Carol - My colleague Marc Williams will undoubtedly have the definitive thoughts on this but I would suggest that a yearly waxing is probably to the benefit of your floors as it will provide a good measure of protection from the activities in the house. Completely covering the floors was not an 18th century practice either. Many historic house museums will lay down a strip of carpet in the high traffic areas - not a period look - but it is well understood that it is for the protection of the original fabric of the house. When any significant activity takes place (such as renovation / painting / maintenance) often the workers are required to wear those disposable booties. While that protects the floors they can also be very slippery on some surfaces. I have seen one instance where a fall lead to a severe back injury that ended the career of a colleague. So in developing any kind of protection plan you need to balance many things - I would suggest getting a wide variety of opinions and asking many questions! Cheers! Dave David Harvey Senior Conservator Los Angeles, CA On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 10:08 AM, Carol Ely <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Thanks to those who had great suggestions for my question about how to > classify and catalog reproduction exhibit items. We’re going with a third > category outside of Permanent and Teaching Collections for those objects, > but keeping it under the supervision of Collections. > > > > Now a new question (and yes, I have reference books, but they never seem to > address the specific problem!). Locust Grove is a historic house museum, c. > 1795. We have original floors, some of ash and some of poplar wood. No > varnish or other finish on them. We have taken a fairly conservative > approach with conservation and cleaning – we used to wax once a year, but > have stopped that on the basis that it was not an 18th/early 19th century > practice. We sweep and vacuum, and every now and then mop with very little > water. However, the floors are developing spots and blotches from visitor > activities, repair work, and other wear and tear. > > > > So, should we protect the floors in some way? Wax? Other? Should we use > stronger cleaning materials? Do we treat the ash and poplar just the same? > > > > We plan to put down rugs in most rooms in the next year, covering most but > not all of the floor surfaces. For now, we want to get the floors looking > their best, and protect them for the future. > > > > Is there a resource I can consult, or do y’all have some thoughts? > > > > Carol Ely > > Historic Locust Grove > > Louisville, KY > ========================================================= Important > Subscriber Information: > > The Museum-L FAQ file is located at > http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed > information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message > to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read > "help" (without the quotes). > > If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to > [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read > "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes). > ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).