitchensThe idea of standardized dimensions and layout developed for the Frankfurt kitchen took hold while Poggenpohl began exporting to neighboring countries which for the first time required a kitchen specifier known today as a kitchen designer. The equipment used remained a standard for years to come: hot and cold water on tap and a kitchen sink and an electrical or gas stove and oven. Not much later, the refrigerator was added as a standard item. The concept was refined in the "Swedish kitchen" using unit furniture with wooden fronts for the kitchen cabinets. Soon the concept was amended by the use of smooth synthetic door and drawer fronts, first in white, recalling a sense of cleanliness and alluding to sterile lab or hospital settings, but soon after in more lively colors, too. A trend began in the 1940s in the United States to equip the kitchen with electrified small and large kitchen appliances such as blenders, toasters, and later also microwave ovens. Following the end of World War II, massive demand in Europe for low-price, high-tech consumer goods led to Western European kitchens being designed to accommodate new appliances such as refrigerators and electric/gas cookers.

Parallel to this development in tenement buildings was the evolution of the kitchen in homeowner's houses. There, the kitchens usually were somewhat larger, suitable for everyday use as a dining room, but otherwise the ongoing technicalization was the same, and the use of unit furniture also became a standard in this market sector.

General technocentric enthusiasm even led some designers to take the "work kitchen" approach even further, culminating in futuristic designs like Luigi Colani's "kitchen satellite" (1969, commissioned by the German high-end kitchen manufacturer Poggenpohl for an exhibit), in which the room was reduced to a ball with a chair in the middle and all appliances at arm's length, an optimal arrangement maybe for "applying heat to food", but not necessarily for actual cooking. Such extravaganzas remained outside the norm, though.

In the former Eastern bloc countries, the official doctrine viewed cooking as a mere necessity, and women should work "for the society" in factories, not at home. Also, housing had to be built at low costs and quickly, which led directly to the standardized apartment block using prefabricated slabs. The kitchen was reduced to its minimums and the "work kitchen" paradigm taken to its extremes: in East Germany for instance, the standard tenement block of the model "P2" had tiny 4 m� kitchens in the inside of the building (no windows), connected to the dining and living room of the 55 m� apartment and separated from the latter by a pass-through or a window.

Open kitchens
Starting in the 1980s, the perfection of the extractor hood allowed an open kitchen again, integrated more or less with the living room without causing the whole apartment or house to smell. Before that, only a few earlier experiments, typically in newly built upper middle class family homes, had open kitchens.

Examples are Frank Lloyd Wright's House Willey (1934) and House Jacobs (1936). Both had open kitchens, with high ceilings (up to the roof) and were aired by skylights. The extractor hood made it possible to build open kitchens in apartments, too, where both high ceilings and skylights were not possible.

The re-integration of the kitchen and the living area went hand in hand with a change in the perception of cooking: increasingly, cooking was seen as a creative and sometimes social act instead of work, especially in upper social classes. Besides, many families also appreciated the trend towards open kitchens, as it made it easier for the parents to supervise the children while cooking.

The enhanced status of cooking also made the kitchen a prestige object for showing off one's wealth or cooking professionalism. Some architects have capitalized on this "object" aspect of the kitchen by designing freestanding "kitchen objects". However, like their precursor, Colani's "kitchen satellite", such futuristic designs are exceptions.

Another reason for the trend back to open kitchens (and a foundation of the "kitchen object" philosophy) is changes in how food is prepared. Whereas prior to the 1950s most cooking started out with raw ingredients and a meal had to be prepared from scratch, the advent of frozen meals and pre-prepared convenience food changed the cooking habits of many people, who consequently used the kitchen less and less. For others, who followed the "cooking as a social act" trend, the open kitchen had the advantage that they could be with their guests while cooking, and for the "creative cooks" it might even become a stage for their cooking performance. The "Trophy Kitchen" is highly equipped with very expensive and sophisticated appliances which are used primarily to impress visitors and to project social status, rather than for actual cooking.

[edit] Domestic kitchen planning

Beecher's "model kitchen" brought early ergonomic principles to the homeDomestic kitchen design per se is a relatively recent discipline. The first ideas to optimize the work in the kitchen go back to Catharine Beecher's A Treatise on Domestic Economy (1843, revised and republished together with her sister Harriet Beecher Stowe as The American Woman's Home in 1869). Beecher's "model kitchen" propagated for the first time a systematic design based on early ergonomics. The design included regular shelves on the walls, ample work space, and dedicated storage areas for various food items. Beecher even separated the functions of preparing food and cooking it altogether by moving the stove into a compartment adjacent to the kitchen.

A single-file kitchen (or one-way galley) has all of these along one wall; the work triangle degenerates to a line. This is not optimal, but often the only solution if space is restricted. This may be common in an attic space that is being converted into a living space, or a studio apartment.

The double-file kitchen (or two-way galley) has two rows of cabinets at opposite walls, one containing the stove and the sink, the other the refrigerator. This is the classical work kitchen.
In the L-kitchen, the cabinets occupy two adjacent walls. Again, the work triangle is preserved, and there may even be space for an additional table at a third wall, provided it does not intersect the triangle.
A U-kitchen has cabinets along three walls, typically with the sink at the base of the "U". This is a typical work kitchen, too, unless the two other cabinet rows are short enough to place a table at the fourth wall.
The block kitchen (or island) is a more recent development, typically found in open kitchens. Here, the stove or both the stove and the sink are placed where an L or U kitchen would have a table, in a freestanding "island", separated from the other cabinets. In a closed room, this does not make much sense, but in an open kitchen, it makes the stove accessible from all sides such that two persons can cook together, and allows for contact with guests or the rest of the family, since the cook does not face the wall anymore.
In the 1980s there was a backlash against industrial kitchen planning and cabinets with people installing a mix of work surfaces and free standing furniture, led by kitchen designer Johnny Grey and his concept of the "Unfitted Kitchen".

Modern kitchens often have enough informal space to allow for people to eat in it without having to use the formal dining room. Such areas are called "breakfast areas", "breakfast nooks" or "breakfast bars" if the space is integrated into a kitchen counter. Kitchens with enough space to eat in are sometimes called "eat-in kitchens".

Other kitchen types

canteen kitchenRestaurant and canteen kitchens found in hotels, hospitals, educational & work place facilities, army barracks, and similar establishments are generally (in developed countries) subject to public health laws. They are inspected periodically by public-health officials, and forced to close if they do not meet hygienic requirements mandated by law.

Canteen kitchens (and castle kitchens) were often the places where new technology was used first. For instance, Benjamin Thompson's "energy saving stove", an early-19th century fully-closed iron stove using one fire to heat several pots, was designed for large kitchens; another thirty years passed before they were adapted for domestic use.

Today's western restaurant kitchens typically have tiled walls and floors and use stainless steel for other surfaces (workbench, but also door and drawer fronts) because these materials are durable and easy to clean. Professional kitchens are often equipped with gas stoves, as these allow cooks to regulate the heat quicker and more finely than electrical stoves. Some special appliances are typical for professional kitchens, such as large installed deep fryers, steamers, or a Bain Marie. (As of 2004[update], steamers�not to be confused with a pressure cooker�are beginning to find their way into domestic households, sometimes as a combined appliance of oven and steamer.)

The Food Technology room at Marling School in Stroud, Gloucestershire.The fast food and convenience food trends have also changed the way restaurant kitchens operate. There is a trend for restaurants to only "finish" delivered convenience food or even just re-heat completely prepared meals, maybe at the utmost grilling a hamburger or a steak.

The kitchens in railway dining cars present special challenges: space is constrained, and nevertheless the personnel must be able to serve a great number of meals quickly. Especially in the early history of the railway this required flawless organization of processes; in modern times, the microwave oven and prepared meals have made this task a lot easier. Galleys are kitchens aboard ships or aircraft (although the term galley is also often used to refer to a railroad dining car's kitchen). On yachts, galleys are often cramped, with one or two gas burners fuelled by a gas bottle, but kitchens on cruise ships or large warships are comparable in every respect with restaurants or canteen kitchens.

On passenger airplanes, the kitchen is reduced to a mere pantry, the only function reminiscent of a kitchen is the heating of in-flight meals delivered by a catering company. An extreme form of the kitchen occurs in space, e.g. aboard a Space Shuttle (where it is also called the "galley") or the International Space Station. The astronauts' food is generally completely prepared, dehydrated, and sealed in plastic pouches, and the kitchen is reduced to a rehydration and heating module.

Outdoor areas in which food is prepared are generally not considered to be kitchens, although an outdoor area set up for regular food preparation, for instance when camping, might be called an "outdoor kitchen". Military camps and similar temporary settlements of nomads may have dedicated kitchen tents.

In Schools where Home Economics (HE) or Food technology (previously known as Domestic science) is taught, there will be a series of kitchens with multiple equipment (similar in some respects to laboratories) solely for the purpose of teaching. These will consist of between 6 and 12 workstations, each with their own oven, sink and kitchen utensils.

Connecticut is bordered on the south by Long Island Sound, on the west by New York State, on the north by Massachusetts, and on the east by Rhode Island. The state capital is Hartford, and the other major cities include Bridgeport, New Haven, Stamford, Waterbury, Danbury and New London. There are 169 incorporated towns in Connecticut.

Bear Mountain, highest peak in ConnecticutThe highest peak in Connecticut is Bear Mountain in Salisbury in the northwest corner of the state. The highest point is just east of where Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York meet (42� 3' N; 73� 29' W), on the southern slope of Mount Frissell, whose peak lies nearby in Massachusetts.[13]

The Connecticut River cuts through the center of the state, flowing into Long Island Sound, Connecticut's outlet to the Atlantic Ocean.

Further information: List of Connecticut rivers

Highest point in Connecticut on slope of Mount Frissell, as seen from Bear MountainDespite its size, the state has regional variations in its landscape and culture from the estates of Fairfield County's "Gold Coast" to the rolling mountains and horse-farms of the Litchfield Hills of northwestern Connecticut. Connecticut's rural areas and small towns in the northeast and northwest corners of the state contrast sharply with its industrial cities, located along the coastal highways from the New York border to New Haven, then northward to Hartford, as well as further up the coast near New London. Many towns center around a "green," such as the New Haven Green, Litchfield Green, Simsbury Green, Lebanon Green (the largest in the state), and Wethersfield Green (the oldest in the state). Near the green typically stand historical visual symbols of New England towns, such as a white church, a colonial meeting house, a colonial tavern or "inne," several colonial houses, etc., establishing a scenic historic appearance maintained for both historic preservation and tourism.

Due to the climate, degree of urbanization, and economic status of the state, it offers easily accessed forests, rivers, lakes, waterfalls and a coastline, all developed for recreation.

Further information: List of Connecticut state forests
The northern boundary of the state with Massachusetts is marked by the distinctive Southwick Jog or Granby Notch, an approximately 2.5 mile (4.0 km) square detour into Connecticut. The actual origin of this anomaly is clearly established in a long line of disputes and temporary agreements which was finally concluded in 1804, when southern Southwick, (whose residents sought to leave Massachusetts), was split in half.[14][15]

Although Connecticut has a long maritime history, and a reputation based on that history, Connecticut has no direct access to the sea. The jurisdiction of New York actually extends east at Fishers Island, where New York shares a sea border with Rhode Island dividing Narragansett Bay. Although Connecticut has easy access to the Atlantic, between Long Island Sound and Block Island Sound, Connecticut has no direct ocean coast.

we provide service in the following towns

Andover
Ansonia
Ashford
Avon
Barkhamsted
Beacon Falls
Berlin
Bethany
Bethel
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Bloomfield
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Bozrah
Branford
Bridgeport
Bridgewater
Bristol
Brookfield
Brooklyn
Burlington
Canaan

Canterbury
Canton
Chaplin
Cheshire
Chester
Clinton
Colchester
Colebrook
Columbia
Cornwall
Coventry
Cromwell
Danbury
Darien
Deep River
Derby
Durham
East Granby
East Haddam

East Hampton
East Hartford East Haven
East Lyme
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Eastford
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Essex
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Greenwich
Griswold
Groton
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Haddam
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Hartford
Hartland
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Hebron
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Salem
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Scotland
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Trumbull
Union
Vernon
Voluntown

Wallingford
Warren
Washington
Waterbury
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West Hartford
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Westbrook
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Woodbury
Woodstock

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The evolution of the kitchen is linked to the invention of the cooking range or stove and the development of water infrastructure capable of supplying water to private homes. Until the 18th century, food was cooked over an open fire. Technical advances in heating food in the 18th and 19th centuries, changed the architecture of the kitchen. Before the advent of modern pipes, water was brought from an outdoor source such as wells, pumps or springs.

] Antiquity
The houses in Ancient Greece were commonly of the atrium-type: the rooms were arranged around a central courtyard. In many such homes, a covered but otherwise open patio served as the kitchen. Homes of the wealthy had the kitchen as a separate room, usually next to a bathroom (so that both rooms could be heated by the kitchen fire), both rooms being accessible from the court. In such houses, there was often a separate small storage room in the back of the kitchen used for storing food and kitchen utensils.

In the Roman Empire, common folk in cities often had no kitchen of their own; they did their cooking in large public kitchens. Some had small mobile bronze stoves, on which a fire could be lit for cooking. Wealthy Romans had relatively well-equipped kitchens. In a Roman villa, the kitchen was typically integrated into the main building as a separate room, set apart for practical reasons of smoke and sociological reasons of the kitchen being operated by slaves. The fireplace was typically on the floor, placed at a wall�sometimes raised a little bit�such that one had to kneel to cook. There were no chimneys.

[edit] Middle Ages

The roasting spit in this European medieval kitchen was driven automatically by a propeller�the black cloverleaf-like structure in the upper left.Early medieval European longhouses had an open fire under the highest point of the building. The "kitchen area" was between the entrance and the fireplace. In wealthy homes there was typically more than one kitchen. In some homes there were upwards of three kitchens. The kitchens were divided based on the types of food prepared in them.[1] In place of a chimney, these early buildings had a hole in the roof through which some of the smoke could escape. Besides cooking, the fire also served as a source of heat and light to the single-room building. A similar design can be found in the Iroquois longhouses of North America.

Contents [hide]
1 Etymology
2 History
3 Types of windows
3.1 Double-hung sash window
3.2 Single-hung sash window
3.3 Horizontal sliding sash window
3.4 Casement window
3.4.1 Awning window
3.4.2 Hopper window
3.5 Tilt and slide window
3.5.1 Tilt and turn window
3.6 Transom window
3.7 Jalousie window
3.8 Clerestory window
3.9 Skylight
3.10 Roof window
3.11 Roof lantern
3.12 Bay window
3.13 Oriel window
3.14 Thermal window
3.15 Fixed window
3.16 Picture window
3.17 Multi-lit window
3.18 Emergency exit/egress window
3.19 Stained glass window
3.20 French window
4 Technical terms
5 Window construction
5.1 Grids or Muntins
5.2 Frame and sash construction
5.3 Glazing and filling
5.4 Other construction details
6 Windows and the sun
6.1 Sun incidence angle
6.2 Solar window
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

The kitchen remained largely unaffected by architectural advances throughout the Middle Ages; open fire remained the only method of heating food. European medieval kitchens were dark, smoky, and sooty places, whence their name "smoke kitchen". In European medieval cities around the 10th to 12th centuries, the kitchen still used an open fire hearth in the middle of the room. In wealthy homes, the ground floor was often used as a stable while the kitchen was located on the floor above, like the bedroom and the hall. In castles and monasteries, the living and working areas were separated; the kitchen was sometimes moved to a separate building, and thus could not serve anymore to heat the living rooms. In some castles the kitchen was retained in the same structure, but servants were strictly separated from nobles, by constructing separate spiral stone staircases for use of servants to bring food to upper levels. An extant example of such a medieval kitchen with servants' staircase is at Muchalls Castle in Scotland. In Japanese homes, the kitchen started to become a separate room within the main building at that time.

18th century cooks tended a fire and endured smoke in this Swiss farmhouse smoke kitchen.With the advent of the chimney, the hearth moved from the center of the room to one wall, and the first brick-and-mortar hearths were built. The fire was lit on top of the construction; a vault underneath served to store wood. Pots made of iron, bronze, or copper started to replace the pottery used earlier. The temperature was controlled by hanging the pot higher or lower over the fire, or placing it on a trivet or directly on the hot ashes. Using open fire for cooking (and heating) was risky; fires devastating whole cities occurred frequently.

Leonardo da Vinci invented an automated system for a rotating spit for spit-roasting: a propeller in the chimney made the spit turn all by itself. This kind of system was widely used in wealthier homes. Beginning in the late Middle Ages, kitchens in Europe lost their home-heating function even more and were increasingly moved from the living area into a separate room. The living room was now heated by tiled stoves, operated from the kitchen, which offered the huge advantage of not filling the room with smoke.

Freed from smoke and dirt, the living room thus began to serve as an area for social functions and increasingly became a showcase for the owner's wealth. In the upper classes, cooking and the kitchen were the domain of the servants, and the kitchen was set apart from the living rooms, sometimes even far from the dining room. Poorer homes often did not have a separate kitchen yet; they kept the one-room arrangement where all activities took place, or at the most had the kitchen in the entrance hall.

The medieval smoke kitchen (or Farmhouse kitchen) remained common, especially in rural farmhouses and generally in poorer homes, until much later. In a few European farmhouses, the smoke kitchen was in regular use until the middle of the 20th century. These houses often had no chimney, but only a smoke hood above the fireplace, made of wood and covered with clay, used to smoke meat. The smoke rose more or less freely, warming the upstairs rooms and protecting the woodwork from vermin.

[edit] Colonial American kitchens
In Colonial America, the pioneers cooked over a fireplace in a corner of the cabin. The kitchen became a separate room only later. In the south, where the climate and sociological conditions differed, the kitchen was often relegated to an outhouse, separate from the mansion, for much of the same reasons as in the feudal kitchen in medieval Europe: the kitchen was operated by slaves, and their working place had to be separated from the living area of the masters by the social standards of the time. Separate "summer kitchens" were also common on large farms in the north. These were used to prepare meals for harvest workers and tasks such as canning.

A cabinet is usually a box-shaped piece of furniture, either standing alone or built into or, like a medicine cabinet, attached to a wall. It is typically made of wood or, now increasingly, of synthetic materials, and used for storage of miscellaneous items.

Cabinets usually have one or more doors on the front that are mounted with door hardware and occasionally a lock; and may also contain drawers. Short cabinets often have a finished surface on top that can be used for display, or as a working surface such as the countertops found in kitchens.

A cabinet intended for clothing storage is usually called a wardrobe or an armoire (or a closet if built in). In previous centuries, such a cabinet was also known as a linen-press. In British usage, a wardrobe was occasionally referred to as an oakley[citation needed], because of the oak wood used in its construction. In India, a cabinet is often referred to as an Almari

Wood siding

A cabin covered in wood siding showing signs of deterioration and water damageWood siding in overlapping horizontal rows or "courses" is called clapboard. In colonial times, Eastern white pine was the most common material. Wood siding can also be made of naturally weather-resistant woods such as redwood or cedar. Jointed horizontal siding may be shiplapped.

Siding is the outer covering or cladding of a house meant to shed water and protect from the effects of weather. On a building that uses siding, it may act as a key element in the aesthetic beauty of the structure and directly impact its property value.

Since building materials expand and contract with changing temperature and humidity, it is not practical to make rigid joints between the siding elements.

Siding may be made of wood, metal, plastic (vinyl), masonry , or composite materials. It may be attached directly to the building structure (studs in the case of wood construction), or to an intermediate layer of horizontal planks called sheathing.

Contents [Vertical horizontal siding may have a cover over the joint: board and batten, popular in American wooden Carpenter Gothic houses; or less commonly behind the joint � batten and board.

Plywood sheet siding is sometimes used on inexpensive buildings, sometimes with grooves to imitate vertical shiplap siding. (One example of such grooved plywood siding is the type called T1-11 ["tee-one-eleven"�often written T111 ].)

Wood shingles or irregular cedar "shake" siding was used in early New England construction, and was revived in Shingle Style and Queen Anne style architecture in the late 19th century.

Wood siding is very versatile in style and can be used on a wide variety of homes in any color palette desired.

Though installation and repair is relatively simple, wood siding requires more maintenance than other popular solutions, requiring treatment every four to nine years depending on the severity of the elements to which it is exposed.

Siding may be formed of horizontal boards or vertical boards (known as weatherboarding in many countries), shingles, or sheet materials. In all four cases, avoiding wind and rain infiltration through the joints is a major challenge, met by overlapping, by covering or sealing the joint, or by creating an interlocking joint such as a tongue-and-groove or rabbet.

Ants and termites are a threat to many types of wood siding, such that extra treatment and maintenance that can significantly increase the cost in some pest-infested areas.

Wood is a moderately renewable resource and is biodegradable. However, most paints and stains used to treat wood are not environmentally friendly and can be toxic. Wood siding can provide some minor insulation and structural properties as compared to thinner cladding materials.

Plastic siding
Wood clapboard is often imitated using vinyl siding or uPVC weatherboarding. It is usually produced in units twice as high as clapboard. Plastic imitations of wood shingle and wood shakes also exist. Vinyl or plastic siding has grown in popularity due to the generally low maintenance and low cost appeal it offers.

Since plastic siding is a manufactured product, it may come in unlimited color choices. Historically vinyl sidings would fade, crack and buckle over time, requiring the siding to be replaced. However, newer vinyl options have improved and resist damage and wear better. Vinyl siding is sensitive to direct heat from grills, barbecues or other sources. Unlike wood, vinyl siding does not provide additional insulation for the building, unless an insulation material (e.g., foam) has been added to the product.

An environmental cost of vinyl siding is that it is difficult to dispose of responsibly. It cannot be burned (due to toxic dioxin gases that would be released) and currently it is not recycled.

[edit] Insulated siding
The foam provides rigidity for a more ding- and wind-resistant siding, maintaining a quality look for the life of the products. The foam backing also creates straighter lines when hung, providing a look more like that of wood siding, while remaining low maintenance.

Manufacturers report that insulated siding is permeable or �breathable,� allowing water vapor to escape, which can protect against rot, mold and mildew, and help maintain healthy indoor air quality.

It is important to note that the installation of many of the insulated sidings are done with an air gap located between the siding and the wall. When there is such an air gap, the effectiveness of the R value decreases dramatically as convective losses occur between the house wall and the siding - much as a wool hat does not keep you as warm when held 2" above your head.
Andover
Ansonia
Ashford
Avon
Barkhamsted
Beacon Falls
Berlin
Bethany
Bethel
Bethlehem
Bloomfield
Bolton
Bozrah
Branford
Bridgeport
Bridgewater
Bristol
Brookfield
Brooklyn
Burlington
Canaan
Canterbury
Canton
Chaplin
Cheshire
Chester
Clinton
Colchester
Colebrook
Columbia
Cornwall
Coventry
Cromwell
Danbury
Darien
Deep River
Derby
Durham
East Granby
East Haddam
East Hampton
East Hartford East Haven
East Lyme
East Windsor
Eastford
Easton
Ellington
Enfield
Essex
Fairfield
Farmington
Franklin
Glastonbury
Goshen
Granby
Greenwich
Griswold
Groton
Guilford
Haddam
Hamden
Hampton
Hartford
Hartland
Harwinton
Hebron
Kent
Killingly
Killingworth
Lebanon
Ledyard
Lisbon
Litchfield
Lyme
Madison
Manchester
Mansfield
Marlborough
Meriden
Middlebury
Middlefield
Middletown
Milford
Monroe
Montville
Morris
Naugatuck
Newington
Newtown
New Britain
New Canaan
New Fairfield
New Hartford
New Haven
New London
New Milford
Norfolk
North Branford
North Canaan
North Haven
North Stonington
Norwalk
Norwich
Old Lyme
Old Saybrook
Orange
Oxford
Plainfield
Plainville
Plymouth
Pomfret
Portland
Preston
Prospect
Putnam
Redding
Ridgefield
Rocky Hill
Roxbury
Salem
Salisbury
Scotland
Seymour
Sharon
Shelton
Sherman
Simsbury
Somers
South Windsor
Southbury
Southington
Sprague
Stafford
Stamford
Sterling
Stonington
Stratford
Suffield
Thomaston
Thompson
Tolland
Torrington
Trumbull
Union
Vernon
Voluntown
Wallingford
Warren
Washington
Waterbury
Waterford
Watertown
West Hartford
West Haven

Metal siding
See also: Copper cladding
Metal siding comes in a variety of metals, styles, and colors. It is most often associated with modern, industrial, and retro buildings. Utilitarian buildings often use corrugated galvanized steel sheet siding or cladding, which often has a coloured vinyl finish. Corrugated aluminium cladding is also common where a more durable finish is required.

Formerly, imitation wood clapboard was made of aluminum (aluminum siding). That role is typically played by vinyl siding today. Aluminum siding is ideal for homes in coastal areas (with lots of moisture and salt), since aluminum reacts with air to form aluminum oxide, an extremely hard coating that seals the aluminum surface from further degradation. In contrast, steel forms rust, which looks ugly and can weaken the structure of the material, and corrosion-resistant coatings for steel, such as zinc, sometimes fail around the edges as years pass. However, an advantage of steel siding can be its dent-resistance, which is excellent for regions with severe storms�especially if the area is prone to hail.

The first architectural application of aluminum was the mounting of a small grounding cap on the Washington Monument in 1884. Sheet-iron or steel clapboard siding units had been patented in 1903, and Sears, Roebuck & Company had been offering embossed steel siding in stone and brick patterns in their catalogues for several years by the 1930s. ALCOA began promoting the use of aluminum in architecture by the 1920s when it produced ornamental spandrel panels for the Cathedral of Learning and the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings in New York. The exterior of the A.O. Smith Corporation Building in Milwaukee was clad entirely in aluminum by 1930, and 3�-square siding panels of Duralumin sheet from ALCOA sheathed an experimental exhibit house for the Architectural League of New York in 1931. Most architectural applications of aluminum in the 1930s were on a monumental scale, and it would be another six years before it was put to use on residential construction.

The Father of modern day metal siding was Francis ("Frank") Hoess. In the first few years after World War II, manufacturers began developing and widely distributing aluminum siding. Among them Indiana machinist Frank Hoess was credited with the invention of the configuration seen on modern aluminum siding. His experiments began in 1937 with steel siding in imitation of wooden clapboards. Other types of sheet metal and steel siding on the market at the time presented problems with warping, creating openings through which water could enter, introducing rust. Hoess remedied this problem through the use of a locking joint, which was formed by small flap at the top of each panel that joined with a U-shaped flange on the lower edge of the previous panel thus forming a watertight horizontal seam. After he had received a patent for his siding in 1939, Hoess produced a small housing development of about forty-four houses covered in his clapboard-style steel siding for blue-collar workers in Chicago. His operations were curtailed when war plants commandeered the industry. In 1946 Hoess allied with Metal Building Products of Detroit, a corporation that promoted and sold Hoess siding of ALCOA aluminum. Their product was used on large housing projects in the northeast and was purportedly the siding of choice for a 1947 Pennsylvania development, the first subdivision to solely use aluminum siding. Products such as 4", 6", 8" and 10" X 12� unpainted aluminum panels, starter strips, corner pieces and specialized application clips were assembled in the Indiana shop of the Hoess brothers. Siding could be applied over conventional wooden clapboards, or it could be nailed to studs via special clips affixed to the top of each panel. Insulation was placed between each stud. While the Hoess Brothers company continued to function for about twelve more years after the dissolution of the Metal Building Products Corporation in 1948, they were not as successful as rising siding companies like Reynolds Metals.
Foundation Repair Definitions

Active soils ? A non load bearing soil mass that is moving due to changing moisture levels.

Backfill ? The replacement of excavated aggregate into a hole or against a structure.

Bell Bottom Pier ? A concrete friction piling that has a bell shaped bearing surface.

Bottle Jack ? A hydraulic devise used to support a automobile (not a house or commercial structure)

Bowing Walls ? An inward movement of a basement wall due to excessive lateral pressure on the exterior of a structure.

Carbon Fiber Strips ? Pieces of carbon fiber material that when bonded to a wall will not stretch. These strips, when installed correctly, will stop cracks from growing but must be used before the damage has progressed too far.

Cleat Anchor ? A deadman that is placed in non-active soils to provide lateral support to basement walls.

Consolidating Soils ? A process by which soils decrease in volume. It occurs when stress is applied to a soil that causes the soil particles to pack together more tightly, therefore reducing its bulk volume. When this occurs in a soil that is saturated with water, water will be squeezed out of the soil.

Crawl Space ? A shallow foundation type that incorporates an air space between the soil and the living space. Generally these foundations are built with concrete block or stone founded on a spread type footing.

Differential Settlement or Movement ? The difference in vertical movement between various locations causing structure distortion.

Drywall ? These cracks develop due to shrink/expand natures of construction materials or foundation failures. The cracks generally develop at corners, door and windows in a wedge shaped manner, pointing toward suspect areas of failure.

Earth Anchor ? A device designed to permanently stabilize basement and retaining walls via a cleat or deadman anchor.

Expansive Soils ? Soils that swell when exposed to moisture. These swelling soils typically contain clay minerals that attract and absorb water. Another category of expansive soil known as swelling bedrock contains a special type of mineral called claystone.

Colonial American kitchens
In Colonial America, the pioneers cooked over a fireplace in a corner of the cabin. The kitchen became a separate room only later. In the south, where the climate and sociological conditions differed, the kitchen was often relegated to an outhouse, separate from the mansion, for much of the same reasons as in the feudal kitchen in medieval Europe: the kitchen was operated by slaves, and their working place had to be separated from the living area of the masters by the social standards of the time. Separate "summer kitchens" were also common on large farms in the north. These were used to prepare meals for harvest workers and tasks such as canning.

[edit] Industrialization

A typical rural American kitchen of 1918 at The Sauer-Beckmann Farmstead, TexasTechnological advances during industrialization brought major changes to the kitchen. Iron stoves, which enclosed the fire completely and were more efficient, appeared. Early models included the Franklin stove around 1740, which was a furnace stove intended for heating, not for cooking. Benjamin Thompson in England designed his "Rumford stove" around 1800. This stove was much more energy efficient than earlier stoves; it used one fire to heat several pots, which were hung into holes on top of the stove and were thus heated from all sides instead of just from the bottom. However, his stove was designed for large kitchens; it was too big for domestic use. The "Oberlin stove" was a refinement of the technique that resulted in a size reduction; it was patented in the U.S. in 1834 and became a commercial success with some 90,000 units sold over the next 30 years. These stoves were still fired with wood or coal. Although the first gas street lamps were installed in Paris, London, and Berlin at the beginning of the 1820s and the first U.S. patent on a gas stove was granted in 1825, it was not until the late 19th century that using gas for lighting and cooking became commonplace in urban areas.

The urbanization in the second half of the 19th century induced other significant changes that would ultimately change the kitchen. Out of sheer necessity, cities began planning and building water distribution pipes into homes, and built sewers to deal with the waste water. Gas pipes were laid; gas was used first for lighting purposes, but once the network had grown sufficiently, it also became available for heating and cooking on gas stoves. At the turn of the 20th century, electricity had been mastered well enough to become a commercially viable alternative to gas and slowly started replacing the latter. But like the gas stove, the electrical stove had a slow start. The first electrical stove had been presented in 1893 at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, but it was not until the 1930s that the technology was stable enough and began to take off.

Industrialization also caused social changes. The new factory working class in the cities was housed under generally poor conditions. Whole families lived in small one or two-room apartments in tenement buildings up to six stories high, badly aired and with insufficient lighting. Sometimes, they shared apartments with "night sleepers", unmarried men who paid for a bed at night. The kitchen in such an apartment was often used as a living and sleeping room, and even as a bathroom. Water had to be fetched from wells and heated on the stove. Water pipes were laid only towards the end of the 19th century, and then often only with one tap per building or per story. Brick-and-mortar stoves fired with coal remained the norm until well into the second half of the century. Pots and kitchenware were typically stored on open shelves, and parts of the room could be separated from the rest using simple curtains.

In most countries a roof protects primarily against rain. Depending upon the nature of the building, the roof may also protect against heat, sunlight, cold and wind. Other types of structure, for example, a garden conservatory, might use roofing that protects against cold, wind and rain but admits light. A verandah may be roofed with material that protects against sunlight but admits the other elements.

The characteristics of a roof are dependent upon the purpose of the building that it covers, the available roofing materials and the local traditions of construction and wider concepts of architectural design and practice and may also be governed by local or national legislation.

The elements in the design of a roof are:

the material
the construction
the durability
The material of a roof may range from banana leaves, wheaten straw or seagrass to lamininated glass, aluminium sheeting and precast concrete. In many parts of the world ceramic tiles have been the predominant roofing material for centuries.

The construction of a roof is determined by its method of support and how the underneath space is bridged and whether or not the roof is pitched. The pitch is the angle at which the roof rises from its lowest to highest point. Most domestic architecture, except in very dry regions, has roofs that are sloped, or pitched. The pitch is partly dependent upon stylistic factors, but has more to do with practicalities. Some types of roofing, for example thatch, require a steep pitch in order to be waterproof and durable.[1] Other types of roofing, for example pantiles, are unstable on a steeply pitched roof but provide excellent weather protection at a relatively low angle. In regions where there is little rain, an almost flat roof with a slight run-off provides adequate protection against an occasional downpour.

The durability of a roof is a matter of concern because the roof is often the least accessible part of a building for purposes of repair and renewal, while its damage or destruction can have serious effects.

Contents [hide]
1 Parts of a roof
1.1 Support
1.2 Outer layer
1.3 Insulation
1.4 Drainage
1.5 Solar roofs
2 Roof shapes
3 Commercially available roofing materials
4 Gallery of significant roofs
5 See also
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links

Parts of a roof
There are two parts to a roof, its supporting structure and its outer skin, or uppermost weatherproof layer. In a minority of buildings, the outer layer is also a self-supporting structure.

The roof structure is generally supported upon walls, although some building styles, for example, geodesic and A-frame, blur the distinction between wall and roof.

Support
Main article: Roof construction

The roof of a library, Sweden.
Tree-like supporting pillars of roof (Sagrada Fam�lia, Barcelona).The supporting structure of a roof usually comprises beams that are long and of strong, fairly rigid material such as timber, and since the mid 19th century, cast iron or steel. In countries that use bamboo extensively, the flexibility of the material causes a distinctive curving line to the roof, characteristic of Oriental architecture.

Timber lends itself to a great variety of roof shapes. The timber structure can fulfil an aesthetic as well as practical function, when left exposed to view.

Stone lintels have been used to support roofs since prehistoric times, but cannot bridge large distances. The stone arch came into extensive use in the ancient Roman period and in variant forms could be used to span spaces up to 140 feet across. The stone arch or vault, with or without ribs, dominated the roof structures of major architectural works for about 2,000 years, only giving way to iron beams with the Industrial Revolution and the designing of such buildings as Paxton's Crystal Palace, completed 1851.

With continual improvements in steel girders, these became the major structural support for large roofs, and eventually for ordinary houses as well. Another form of girder is the reinforced concrete beam, in which metal rods are encased in concrete, giving it greater strength under tension.

Outer layer
This part of the roof shows great variation dependent upon availability of material. In simple vernacular architecture, roofing material is often vegetation, such as thatches, the most durable being sea grass with a life of perhaps 40 years. In many Asian countries bamboo is used both for the supporting structure and the outer layer where split bammboo stems are laid turned alternately and overlapped. In areas with an abundance of timber, wooden shingles are used, while in some countries the bark of certain trees can be peeled off in thick, heavy sheets and used for roofing.

The 20th century saw the manufacture of composition shingles which can last from a thin 20-year shingle to the thickest which are limited lifetime shingles, the cost depending on the thickness and durability of the shingle. When a layer of shingles wears out, they are usually stripped, along with the underlay and roofing nails, allowing a new layer to be installed. An alternative method is to install another layer directly over the worn layer. While this method is faster, it does not allow the roof sheathing to be inspected and water damage, often associated with worn shingles, to be repaired. Having multiple layers of old shingles under a new layer causes roofing nails to be located further from the sheathing, weakening their hold. The greatest concern with this method is that the weight of the extra material could exceed the dead load capacity of the roof structure and cause collapse.

Slate is an ideal, and durable material, while in the Swiss Alps roofs are made from huge slabs of stone, several inches thick. The slate roof is often considered the best type of roofing. A slate roof may last 75 to 150 years, and even longer. However, slate roofs are often expensive to install � in the USA, for example, a slate roof may have the same cost as the rest of the house. Often, the first part of a slate roof to fail is the fixing nails; they corrode, allowing the slates to slip. In the UK, this condition is known as "nail sickness". Because of this problem, fixing nails made of stainless steel or copper are recommended, and even these must be protected from the weather.

Roofs made of cut turf (modern ones known as Green roofs, traditional ones as sod roofs) have good insulating properties and are increasingly encouraged as a way of "greening" the Earth. Adobe roofs are roofs of clay, mixed with binding material such as straw or animal hair, and plastered on lathes to form a flat or gently sloped roof, usually in areas of low rainfall.

In areas where clay is plentiful, roofs of baked tiles have been the major form of roof. The casting and firing of roof tiles is an industry that is often associated with brickworks. While the shape and colour of tiles was once regionally distinctive, now tiles of many shapes and colours are produced commercially, to suit the taste and pocketbook of the purchaser.

Sheet metal in the form of copper and lead has also been used for many hundreds of years. Both are expensive but durable, the vast copper roof of Chartres Cathedral, oxidised to a pale green colour, having been in place for hundreds of years. Lead, which is sometimes used for church roofs, was most commonly used as flashing in valleys and around chimneys on domestic roofs, particularly those of slate. Copper was used for the same purpose.

In the 19th century, iron, electroplated with zinc to improve its resistance to rust, became a light-weight, easily-transported, waterproofing material. While its insulating properties were poor, its low cost and easy application made it the most accessible commercial roofing, world wide. Since then, many types of metal roofing have been developed. Steel shingle or standing-seam roofs last about 50 years or more depending on both the method of installation and the moisture barrier (underlayment) used and are between the cost of shingle roofs and slate roofs. In the 20th century a large number of roofing materials were developed, including roofs based on bitumen (already used in previous centuries), on rubber and on a range of synthetics such as thermoplastic and on fibreglass.
Flooring is the general term for a permanent covering of a floor, or for the work of installing such a floor covering. Floor covering is a term to generically describe any finish material applied over a floor structure to provide a walking surface. Both terms are used interchangeably but floor covering refers more to loose-laid materials.

Materials almost always classified as floor covering include carpet, area rugs, and resilient flooring such as linoleum or vinyl flooring. Materials commonly called flooring include wood flooring, ceramic tile, stone, terrazzo, and various seamless chemical floor coatings.[1]

Contents
1 Subfloor
2 Flooring materials
2.1 Soft coverings
2.2 Wood flooring
2.3 Resilient flooring
2.4 Hard flooring
2.5 Seamless chemical flooring
3 Sustainable flooring
4 Flooring tools
5 Floor features
6 Floor Cleaning
7 Issues with floors
8 See also
9 References

Subfloor
Main article: Subfloor
The floor under the flooring is called the subfloor. This provides the support for the flooring. Special purpose subfloors like floating floors, raised floors or sprung floors may be laid upon another underlying subfloor which provides the structural strength.

Flooring materials
The choice of material for floor covering is affected by factors such as cost, endurance, noise insulation, comfort and cleaning effort. Some types of flooring must not be installed below grade (lower than ground level), and laminate or hardwood should be avoided where there may be moisture or condensation.

The sub-floor may be finished in a way that makes it usable without any extra work, see:

Earthen floor adobe or clay floors
Solid ground floor cement screed or granolithic
Soft coverings
Carpet is a floor covering woven or felted from natural or man-made fibers. Fitted carpet is attached to the floor structure, extends wall-to-wall, and cannot be moved from place to place. An underlay can extend carpet life and improve comfort.

Rugs are also woven or felted from fibers, but are smaller than the room in which they are located, have a finished edge, and usually lie over another finished floor such as wood flooring. Rugs may either be temporarily attached to the flooring below by adhesive tape or other methods to prevent creep, or may be loose-laid.

Wood flooring
Many different species of wood are fabricated into wood flooring in two primary forms: plank and parquet. Hardwoods are typically much more durable than softwoods. Reclaimed lumber has a unique appearance and is green.

Laminate is a floor covering that appears similar to hardwood but is made with a plywood or medium density fiberboard ("MDF") core with a plastic laminate top layer. HDF laminate consists of high density fiberboard topped by one or more layers of decorative paper and a transparent protective layer. Laminate may be more durable than hardwood, but cannot be refinished like hardwood. Laminate flooring is available in many different patterns which can resemble different woods or even ceramic tile. It usually locks or taps together.

Bamboo flooring is a floor manufactured from the bamboo plant and is a type of hardwood flooring, though technically not a wood. Bamboo is known to be durable and environmental friendly. It is available in many different patterns, colors, and textures.

Cork Flooring is a flooring material manufactured from the by-product of the cork oak tree. Cork floors are considered to be eco-friendly since the cork oak tree bark is stripped every nine to ten years and doesn't damage the tree. Cork flooring comes in both tiles and planks, and can have glue or glues-less installation. Cork floors are very durable due to their honeycomb cellular structure, allowing compress up to 40% and then returning back to it's normal shape. [2]

Resilient flooring
Resilient flooring is made of material that has some elasticity. It includes many different manufactured products including linoleum, sheet vinyl, vinyl composition tile (VCT), cork (sheet or tile), rubber, and others. Performance surfaces used for dance or athletics are made of either wood or resilient flooring.

Hard flooring

Ceramic tiles flooring in Istanbul streetCeramic tile includes a wide variety of clay products fired into thin units which are set in beds of mortar or mastic with the joints between tiles grouted. Varieties include quarry tile, porcelain tile, terracotta tile, and others.

Many different natural stones are cut into a variety of sizes, shapes, and thicknesses for use as flooring. Stone flooring is usually set in mortar and grouted similar to ceramic tile. Slate and marble are popular types of stone flooring.

Terrazzo consists of marble or other stone aggregate set in mortar and ground and polished to a smooth surface.

A Mosaic consists of many small pieces of stone arranged to form a design or picture and are common in cultural and religious centers.

Seamless chemical flooring
Many different seamless flooring materials are available. These are usually latex, polyester, urethane or epoxy compounds which are applied in liquid form to provide a completely seamless floor covering. These are usually found in wet areas such as laboratories or food processing plants. These may have granular or rubberized particles added to give better traction.

Sustainable flooring
Main article: Sustainable flooring
Sustainable flooring is produced from sustainable materials (and by a sustainable process) that reduces demands on ecosystems during its life-cycle. It is thought that sustainable flooring creates safer and healthier buildings and guarantees a future for traditional producers of renewable resources that many communities depend on.[3]

Flooring tools
Special tools used for flooring include:

Flooring clamp, a clamp for tongue and groove floors while nailing
Knee kicker, used to stretch carpets flat
Concrete moisture meter used to check a concrete floor before laying flooring on top
Floor features
There are a number of special features that may be used to ornament a floor or perform a useful service:

Floor medallions decorative centerpieces of a floor design
Doormats to help keep a floor clean
Gratings used to drain water or to rub dirt off shoes
Tactile or rumble strips to warn of for instance a wheelchair ramp, these would normally also be distinctively colored or patterned.
Light strips to show an escape route out, especially on airplanes.
Moldings or baseboards to decorate the sides of a floor or to cover the edge of a floating floor.
Anti-Slip Devices The addition of either granular or rubberized particles that will allow wheels, shoes, or feet better traction.
Floor Cleaning
Main article: Floor cleaning
Floor cleaning is a major occupation throughout the world. Cleaning is essential to prevent injuries due to slips and to remove dirt. Floors are also treated to protect or beautify the surface. The correct method to clean one type of floor can often damage another, so it is important to use the correct treatment.[4].

Issues with floors
Wood floors, particularly older ones, will tend to 'squeak' in certain places. This is caused by the wood rubbing against other wood, usually at a joint of the subfloor. Firmly securing the pieces to each other with screws or nails will remove this problem.

Floor vibration is a particularly annoying problem with floors. Wood floors tend to pass sound, particularly heavy footsteps and low bass frequencies.[5] Floating floors can reduce or eliminate this problem. Concrete floors are usually so solid they do not have this problem, but are also much more expensive to construct, and much heavier, resulting in further requirements regarding the structure of the building.

The flooring may need protection sometimes e.g. a gym floor used for a graduation ceremony. A Gym floor cover can be used to reduce the need to satisfy incompatible requirements.
Subfloor
Main article: Subfloor
The floor under the flooring is called the subfloor. This provides the support for the flooring. Special purpose subfloors like floating floors, raised floors or sprung floors may be laid upon another underlying subfloor which provides the structural strength.

Earthen floor adobe or clay floors
Solid ground floor cement screed or granolithic
Soft coverings
Carpet is a floor covering woven or felted from natural or man-made fibers. Fitted carpet is attached to the floor structure, extends wall-to-wall, and cannot be moved from place to place. An underlay can extend carpet life and improve comfort.

[edit] Resilient flooring
Resilient flooring is made of material that has some elasticity. It includes many different manufactured products including linoleum, sheet vinyl, vinyl composition tile (VCT), cork (sheet or tile), rubber, and others. Performance surfaces used for dance or athletics are made of either wood or resilient flooring.

Hard flooring

Ceramic tiles flooring in Istanbul streetCeramic tile includes a wide variety of clay products fired into thin units which are set in beds of mortar or mastic with the joints between tiles grouted. Varieties include quarry tile, porcelain tile, terracotta tile, and others.

Terrazzo consists of marble or other stone aggregate set in mortar and ground and polished to a smooth surface.

A Mosaic consists of many small pieces of stone arranged to form a design or picture and are common in cultural and religious centers.
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ct Solid hardwood floors come in a wide range of dimensions and styles, with each plank made of solid wood and milled from a single piece of timber. Solid hardwood floors were originally used for structural purposes, being installed perpendicular to the wooden support beams of a building. Modern construction techniques now rarely use wood building frames and solid ct hardwood floors are used almost exclusively for their appearance.
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Wednesday, August 4, 2010