Interior Trim & Finishes

Door Construction

The wooden moldings found on doors provide a good dating indicator. Early doors include moldings which were directly cut with hand planes into major door components such as panels and styles. With the introduction of mechanical shapers circa 1835, inexpensive strip moldings became widely available. Doors with separately applied strip moldings can therefore be assumed to have been made after about 1835.

However, the older practice of cutting moldings directly into door components apparently continued in some areas, either due to conservative craftsmanship or to lack of readily available mill products, so the lack of strip moldings does not necessarily imply a construction date prior to circa 1835.

Plaster and Lathing

Plaster applied over a supporting structure of lathing nailed to studs and joists constitutes the most common interior surface treatment found in historic buildings in the Mid-South area. Although plaster analysis may prove useful in the future, at present most researchers will find lathing evidence easier to observe.

Wooden lathing seems to have evolved from an entirely hand split version, through a transitional form which was split from sash sawn boards, to a dimensionally stable type which was circular sawn on all four faces. Unfortunately, inconsistencies on this subject within the preservation literature, as well as recent Center fieldwork which indicates that split lathing continued to be used in the Mid-South beyond the dates usually stated, suggests that additional research will be required to establish lathing as a reliable dating indicator. One complication may be that the circular saw seems to have been available much earlier (perhaps 1825-1835) for ripping small stuff than the mid-nineteenth century date often mentioned for ripping larger dimensional lumber suitable for framing or trim.

Paint

Historic paint analysis can prove useful, but primarily for "relative" dating (i.e., the temporal relationship of one component to another) rather than "absolute" dating (i.e., an actual calendar date). For example, after an overall paint stratigraphy has been established for an entire room, elements of that room which display subsets of the overall stratigraphy may help the researcher to understand how the room was altered over time.

Absolute dating with paint analysis, such as correlation with various periods of architectural taste and the availability of certain pigments, is theoretically possible but probably not practical for most researchers at the present time.


	Interior Trim and Finishes Door Construction The wooden moldings found on doors provide a good dating indicator. Early doors include moldings which were directly cut with hand planes into major door components such as panels and styles. With the introduction of mechanical shapers circa 1835, inexpensive strip moldings became widely available. Doors with separately applied strip moldings can therefore be assumed to have been made after about 1835. However, the older practice of cutting moldings directly into door components apparently continued in some areas, either due to conservative craftsmanship or to lack of readily available mill products, so the lack of strip moldings does not necessarily imply a construction date prior to circa 1835. Plaster and Lathing Plaster applied over a supporting structure of lathing nailed to studs and joists constitutes the most common interior surface treatment found in historic buildings in the Mid-South area. Although plaster analysis may prove useful in the future, at present most researchers will find lathing evidence easier to observe. Wooden lathing seems to have evolved from an entirely hand split version, through a transitional form which was split from sash sawn boards, to a dimensionally stable type which was circular sawn on all four faces. Unfortunately, inconsistencies on this subject within the preservation literature, as well as recent Center fieldwork which indicates that split lathing continued to be used in the Mid-South beyond the dates usually stated, suggests that additional research will be required to establish lathing as a reliable dating indicator. One complication may be that the circular saw seems to have been available much earlier (perhaps 1825-1835) for ripping small stuff than the mid-nineteenth century date often mentioned for ripping larger dimensional lumber suitable for framing or trim. Paint Historic paint analysis can prove useful, but primarily for "relative" dating (i.e., the temporal relationship of one component to another) rather than "absolute" dating (i.e., an actual calendar date). For example, after an overall paint stratigraphy has been established for an entire room, elements of that room which display subsets of the overall stratigraphy may help the researcher to understand how the room was altered over time. Absolute dating with paint analysis, such as correlation with various periods of architectural taste and the availability of certain pigments, is theoretically possible but probably not practical for most researchers at the present time.
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