BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE f BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE FOR YOUNG ARCHITECTS, STUDENTS AND OTHERS INTERESTED IN BUILDING OPERATIONS AS CARRIED ON AT THE PRESENT DAY BV T. M. CLARK FELLOW OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS NEW EDITION. REVISED AND REWRITTEN *^r l TO?;j?^:' l ^C^TTc!.WHcS I jfteto J?ork THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON: MACMILLAN & co., LTD. 1903 All Rights "Reserved 1103 COPYRIGHT, 1883 BY JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO. COPYRIGHT, 1903 BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY First published elsewhere Reprinted, May 1894, February 1895, July 1896 New Edition Revised and Rewritten. Set up and electrotyped May 1903 THE MASON PRESS SYRACUSE NEW YORK PREFACE THIS is not a treatise on the architectural art, or the science of construction, but a simple expo- sition of the ordinary practice of building in this country, with suggestions for supervising such work efficiently. Architects of experience proba- bly know already nearly everything that the book contains, but their younger brethren, as well as those persons not of the profession who are occa- sionally called upon to direct building operations, will perhaps be glad of its help. 1 16236 PREFACE TO THE FIFTEENTH EDITION Although not very many years have elapsed since the publica- tion of the first edition of this work, the art of construction has advanced so rapidly that it has become desirable to rewrite a large part of it, so as to bring the whole into accordance with modern practice and modern standards. In regard to stone buildings and wooden dwellings the changes need be only in detail, but it has seemed advisable to change the third part entirely, taking up, with some minuteness, a steel-framed office building, for the reason that the modern American steel-framed structure differs from everything else, and must be specially studied ; while the rapidity with which this sort of construction is being adopted throughout the country makes it particularly necessary that young architects, as well as owners, should know as much as possible of the practical points involved in it. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I. THE CONSTRUCTION OF A STONE CHURCH 7 CHAPTER II. A WOODEN DWELLING-HOUSE . . . ' .T " 105 CHAPTER III. A MODEL SPECIFICATION 218 CHAPTER IV. CONTRACTS 258 CHAPTER V. THE CONSTRUCTION OF A STEEL FRAME BUILDING . . . .265 INDEX 303 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE THE DIRECTION OF BUILDING OPERATIONS ALL who have had any experience in the supervision of build- ing operations know the importance of having a systematic plan in pursuing their examination of any given work, and the difficulty, without such aid, of giving adequate attention to all the innumerable matters of construction which require attention at their proper time, and before they are covered up or built over, so as to make changes inconvenient or impossible ; and there are few who cannot recall instances of vexatious mistakes, costly altera- tions, or buildings left insecure, through want of attention at the right moment to defects which an hour's labor would then have remedied. To the young architect, especially, a manual which may help to direct his attention to all the various details which should be noticed, and put him in mind of the defects to be looked for at each stage of a given construction, can hardly fail to be of use, and such a manual, it is hoped, the following pages will supply. Although the practice of different localities varies in certain details of construction, the principles of good work are the same everywhere, with unimportant local variations. The general subject of superintendence may with advantage be considered under the three heads of Stone Buildings, including heavy and massive constructions generally; Wooden Buildings, under which may be taken up the details of domestic convenience which are particularly connected with dwelling-houses, and Mer- cantile Buildings, as represented by a steel-framed structure, whose construction involves the use of iron beams and columns, and their connections, and the modes of casing them securely with i (i) 2 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE stone, brick and terra-cotta; and under this head, also, may be considered the details of boiler and steam work, for heating and power, together with such matters of electrical engineering, and of the proper installation of elevator engines and power plants, as a young architect most needs to understand. Under each head the progress of a typical building is described, from the first breaking of ground to the completion of the work, showing the successive stages of construction, and the order of delivery of material on the ground ; and some general directions for judging of the quality of materials are given at the time they make their first appearance on the premises. So far as possible, a standard is presented, in treating of the different kinds of work, by which each sort can be judged. Con- tractors and owners frequently differ in regard to what consti- tutes a "good, substantial and workmanlike manner" of executing any particular piece of construction, and as the architect has to decide between them, it is important, not only to avoid doing injustice to one or the other, but to secure respect for his decision, that he should be familiar with ordinary practice. Young archi- tects rarely have much opportunity, in their student days, for gaining this familiarity by experience, and it is believed that the descriptions of good ordinary work, as distinguished from work theoretically perfect, may be of use to them, as well as to owners. At the same time, in connection with the discussion of the usual practice in different kinds of work, it is of advantage to point out such improved methods as are sometimes used, with the caution, however, that, under the common contract, the builder cannot be compelled to adopt them, at his own expense, unless they are rec- ognized in the best ordinary practice of the locality to which he belongs, or are particularly mentioned in the specifications. For the discomfiture of bad workmen, the young architect is warned against some of the ways in which defective materials or construction are covered up, and is reminded to look for bad work before the building arrives at so advanced a stage that it can no longer be detected or remedied. To save space, it is supposed that the reader is familiar with the principles of construction as given in the text-books and with the common forms of specifications and building contracts. Any BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 3 one in need of such elementary information will find Dobson's "Art of Building," in the English Lockwood series, although old, an excellent little handbook. The three volumes of "Notes on Building Construction," prepared for the use of the English Science and Art Department at South Kensington, and published by Rivingtons, Waterloo Place, London, are also well-arranged and useful ; and those who read French will find Ramee's "Archi- tecture Pratique," and Rondelet's "Traite Theorique et Pratique de 1'Art de Batir," of great value. In this country, treatises on building practice are more specialized. Trautwine's "Engineer's Pocket-Book" gives a condensed view of nearly all varieties of construction; Kidder's "Architects' and Builders' Pocket-Book" devotes itself more to building, and less to engineering; Berg's "Safe Building" takes up the mechanics of the art; and Baker's "Masonry Construction;" Thurston's "Materials of Engineer- ing;" Johnson's "Materials of Construction," and many other books, are of value in their special fields. Some years ago, it was common for architects and others to use printed forms of specifications as the basis for their contracts, erasing and interlining to suit the particular case in hand; and several forms could be obtained from publishers of technical books. This practice is not general now, perhaps because the greater complexity and variety of modern methods and appliances of construction make the labor of altering a printed specification almost as great as that involved in writing a new one; but such specifications are very useful in calling the attention of young architects and superintendents, as well as of owners, to the mul- titudinous details which must be provided for in building opera- tions, and a form of the kind, for a frame dwelling-house, is incor- porated in the present work. Where the superintendent is working under the direction of an architect, or is himself the architect, he should not fail to have a copy of the actual specification on which the contract under his charge is based within reach at all times during his visits to the work ; and his last duty will be to go through the entire building, specification in hand, checking off, one by one, the items in regard to labor and materials, which he positively knows, by the evidence of his own senses, to have been strictly complied with. The con- 4 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE tract itself should, also, be familiar to the superintendent; and although the subject of building contracts in general is far too extensive to be treated in a single chapter, and can best be studied, perhaps, in the present writer's work on "Architect, Owner and Builder Before the Law," it has seemed desirable to include in this book a few observations on the most important principles involved in making and enforcing them. One or two preliminary remarks may be made before describ- ing the actual process of inspection. In the first place, it is necessary for the superintendent to be as familiar as possible with the plans and other drawings of the building to be constructed. Nothing is of so much service in rendering his labors valuable to his employer and himself as the thorough understanding of the proposed building which will enable him to foresee the consequences of every step, and to judge of the position and workmanship of each part of the edifice, while in process of construction, with reference to its final use and finish. He must not trust blindly to the accuracy of the plans. It is impossible, in the architect's office, to avoid all mistakes in draw- ing or figuring, but such as escape the eye of the busy professional man can easily be detected by a little care in comparing them with the work on the ground ; and, while the builder is legally bound to protect the owner from suffering loss in consequence of errors in the drawings or figures which he might, with reasonable care, have detected, and brought to the attention of the architect for correction, the superintendent, as the more immediate representa- tive of the architect, is under peculiar obligation to compare figures with each other, or details with general drawings, and facilitate to the utmost of his power the smooth, rapid and successful prosecution of the work put in his charge. Not only should he in this way endeavor to satisfy himself of the accuracy of the drawings, but he should also look out beforehand for other points which may affect or hinder the construction when once begun. If, for instance, the drawings show stone and brick work bonded together in elevation, it should be his duty at once to procure bricks of the kind to be used in the facing, and lay them up with mortar joints of the usual or specified width, in order to ascertain with certainty the height which a given number of courses of BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 5 brick will lay. It is common in such work to assume that five courses of brick will lay one foot in height, and the detail drawings for the stonework are often made and figured accordingly. If, then, as often happens, the particular brick used is a little thicker or thinner than the standard, the stone once cut from an incorrect assumption will fail to bond properly, and, if it cannot be recut, must either be thrown away or inserted as best it may, the wide joints and irregular lines bearing witness to the incompetency of the one who directed the work. Even supposing the plans to be correct, the superintendent will find many opportunities for saving both contractor and owner from the annoyance and expense caused by the carelessness of workmen. It is impossible to get the ordinary mechanic to con- cern himself about the future matters which will depend upon his work, and a little foresight in supervision will prevent many careless deviations from the drawings or specifications, which, although the contractor would be bound to correct them, he will be glad to have detected in season to save him that expense, and will show his gratitude by special endeavor to please. Another important point in efficient supervision is, after inspecting the materials delivered, to make sure that those rejected are removed from the premises. If they are marked for rejection, as they should always be, let the mark be on the face of the cracked or thin stone, or on the upper side of a "waney" floor-board, so that it can be recognized if it should be afterwards put into the work. If this precaution is not taken, and if the marks are not made in such a manner that they cannot be rubbed or planed off, materials once discarded will be smuggled into the building in spite of the injunctions of the superintendent or contractor. It is impossible to be too thorough in each periodical inspection of the building. It will not do to examine one portion one day and another the next ; the proper way is to go all over the structure at each visit. Wherever a man is working, or has been working since the last inspection, go and see what he has done. In this way it will be possible to gain that definite knowledge of every portion of the structure which is the only security against con- cealed vices of workmanship. One other precaution must be observed: let not the young 6 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE architect put too much faith in what workmen say to him. The best of them dislike to pull down or change what is already done, and if inadvertency or temporary convenience has led them into palpable violations of the specifications, they will often stretch the truth considerably in their explanations and excuses. Some are much worse than this, and will deliberately avail themselves of the credulity and inexperience of the young architect under whose authority they come to obtain from him, both before and after the execution of the work, such concessions from and interpretations of the strict letter of the specifications as will be most to their profit. It is difficult for one who is not quite certain that he knows how to distinguish between fresh and damaged cement, for in- stance, to persist in rejecting a lot of which he has suspicions, but which the builder declares to be not only of the best quality, but the only lot of that quality which can be procured without seriously delaying the work ; and if the superintendent is found to be acces- sible to such representations, his credulity is sure to be tested on many other points. The only way in which young architects can escape being occasionally made victims of such practices, is for them to make up their minds what is right by the best light that they can, and insist on their directions being followed. With a little thought, and assiduous study of other buildings in process of construction, it need rarely happen that their orders will be unrea- sonable, and a firm stand on such occasions as arise in the early stages of the work will not only make their subsequent duty much lighter and pleasanter, but will often save them ultimate discredit and regret. These preliminary remarks are applicable to every kind of building. Others might be added, but as they may perhaps be better understood and remembered in connection with some prac- tical illustration, it will be as well to defer their consideration until they present themselves in treating of a particular class of work. THE CONSTRUCTION OF A STONE CHURCH CHAPTER I THERE are many advantages in beginning the study of con- struction with stone buildings. Such structures require a minute- ness of attention, and a precision and accuracy of workmanship, superior to that which is generally bestowed upon buildings of any other material, and the careful and continual measuring, levelling and verifying which they demand, together with the foresight which must be exercised in order that all parts of the masonry and wood-work may come together without Construction error, tend to form habits which are of great value Buildings in the direction of any kind of building operation. Moreover, the construction of most stone buildings involves calcu- lations of thrust ; of pressures, vertical and oblique ; the resistance of materials, and many other technical problems well fitted to exercise and develop the capacity of the young professional man, while the comparative slowness with which they are erected affords him sufficient time for a careful consideration and solution of such questions, which is not always possible in the case of lighter structures. If it is considered also that stone-masonry of some kind enters into nearly all building operations, and that foundation-works, even of light erections, sometimes require the overcoming of serious difficulties, the pro- priety of introducing the general subject by its most intricate and technical branch will be sufficiently plain. The church, of which we propose to fol- low the construction, is intended to be situated on an elevated ground, descending irregularly toward the east. The soil ap- (7) 8 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE Fig. 2 pears to be gravelly, but variations in the appearance of the grass over the lot indicate that the sub-soil is not uniform. The total difference in the level of the ground in the length of the proposed building is about six feet. The church is to be cruciform in plan, with clerestory and nave aisles ; the chancel to be without aisles, as wide as the nave, and with a semicircular apsidal termination. The principal entrance is to be through the tower, which stands at the southwest angle, forming the termi- nation of the south aisle of the nave, and there is a second entrance, opening into the transept through a small enclosed porch which occupies the angle between the transept, whichhas considerable projection, and the south aisle of the nave. East of the north transept is the organ chamber with wide openings into transept and chancel. The corresponding angle between the south transept and the chancel is occupied by Flg> 3 the robing-room, with private entrance from the outside. Under the chancel is a society-room, entered directly by steps from the outside. The rest of the space under the build- ing is used for a cellar, reached by a circular stone staircase in a staircase-turret attached to the main tower. The same stair ascends also to the bell-chamber. The whole building, in- cluding the spire, is faced with brown freestone from the floor-line upward. The basement wall, from the floor-level to the ground, is faced with granite. The foundation-walls, and the backing of the walls above ground, are of a slaty local stone. The spire and staircase- turret are backed with brick. In the interior, the clerestory arches, and the caps and bases of the columns which carry them, are of Ohio freestone. The plinths and shafts of the col- Fig. 4 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE Ashlar umns are granite, the shafts being polished. The chancel steps are of marble ; the vestibules are tiled with marble ; and the chan- cel floor is laid with encaustic tiles. The outside steps are granite, and the winding stair in the turret is of hard brown sandstone. The exterior stone facing is specified to be "neat random ashlar, quarry- face, with pitched joints." This means that all the exposed surfaces are to be freshly split, without weather-worn faces, such as would be admissible if rock-face were specified, and that the joints, instead of irregularly projecting, as is permissible in some engineering work (Fig. i), are to be "pitched off" to a line previously drawn around the stone, all parts of which lie in a true plane at right angles with the surfaces formed by the joints. This is done with a "pitching tool," or wide chisel with a very thick edge {Fig. 2) and the result is to furnish blocks which, however rough Modes of and projecting in the centre, Dressing all possess four well-defined stone edges, by means of which they can be placed upon and beside each other with as much accuracy as the smooth- Pitched est-faced stones, presenting Joints a surface like that shown in Fig. 3. Other parts of the exterior stone-work are differently treated; the spire is to be a " broach " < Fi s- 5)' and the arrises > or edges, of the octagonal spire, as well as of the broaches, are to have chiselled draft lines (Fig. 4) two inches wide. There will be also draft lines one and one-half inches wide around all openings ; and the reveals of openings, together with all cornices, copings, weather- ings of buttresses, washes of sills, roof of staircase-turret, and bands in spire, will be crandled ; that is, brought to a plane surface by means of the crandle (Fig. 6), which is a toothed hatchet composed of eight or ten pointed chisels wedged tightly into a frame with a handle. With this tool the surface of the stone is obliquely struck until the inequalities have Crandle IO BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE been reduced, and the surface is covered with short parallel fur- rows, all running in the same direction. (Fig. 7.) The position of the workman is then changed, and the tool applied in the other direction, so as to make furrows crossing the first. By this means a comparatively smooth surface is formed, cov- ered with a net-work of lines. (Fig. 9.) Be- fore beginning the work a line is drawn around the stone, and the joints either pitched off to this line, as be- fore described, or a chisel draft sunk all around the face until the line is reached. && 7 (Fig. 8.) Whichever mode is adopted, by removing the rough projections of the central portion first with a toothed chisel and then with the crandle, until it is reduced to the plane of the draft line, a true surface is obtained. It need hardly be said that the first opera- tion in all stone-cutting is to form the joints, and from these four surfaces at right angles to each other (Fig. 10), all the other bounding planes of the finished stones are derived. The tracery of the windows is droved; that is, finished by working over the entire surface with a wide Figl Fig. 6 Droving chisel, so as to cover it with parallel lines, all running in the same direction, except around arches, where they radiate from the same centre as the curve of the arch. (Fig. u.) Of the granite, the ashlar is quarry- faced, with pitched joints like the sandstone. The "wash," or upper in- clined surface of the water-table, is pene ham- mered; that is, pounded with a Hammering heav > r ' doubled-edged hatchet, or "pene hammer," until the inequal- ities are chipped away, and the surface is re- duced to a plane, determined by draft lines previously drawn, and covered with coarse parallel lines. The outside steps, Fig. 9 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE and the reveals and sills of basement openings, further finish, by being pounded all over, after II receive the pene Bush Hammering hammer has done its work, with a "bush hammer," or as some say, "patent hammer," in which several par- allel blades are bolted into an iron frame with a handle. This instrument (Fig. 12) also leaves par- allel marks on the stone, but much finer than those of the pene hammer. For the outside work, a tool having six blades to the inch will give a sufficiently smooth surface, which is specified as "six-cut." The plinths of the interior columns are first pene hammered, then m Vjtfffl? six-cut, and finally "ten-cut," with a bush hammer having ten blades to the inch, which Eight blades would give an and beds of the granite are I0 leaves the stone very smooth. intermediate finish. The joints "pointed," or brought to a roughly plane surface by means of the "point," a short, thick chisel, with a very short edge, often less than a quarter-inch in length. The interior capitals and a portion of the arch mouldings, as well as the finials and some other outside work, are carved. The marble steps to the chancel are polished. In the carved work it is important to leave all the marks of the chisel untouched. Inferior workmen sometimes smooth and rasp the carving, to the de- struction of its crispness and beauty. The rest of the interior freestone, on the contrary, will be rubbed. This is usually done by laying stones sawed to a suitable thickness, either with steel blades supplied with sand and water, or with the much more rapid dia- mond saw, face downward on a large mill-stone revolving horizontally. This smooths off the lines left by the saw, and the surface thus given is left to form the face of the work. The granite shafts are polished by machinery, emery of different grades being first used, after 12 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE Fig. 12 the stone is brought to a smooth surface with tools; followed by "tin putty," or precipitated oxide of tin, which produces a glass-like lustre. For red granite, the so-called jewellers' rouge, or crocus, which is really an oxide of iron, is used for polish- ing, and the particles which find their way into the crevices of the granite are allowed to remain, for the sake of heightening the color. Occasionally the final gloss is given with wax, but this fraud can be detected by the application of a hot cloth, or by exposure to the weather, which quickly removes the lustre so obtained. The roof is open-timbered, with hammer- beam trusses and arched ribs, the trusses, as well as the purlins, being of hard Southern pine. The trusses are covered with matched pine boards, tarred felt, and slate, and the panels formed by the purlins and trusses are lathed and plastered. A panelled wainscot, four feet high, runs around the room. The interior of the tower, which forms a vestibule, ^ is lined with a four-inch wall of face-brick, separated by a two-inch air-space from the outside wall, but tied to it with iron anchors. This lining extends the whole height to a ceiling of moulded girders, forming panels filled with matched-and-beaded sheathing, and covered with tin on top. The space above this, though accessible from the staircase-turret, is left rough, up to the "bell- deck," also covered with tin, on which stands the framing for the peal of bells, which should be as far as possible independent of the tower walls. The interior of the society-room beneath the chancel is lined with a four-inch brick wall, separated by a two-inch air-space from the outside masonry, and tied to it with iron, and is plastered on the inner brickwork. The walls of the robing-room and organ- chamber are furred, lathed and plastered. The tiled floors of the vestibules and chancel are set on bricks laid upon boarding cut in between the beams. All the other floors are double, the under boards of spruce throughout, and the upper flooring of Georgia pine in the society-room, elsewhere of white pine. Interior finish is of hard wood. BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE ^ The foregoing description contains a brief abstract of the specifications. In accordance with these the contract has been signed, and the builder, or the contractor for the excavation, as the case may be, meets the architect upon the ground to lay out the work. If a special plan has been prepared, with the exact dimensions of the walls and the lengths of the diagonals in plain figures upon it, the setting-out will be much simplified, and there will be less danger of mistake, but the cellar plan is often the only drawing provided for the pur- pose, and the additions or subtractions necessary to give the dimensions of the trenches must be made on the spot. In important works it is best to call upon an engineer to set out the lines, but circumstances may make it necessary to do without such professional aid. In any case, the architect should always be present. Some builders, and a few architects, possess an engineer's com- pass, by means of which they can "turn off" the various angles around the building with precision ; but in most cases the parties will arrive at the spot furnished only with a tape-measure, a few stakes, and a "mason's square," consisting of three pieces of wood nailed together in such a way as once to have formed, perhaps, a right-angled triangle. Even these rude instruments will, how- ever, suffice, if the tape is accurate, and especially if the architect has had the forethought to bring a second tape, which will much facilitate matters. The first thing to be done is to stake out the outside lines of the main walls of the building, the "ashlar lines," as they are called. Many persons neglect these in the first laying out, and run only the exterior lines of the cellar-wall, which usually pro- jects three or four inches beyond the ashlar lines ; but the danger of mistakes is much lessened, and the work in the end simplified, by setting out at the beginning the perimeter of the main walls, a*nd then drawing parallel lines outside of these to indicate the face of basement-walls, or the line of excavation, as the case may be. By this means the exact relation of foundation and superstructure is shown at a glance, and there is no danger of a line drawn to indicate the face of the foundation being mistaken for the ashlar line, and the wall being built several inches outside of it, as some- \ !4 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE times happens where only one line is given at first, much to the detriment of subsequent work. The staking out of the plan must begin by the establishment of some main rectangle or triangle, to which the various projec- tions can be added one after the other. In this instance, the preliminary figure may be the rectangle formed by the Rectangle^ nave > including the aisles, from the west front as far as the transepts. Having fixed upon the location of the building, the line of the west front is determined, and upon this line is measured the width of the nave with the aisles, to the outside of the aisle walls. A short stake should be driven into the ground at each end, and a copper tack in the head of the stakes will indicate the exact points. The next step is to run lines from these points at right angles with the first line, which will represent the face of the aisle walls. If a sur- veyor's compass is at hand, the right angle is easily turned off; if -g not, the best way of proceeding is Fig. I3 that shown in Fig. 13, where A B is the line of the west front, X Y marking the width of nave and aisles. Find from the plans the distance Y T, from the west front to the angle of the transept, and calculate the diagonal distance from X to T, by adding the squares of X Y and Y T, and extracting the square root of their sum. (The square of the hypothenuse of a right- angled triangle is equal to the sum of the squares on the legs. ) Then take two tapes, and placing the ring of one at X, and of the other at Y, measure from X on the first the length of the diagonal just found, and on the second the distance Y T, and bring the two points together. Mark the place where the measurements on the two tapes coincide with another stake and copper tack. Diagonals 9 Change the tapes over, and measure X S equal to Y T, and the diagonal Y S equal to X T, and mark the spot where the points again coincide with a fourth stake and tack. Verify the work by measuring the distance between the two eastern stakes, S and T, which should equal that between X BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE Fig. 14 Fig. 15 and Y. If the measurements have been accurately made, the four stakes will form the corners of a perfect rectangle. Care must be taken to keep the measuring-tape level. If the ground falls in any direction, the tape should at the lowest be P Levei point be held up so that the ends will be at the same level, and a plumb-line dropped from the correct point on the tape to the ground will give the position of the stake. It will save time and trouble to have the lengths of the diagonals calculated beforehand and marked on the plans ; not only for the main rectan- gle but for minor ones. Perhaps two tapes will not be at hand, or the mathematical attainments of the party may not extend *-*--.- 3 ., to the extraction of square roots. In that . case, after setting out the line of the western front as before, measure off one of the two long / sides of the prelim- inary rectangle, as nearly at right an- gles with the base of the line as possible. By stretching a string for the base line, with another for the long side of the rectangle, the latter can be brought approximately to the proper direction by the help of the mason's square (Fig. 14) or by the application of the "three, four and five rule;" which consists in marking a point on one string three feet from the angle, and on the other four feet from the angle, then adjusting the relative position of the two until a straight line drawn diagonally across the angle, between the two points, measures exactly five feet. (Fig. 15.) Then the two strings will form a right angle, since 5 is the hypothenuse of a right- angled triangle whose other sides measure 4 and 3 feet. Having found the angle approximately by these means, a stake should be temporarily driven at the extremity of the long side of the rectangle so found, and the other side set out parallel with this, by measuring the distance C D (Fig. 16) equal to A B, from the point C, distant on a second line, A C, as far from A as D is i6 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE distant from B. Then the figure A C D B will be a parallelo- gram, since its opposite sides are equal; but it may not be a rectangle. As a test, the diagonals should be measured. If they are unequal, the figure, instead of being rectangular, has the form of which Fig. 17 is an exaggerated representation. To remedy this, move the stake D, at the farthest extremity of the longest diagonal, toward the stake C, a distance about equal to two-thirds of the difference in length between the two diagonals. Then move the stake C an equal distance in the same direction, so as to keep the length of that side of the rectangle correct. Measure the diagonals again, and if now found to be equal, verify all the meas- ?.- A.l. ;__ _D c / / \ / / y / / / \ / / i ? A // \i Fig. 16 Fig. 17 urements, then drive the stakes firmly and set copper tacks as before. This preliminary rectangle having been accurately marked out, the rest of the work follows easily. Lay out the transepts by stretching a line through the eastern side of the rectangle just found, prolonging it indefinitely at each end. Prolong also the north and south sides of the rectangle indefinitely eastward. Lay off the projection of the transept, as figured on the plan, on the extension of the east side of the rectangle; from this point, parallel to the main axis of the build- ing, measure the proper width of the transept. Meas- Rcctangles ure the same distance on the prolongation of the north and south sides of the rectangle, and from the points thus found lay off again, approximately at a right angle, the pro- jection of the transept. Join, if they do not already coincide, this point to the corresponding one found by measuring parallel BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE G iC D to the axis; the place of meeting will be the true north-east or south-east angle of the transept. Drive stakes at all the angles thus found, and set copper tacks to mark the exact points. These secondary rectangles, representing the transepts, will have their angles correct without further trouble, since A C D B having been made truly rect- angular, the angle, F D E, included between the pro- longations of the lines, D B and C D, which include a right angle, will itself be a right angle, and one angle of the parallelogram, D F G E, of which the opposite sides are measured equal, being a right angle, the others are also right angles (Fig. 18). To determine the apsidal B curve, both for the walls and Pi g jg the excavation, it is neces- sary to fix the centre, from which an arc of the requisite radius can be struck whenever needed. (A, Fig. 19.) The usual way of striking such an arc is to drive a strong stake at the centre, with a nail or spike inserted at the proper place in the head of the stake, using a long rod with a notch fitting against the central spike, and cut to curve* f the requisite radius, to describe the curve. At the first setting-out, such a stake may be driven for temporary use, the apsidal semi-circle described, and marked with a number of small stakes or a line cut in the turf with a spade. Then the excavation can begin at this line, but as the central stake would soon be dug away, it is necessary to provide means for recovering it at pleasure. This can best be done by fixing points entirely outside the excavation, from which lines can be stretched which will by their intersection indicate the point required. For our purposes four such points will be necessary. Two of these, J K, may with advantage be situated on the prolongations of the lines i8 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE which show the northern and southern ashlar lines of the tran- septs ; and the distance from the angles, G and H, of the transepts should be twice the distance from the centre of an imaginary line connecting G and H to the point, A. Then two cords, one stretched from H to J, and the other from G to K, will cross each other over A. One more step remains to be taken. As the stakes which at first indicate the actual points, G and H, will be , ... J .V" A. Fig. 19 removed by the excavation, it is necessary to drive supplementary stakes, P and Q, with copper tacks in their heads, at any point on the lines just found. Then cords, stretched from these interme- diate points, will serve the same purpose as if drawn through to G and H, and the stakes which mark them will not be disturbed. The secondary rectangles, which are formed by the aisles, tower, porch, robing-room, or organ-room, can be easily laid out in the same manner as that described for the transepts. As the stakes which now mark the corners of the building will be dug away as soon as the excavation is begun, it is necessary to provide some further means by which their positions can still be shown when the stakes themselves are removed. This is done in much the same way that the centre of the apse circle was fixed, by making the point to be marked fall at the intersection of two straight lines drawn from some more distant stations, which in BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE the case of the corners of a rectangle may best be situated on the prolongations of its sides, as shown in Fig. 20, where the point A is marked with as much precision by the intersection of the lines stretched from the indefinite points, X and Y, as it would be by a stake. In practice, the points, X and Y, are usually given, not by stakes, but by notches on horizontal "batter-boards," , . ' % - . . Batter-Boards which are nailed to stout stakes, five or six feet apart. (Fig. 21.) Two of these batter-boards are necessary to determine each angle (Fig. 22), and as it is of great importance that they should ra 1 ?dfe*-- Fig. 21 I j * Fig. 29 t Fig. 22 be firm and permanent, they must be set up four or five feet back from the edge of the excavation, or more, if this is to be very deep, and the stakes set firmly in the ground. They must, more- over, be as nearly on a level as possible, those which stand at the lower portions of the site being raised on high but strong stakes. Having set up these batter-boards opposite the corners already found, lines should be stretched between them (Fig. 23) so as to coincide with the lines already marked by the stakes. Plumb- lines suspended from the cords over the stakes will show when they pass exactly over the copper tacks which mark the precise points to be transferred, and, as each line is accurately fixed, a small notch should be cut in the board where the string passes 20 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE over it. When all the lines are fixed upon the batter-boards, the first set of notches will, if the ashlar face of the walls was taken v for the measurements, serve at any time to fix the line iof that face for any wall. The projection of the water- table or base course beyond the ashlar surface, the pro- jection of the outer face of the foundation, the thick- ness, both of the foundation and the superstructure, can be indicated by notches on the batter-boards, measured from the original notch, and marked so that they can be readily distinguished, as shown in Fig. 24. It is well to fix one batter-board, at least, at the height of some given level of the building, as for in- Fig. 23 stance, a t the top of the water-table. If an engineer is at hand, or if the architect or contractor can use a level, there is a , great advantage in setting the top of all the batter- Bench Mark , ,,...., . , boards at exactly this height ; then the masons will be able, when the time comes for setting this course, to level across from the batter-boards at various points, and thus obtain a line Fig. 24 more perfectly horizontal, and with less trouble, than would be, possible by starting from a single point. The fixing of the batter-boards completes the setting-out of the building, and a line may then be cut with spades, some fifteen or sixteen inches outside of the original stakes, which can then be removed, and the work of excavation begun. All the business of staking out the building belongs properly to the contractor, unless an engineer is employed, but the architect Importance snou ^ always be present to see it done, and verify of Correct the measurements, and especially to observe the ac- Plantation curacy o f t h e an gi es . The crucial test of the rectan- gularity of the lines is the measurement of the diagonals, which should be insisted upon, and the stakes shifted patiently until they are correct. If this is not attended to at the outset, the superin- tendent is very likely to see subsequently the upper walls here and BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 21 Fig. 25 there overhanging the foundation, in the attempt to bring back the superstructure to its proper shape (Fig. 25) ; or, in the finish- ing, to find doors and windows unexpectedly cramped or thrown out of centre, the pattern of the tesselated pavement tapering off to nothing at one end, the frescoed ceilings misshapen, carpets fitting badly, or some other of the in- numerable vexatious and irremedi- able consequences of incorrect set- ting-out. While the workmen are cutting the sod in long strips and rolling it up, which may be desirable if it can be used for improv- ing portions of the lot, it is necessary to choose places where the loam from the surface and the gravel from beneath Disposal of may be piled up separately in "spoil-banks," out of Excavated the way of building operations, but near at hand for use in the subsequent grading. Nothing is more common than to see the earth from a cellar thrown out at one edge of the excavation, to be soon after shovelled over again in order to dig a place for some pier or post ; then, perhaps, the middle of the heap turned over a third time, to cut a trench for drain or other pipes, and finally the greater part of the mass shovelled again into wheel- barrows and transported half way around the building, to be used for grading up in some place on the other side, where it might just as well have been thrown in the first place. Let the young superintendent, therefore, think where the gravel is likely to be used for grading or road-building, and how the heaps can be most conveniently arranged, in reference both to its future use, and to the least laborious mode of bringing it from the cellar. The amount of material which the cellar will furnish can be approximately estimated with very little trouble, as well as the quantity which will be needed for the grading about the build- ing, so that if there proves to be a surplus which must be provided for, places may be arranged for disposing of it, either in filling up hollows about the lot, grading the approaches, forming terraces, or other improvements ; and the earth may then be excavated from the cellar, hauled to the place designated, and dumped in imme- 22 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE diately, without having to be twice handled. Wherever grass is intended to cover the new surface, loam must be piled near, or brought from other parts of the excavation. The location of the avenues and paths, with the drainage works necessary, should be determined at the outset, and marked upon the plan which the superintendent must have always at hand to refer to. A large space on the most level part of the ground, and not far from the principal entrance, should be reserved for unloading and piling up timber, and for framing. Room must also be left for Space to be delivering stone at various points around the building, Reserved for and for other materials. Especially should the area Materials about the main entrance be kept free of obstruction. These cares properly belong to the contractor, since the extra expense and delay caused by re-handling and improper disposal of material must be paid by him, but the efficient and intelligent conduct of such works is indirectly advantageous to all parties, and the superintendent, by his greater familiarity with the plans, as well, perhaps, as his superior skill in interpreting their indica- tions, is able to foresee future contingencies more clearly even than those who will suffer most by want of due precaution. Applying these observations to our present building, we no- tice the conditions to be as follows : The street runs along the south side of the lot; and the ground sloping gently toward the east, the best place for the entrance roadway will be near the Gr din western end of the building, arranging it, if no other considerations oppose, so that the grade will ascend slightly from the street. This will be of advantage in securing an outlet for water into the street-gutters during heavy rains. The building is not on the crest of the hill, the ground rising con- tinuously westward. It will therefore be necessary, in order to prevent the water running down the hill from reaching the walls, which it would soon saturate, to grade up at the west front of the church sufficiently to turn it back by a slight slope in the reverse direction ; and it will improve the appearance of the structure to have this graded surface somewhat extensive, so as to form a plateau in front of the building, nearly level, and spacious enough to turn a carriage easily. This level will be continued along the BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 2 3 south wall of the church as far as the porch opening into the south transept, forming a terrace, wide enough for a foot-path, and regaining the natural surface southward and eastward by easy slopes. The avenue crosses a small natural basin before reaching the plateau, and beyond it continues along the north side of the build- ing to the sheds, which are situated at some distance to the north- east. A separate foot-path from the street leads to the entrances of the robing-room and the society-room in the basement. The gravel from the excavation will therefore be principally needed for the plateau and terrace on the west and south sides, and for the paths and avenues, and the loam will nearly all be used on the south side, where a deep soil is desirable to insure a good growth of grass. It should therefore, as it is stripped from the surface of the excavation, be piled in a heap south of the south transept. It will be very advantageous for the avenue to have it hard- ened by the traffic of heavy teams bringing materials, and equally an advantage for the teams to have a practicable road for wet weather, instead of being obliged to go over the grass-land, which is soon cut into a mass of mud. Hence while the turf and loam are being stripped off the site of the church, Bu?kHn the driveway should be staked out, together with the plateau in front of the church, and the terrace, and in order that the new material may unite with the subsoil beneath, the surface should be ploughed, the loam taken off, and added to the main "spoil-bank." As fast as this is done, a gang of laborers should dig a trench eighteen inches wide and two feet deep on each side of the road- way, throwing the gravel into the middle; and then fill these trenches half full of stones, put six inches of hay or straw over the stones, and throw back gravel enough to fill the trenches. This French drain, or trench filled with stones, should be con- tinued around the side of the plateau next the hill, and made con- siderably deeper in that place three to six feet, according to the springiness of the soil. The object of it is to prevent water from working in at the sides and softening the gravel of the road just below the surface, breaking this up, however hard it may have 24 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE become. If stones cannot be had, agricultural drain-tile may be laid in the trench, and the joints covered over with a piece of cloth before filling up with gravel. The road thus defended against the undermining influence of water from the sides will soon be dry and hard, though, below the general surface, and ready for the gravel-carts which will by this time be ready to bring their loads from the cellar excavation, coming to the surface by a runway at the eastern end, where the height is least, and passing along the rudimentary avenue at the north side of the building to deposit them, first on the plateau, until that is brought up to the height required, and then upon the avenue, a sufficient quantity being dumped in the hollow near the end to bring up the grade to a uniform slope with the rest. Besides the deep intercepting drain around the upper edge of the plateau, it is best in all but the most porous soils to make another French drain under the plateau itself, in the shape of a V, the vertex of which points up the hill, while the extremities of the legs end in the road drains, one to the north and the other to the south of the western end of the church. This will prevent the water which falls upon or gets in beneath the fresh surface of the plateau from running along the comparatively hard, sloping stratum of natural soil beneath toward the foundation walls of the building, which will soon be penetrated by its persistent flow. It will be best to leave the avenues at a grade about six inches below the final level. If well drained they will soon become hard under the heavy traffic, and a final coating of six inches of screened gravel at the completion of the building, brought to a neat surface, will give a good and durable finish to the work. The terracing along the south side may be provided for most economically, if the ground is firm; by directing the excavated material on that side to be thrown out on the bank without loading into carts ; but if the soil is soft or sandy, the edge of the excava- tion must not be weighted with material until the cellar walls are built, or it is liable to cave in. The contractor for the building is not obliged to do all these works, unless they are mentioned in the specification or contract. In general, if there is no agreement otherwise, the builder is expected to take off and reserve the sods, transport and pile the BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 25 loam and gravel separately wherever directed within the bounds of a reasonably large lot, but he would not be expected to spread and level the material, except about the building, unless such levelling were mentioned specifically. The other works men- tioned, although they are best carried on at the same time, would be included in a separate contract in connection with the subsequent terracing, planting, sodding, or gardener's work which might be determined upon for the general adornment of the lot. To recapitulate the most important things to be remembered, and precautions to be observed in first laying out the Recapitu- building and starting the work : lation Examine the figures on the plans, to see if they are correct. See that the steel or other tapes used are divided into feet and inches, not into feet and tenths of a foot. Stake out provisionally the actual ashlar lines of the building. Measure the diagonals of the principal rectangles. Transfer the lines given by the stakes to batter-boards, perma- nently fixed. If the ground is not level, or nearly so, the hori- zontal dimensions must be measured level, and transferred to the stakes by a plumb-line. After determining the ashlar lines, the foundation-walls should be marked on the batter-boards, and the lines of the excavation given about eight inches outside the face of the foundations. Set some permanent mark representing either the top of the floor-beams, the water-table, or any other convenient level, provid- ing carefully for the change in the surface of the ground which will be made by the subsequent grading. Write distinctly on this stake or "bench mark" the level which it is intended to represent, and also the depth of the cellar bottom below it, allowing three inches for concrete. Consider and decide about the laying out of the lot, and if any of the avenues can be used in the building operations have them immediately staked out, cleared of loam, and drained. Confer with the contractor in regard to the most convenient place for delivering the materials and dumping gravel. Explain to him the future plan of grading, and interest him in your provisions for avoiding unnecessary handling of the earth, so that 2 6 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE your directions may not seem arbitrary. Remember to leave spaces as follows : Not less than 2,500 square feet for piles of lumber. Two or three plots of 500 square feet each for brick and rubble. About 500 square feet for other materials. These to be near the building, but leaving space for heavy teams to drive up, unload, turn, and go out. Space may also be needed near the street as follows : 1,000 square feet for stone-cutting sheds. 1,000 square feet for rough blocks of stone. Determine the position of the main provisional entrance, and keep the approach to it clear. This entrance need not necessarily be one of the regular church doors. In this instance, the main access to the church, through the tower, is somewhat tortuous for the introduction of long timbers or other bulky materials, so that it will be best to provide a temporary one, which can be done by leaving the arch of the large west window open down to the ground. When the necessity for so large an entrance is over, the wall can easily be built up as high as the sill. SECOND VISIT We will suppose that the matters treated of in the foregoing notes have been satisfactorily disposed of, and the laborers have been some days at work. By this time it will be necessary to appear again upon the ground. The second visit finds the loam removed, and the excavation completed down to the cellar bottom at the western end. Teams are hauling rubble-stone for cellar walls, and a car-load of staging lumber has arrived on the ground. Let the superintendent begin by going all around the outside of the building, comparing the excavated lines with Inspection t ^ ie mar ^ s on tne batter-boards. Any mistakes should be pointed out at once, before they are driven from the mind by other matters. Next let him make the tour of the in- side of the excavation, examining the bank carefully. He finds the Appearance ground at the lower, or eastern end to be a fine gravel of the mixed with stones. The bank at the upper end, for Excavation ye or s j x ^ eet | De ] ow fa e surface, is composed of a similar gravel, but below this appears a stratum of greenish clay, hard at the upper part, but softening into mud below. The clay BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE Clay Stratum continues along the bank to the site of the tower, where it ends in a large mass of loose slaty rock, from which water trickles rapidly. The south side of the tower excavation shows only gravel. These appearances demand careful consideration, for they indicate a state of affairs involving both serious dangers to be overcome, and costly extra works to be planned, and the payment for them satisfactorily arranged. The operations which will be necessary in the present case will be best understood by going through a process of reasoning sim- ilar to that which should occupy the superintendent's mind on viewing the circumstances. The appearance of the hard clay stratum a short distance be- low the gravel at the upper side of the excavation warns us that it is first of all necessary to cut off the water which in rainy weather will soak through the gravel, and col- lecting on top of the clay will follow it down hill in a wide, shallow sheet, so that the foundation wall, at the line where the clay stratum comes against it, would soon be soaked. We have had the trench- es cut eight inches wider than the wall, expressly for the purpose of allowing this to be built up smooth and independent on the outside, and protecting it by filling the vacant space with gravel, which will inter- cept a part of the descending sheet, but this is not enough ; a trench must be dug a few feet in front of the west wall of the church, deep enough to cut into the clay stratum the whole length. If the clay bed slopes northward or southward, as well as eastward, the trench may follow it downward, discharging into one of the road drains. (Fig. 26.) If its section in that direction is horizontal, the trench may take the form of a shallow V, with an outlet at each end. These trenches are to be half filled with loose stones, cov- ered with straw or hay, and filled up with gravel. The water descending the hill on the surface of the clay stratum is thus completely intercepted, and if it were not for the Fig. 26 2 g BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE ledge of rock, which, as we have ascertained, extends beneath the clay bed, there would be no need of any further precautions, unless to give a little extra depth to the trenches in the clay, to insure against the effects of frost, which will penetrate a foot deeper in a clay soil than in dry gravel. But by closer attention we shall find that the clay bed is uni- formly hardest at the top, and grows softer downward, being softest just above the ledge. This means that the rain falling on the hill above, filtering down through the gravel and clay strata till it reaches the rock, is there arrested and compelled to descend along its surface, working its way between the stone and the over- lying clay, which it reduces to a mud so thin, after Sloping Rocks P r tracted wet weather, that the superincumbent material will slide along the top of the ledge thus lubricated, if any way is open for it to escape. The indications are that the ledge extends along the whole western line of the building, and by excavating the church cellar a space will be open into which the clay, pressed upon by the weight of the walls which come over that portion of the found- ation, will be able to force its way, the cellar floor rising and the wall set- tling, as the soft mud beneath is squeezed out under the load. (Fig. 27.) This is no imaginary danger, but is the certain con- sequence of the operations proposed. How can the programme be changed to meet the difficulty ? It might be possible to cut an intercepting trench in the ledge, similar to that by which we propose to cut off the water descend- ing on the surface of the clay ; but this would be expensive, and there might be seams of loose rock, like that found under the tower, through which the streams would run in the interior oC the ledge, and coming again to its surface below the trench, would render this useless. Might not the foundation be carried through the clay to the rock itself? This would be effectual in preventing settlement, but from the BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 2 g inclination of the surface of the ledge exposed under the tower at the north-west corner, we can roughly estimate that the rock under the north-west angle would be at least ten feet below the cellar bottom, and to carry the foundation to this depth would add ma- terially to the cost of the building. Besides, it would be hardly wise to dam up the descending water by a continuous wall, which would be in danger of being gradually undermined by the flow. Rather let us bring up piers from the rock, with arches below the cellar floor level, and the wall can then rest on these arches with- out danger of settlement, while the water will find its way between them and continue its course, far enough below the cellar floor to do no harm. For these piers we will use concrete, which will be much cheaper than brick or stone masonry, and will resist better the undermining action of the subterranean water. A short deliberation is needed to convince us that this is the best mode of overcoming the difficulty, and the arches are marked out on the foundation plan, through the whole extent of the west front, leaving the largest opening in the middle of the wall, under the great west window. Whether similar arches shall be con- tinued under the north and south walls is next to be considered ; but these are so much lighter than the west gable wall that their effect on the clay bed would be far less ; moreover, this bed is here at a much greater distance from the surface, and, most important of all, the effect of a vertical pressure would be to press it outward, instead of inward toward the excavation, so that the weight and inertia of the whole depth of gravel above it will operate to keep it in place. There is some danger of unequal settlement at the junction of these walls, which stand on slightly compressible gravel, with the west wall, which by its piers extends to the in- compressible rock ; so we will enlarge the footings of these walls near the junction, thereby spreading the weight over a large sur- face, and reducing the load on each square foot of gravel so far that it will be borne without any yielding. An additional six inches on each side, obtained by adding one course of footings, will suffice, if the stones are reasonably flat, and making a memo- randum of this we proceed to consider the foundation of the tower. Here there is no doubt as to the support, the rock being every- where above or near the level of the footings. The point requir- 30 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE ing most attention is the spring of water flowing from the seam of loose rock. There is only one thing to be thought of ; that is, to collect this water in a covered receptacle which cannot overflow, and convey it by a tight conduit to a safe outfall In Rock 11 be y nd the walls of the building. This will be some- what costly, and the builder, and perhaps the church committee, desirous of avoiding needless expense, will quote the example of other structures in the neighborhood which have un- covered springs in the cellar, and where they are allowed to flow away by an open channel, but the architect or superintendent should not allow himself to be persuaded by these arguments. He will find, if he cares to inquire, that in every one of Wet Cellars ,, , ' . , ^ ' / M . the buildings mentioned the cellar walls and ceilings are dripping with moisture, the first story beams are blackening with incipient decay, the structures themselves are chilly and difficult to warm in winter, and a penetrating smell hangs about them in summer, especially after rains. These are the houses where the young people die of consump- tion, one after the other; or the churches that one enters with a sudden depression of spirits, and leaves with a headache or a cold. Let the architect claim the authority due to superior knowledge, and refuse to sanction anything short of absolute security against water within the cellar walls. Fortunately, there is but one spring, although that is a copious one, flowing some fifty gallons per hour. We will therefore excavate, by pick and by blasting, a rough well on the line of the seam, just outside the cellar wall, and carried to a depth of at least 2^2 feet below the cellar floor. If there had been several water- bearing seams, we should have been compelled, instead of excavat- ing the well outside the wall, to make it beneath the wall itself, by cutting the trenches two feet or more below the cellar floor, and putting in the first foundation stones dry, without mortar, so that the water could collect in the vacant spaces. This would keep the moisture from invading the cellar, but the wall might be damp from the water standing beneath it, so that a well entirely outside of the wall is preferable. We will, however, to provide for the possibility of water coming in wet weather through seams now dry, deepen the trenches about a foot, and lay the first course BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 3! of stones dry, bringing this trench into communication with the well, so that water entering under any part of the wall will find its way to the well. A channel is then to be made, and a tight pipe laid with cemented joints below the cellar floor from the well, across the tower and under the opposite wall to the outside of the building, until the gravel is reached, where the pipe may end in a pit filled with loose stones. Having plainly indicated the arches, piers, drains and well, the question is to be settled, Who shall pay for all this extra work ? The principle to be kept in view in the decision is that, unless some special agreement has been made, the builder cannot be obliged to pay the cost of extra foundation, concrete, or other works rendered necessary by peculiarities of the ground which could not have been reasonably expected or foreseen when the contract was signed : he is, however, presumed to have examined the ground where the proposed building was to stand, and to have included in his contract price the risk of common defects, such as clay beds in gravel, rock in a spot where the ledge appears on the surface near by, or of springs in any soil. Of course the best way would have been to bore at different points around the building, to find out the depth and nature of the soil, and by the light of these tests to draw the foundation plans and specify the various works, but this is rarely done in ordinary buildings, and the object of this treatise is as much to come to the rescue in the common cases of forget fulness, omission, or un- foreseen difficulty, as to point out the course which would be absolutely the best for all buildings. In the present case, it is decided that, the clay seam being a common occurrence in gravelly soils, the contractor shall bear the expense of the trench and drain for cutting off the water which would flow over its surface toward the building ; and Apportion- shall also pay for the drain to carry off the spring- mentof water from under the tower ; but that the cost of car- Cost rying down the foundations of the west wall beyond the point shown on the drawings, the extra width of footings under the north wall, and the necessary blasting under the tower, shall fall on the church, for the reason that the ledge did not appear above ground anywhere near the site of the building, and therefore its 32 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE existence so near the surface as to interfere with the foundations would not reasonably be inferred with sufficient certainty to form an element in the contract price ; the same rule applying also to the clay bed resting on the rock. The new work should be clearly described in a supplementary specification, giving the proportion of cement, sand, and pebbles in the concrete, mentioning the large flat stones which should form the upper part of the piers, and from which the arches will spring ; requiring that the arches shall be built on centres, of good, hard brick, in mortar made with one part sand to one of cement, in four row-locks for the small arches, and five in the large one ; with any other particulars which may make the meaning more clear. The drawings should be rectified by notes and diagrams in the margin, a record of all the facts, with copies of all instruc- tions and orders, kept by the superintendent, and a price agreed upon, setting off against the cost of blasting under the tower the amount of earth excavation saved, and the value of the rough stone obtained. An additional agreement, embodying the sup- plementary specification and the extra price agreed upon, is drawn up, signed by both parties, and attached to the original contract, and the work is ready to proceed. All this sounds long, but it is time well spent, for a few hours more in arranging the preliminaries will save days as well as dollars to both parties in the final settlement. A glance at the rough stone delivered, with an admonition to the builder to get the footing-stones as flat as possible, and the summary sending off the ground of a lot of staging lumber which has just arrived, containing a number of knotty and shaky poles, calling the build- er's attention at the same time to their rejection, may terminate our duties for the day. THE THIRD AND FOURTH VISITS Very soon after these affairs have been agreed upon it will be necessary to make another visit to the building, to see that the execution is rightly begun. We find the excavation finished, the blasting done under the tower, the collecting well and pipe completed, and the foundation- wall under that part already some five feet high. There is no other stonework started, and thinking it a little strange that this, BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 33 the most difficult part of the work, should have been begun first, we examine the wall minutely. The inside face looks all right, the stones being perhaps a little small; but that may be the way the stone runs. Outside, the gravel has been rilled in nearly to the top of the stone-work. We borrow a crowbar and force it into the gravel outside the wall in several places. Except a soft- ness of the material, which shows that it has not been properly rammed, or "puddled" by wetting it thoroughly, so as to pack it closely into its place, we observe nothing out of the way until we approach the corner, where for some feet the bar, instead of sinking its full length, close to the outside of the wall, strikes against the solid rock not far down. We call the foreman and ask him if the foundation- wall stands entirely clear of the ledge. He hesitates, and finally replies that the ledge, after being cut away through part of the thickness of the wall, showed such a "nice flat top" that it seemed a pity to excavate it any farther, and he had therefore built up , . Fig. 28 a thin wall against it as high as the top, and then built out over the rock to make the full thick- ness of the wall as shown on the plans. He adds, with great apparent confidence, that "nothing can be better for part of the wall than the solid rock." This explanation is specious, but in practice is dangerously misleading. In a wall so built, the water will find its way either through the imperceptible seams of the ledge or over its top into the body of the masonry, keeping it constantly damp. Moreover, there is a serious risk that under the heavy weight of the tower, the thin lining wall built up against the ledge, but in no way bonded to it, would separate from it and fall away, leaving the superincumbent masonry most insecurely supported. (Fig. 28.) There is, besides, the certainty that the foundation- wall, built partly on unyielding rock, and partly of small stones laid in com- pressible mortar, will settle unequally, and crack, perhaps dislocat- 3 24 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE ing the masonry above, and at least opening an inlet for moisture. The work must therefore be immediately taken down to the very foundation, and the ledge cut away so as to leave ample space for the whole thickness of the cellar wall down to the footings, with seven or eight inches additional room outside the masonry to enable it to be properly pointed, and for packing in behind it a screen of gravel, which will intercept and carry safely down to the drains whatever water may ooze through the veins of the rock. The workmen will probably profess never to have heard of a Outside Face foundation in which the bank was not intentionally of Foundation- cut just to coincide with the outside line of the wall, Walls go t^t this could be built up directly against it, thereby saving them all the trouble of selecting stones for this side, so as to have it smooth ; plumbing it, to get it vertical ; and pointing it, so as to have it impervious. It is true that this is the common method of cheap builders, but it is not, and should not be, countenanced in work of any importance, even in dwelling-houses, except of the lightest and cheapest kind. A wall built in this way (Fig. 29) is neither safe nor satisfactory. The joints at the back, being concealed, are usually devoid of mortar, or if any is put in, it falls out again, so that a gradual compression of the outer portion is \t'S*''' r ^7~~i liable to take place, as the weight of the super- " i -~ ^"^- ^v ma y be much less numerous. We find our granite blocks to average eight inches in thick- ness, and being assured by the contractor that the stones to come will be of a similar character, we agree with him that if the anchors are so distributed that there shall be at least one to every three feet in length, and two feet in height, the work shall be accepted as satisfactory, stipulating also that the last course of ashlar, under the water-table which marks the transition from granite to freestone at the first-floor level, shall have an anchor in every stone. The brownstone ashlar for the upper part of the wall will be of about the same thickness, and the same proportion of anchors is directed for that also; every stone under the hori- zontal string-courses and cornices to a be anchored, in the same way as under the water-table. The anchors 7 are made of wrought-iron strips p. about one inch wide, and as much as one-twelfth-inch thick. Iron of one- sixteenth-inch thickness is sometimes used, but is too light. One end is turned up about two and a half inches, and the other is turned down about one and a quarter inches. The end is heated by the blacksmith and driven by a blow into a round hole made in the anvil, which rolls it into a tubular shape suited for inser- BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 61 R tion into a hole drilled in the top of the stone to be anchored. (Fig- 39-) The drill-hole should be one and a half or two inches from the face of the ashlar block, and the length of the anchor should be so measured as to extend entirely through the wall, the other end turning up close against the inner face. As these ties would be soon destroyed by rust if used in their natural state, they must be protected by tarring or galvanizing. The latter is most expensive, and per- haps best, but the former is generally em- ployed. In setting the first course of stone above ground, it is advantageous to have it over- hang the foundation wall about an inch : then the rain-water, which flows in sheets down the exposed surface during storms, when it reaches this point, drips off, and is absorbed by the ground, instead of continuing its journey down the face of the foundation- wall. (Fig. 40.) Of course, this must be arranged for in making the detail drawings Fig. 40 jf i t i s to be done systematically. At all events, the construction sometimes seen, where the base course is set back from the face of the foundation, leaving a narrow level strip on top of it, should not be countenanced. Such a shelf serves only to catch the water streaming down from above and conduct it into the masonry, and if the plans require such a relative position of the foundation and superstructure, the former should terminate by a surface sloping back to the line of the wall above it. In supervising the facing work, attention should be paid to the appearance. With random ashlar, much of the beauty depends upon the frequency with which the horizontal joints are broken. It is common to specify for such work that no horizontal joint shall extend more than six feet, and this is a good rule to follow in all cases. The difference between a neat and slovenly walling is illustrated by Fig. 41, a and b. In b the effect- is injured not only by the long horizontal 62 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE joints, but by the frequent occurrence of small stones, as at X, Y, Z, inserted to fill awkward vacancies. The work now goes on without intermission until the granite- faced wall is ready to receive the water-table or bevelled course which terminates it. (Fig. 42.) This, like all horizontal string- courses, particularly if projecting, should be composed of long stones, running back as far into the wall as practicable. They are often specified to have the top bed not less than eight inches in the -t I i Fig 410 -M_J Fig. 41 & wall, and this is a good standard, though narrow string-courses near the top of the wall may perhaps have an inch or two less. Care is necessary to ascertain the exact level some time before the wall has reached the required point, and it is best to build up all the corners of the building to the line in advance of the rest, and set the corner-stones of the water-table, levelling them carefully with an engineer's instrument, afterwards bringing the interme- diate portions up to the line. This will prevent an appearance Fig. 42 Fig. 43 like this (Fig. 43) caused by the attempt to regain a true level after the wall has been carried up nearly to the top. The quoins or corner blocks of the water-table, as indeed of all the stone-work, must always, for appearance sake, show a wide head on both sides the angle (Fig. 44), instead of being cut out of a stone of the same thickness as the rest (Fig. 45). The water-table indicates the level of the main floor, and while preparations are making for laying it, the beams may be placed in Flooring Timber BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 63 position. Stock for these has been delivered at intervals previous- ly, and carefully examined, several loads having been rejected for containing timbers considerably less in size (since the timber shrinks after sawing) than the specification calls for, while others have been thrown out on ac- count of pieces badly "shaken" (Fig. 46) ; or "waney" (Fig. 47), through having been sawed too near the outside of a crooked piece, so that a part of the wood is lacking ; or weakened by large knots near the middle of the span. The nave and chancel floor beams are divided into two spans, the inner ends of each Fig. 44 Fig- 45 span being carried on a line of girders running through the middle of the building and supported by brick piers under the nave, and an iron column in the society-room under the chancel. The gird- ers of the main floor are of Georgia pine, eight inches by sixteen, those in the chancel being twelve by sixteen, and all are already on the ground. It is necessary to have these properly set before the beams can be put in position ; but if the piers were to be built up first, and the heavy timbers laid upon them, there would be danger of overturning or displacing iga them, so it is best to support the girders by temporary wooden shores until the floor is on, and afterwards build up the piers between the shores. As there is ample head-room in the cellar, the Figs. 46, 47 beams are simply notched upon the girders, instead of framing them in, and thereby weakening the girders with mortises. The carpenters are already cutting the notches, and the fore- man hastens after us to ask whether he shall "crown' 'Crowning" the beams, and if so, how much. Nothing is said about it in the specifications, and a little reflection is necessary 64 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE before a reply can be given. The crowning, as now usually prac- tised, consists in trimming off with an adze the upper edge of the beams, so as to form a curve, the convexity of which may be one inch or more, as required (Fig. 48.) Nothing is taken off the middle of the timber, so its strength to resist a distributed weight is not impaired, and as all ordinary beams sag a little under their own weight, and still more when loaded with flooring and plaster, the crowning enables this sagging to be compensated, and such a beam, when suspended at the ends, will be level or slightly convex on top, the bending due to the weight showing itself on the under side. (Fig. 49.) Form- r "" -^ er l v t^ same effect was sought by shoring up the f . . . beams strongly in the cen- f""""" - , C" tre, so as to bend them Figs. 48, 49 upward, and then either building them into the walls, or confining them Fi """* by timbers placed against their ends, and connected by iron tie-rods passing between the beams (Fig. 50), but this method is objectionable, and is now rarely used. In order to determine whether crowning by the other mode is desirable, we can easily calculate the probable bending of the timbers, or, what will be still better, experiment on the spot, by placing one of the beams, the top of which has been previously ascertained to be straight and true, on supports at the proper distance apart, and loading it at the middle with a weight equal to half the load which will come upon it after the building is com- pleted. In this case the beams of the main floor are specified to be of Georgia pine, all to be three by twelve, all placed sixteen inches from centres, and twenty feet long, the clear span being nineteen feet four inches. They will be plastered one heavy coat underneath, and covered with a double boarding. Each beam carries the whole weight of the flooring above it and the plastering below it, from the central line of the interval between itself and the next beam on one side to the corresponding line on the other side, the distance between these two lines being the same as that between BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 65 the centres of the beams themselves, or sixteen inches. Each beam will then sustain, independent of its own weight, an area of floor- ing 1 6 inches wide and 20 feet long, and an equal area of plaster- ing, amounting to 16 inches (ij^ feet) X 20 = 26% square feet of each. One square foot of dry pine board an inch thick weighs about three pounds, and as the boarding is double, six pounds will represent the weight of flooring per square foot. Plastering of the kind mentioned will weigh about six pounds per square foot, making a total load per foot of 12 pounds, which multiplied by 26% will give 320 pounds as the distributed load on the beam, or, including its own weight, 486 pounds. One-half of this, or 243 pounds, applied at the centre will produce the same effect as the whole distributed load, and by loading our experimental beam in this way the amount of bending can be at once ascertained. A bucket hung over the middle of the beam, and loaded with fifty- five to sixty bricks according to size, or with two men standing in it, will form a ready means of applying the weight, and a string tightly stretched between the ends of the beam will show the deflection, which we find in this case to be less than a quarter of an inch. So slight a deflection is not worth the trouble of correcting by crowning the beams, especially as the bridging of the floor, which is required by the specification, affords protection against unequal deflection; and we therefore inform the foreman that it will not be required. The tops of the beams must, however, be well levelled; and as they are likely to vary somewhat in depth, the gauge for notching them to fit upon the girder must be taken from the top, not from the bottom edge. The ends which rest on the walls need not be notched, but are "pinned up" with chips of stone or slate to the required height. Wooden chips must never be used for this purpose, as they soon rot out, and allow the beam to settle. Concerning the manner in which the beams should be built into the wall, there is much diversity both of opinion Bevelling and practice. On one point, however, all are agreed ; Ends of that the ends should be cut on a bevel, thus (Fig. 51 ), Beams the variation of the inclined line from the vertical being two to four inches, according to the depth of the beam. The object of this is to prevent the destruction of the wall, in case of fire, by the 5 66 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE Fig. Si fall of the floor when burnt through. If the beams are beveled as shown, they drop out quietly when their outer ends are con- sumed ; but if left square, the portion in the wall acts as the short arm of a powerful lever, whose outer end, being depressed as the floor falls, pries the wall outward with immense force. (Fig. 52.) But besides this, precaution should be taken lest the ends of the beams absorb moisture from the founda- tion and perish by dry-rot. The most im- portant security again this is the avoid- ance of dampness in the cellar and its walls by the precautions suggested above, with- out which the other expedients avail little. If reasonable dryness is maintained about them, sufficient further protection can be obtained by leaving a small open space about the ends of the timbers for circulation of air. Some simply build up vertically behind the ends of the beams, filling in solidly between them, and trusting to the subsequent shrinkage of the wood to open a slight but sufficient communication between the triangular Protection hollow behind the timber and the air of the cellar. against Rot . . Others increase this communication by tacking a piece of zinc or felt paper over the end of the beam, letting it hang down at the sides, so as to keep the masonry at a small distance from the wood. Still more careful constructors build up a recess around each timber, leaving it free on all sides ; but with a dry foundation of hard stone, laid in half cement, and the floor two feet or more above the ground, so great precaution is unneces- sary except for heavy girders. In the present case, being very confident of the dryness of our wall, we will com- promise by filling in closely between the beams with the stone-work, but will Fig. 52 leave a space behind them, and will span the end of each beam by a stone or a couple of bricks, so as to open a communication above the beam between the interior space and the air. When the first tier of beams has been laid and the ends built up with masonry, the work of the superstructure may properly be said BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 67 to begin, and a variety of new cares will come upon us. Here also commences a considerable divergence between the practice of different localities in respect to many details of con- struction. In the Eastern States, and to an increasing structure extent in others, the next step after laying the first-floor beams and bringing the walls up to a level with them, is to cover the whole floor with cheap inch boards of hemlock or spruce, gener- ally "thicknessed," that is, planed on one side so as to reduce them to a uniform thickness, and firmly nailed down in place. This furnishes a convenient starting-point for future operations ; materials are stored upon it, the roof is framed upon it, stagings are erected on it, and the men move freely over it. Whenever it becomes necessary to reach the space between the beams, for nailing bridging, running gas-pipes, or other purposes, a board is easily taken up and replaced again, and at the very end of the work the whole is brushed clean, the holes and broken places repaired, and an upper flooring of new, clean, fresh boards put down over it, one or two thicknesses of soft felt being laid between, making a strong, handsome, impervious floor. Among the old-fashioned builders in New York and other places this method is thought unreasonably costly, and a single flooring only is used, generally of one and a quarter inch boards, the laying of which, of course, in order to preserve them from injury, is delayed as long as possible, all the operations of building being meanwhile carried on over a skeleton of beams, traversed in differ- ent directions by lines of planks which have continually to be taken up and changed, while supplementary planks must be brought and laid down to hold all the material used in each story, and if a tool is dropped, or a bolt or anchor-iron rolls from its place, it descends to the cellar, where the workman must go to find it, or let it be altogether lost. To one familiar with both systems, the latter seems to involve a great waste of time and labor, and the testimony of the best builders is that the double flooring, though costing more for material, is so much more economical in these respects as to save more than its extra cost in the completed building. We find this construction specified for the structure under our charge, and in less -than a day after the beams are on and levelled, they are covered with a smooth, firm floor, which can be put down 68 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE with extreme rapidity, being laid without much attempt at unnec- essary neatness. The boards, being of hemlock, are full of shakes ; some are cracked in a dozen places, while in others the annual rings have separated, and can be peeled off by layers. Some hem- lock lumber is much better than this, but there is no need of being very particular. As soon as convenient after laying the floor, the boards are taken up in a line through the places marked for bridg- ing the beams. There are to be two rows of bridging in each span, but the kind is not specified. Occasion- ally a builder is found who imagines that a floor can be bridged by fitting in square bits of plank between the beams and nailing them in place ; a device as costly as it is perfectly useless, the planks answering no purpose whatever except to burden the floor. The proper way is to fit in strips diagonally between the beams, of sufficient length to reach from the upper edge of one to the lower edge of the next, nail- ing them firmly in place with two large nails at each end Fig A double row is necessary, so arranged as to abut in pairs against the upper and under sides of each beam, and the effect, if arranged as they should be, in lines made perfectly straight, marking the position of each piece by a chalk-line on the edges of the timbers, is to connect the beams together by a kind of truss (Fig. 54), which prevents any one from bending downward without carrying down with it a number of others, greater or less according to the perfection of the work- manship, but ordinarily about ten. Nothing is added to the abso- lute strength of the whole floor, but any single overloaded beam is enabled to divide its burden with six or eight of its neighbors, which is a great gain. The bridging in important buildings is usually specified to be of two-inch by four-inch pieces, and such may sometimes be necessary; but for ordinary dwelling-house beams, not more than sixteen inches from centres, strips one inch or one and a quarter inches thick and four inches wide will, if well fitted and nailed, prove quite sufficient. BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 6 9 The ends of the beams which rest on the girders should be nailed in place, and in addition "dogs" of round bar-iron three- fourths inch in diameter and about eighteen inches^ i j j 1 j j f 7 j Tying Beams long, turned down at each end and fashioned into a ' rough, chisel-like point (Fig. 55), should be driven into the abutting ends of two opposite beams, at intervals of about eight feet, the whole length of the build- Fig * S4 ing, so as to connect the beams Strongly together ; and wall anchors of flat bar iron. 1 s / r . , , . , , - /Wall Anchors one-halt inch thick, and at least one and a fourth inches wide, not less than four feet long, and turned up four inches at the end, should be spiked, by means of holes punched for the purpose, to the sides of the same beams that are tied at their other ends to the beams beyond, leaving the turned-up end to be built into the masonry of the wall above the water-table. This end is often split into a fork and each branch turned up, much improving its hold, and the inner end is sometimes turned down and driven into the beam, without being spiked to it. These different anchorages form a continuous tie from wall to wall, and although not far from the ground will assist materially in keeping the masonry upright. Other anchors must be provided, for tying the angles of the building in the superstructure. These should be of iron similar in thickness and width to those just described, turned up at one end and down at the other, and from four to six feet long. They should be laid alternately in each of the walls forming the angle, and at intervals of from four to eight feet in height, ac- cording to the amount of bond obtained by the stones alone. Young architects Fig. 55 are often surprised to find that so much iron is needed in masonry, which they imagine by the descriptions given in their text-books to be quite capable, when well bonded, of holding itself together with- out such aid ; but our common structure of thin ashlar facing, backed with incoherent rubble and small stones, is a very different matter from the combination of squared blocks to which the books refer. 70 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE Still another set of anchors must be built into certain portions of the walls as they progress, to hold the brick lining which is subsequently to be built up inside. A part of these HoHo f w r walls are to ^ e use d in the society-room under the chancel, and others in the vestibule which forms the first story of the tower. The former of these lining walls is to be plastered, but not the latter, and the anchors needed will differ a little in consequence ; those for the plastered wall being arranged to project entirely through the lining, turning up two inches on the inner side, while the others must stop just behind the inner face, so as to lie concealed in the joint. They should be made of iron not less than one-sixteenth inch in thickness and one inch wide, tarred or galvanized, turned up at the end in the outside wall, and extend- ing halfway through it. They are to be built into the outside wall at intervals of two feet both horizontally and vertically, setting them carefully to the proper length by measuring from the outside, and left projecting until the time comes for building the lining wall, when they will be found all ready at the proper place. Various forms are given to these ties, all intended to prevent con- densed moisture, or water driven through the outer wall, from being conducted by them across the air-space into the lining wall, where it would show itself by a permanent spot in the plastering. The part which crosses the air-space is often bent downward into a V-shape, from which the water drips to the bottom of the cavity, and this, if the depression is deep enough, is moderately effectual ; but if too shallow, the mortar falling from above collects on the ties in quantity sufficient to bridge the air-space in some places, and convey water through to the lining. Another form is made by twisting the ties so that the portion in the air-space is vertical, and collects neither mortar nor water. The iron is sometimes used without twisting, but set in the vertical joints, thus attaining the same result at less expense, but with greater trouble ; since the irons, being set at random in the wall, never coincide exactly with the joints of the brickwork, and have to be bent more or less to reach one. When inserted in the horizontal joints, little bending is necessary, hardly more than an inch in any case; but when placed in the vertical joints, the lining wall being composed en- tirely of stretchers, a lateral movement of four inches may often BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE ji be required. On the whole, the V-bent ties seem to be most suit- able in our case, but we direct that they shall be placed vertically one above another, so that those above may shelter those below from falling mortar, and that in building the lining every row shall be cleaned off as soon as the one above it is fixed in place. While these matters are being settled, the delivery of free- stone, both cut into ashlar for the facing and in rough blocks for working into mouldings and arch-stones, has been going on. This should be attentively watched, and if possible a visit should be made to the quarry to inspect the different beds of rock. There is usually much variation in the quality of stone from the same quarry, one end frequently running into extreme hardness, while the other is too soft for use ; or superposed strata may show different properties. Variations in color usually accompany differences of texture, and each different tint of stone on the ground should be tested by chipping off a thin piece, and crumbling the edge in the fingers. The hardest sandstone will resist this treatment like flint, but most building stones crumble slightly at the very edge, while the poorer varieties crush easily. Few of the ordinary freestones show a much greater hardness than common lump sugar, but those that are softer should be rejected. Some kinds of stone have an extremely annoying defect in the shape of "sand-holes," which are small formations in the interior of the block, often similar in appearance to the rest of the stone, but destitute of cementing matter, so that, on being exposed by cutting, the sand falls out, leaving an un- sightly hole, which cannot be successfully concealed by filling with cement. Any variety of stone which proves to be affected in this way should therefore be entirely rejected, as sand-holes may exist in any of the blocks, undiscovered until the stone is cut. Some stones contain similar cavities filled with clay, which are equally pernicious. Seams injure the quality of many classes of freestone, but are usually more easily detected than those in granite. All sandstone is stratified, the beds varying from ten feet to a small fraction of an inch in thickness, and the divisions be- tween the strata show themselves as dark streaks on the edge of the stone. Where beds, though distinct, are strongly cemented 72 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE together, the stratification rather improves the quality of the mate- rial by the beautifully figured appearance which it gives to a smoothly-rubbed surface, as in the stone from Portland, Con- necticut, but the seams are not always tight, or if they are, may not remain so, and the stone will scale or "shell" away, so that blocks, especially large ones, of stratified rock should be "sounded" all over with a hammer before setting in the building, to detect any separation between the interior surfaces. The stone-cutting shed will now become a point of special interest at each visit, since here will be carried into execution the ornamental details of the building, whose accuracy and perfection of workmanship will do much to enhance its beauty. Among the first things done in the cutting-shed are the jamb- stones for the windows. The sills are to be slip-sills; that is, inserted between the jambs at some subsequent period, and the detailed sections of them are not yet at hand, but a number of jamb-stones are cut. We have taken care to make our- Jamb-Stones , e .* f * i , * selves perfectly familiar, not only with the position, height above the floor, and exact dimensions of every window, but also with the depth of the various reveals ; and we begin at once to measure the smaller stones to see if they are of the required depth, finding immediately that many fall short an inch or more. These must be marked and laid aside, to be recut for other purposes, making sure that they are not likely to be built into the wall, for the replacing of an unsatisfactory quoin is a disagreeable matter, and it is still worse to leave it in and endeavor to fill out the defi- ciency by patching. The other details should be sharply looked to ; sketches made to explain obscure drawings; the moulded work frequently com- pared with the zinc patterns or templets, and these with the sec- tional drawings ; the carvings criticised, and the straight-edge and square frequently applied to the work of men who seem unskilful or negligent. The regular routine of a tour around the outside of the build- ing, followed by one inside, and an examination of the new materials, first inside and then outside, should still be kept up, but the inspection should take place at the level of the staging where the men are at work. The steel rod may occasionally be used to BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 73 examine the workmanship of new men, and a continual watch must be kept to see that the ashlar is properly and sufficiently anchored to the backing, and that all exposed angles or projecting parts of the stone-work, as corners of openings, string-courses, sills and cornices, are well covered up with boards, to protect them from accidental blows, and from falling objects. Before the walls reach the top, it is necessary, whether the specifications mention it or not, to build in long bolts at every angle, and at intervals of about ten feet along the walls, to hold the wooden wall-plate. The bolts should be of one-inch round iron, three or four feet long, with a short plate at the lower end to give them secure hold, built in vertically, so that the upper end, threaded for a nut, may project an inch at least above the top of the wall-plate when laid. In setting this, holes are bored for the bolts, and nuts with large washers are put on and screwed down firmly. The setting of the cornice and coping stones must be watched anxiously. It is customary to specify that all cornice or other projecting stones shall balance on the wall, or in other words, that the weight of the portion of the stone on stones 6 " the wall shall exceed that of the projecting part, by one-fourth, one-half, or more, as the case may be. Whether specified or not, a considerable excess of weight on the wall is necessary to a good job of stone-work. Heavy cornice-stones are often seen, where the vigilance of an inspector is wanting, which would fall immediately into the street if they were not held back by thin iron straps to the timbers of the roof, and do so fall when the straps rust, or the timbers are burnt away. x Copings must also be strongly secured against sliding off. The "kneelers" or corbels at the foot of the slope, which ostensibly support them, are seldom so designed as to be capable of anything more than holding themselves in place, and usually require even for that to be anchored back tcrthe ma- sonry, so that the coping-stones must be held by irons at the foot of each. Finials also, which commonly decorate the peaks of gables, are not secure unless dowelled to the adjacent stones, and if composed of several pieces should be drilled completely through, and strung upon a long iron rod previously 74 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE built into the masonry, with nut and washer at the top to hold the joints firmly together. The young superintendent will hardly see the finials placed on his building without having undergone several conflicts with the contractor as to the stones which are to be permitted stones'* m t ^ ie wor k- He may find his orders about seams and sand-holes cheerfully complied with, but stones accidentally broken after cutting will be used wherever they can .escape his eye; the fractured portions, if conspicuous, being neatly cut out, and a new piece inserted and glued in with melted shellac. In dry weather, and while still fresh from the tool, such patches are hardly noticeable unless near the eye, and they should therefore be looked for from the stagings before these are shifted ; but when the stone is wet by rain, the inserted piece becomes painfully con- spicuous, and as the shellac is slowly destroyed between the stones, the joint becomes more and more evident, and the piece may even drop out if situated, as sometimes occurs, on the under side of a lintel. Both firmness and consideration are necessary in dealing with these cases. While a patched jamb-stone, sill or lintel, unless of extraordinary size, is inexcusable, it would be harsh to condemn a piece of rich and costly carving for a small mutilation which could be easily concealed ; and some fractures may occur after the stone- work is completed which can only be repaired by patching in this way. The walls are by this time ready for the roof, and the tower has been carried up to the same height. The contractor, anxious to save all the time possible, is still at work on this, although the Mason-work season ' ls gating late, and the nights frosty. One in Freezing unusually cold morning we arrive on the ground, and Weather n( j ^ mor t ar ] e ft O ver from the previous evening frozen hard in the tubs. Trying one of the small stones in the backing laid the day before, we find that instead of adhering to the mortar, and bringing away some lumps clinging to it, the stone separates easily, and comes away clean, while its surface, as well as that of the mortar in which it lay, is covered with hoar frost. This is a plain indication that the mason-work must be sus- pended until the settled warm weather of spring. The film of BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 75 frost which penetrates in cold weather between the mortar and the stones forms a complete separation, and adherence does not take place again after the ice is thawed, while the mortar is itself also more or less disintegrated by freezing. Mortar of pure lime, if frozen in the tubs, may be warmed and worked over so as to be used, but cement, if its first set is once broken up, either by freez- ing or by unnecessary stirring, will never harden again. The foreman, mindful of his master's interests, resists the order to cover up the walls, relating anecdotes of structures built without harm in the midst of terrible frosts, and urging at great length the well-known superiority of a "frozen set" over all others ; but he should be overruled. If any error is commit- ted, it should be on the side of safety. It is true that plastering, of pure lime only, if frozen at the beginning of the season, and kept constantly frozen for some months, acquires at the end of that time a considerable hardness, which is not lost on thawing ; while if thawed within a few days or weeks after freez- ing, it disintegrates and crumbles ; but in this there is no question of the separation between the stones or bricks and the mortar of a piece of masonry, which takes place without regard to the dura- tion of the freezing, and constitutes the chief danger, and more- over a "frozen set" is hazardous with mortar containing cement or hydraulic lime. The tower walls are therefore covered with a roof of boards, and the masons sent to cut stone for the spire, or employed in building the basement piers, and, as soon as the main roof is on, the lining walls in the society-room and vestibule. The design for roof trusses should have been anxiously criti- cised by the superintendent, in order to detect and remedy the weaknesses, if any exist, before they cause loss and discredit through the failure of the executed structure. If all is found satisfactory, the details are committed to the framer, who will probably need and ask for advice concerning the various joints, tenons, bolts and straps, so that the young architect will do well to refresh his knowledge on these points both from his text-books and such examples as he can reach. The accuracy of the curves, the neatness* of the chamfers, the sufficiency of the bolts, should all be noted, as well as the correctness of position on 76 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE the walls, and the alignment of the purlins. The rafters once on, the covering-in commences immediately, and after inspecting the quality of the boards, which should be planed on one side, smooth, straight-edged and free from loose knots, if slate are to be laid over them, it will become necessary to decide as to the best way of working the flashings and gutters. For the former, there will be not only the valleys, but the intersections of the roof with the back of the gable walls, the tower, and two chimneys, which must be protected against the entrance of water. The specification requires "all necessary flashings" to be put on "in the best manner," carelessly omitting further details. Even the material which shall be used is not specified, and the superin- tendent wisely resolves to come to an understanding with the con- tractor beforehand, and thus avoid the possibility of having to reject work after it has been put up. Unquestionably, the "best" material for flashings \s copper, which is indestructible by weather, is so tenacious as not to crack like lead or zinc when bent at a sharp angle, and so stiff that after bending it cannot be, like lead, blown up by a strong wind. Nev- ertheless, copper flashings are costly, and little employed, so that it would be unjust to require a contractor to use them under the circumstances, and we must content ourselves with lead and zinc. The latter metal will constitute the whole of the valley and hip flashings, and two ways of arranging these are permissible; the best practice of various localities inclining about as much to one as the other. Often the two systems are mixed, and the valleys laid by one, and the hips by the other, or vice versa. By the first method, which is perhaps most popular in the large cities, the valleys are covered with a long strip of zinc, fifteen or sixteen inches wide, laid the whole length of the angle, and sold- ered together at the joints (Fig. 56). This is tacked at the edges, and the slates laid so as to lap over it on each side. If the metal were not subject to expansion by heat, this would perhaps be the best way ; but the long strips lengthen very sensibly under a summer's sun, to contract again in winter, and the ultimate effect often is to tear them at some point, making a bad leak. The same method applied to flashing against a wall consists in covering the joint by a long strip, one edge of which is bent over, and BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 77 tucked into a reglet, groove or "raggle" cut in the stone or brick work of the wall six inches or more above the slope of the roof, and parallel with it. The efficiency of this depends on the care with which it is done. The effect of alternate heat and cold on such a flashing is to warp it until it springs out from the "raggle" either at one end or in the middle, letting a stream of water run down into the rooms below (Fig. 57), and this can only be pre- vented by cutting the groove quite deep, an inch or so, instead of the half-inch which is common, turning in the flashing to the very bottom of the groove, and wedging it firmly in with slate chips and cement. The wooden chips generally used for the purpose soon Fig. 57 Fig. 56 shrink and become loose. Hips are covered with strips by putting a wooden "hip roll" on the boarding and Fig. 58 laying the slates close up to it, subsequently tacking on the metal, fitting it closely around the roll, and letting it extend on each side three or four inches over the slates (Fig. 58). The essence of the rival method consists in its employment of small pieces of metal lapped over each other, with- out soldered joints, so that they can expand and con- |as j^ n fl with - T r ;. Small Pieces tract freely. In forming valleys by this mode a sufficient number of trapezoidal pieces of zinc or other metal are cut out (Fig. 59), in length equal to one of the slates used, and in width varying from about ten inches at one end to fifteen or more at the other, according to the pitch of the roof. These pieces are taken on the roof by the slater and "slated in," each forming a part of the two courses of slate corresponding on each side of the angle (Fig. 60), and each being laid over the course of slates next below it, while the slates themselves are laid more closely into the angle of the valley than when the other system is employed. Although more metal is used in this way, the labor is less, and the work on the whole more satisfactory, because more permanent. 78 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE In its application to the flashing of walls and chimneys there is less to be said in favor of it, compared with a first-class job in the other style. In the "stepped flashing," as it is called, composed of small pieces, no groove is cut in the masonry, but plash tag short lengths of the horizontal mortar joints are raked out, and pieces of metal are cemented in, one above another, lapping over each other like a flight of steps. This is much more permanent than a single strip, especially if the pieces, instead of being inserted in a raked-out joint, are built into the masonry itself, as is often done; but in exposed situations the wind and rain are likely to blow into the vertical crevices which are left be- tween the masonry and the metal Fig t?o when this is folded down against Fig. 60 it, so that elastic cement, or a stopping of "paint skins" and fine sand are necessary to make them tight. The principle of subdivided flashings is applied to hips by slating in pieces of metal, the slates then being laid out to the very edge. This is both tighter and neater in appearance than the hip roll with its spreading sides. After a discussion with the roofer on all these points, we decide that the hips and valleys shall have flashings slated in, but that ordinary flashings in long strips shall be used where the roof comes against masonry. The stone-work is in places so rough that it would be impossible to turn down a sheet of stepped flash- ing against it so closely as to be tight, and the other mode seems preferable, but we enjoin upon the roofer the greatest care in securing the strips into the grooves. As for the metal of the flashings, we insist that those on walls and chimneys shall be "capped," and that the capping F?a P s P h e ings sha11 be of three and one-half pound lead. All the rest we direct to be of eleven ounce zinc. The contractor demurs somewhat to capping the long flash- ings, but the superintendent persists, and the roofer, on being closely questioned, finally acknowledges that they cannot in any other way be made reasonably permanent, and as the contract BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 79 requires that the tightness of the roof shall be guaranteed for two years, he at length, influenced by the instinct of self-protection, yields. This capping is the best safeguard against the evil effects of expansion on long flashings, and consists in making them in a certain sense double ; one strip of zinc covering the roof, and being turned up against the masonry, almost to the line of the "raggle," or groove, with a few nails to keep it in place, while a second strip of lead, thin enough to be easily dressed close against the wall, is cemented into the "raggle" just above the upper edge of the zinc strip, and turned down over it, reaching to a line an inch above the surface of the roof, so that the two pieces of metal can expand and contract independently without finally opening a joint. It must not approach nearer than an inch ; if it does, it may dip into a cur- rent of water or melted snow flowing down the roof, and the capillary attraction between the two metal surfaces will draw moisture up, and over the edge of the inner strip, to find its way into the rooms below. The mason, who is all ready to cut the reglets, asks us whether he shall make those on the rear of the copings by raking out the joint between them and the masonry below, or shall cut them in the coping itself. There is some advantage in protecting the bed of the coping, so, although we are sorry that we did not think in time to have the leaden strips laid into the mortar before setting the coping, which would have made an admirable arrangement, we order the grooves to be cut two inches above the bed joint of the coping ; to be at least one inch deep, and Portland cement to be provided, ready mixed, for setting the lead into its place. The gutters must next be attended to, al- though the specification, in calling for "gutters of No. 24 galvanized-iron, as per detail draw- ing (Fig. 61), running up 16 inches under slates, and to have front edge turned over a % inch by ^ inch wrought-iron bar, with galvanized wrought-iron braces every 24 inches, running up two feet under slates, and strip Fig. 61 go BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE of four-pound lead one inch wide soldered on under side to cover edge of stone cornice," has relieved us of the severest responsibil- ity. But, as usual, nothing on the drawings indicates the position of the six "galvanized^iron conductors" which the specification demands, and consequently, the direction in which the gutters shall incline must be determined by the superin- tendent, according to his best judgment. The task is not difficult, and the gutter, which is already on the ground, having been exam- ined and found to be in accordance with the detailed section, well formed and straight, is passed, and immediately hoisted to the roof for putting in place. Meanwhile, we descend to the basement, to inspect the con- struction of the piers and the setting of the iron column in the society-room. Hardly have we turned our steps in that direction when, as we try to call to mind the basement plan, a misgiving seizes us, which is increased as the foreman mason comes out to meet us, and jerking his thumb in the direction of the society- room begins, "About that ar column, do you think one is enough to hold that floor?" We make no direct answer, preferring to wait until we can understand all the circumstances, which prove to be anything but reassuring. The total length of the girder in the ceiling of the society-room, from the brick wall which stands under the chancel steps to the east wall, measures forty feet, and the column is indicated on the plan as standing under its centre. The clear distance from the centre of the pillar to the wall in each direction is therefore twenty feet, spanned by a single 12" X 16" hard-pine timber. The floor-beams are all in place, but the shores set up at random under the girder to support it while the piers were being built have not yet been removed, so we are unable to judge by the deflection of the sticks whether they are overloaded or not. It is, however, very easy to determine this point by calculation. The girder F X (Fig. 62) car- rying the western part of the society-room ceiling is the most strained, since it bears one-half the weight of the rect- angular portion A C B D of the chancel floor, while the girder X E carries only one-half the semi-circle C E D, whose area is but about four-fifths that of a rectangle of equal length and breadth, and we will therefore make our estimates for the timber F X, sure BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 8l that if this is strong enough for its purpose, the one at X E will be more than sufficient. The distance F E being 40 feet, and the width of the cap of the column at X, 8 inches, being deducted from the total clear span of the two girders, leaves 19 feet 8 inches as the length of each between bearings. The distance A B is 39^ feet, so that the total floor area bearing on F X is equal to 19^3 X 39/3 = 387squarefeet . The chancel floor is to be tiled, and the weight of the floor, includ- ing beams and boarding, brick foundation and tiles, may be taken at seventy-one pounds per square foot, and that of the plastering on the under side at ten pounds more, making eighty-one pounds. Besides this load, the supporting timber must be calculated to bear safely the weight of any probable crowd of persons upon it. By the New York building law, the load which must be assumed as thus liable to be brought upon the floor of a place of public assembly is esti- mated at one hundred and twenty pounds per square foot, independent of the weight of the structure itself, and though this is probably rather a high estimate of the weight of a compact crowd, we shall do best to adopt it as a standard. Our chancel floor must then be reck- oned at 81 + 120 = 201 pounds per square foot, and as the girder supports 387 square feet, the load will be 387X201 = 77,787 pounds, equally distributed by the beams over the whole length of the girder. To this must be added the weight of the girder itself, which, at forty-five pounds per cubic foot, will be 1,180 pounds, making a total of 78,967 pounds. This weight, multiplied by the clear length of the girder in inches, and divided by 8, will give the bending moment at the middle of the girder; that is: g 2 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE To resist this bending moment we have the moment of resist- ance, r, of a beam 12 inches in breadth, and 16 inches deep. For beams of rectangular section, like the present one, the moment of resistance is one-sixth of the product of the breadth by the square of the depth, or To find the actual resistance, the moment of resistance, r, must be multiplied by the maximum permissible fibre stress, which, for Georgia pine, is 1,250 pounds to the square inch. This gives us 512 X 1*250 640,000, as the utmost resistance which the girder can safely oppose to a bending moment which we have ascertained to be, under the full load, 2,329,526. Obviously, then, the girder is less than one-third as strong as it should be, in order to meet without danger the contingency of a crowd collecting in the chan- cel, and there is a very evident necessity for doing something to strengthen it. What steps should be taken is a matter for the architect to decide, and we notify him at once. There are several methods to choose from. Additional columns can be interposed between the central column and the walls; or the girders can be replaced by stronger ones, leaving the single column in the centre ; or additional rows of girders can be put in, each supported by columns. The cheapest plan would be to put in two additional columns, dividing the total length of the girder into four spans, instead of two; but the architect probably had some reason for preferring a single column. While awaiting his reply we will inspect the brick piers which support the girders in the main cellar. Of these there are rather more than is neces- Brick Piers . - . , , . .. sary, the plan showing them spaced but six feet apart from centres. A few only have been built, of well-formed hard brick, twelve inches square, as the plan shows, but with joints of a suspicious gray-blue color, instead of brown. They have been completed some three days, but we find that a knife-blade easily penetrates the mortar after the outer crust is pierced. Calling the mason, we ask him if the piers were laid in sand and cement, only, without lime, as the specification required. He answers with con- siderable hesitation that "a little lime might perhaps have been put in, but it is mostly cement." Our suspicions are not allayed, and BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 83 we ask to see the cask from which the cement was taken, and to have the mortar mixer brought before us. The foreman is about to disappear in search of these witnesses, but we detain him and send a boy in his stead, who does not return ; and after a good deal of writhing our captive confesses, being confronted with the soft mortar, that there was no cement on the ground at the time, and he had had the piers built with the best mortar he could possibly make with the materials at hand. "What did you color the mortar with, to make it so dark?" we ask; and the foreman replies, "Well, we didn't suppose you would know the difference, so we sent over to the grocery store, and got some lampblack, and mixed it in." We impress upon his mind our objection to such tricks by ordering all the piers demolished in our presence, and dismiss him with an admonition. The architect is at a distance, and before his answer about the girders arrives we have an opportunity to inspect the roofing work again. The gutters are on and properly braced, the flash- ings finished behind one gable, and far advanced on another, and slating has begun. The slates have but just arrived, and we stop to inspect them. The specification de- scribes them only as "good black slate," but in the lot delivered, and stacked near the hoisting tackle, we observe several different varieties. Some are thin, but with a beautifully smooth, shining surface, and very black : these are from Pennsylvania, and are of excellent quality ; others from Maine are split a little thicker, and are also smooth and shining, but with a grayish lustre, like black lead ; others again are thick, with a dead look, and crumble at the edges on being strongly pinched. We take one of the last-men- tioned kind, and set it up on edge in a pail of water, leaving it a few minutes, when the moisture is seen to rise in the substance of the stone half an inch or more above the surface of the water. This slate is therefore absorbent and bad, and must be wholly rejected, while, as it would give a ragged look to see two kinds used together on a roof, we summon the contractor and request him to choose between the Maine or the Pennsylvania slate, either of which will be acceptable, and send away all others. Ascending now to the roof, we reach the gable wall, behind 84 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE which the roofer is inserting his flashings. As we approach he hastily bundles together a quantity of pieces of zinc and throws them behind him, but the appearance of the work gives no cause for suspecting anything wrong. The lead is smoothly turned into its reglet, and the groove filled with cement ; the soldering is well done, and the lower edge at the proper distance from the roof, and all closely dressed down to the stone-work. We take a conven- ient stick, and turn up the edge of the lead cap far enough to be able to inspect the flashing beneath. Instead of extending up the wall to within half an inch or less of the reglet in which the cap- ping is inserted, it is turned up only about an inch and a half, so that the cap just covers the edge. Turning to the abashed roofer for an explanation, he says that he saw no necessity for turning flashings up eight inches, which would be the distance between the roof surface and the reglet: that two inches was enough for any one, etc. We do not stop to argue the question, but simply direct the cap to be turned up throughout its length, the under flashing to be replaced in accord- ance with the orders first given, and the whole left exposed for a second inspection before the lead cap is turned down again into its place. Taking the roofer with us, we make our way to the other gable, where both upper and under flashing prove of the requisite width, but the lead, instead of being cemented into the groove, is wedged in with slips of wood. We have these replaced with slate chips, and the grooves filled with fresh cement; then look to see if the tarred felt which is being spread over the roof under the slate is flexible, and the rolls perfect, instead of being, as sometimes happens, full of holes and flaws, and the material itself brittle and rotten. A glance is sufficient to satisfy us in these respects, and our duties are over for the day. A letter received from the architect before our next visit ex- plains the unfortunate oversight in relation to the girders in the ceiling of the society-room. It seems that three columns had been indicated in this room to support the line of girders, dividing the length into four spans, for which the timber would have been sufficiently strong, and the estimate had been made including this arrangement, and the contract signed in accordance with it. Im- mediately after the signing of the contract, however, the rector BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 85 of the church had represented to the architect the inconvenience which would be caused by the row of pillars through the middle of a room devoted to so many uses, and had engaged him to re- duce the supports to a single central column, strengthening the girders sufficiently to compensate for the increase in their length. As time pressed, the architect had hastily erased two of the col- umns from the tracing of the basement plan sent to the contractor for commencing operations, leaving only the single central one, fearing that any delay might cause useless foundations to be put in for the pillars first shown, and intending to arrange for the substitution of iron beams, or girders strengthened in some other way, for those specified; but this had slipped his mind until he received our letter. As a considerable saving in cost was effected by omitting the two iron columns, a corresponding allowance would have to be made from the contract price, to be offset against the extra cost of strengthening the girders. Just how this should be effected he did not wish to dictate positively. His own idea had been to substitute two rolled-iron beams, placed side by side and bolted together, for each of the wooden girders, but this would be expensive, and although he was not restricted as to the cost of making the change desired by the rector, he would like to save the church all needless expense, and if we could devise any cheaper mode of trussing the present girders, or otherwise sup- porting the floor, he would leave the matter wholly to our judg- ment, in which he had great confidence. The girders, he would remind us, were intended in any case to be plastered over. 1 iThe writer feels as if he owed an apology to his imaginary architect for exhibiting him as guilty of so many mistakes and oversights, but he is anxious to impress upon the minds of his readers the lesson that an efficient super- intendent should be able to criticise and correct in good time, if necessary, the work of the architect, and to act in his stead upon occasion. His ability to do so will not be likely to make him over-forward in thrusting himself into the other's place, while it may save the latter infinite trouble and anxiety. For this reason the author represents the architect as careless and ignorant, solely for the purpose of showing how a good superintendent can bring him out of his errors with credit ; or, if both offices are combined in one person, how the architect can extricate himself from them. It must be remembered that our hero, whatever he may be called, can only give proof of his varied ability by being furnished with occasions for exhibiting it. 86 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE In accordance with the instructions contained in the letter, we set ourselves to devise, if possible, an inexpensive mode of truss- ing the girders to which it relates, and thereby fulfil the architect's wish by saving the cost of iron beams, which happen to be at this time particularly expensive. The present girders have been proved to possess less than one-third the requisite strength. The most natural way to increase this would be to add other timbers beside the original ones. If four girders of equal size with the one we have were placed side by side, and all bolted together, so that any burden on one would be resisted by the combined strength of the four, the problem would be solved, but in a very awkward man- ner, since the cap of the single column would have to be danger- ously extended in order to support the ends of all the girders. Perhaps this might be obviated in another way. Recurring to the formula for the resistance of beams of rectangular section, we notice that while the resistance increases directly as the breadth of the beam, it is augmented in proportion to the square of its depth, so that although a single beam of four times the strength of our girder, and of the same depth, would need to be four times as broad, a beam equally strong would be formed by a timber of the same breadth, but of only twice the depth. As our present girder is 12 inches broad by 16 inches deep, a stick 12 inches by 32 would just meet our wants. Unfortunately, it is impracticable to procure beams of such dimensions, and we must try some other expedient. It would be of no avail to put a second 12 X 16 girder below the first; each of them would bend independently of the other, and their united strength would be that of two beams only, instead of four. Iron might be used for strengthening the wooden sticks. A strip of boiler-plate sixteen inches wide, and half an inch thick, might be bolted on each side of the girder; but the objection to the use of iron plates, either in this way, or as flitch-plates, bolted between pairs of wooden girders, is that the iron, being much stiffer than the wood, endures nearly all the strain, the resistance of the tim- ber not being brought into action until the iron has given way; and, in the present case, the increase in strength would be slight, and the cost great. Another expedient, which is frequently em- ployed, although its value is disproportionate to the expense, con- BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 87 sists in employing iron rods, to form a "belly-truss," (Fig. 63), the strength of which would depend mainly on the depth which could be given to it. This would, however, cause an unsightly projection into the room, which _ - _ __,_ must be furred over to conceal it, and the trussing, Flg * 63 though cheaper than the flitch-plates, would still be somewhat costly. Reflecting upon all these devices, it occurs to us that if a sec- ond beam similar to the present one could be placed below it and strongly connected with it, so as to constitute practically one tim- ber, the desired result would be attained in a form extremely com- pact and simple. Turning to some text-books which we have brought with us, we learn that this can to a limited extent be ac- complished by bolting or strapping the two pieces together, and either indenting them into each other as in Fig. 64, or notching them and inserting hard-wood keys, as in Fig. 65, the sole object of the indentations or keys being to prevent the slipping of the contiguous surfaces of the beams upon each other, so that in order to bend, the whole of the lower part of the compound beam must be stretched, and the whole of the upper part compressed, just as if the beam were in one piece (Fig. 66), instead of the upper and lower halves of each stick undergoing their own separate com- T of J L in ^a ' a, a *" 1 -4 Figs. 64, 65 pression and extension, as in Fig. 67, which shows the action under stress of beams superposed, but not keyed together. The books inform us that compound beams so keyed together and tightly bolted are nearly equal in strength to a solid stick of the same dimensions, bearing in mind that the depth of the indents or notches for keys must be deducted from the total depth of the two timbers in order to obtain the effective depth which can alone be used as a factor in calculating the strength. 88 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE This expedient may furnish us with a resource, but we find on careful study that if eight keys were used, which would be a sufficient number, the depth of each would have to be within a small fraction of four inches, two inches being cut out of each timber ; and in order to obtain a net depth of 32 inches, which is what calculation shows to be necessary for the strength which we require, the aggregate depth of the two sticks before cutting must be 36 inches. Hence, as the one already in is 16 inches deep, the other must be 20 inches. A 2O-inch Georgia pine timber happens in this place to be difficult to obtain, the stock sizes running only Figs. 66, 67 to 1 6 inches; so, after considering this objection, we are induced to search for some still further means of so combining the two beams as to secure the whole substance of the lower one for re- sisting tension, and of the upper one to resist compression, the essential requisite for enabling the compound girder to act as a single timber. Calling to mind the construction of certain bridge trusses, in which the upper chord is brought completely into compression and the lower one into tension by means of inclined struts, which resolve the downward pressure upon them into a push with their heads in one direction, and with their feet in the opposite direc- tion, and, being arranged so that half of them point one way and half of them the other, mutually act to compress the upper and to stretch the lower chord with their united force (Fig. 68), we re- flect that if similar means could be applied to two superposed beams, the result might be just what we desire. The action of the oblique struts in the bridge can be applied to the compound beam in the simplest possible way by nailing oblique pieces of board firmly to the timbers, reversing them on BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 89 opposite sides, in imitation of the reversed struts in the bridge truss (Fig. 69). If these boards are i% inches thick, their united strength will be greater than that of either of the beams, and if well nailed, so as not to spring, the lower beam will be torn apart before they will yield. The nails, if long enough to pene- trate three inches or more into the girders, can only Fig. 68 give way by shearing, which would require a force greater than would be necessary to break a solid beam. The strength of a girder built up in this way will not be affected by shrinkage, which soon causes more or less deflection in those indented or keyed together; for its resistance is maintained by the board struts, which act only in the direction of their length; and this remains invariable whatever may be the lateral shrinkage. As a compound beam of this sort is a novelty in construction, we do not venture, although the theory appears satisfactory, to apply it to the important case before us without testing it by models. Two or three of these are quickly made, the sticks which we propose to combine into one being accurately cut out of Georgia pine, each i inch wide, by iy 2 inches deep. In order to bring the breaking load within practicable limits, we will make the clear span of the model to be tested 10 feet, and cut the sticks accordingly n feet long, so that a portion will be left projecting at each end over Fig. 69 the supports. Small sticks of any timber are, in proportion to their size, far stronger than large ones, and we find, on looking up the subject, that the centre breaking-load of a solid Georgia pine beam i inch wide, 3 inches .deep, and 10 feet long between BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE supports, is 495 pounds. That of two sticks, each i inch by i 1 /^ inches, superposed, but not connected, would be 247^ pounds. The strength of our model, composed of two such sticks, super- posed and connected in the way we propose, cannot possibly ex- ceed that of a solid stick of the same depth, but may, if our rea- soning is correct, approach it. We therefore prepare our model by nailing on each side of the two superposed sticks small slips of any wood at hand, about ^-inch thick, set at an angle of 45 with the top of the beam, and nail-ed with small brads, about ^-inch long, three in inch end of each piece. These very well represent the spikes to be used in the real beam. Setting up two trestles, with triangular pieces put on top, so as to give supports exactly ten feet apart, we hang a "scale," or plat- form suspended by ropes, used in hoisting bricks or other mate- rials, to the centre of the model beam, first weighing it accurately. Before going further, posts must be set up in pairs, enclosing the model beam between them, with just enough room to allow it to deflect freely. This is to prevent the beam from turning over on its side, which so small a stick is likely to do under a centre load. Then bricks are piled on the scale, weighing each one before add- ing it. As the weights are placed one by one on the scale, we add them up, and experience a lively interest as the total load on the beam begins to approach four hundred and fifty pounds, without any sign of giving way. The deflection is considerable, and the model is evidently under severe strain; so, to avoid the shock caused by the placing of a brick on the pile, we increase the load more gently by pouring on weighed portions of sand. Four hun- dred and fifty pounds are passed ; then four hundred and sixty ; and little by little the load approaches four hundred and seventy. Just as this point is reached a warning crack is heard, and we stop ; but nothing further follows ; we recommence pouring, but before anoth- er pound is added, the beam yields, letting the scale drop suddenly ; and, on examination, the lower stick of the combination is found to be torn asunder. The second model breaks at four hundred and seventy pounds, and a third at four hundred and seventy and a half. Comparing these with the calculated strength of a solid beam, we find that the girder built up by our simple method proves to possess a strength equal to about ninety-five per cent, of that BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 9! of a solid beam of the same breadth and depth ; a result superior to that obtained by indentations, or by keys, and bolts, or straps. The carpenter, who had viewed our preparations with an ill-con- cealed scorn for "them little slivers," is profoundly impressed at the resistance which the slender model displays, and respectfully listens to our directions as to the mode of trussing the larger tim- bers. Although the large sticks are, proportionally to their size, much weaker than small ones, and the substitution of board lat- ticing for the thin strips of the model gives opportunity for a slight bending of the spikes, which would diminish the stiffness of the compound beam, we feel ourselves justified in assuming that, by placing a second 12 X 16 timber under the first, and sheathing diagonally on each side, in the manner indicated, we shall be able to increase its strength, if not by two hundred and eighty per cent., as in the model, at least to the amount which our conditions require ; and we hasten to put our plan into execution, first ordering the central column on which the girders rest to be lowered to correspond with the increased depth of the new girder. In order to save headroom under the girder, we may, after shoring up the ends of the floor-beams on each side, cut off the portion which overlaps the girder, and, after this has been reinforced with the second stick, and the boards nailed on, the compound beam can be pushed up between the ends of the beams, flush with their top, and timbers, 3" X 6", may be bolted to the sides of the gird- er, on which the beams will rest, instead of being supported on the top of the girder. Since the compound beam thus made forms virtually a lattice truss, of which the upper and lower chords are in contact, its strength, like that of all trusses, could be increased by separating the beams, so as to make the depth of the truss greater ; and in this case the side struts should be stronger in proportion to the longitudinal timbers. Our girder is, however, strong enough, and more compact than a truss. It may be observed that a compound beam of this kind is likely to deflect more, under a given load, than one made with keys and bolts ; but the greater part of the load for which it is designed, that of a crowd of people, is never likely to come on it, so that, if the absolute strength is sufficient to meet such a possible emer- gency, the deflection need give no concern. As it is decided that 9 2 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE there shall be but one column under the girder, we must make sure that the column and its foundation will be sufficient to carry their load. We have already ascertained that the total possible weight on our new girder is 78,967 pounds, of which only half is supported by the column, the remainder being carried by the brick wall on which the western end of the girder rests. The total weight on the other portion of the girder, which carries the semi- circular part of the floor, is only four-fifths as great, but more than half of it will come upon the column, so it will be prudent to call the total weight on the column 78,967 X 2 Turning to any table of cast-iron columns, we find that one of the required length, 7 inches in diameter, and with three-quarters of an inch thickness of metal, will be sufficient ; and as the one on the ground is larger than this, we need have no fears in regard to it. As the ground, however, cannot safely be loaded with more than five tons to the square foot, we must see that the footing- stone under the column covers at least eight square feet; and we pick out a rough stone, about three feet square, for the purpose, directing the contractor to have a "spot" dressed flat on the top, for the base plate of the column to rest on. Having made careful notes of the quantity of extra timber used for the new trussed beams, and of the time occupied in cut- ting out, making over and replacing the work, in order to adjust the cost subsequently, we turn to look at the lining wall of the room, which is being built up inside the stone-work. As this wall is to be plastered, care must be taken not to "strike" the mortar joints off flush with the surface of the brickwork, thus taking away the projections needed for the plaster to cling to. The common way of reserving a proper "key" is to leave the mortar irregularly projecting, as it is squeezed out of the joints when the bricks are hammered into place with the trowel ; but many build- ers find that the annoyance caused by the occasional projection of the dried mortar beyond the line of the plastering is so great that they prefer to lay the horizontal joints full of mortar, striking them off smooth, but to lay the vertical joints "slack," that is, only partly filled with mortar, so as to leave BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE y$ cavities into which the plaster can penetrate and obtain a firm hold. The lining wall is often built before laying the floor-beams, which rest on this, and not on the main mass of masonry; but, although a four-inch brick wall, well tied to a thicker one behind it, possesses surprising strength, the unusual weight of the tiled chancel floor makes it desirable to support the beams which are to carry it on the heavy outside wall. In the tower vestibule, how- ever, there is no objection to resting the timber ceiling on the lin- ing wall, which, being of face-brick, will not be built until near the completion of the structure, to avoid marring it. The piers are next inspected, and prove this time to be well built, of bricks properly soaked in water, and laid with cement mortar. One or two are crooked or out of plumb, and we order them to be taken down and rebuilt; and in a few instances chips of wood have been used as wedges between the top of the piers and the girders, which, as they would soon shrink and allow the floor to shake, we have replaced with stone chips or slate and cement. The church at our next visit is a maze of scaffolding, put up for the use of the plasterers, and furring is rapidly going on. The upright studs against the walls are all in place, and spiked as strongly as may be to the masonry. Some builders rake out a joint, and drive in a wedge-shaped piece of wood for nailing the furrings to, and others build "wood bricks," or short bits of joist, at intervals into the walls, for the same purpose ; but such pieces are very apt to shrink so much as to become loose, while the driv- ing of wedges may endanger the stability of the wall, so that the practice of driving the spikes directly into the mortar is generally preferable. Very rarely the joints are raked out and slips of lead laid in, the spikes being driven between these, but the gain is hard- ly worth the expense. At all events, it is desirable and usual to stiffen the upright furrings by angular bridging (Fig. 70) in the same manner as a partition. Some precautions should at this stage be taken to lessen the dangerously inflammable quality of this light construction. As all those experienced in fires know, the furring studs set against the walls of stone structures form lofty flues of inflammable mate- 94 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE rial behind the plastering, up which the flames run with incredible rapidity, urged by the strong draft which can at all times be felt rushing up through them, and a small fire originating in the base- ment of such a building usually breaks out immediately in the roof, where it is uncontrollable. The means for preventing this, and confining an accidental fire within the limits where it can be reached and extinguished, are extremely simple : a single row of bricks laid in coarse mortar on the floor between the furring studs will cut off the communication between the cellar and the space behind the plastering, so that a fire catching in the basement from spontaneous combustion of coal, proximity of smoke- flues or furnace-pipes to wood- work, or any other cause, is ^ compelled, for want of access to the concealed passages behind the furrings, to burn through into the room, where it may blaze for hours without doing much harm, and is easily quenched with a few pails of water. Two rows of bricks are still better than one, and the only precaution to be observed is to fill up the whole space from the stone wall to the inside finish, wainscoting, sheathing, plaster or base-board, with the mass, so as to leave no open- ings. If a second barrier of coarse mortar and chips is laid on top of the bridging (Fig. 71) all around the building, it will be doubly protected, and its destruction by fire will be rendered slow and difficult. While the furring is going on, the plastering mortar should be mixed, and the door and window frames set. In brick buildings the latter are usually set in place at the beginning, and the walls built around them, and this is sometimes done in stone structures, but not by the best builders, as it is difficult to keep the frames from being knocked slightly out of shape by the setting of the heavy stones against them ; and by laying the stone-work separate- Fig. 70 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 95 ly, with plumb rule and level, and afterwards trimming it, a much smoother and straighter surface is obtained, against which the frame can be fitted weather-tight, without the unreliable and often unsightly pointing from behind with mortar which the other method involves. With the best of workmanship, however, crevices are some- times left through which the wind can penetrate, and wherever the wind can go, rain and snow will follow, so that a certain amount of packing is generally necessary. This can best be done with cotton, driven in between the wood and the stone, where it is kept permanently in place by its own elasticity, while it checks the current of air very effectually. The plastering is briefly specified to be the best three-coat work, sand finished throughout. At least as soon as the furring is begun, the superintendent should see that the materials are at hand for making mor- tar enough for the whole of the plastering. By recollect- ing that one hundred square yards of three-coat plastering require three casks of lime, three one-horse loads of sand, one and a half bushels of hair, and about two thou- sand laths, the total quantity Fig 7I needed of each is easily reck- oned. A place should then be prepared without delay, where the whole mass requisite for the first, or scratch, coat can be mixed and allowed to cool for a week before any of it is put on the walls. In this way only can we guard against the occurrence of particles of unslaked or partially slaked lime in the mortar, which will continue to absorb moisture after being spread on the laths, and perhaps months later will cause small cracks or blisters, or throw off little chips from the plastering, disfiguring it very much when it is too late to remedy the evil. In regard to the manner of mixing, the practice varies. Occa- sionally a mason is found who is willing to slake the lime by itself, 96 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE and leave the paste for several days or weeks, a year, even, in some cases, during which it becomes somewhat more firm, and acquires a beautifully smooth, "fat" quality, something like cream cheese. This heap of paste is drawn upon as wanted, and mixed with the proper proportion of sand and hair, then put immediately on the walls. The disadvantages of this process are the difficulty of distributing the hair evenly through the stiffened paste with- out the help of water to loosen the tufts, and the increased labor required for working the mortar. The advantages are the per- fect hydration of the lime, by which chip-cracks and blisters are wholly avoided, the smoothness and hardness of the finished plas- tering, and its greater tenacity, since the hair, not being added until the lime is cold, retains its full strength, instead of being burned and corroded by steeping in the hot, caustic mixture which is the first result of slaking. Few builders, however, are disposed to proceed in a way so inconvenient to them, and most of them content themselves with spreading out the lime, pouring on water from a hose, and after a little stirring adding the hair, which is mixed into the steaming liquid, and the sand immediately thrown over it, incorporated as well as may be, and the whole mass piled up for use. The hair in this case deteriorates as fast as the lime improves, and a season of cooling which would be very beneficial to the latter ingredient will nearly destroy the former, so that a course must needs be taken midway between the two extremes. Whatever mode is adopted, a clean floor of planks must be laid, with sides a foot high or more, to keep dirt from being mixed with the mortar. There is a process, said to be in vogue in cer- tain country districts, of slaking the lime upon the ground, and then hoeing up grass, roots, soil and lime into a viscid mess, which is spread upon the laths, where it stays long enough for the mason to get his pay; but such methods of construction are not within the scope of this work. It is not always easy to tell by the appearance of a heap of plastering mortar whether the lime, sand and hair are of good quality and in suitable proportion. If properly mixed, which will be shown by the absence of streaks in the mass, a small quantity of the mortar should be taken up on a trowel, slate or piece of board. If it hangs down from the edge without dropping off, the quantity BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 07 of hair is sufficient ; or, if it is practicable to see the mixture made, one bushel of hair to each cask of lime in the first coat will be the proper proportion. The quality of the hair can be tested in the same way. Long ox-hair is perhaps the best. It is strong, and the fibres an inch or more in length. Goat's-hair is longer, but not so strong, and short cattle and horse hair is of the least value. On drying a small quantity of mortar, an excess of sand will be shown by its being easily rubbed away with the fingers. The quality of the lime is best tested by observing the slaking. For plastering, lump-lime only is used in ordinary cases, and it should slake energetically and fall into a smooth paste, without any re- fractory lumps or particles of "core." If such are found, all the casks of that brand should be rejected, or all the lime paste made from it should, while still fresh and liquid, be run through a fine wire sieve, to separate the bits of core. Before lathing, grounds must be put on wherever necessary. These are strips of wood planed carefully to a uniform thickness, seven-eighths of an inch or more where the plastering is to be three-coat, or three-fourths for ordinary two-coat work, secured to the furrings in such a way as to give convenient nailings for the subsequent finishings ; one row, for instance, being set an inch or so below the top of the future base-board, two or three in the height of a wainscoting, a border around each door and window, and so on. Being of equal thickness, and usually straightened with the straight-edge and plumb rule to correct any irregularity in the furrings or studs, they afford guides for bringing the plas- ter to an even surface. Further guides are formed by the angle- beads, or grounds of other shapes, which are secured to the cor- ners of the walls before lathing. The customs of different localities vary in this point, and the superintendent will probably be asked to decide on some particular mode, if the specification gives no definite instructions. In the Eastern States, where walls are almost invariably papered or decorated as soon as finished, it is usual to nail to the studs at the angles a moulding in section like Fig. 72 or 73, or a metal substitute for it. This serves as a guide for putting on the mortar, and when the plastering is completed gives a finish to the corner which is not readily broken or scratched, and is easy to 7 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE cover with paint or paper to good effect. In New York and other places where a pure white hard-finished surface is or has been fashionable, it is customary to turn the corners by means of a "rule-joint/' worked in the plastering itself, and consisting of a vertical semi-cylindrical moulding some three-fourths of an inch in radius, which stops against a bevelled surface a little below the cornice and above the base-board or wain- scot (Fig. 74).^ These rule- joints are beautifully exe- cuted by the best plasterers, but they cause a rather awkward succession of breaks in the vertical line of the angle, since the plaster must be fully brought out to the corner above and below all mouldings, as otherwise a troublesome horizontal surface would be left (Fig. 75), which with the small wooden angle-bead is not noticeable ; and they are liable to scratches and abra- sion during the progress of the work and afterwards. This risk of abrasion is with plaster angles a serious matter, and the difficulty of the common rule- joint is sometimes overcome by squaring out the plaster to the edge, and subsequently put- ting on a wooden saddle-moulding (Fig. 76) cut out of a solid piece, but this device has little to recommend it, and a much better way is to use the metal angle-bead, of which various forms are in use, which is nailed on the corner before plastering, and presents, when the work is finished, only a thin edge of metal at the angle. For so large a building as a church, the rule- joints have a massive look which is pleasing, so we choose this method of finishing the corners, and leave the lath- ers to their task, first enjoining upon them to set the laths at least three-eighths of an inch apart, and to break joint every six courses. The weather having now settled to steady cold, it will be necessary to heat the building by artificial means, to prevent the Fig. 74 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 99 plaster from freezing, which will disintegrate it and cause it to crumble and fall off the laths. Some supervision should be exer- cised over the stoves or furnaces employed for the purpose, as workmen are incredibly careless and indifferent about the dangers to which they expose the property of other people The windows must be well closed with boards, and temporary windows inserted. After the first, or scratch, coat is partly on, the superintendent should endeavor to look behind the laths, to see if it has been well trowelled, so as to press the mortar through the openings and cause it to bend over by its own weight, forming a hook by which the plaster is held to the laths. As this is the only way in which the whole substance of the plas- tering can be kept on the walls, it is very necessary that ceilings should clinch well over every lath, and g * 75 walls over every second or third lath. The scratching should be thoroughly done, as it affords the key for the second coat, and there should be no appearance of tufts of hair, which would show that the mortar had not been thoroughly mixed. Care should be taken to see whether the specification directs that the plastering shall be carried to the floor everywhere, or only to the grounds. It is so habitual with builders to plaster only to the grounds that they frequently overlook the directions which require a bet- ter mode. Of course it is unnecessary to carry the hard-finish behind the wood-work, but the first two coats should be required, if any plastering in that position is specified. By the second, or brown, coat, all the surfaces must be brought to a true plane, the angles made straight, the walls plumb and Fig. 76 the ceilings level, since no effectual corrections can be made after- wards. The wall-spaces in the interior of the church are so broken that no great care is required to obtain a true surface, and we may IO Q BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE content ourselves with a close examination of each, to detect irreg- ularities, and tufts of hair, which will make unsightly spots in the finished work. The brown coating must on no account be allowed to begin until the first coat is thoroughly dry. Men accustomed to two-coat work, in which the first coat is often only superficially hardened when the second is put on, frequently treat three-coat work in the same manner, thereby weakening or sometimes ruin- ing the whole. If part of the walls are to be plastered on brick- work, and others on laths, the scratch coat is put only on the laths, and when this is dry, the brown coat is spread over the whole, in- cluding the brickwork. After the brown coat is dry and hard, the rule joints at the angles should first be made, and the third coat then applied. This, instead of being mixed with marble dust, instead of sand, and with a portion of plaster of Paris, as would be proper for a smooth sur- face, should for our purpose contain a large proportion of rather coarse sand, sifted so as to be uniform in grain, and little or no plaster of Paris, which would set so quickly as to hinder the thor- ough rubbing with the float which is necessary to bring the sand evenly to the surface. The plastering once dry, the wood finishing can proceed with- out hindrance. The superintendent must henceforth devote him- self conscientiously to the study of the detail drawings as they arrive from the architect's office, and endeavor to forestall any slight mistakes or misfits, which are sure to happen through the unavoidable variation of the finished work from the exact dimen- sions shown on the plans. If a panelled wainscot is shown, he should measure on the spot the length of the various portions of wall to which it is to be applied, and compare them with the drawings, spacing off the panels as shown in the details, so that there may be no awkward want of continuity, or disproportionate members at the angles. The stock for the woodwork must also be looked after. A load of hard-wood lumber inevitably contains a large percentage of worm-eaten, stained or otherwise defective pieces, which must have the defects cut out in working them up, and a sharp eye is needed to see that this is done, that a piece of black walnut streaked with white sap is not put into an out-of-the- way panel, or a knot cut out and a patch inserted in another place, BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE IO i where it may be unobserved while fresh from the sand-paper, but will grow more conspicuous afterwards. Any carelessness or want of decision on the part of the superintendent is apt to be taken advantage of. Generally, where the floors are double, all bases and wainscot- ings and other "standing finish" are put on before the upper boarding is laid. In this way the base-boards, which extend half an inch or more below the surface of the upper boarding, which is laid up against them, can shrink, as they are certain to do more or less, without opening a crack between them and the floor, and no care is needed in fitting them to the floor (Fig. 77), while with a single flooring it is cus- tomary either to "scribe" the base to the boards, so as to fit minutely all their irregularities, which an- swers well enough until Fig. 78 the shrinka e of base and Boor-beams draws them apart; or to plough the base laboriously into the floor (Fig. 78). In our building we follow the former course in all parts except the chancel, whose tiled surface cannot well be fitted against the wood- work. As tiles and marble are easily injured by the opera- tions of workmen, we will wait as long as possible before under- taking this portion, carrying the nave nearly to completion before touching the chancel at all. When all the wood-work in the nave is finished except laying the upper floor, the marble steps at the chancel entrance may be set upon the brick wall built up to receive them. The young superintendent should be familiar, from observa- tion and comparison at some good marble- worker's, with the appearances which characterize the different qualities of marble : in this way only can he judge with certainty whether the proper kind of material is furnished. Often pieces of marble whose appearance is injured by obtrusive spots or streaks are sent in- stead of the best quality, under the pretext that there is nothing better, and sometimes even a coarse, soft Vermont marble, streaked with a blue somewhat resembling the Italian, is palmed I02 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE off on a contractor in place of it, but the inferior kind can easily be distinguished by its coarse grain, and the yellowish cast of the white portions. As soon as the steps are accurately set, they should be pro- tected with boards, and the laying of the tiles may begin. For convenience in building, an under floor has been laid over the chancel, as well as the nave and aisles, and this rough flooring should now be taken up, sawed into short pieces so as to fit be- tween the beams, and these pieces laid in, on strips previously nailed to the sides of the beams. The best, and the only durable, way of laying encaustic tiles on a floor framed with wooden beams is to make the foundation for them of bricks set edgeways on the short pieces of board be- tween the beams, but to save material the bricks are sometimes laid flat, though the result is much inferior. In our case the proper mode is specified, and it is only necessary for us to make sure that the strips or "fillets" are nailed on at the proper distance from the top of the beams, a matter about which workmen are very careless. The tiles are from ^ to 5^ of an inch thick, and to ensure a continuous but thin bed of cement between them and the brick, the top of the latter should be J4 of an inch below the line of the finished floor. The brick to be used may measure from 3 to 4^/2 inches in width, according to locality, so we try those on the ground, and find them to vary from 3^/2 to 3^4 inches. The max- imum width must be taken, which added to the J4 of an inch for tiles and cement gives 4j4 inches depth from the finished floor to the boarding, or, as the boarding is % of an inch thick, 5^ inches from the finished floor to the top of the fillet. The beams should stand in the same relation to the tiling as they would to a wooden floor of double boarding, in order to avoid a disagreeable break between the chancel floor and that of the adjacent robing-room, and as each portion of the double flooring is % of an inch thick, the whole distance from the finished floor to the beams will be 1 34 inches, which being deducted from the distance last found will give 3^6 inches as the proper gauge from the top of the beams to the top of the fillet. A thorough understanding of this matter will save much subsequent annoyance and expense in BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE cutting off brick which are too high, or concreting up from a sur- face set too low. It is better and much more economical to have tiles laid by the parties who furnish them, and contracts are generally made for the floor complete, but cases may occur where the local masons will be called upon to do the work. In such cases the brick sur- face must be swept clean and thoroughly wet, and the tiles must be soaked in water for some time before they are used. Without these precautions, either the brick or the tile will absorb water from the thin layer of cement between them, making it powdery and useless. The best Portland cement only is suitable for use the American brands, if fresh, being quite equal to most of the English or German found in our markets and is to be mixed rather thin, without any addition of sand. The pattern must be commenced from the centre, which is to be very exactly ascertained by previous measurement, and straight-edged strips of board should be put down as guides for each day's work, not only for regulating the lines of the pattern, but also for securing a uniform surface, which is done by first levelling them carefully, and setting the tiles by means of a straight-edge resting on the strips. Each tile is set in a bed of cement spread for it, and beaten down to the proper point with the wooden handle of the trowel. After a sufficient number have been laid, the joints may be grouted with liquid cement, which must, however, be immediately wiped off the surface of the tiles, since it is difficult to remove it when dry. If the cement is good, the tiles cannot, after a few days, be removed without breaking, so that too much care cannot be exer- cised in placing them properly at first. When the pattern reaches the edge it is usually necessary to cut many of the tiles. This can be done by soaking them well in water, and then scoring a line with a sharp chisel where the separation is to be made ; then plac- ing the chisel exactly on the line, a sharp blow will divide the tile neatly. Wide chisels should be used, and unless the tile is well soaked, it is apt to fly into fragments. After the floor is done, it is covered with sawdust an inch or two deep, and planks laid over it to walk on. The base-boards and wainscoting are then fitted down upon it. The marble tiling is laid in the same way, on bricks set on edge, but the marble is 104 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE thicker, usually varying from seven-eighths to one and a quarter inches, the under side being quite rough ; and the fillets should be set accordingly. The laying is much easier than that of clay tiles, and mortar of cement, lime and sand in equal parts may be used. By the time our building has reached this point, spring has advanced, and the warm, moist days of May present the best pos- sible opportunity for pointing and cleaning down the exterior of the stone-work. The brownstone ashlar will look best if pointed with mortar of nearly the same color as the stone, which can be made by mixing burnt umber with the cement used. The best Portland cement is preferable to any other, and is to be thoroughly mixed with an equal bulk of sand, and such coloring matter as may be Fig. 79 ^ Fig. 80 Fig. 81 required, but with only just water enough to give the compound a mealy consistency. The old mortar is raked out of the joints to a depth of an inch, or if, as is likely, that in the upper part is found to be frozen and powdery for a greater distance inward, it should be completely removed as far as the freezing has extended ; then the pointing mortar is inserted and strongly driven in with a steel jointer or S-shaped instrument, rubbing it until the moisture is squeezed out upon the surface. The tool is formed to mould the edge of the joints in various ways as it is rubbed. The most durable form is the hollow (Fig. 79) , but the half-round (Fig. 80) is often used, as well as the fillet (Fig. 81 ) . In the two latter the mortar is less thoroughly compressed, and the projecting part may fall off. The cleaning down is done with muriatic acid and water, applied with a sponge, and followed with pure water. This re- moves the lime stains, and leaves all neat. The subsequent operations in the church, such as painting, glazing, and decoration, can best be studied in connection with other constructions in which they play a more important part. BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE / CHAPTER II WOODEN DWELLING HOUSES ONE of the most difficult portions of an architect's business is precisely that which amateurs usually imagine to be the easiest, the superintendence of the work connected with dwelling houses. It is natural to suppose that an intelligent householder, who has spent a large part of his time for years in observing the defects in his own habitation, and comparing it with those of his neighbors, would find no difficulty in directing the construction of a similar building, but experience soon shows that the knowledge which most persons have of the structures they live in is a very superfi- cial one, consisting in the observation of results, rather than of the processes by which the results are obtained ; so that the ama- teur house-builder is apt to find himself quite at fault in endeavor- ing to give the necessary preliminary directions for securing the particular objects of strength, durability, healthfulness, appear- ance or finish which he has most at heart. Nevertheless, it is often necessary, and always desirable, that unprofessional persons should be able to direct the operations of mechanics, and make contracts for various kinds of work, and it is hoped that the suggestions contained in the following pages, although intended primarily for young architects and superintendents, will not be found too technical for the ordinary reader, and that the explana- tions given with regard to the objects which it is desirable to seek, and the means by which they can be attained, will be found ser- viceable to the large class of persons who are interested in build- ing, either for themselves or others, as well as to those occupants of houses already built who would be glad to understand more (105) 106 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE clearly the structure of their dwellings, with a view either to the correction of defects, or the planning of improvements. The point in which amateurs are particularly liable to fail is the choosing of a proper site, and as even experienced architects are not always successful in this respect, a few directions in regard to the placing of houses upon the ground should not be omitted. In all cases it is essential to determine the position approxi- mately before the plans are begun, in order that the building may be so arranged as to present an agreeable appearance Location"'" 9 from the neighboring streets, securing at the same time the greatest pleasantness of prospect from the windows, with the most cheerful light and sunshine in the rooms, that the situation can be made to yield. In our climate, the best aspect for the windows of living-rooms, particularly of bed-chambers, is south or south-east. Such rooms are warm in winter and cool in summer, and cheerful at all sea- sons. Next to a southern exposure, the eastern is the pleasantest, and may be appropriated for dining-rooms, which will thus enjoy the advantage of the early morning sunshine, with coolness during the rest of the day. Between the western and the northern aspect there is little to choose ; the cheerlessness of the one is hardly more objectionable than the heat, on summer evenings, of the other, so that these sides of a dwelling-house should, as far as possible, be given up to inferior rooms, halls and stairways. Of course, con- siderations of prospect and position with respect to the approaches must affect the plan more or less, but the skill of the designer will be shown by the success with which he contrives to satisfy all the requirements at the same time. Other points will, however, claim the attention of the careful architect, besides the more obvious ones of situation and exposure, and the final staking out of the building should never ^ e attempted until they have been thoroughly consid- ered. Foremost among these is the character of the ground, whether wet or dry, springy or well-drained. The only certain test of this consists in sinking pits at different places, to the depth proposed for the future cellar, or a little below, if the trials are made in the dry season ; but indications may be found in the conformation of the surface. Depressions, or level spots BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE hemmed in by ledges of rock or elevations, even slight ones, gen- erally retain water near the surface. The ridges which enclose the basin may be at some distance, but the effect will be the same. The upper part of hill slopes, also, contrary to the common notion, is very apt to be wet and springy, while rocky regions seldom furnish dry cellars unless unusual precautions are taken. Such precautions should, however, be taken wherever there is occasion for them, since a house with a wet cellar is, to speak briefly, unfit for habitation. The main principle to i. i j- j- -1 ^ L Iu A Ground-Water be borne in mind in ordinary soils is that the ground- water stands nearly at a level (Fig. 82), varying, like the tides, with the season; and that the smaller elevations in gravelly soil Fig. 82 form islands in the subterranean lake, upon which a house may be built with perfect safety, while another, a few rods distant, would have its basement perpetually steeped in moisture. The existence of ground-water a foot or two below the cellar bottom is of com- paratively little consequence, provided that this is well concreted, and that the water never rises any higher. More important elevations generally contain a substructure of rock, above which the rain collects, and flows down- ward, coming to the surface at intervals in the form of springs. As the soil is always thinner near the top of the hill, such springs are more common there, and are the more annoying because their existence often cannot be detected until the progress of the excavation brings them to light. These streams can, however, in ordinary soils- be in- tercepted without much difficulty, and their current turned harmlessly toward one side; but it is otherwise with n I 1 T-U 1 M.''* LI Rocky Soil cellars cut in rock. These are almost invariably in- fested with small veins of water, which run along the seams of the ledge and collect in the basin formed by the excavation, soaking through the house walls, and saturating the concrete floors ; and the extra cost of intercepting such veins and of cutting a channel I0 g BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE to convey the water to a proper outfall is usually very serious, so that locations of this kind should be avoided ; or if that is impos- sible, the level of the cellar bottom should be set so high that little or no excavation in the rock will be needed, and the downward course of the water will not be interrupted. This may always be done, without detriment to the appearance of the building, by means of suitable grading or terracing. Clayey soils are also unfavorable. Being impervious, they retain the water which may settle into the new excavation, just outside the cellar walls, until it finds an escape for itself, very probably into the building. Moreover, they expand greatly in wet seasons, or in frosty weather, to con- tract again in summer ; while the tenacity with which frozen clay clings to stone or brick work often causes the dislocation or de- rangement of cellar walls and piers. Most house-lots in the country or suburban towns offer at least some choice of location, and as a few inches difference in the level of the cellar bottom, or a few feet difference in the distance of the building from a ledge, may be quite sufficient, without special precautions, to determine the wetness or dryness of the cellar, and therefore the healthfulness or unhealthfulness of the house, a judicious study of the site is of great importance. Where the limits or the character of the plot admit of no choice, it will in very many cases be necessary to incur extra and unforeseen expense in draining the excavation thoroughly. Some of the expedients to be adopted have been described in the first part, and others will be mentioned below ; so that with the help of these hints the architect or private owner will be able to deal with any difficulty which he is likely to meet. The house whose construction we have to follow is situated on the side of a rather steep hill, sloping toward the north. The lot on which the house stands comprises about six acres, an( * *ke avenue leading to the building passes for some distance through a cutting, seven or eight feet deep. Rocks appear above the surface in various portions of the lot, and several springs ooze through the sides of the cutting made for the driveway, indicating that the ledge is not far beneath. The house is to be of modest dimensions, comprising a parlor, dining-room, BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE hall, kitchen, staircase-hall and back staircase on the ground floor, and four chambers, dressing-room and bath-room on the second story, with four finished attics above. The cellar contains a laundry, furnace-room, vegetable-cellar, and open place for stor- age, and a servant's water-closet. The hall is finished in oak, with oak floor ; the principal staircase is of cherry, with mahogany posts and rail; the parlor is finished in maple, with pine floor, bordered with maple and cherry parquetry work ; and the dining- room is in ash. The kitchen and laundry are finished in hard pine, with floors of the same. All the rooms in the second story are in whitewood, except the bath-room, which, in order to give a pleasant liveliness of effect, is finished with alternate black walnut and maple. The attics are in pine throughout. The hall and one large attic room are to be finished so as to show the natural color of the wood ; the other rooms will be painted. The plans and specifications having been carefully drawn, the owner, if unacquainted with building matters, should take pains to understand them fully. While still in the architect's hands, he should with his help consider the various points in regard to which he has any particular theory or preference, and by measuring for himself in the houses of his friends the dimensions of doors, windows, stairs, closets, sinks, baths and other details, and comparing them with those shown on his plans, he can form a clear notion of what is intended by them, and satisfy himself that they indicate just what he wishes his house to be. The specifications, also, he should study carefully at home with his family, and may take advantage of the suggestions which they furnish to modify certain points, if he wishes, in a way to please the fancy of the persons who will occupy the various rooms. Such study as this is of much value to the owner, who is thereby often saved from expense in altering work, already done in the ordinary way, in order to gain some object desirable to him- self, but about which he had forgotten to inform the archi- tect; while the architect is always glad to furnish all the assistance in his power, knowing that a little time spent in promoting the thorough comprehension by all parties of the structure indicated in the drawings will enable him to do his IIO BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE work with much more satisfaction to himself, as well as to his employer. In regard to the contracts, the question always arises, whether the whole work shall be entrusted to one man, or two or more separate contracts made ; and it is not always easy to Contractors r SJ . -nt. *.- r 11^-1. i answer it. The practice of various localities has much to do with the matter. In some places it is rare for mechanics to make sub-contracts, and therefore each trade must be dealt with separately, while in others the best contractors prefer to have the sole control of their buildings, and endeavor to keep the work entirely in their hands. Where a building must be speedily completed, it is generally easier to attain that object by putting the whole contract into the hands of one man. Two contractors, responsible only to the owner, and jealous or indifferent in regard to each other's inter- ests, always charge each other with the responsibility for the delays which usually occur under such circumstances, and the owner finds it difficult, if not impossible, either to enforce his contract as to time of completion, or to collect indemnity for any delay without doing injustice. Where, however, the time is not restricted to the shortest possible space, most architects will agree that the best results are obtained by making at least four separate agreements; the cellar-work and grading forming the subject of one; the carpenter-work, including painting and glazing, of a second ; the brickwork and plastering of a third ; and the plumbing of the fourth. It is often desirable to make a fifth agreement for the painting and glazing, but if the carpenter is trustworthy, there is generally some advantage in allowing these to be included in his contract. By the system of separate contracts better work is usually to be obtained in each branch, and, considering its quality, at a cheaper rate, although speculative builders have ways of making sub-contracts at prices which seem incredibly low to those who are not familiar with the difference between the good and the "jerry" style of work. The best mechanics always prefer to treat directly with the owner ; they are in this way sure of their pay, and can therefore afford to work at a lower rate; while the owner saves the percentage of profit which the principal contractor feels him- BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE IXI self entitled to charge upon the tenders made to him by his sub- contractors. Whatever mode is adopted, too much care cannot be taken to have the plans and specifications as full and explicit as possible. If these are what they should be, a building so simple as a dwelling-house can be, and generally is, where the owner knows his own mind in regard to the kind of house he wishes, and takes the trouble to see that the plans express it, carried out to completion without any "extras" whatever ; generally to the great surprise of the proprietor, who is sure to be informed by volunteer counsellors before he begins operations that his extra bill will inevitably be "at least as large as the contract price;" that he "ought to restrict the architect to half the sum that he intends to spend," and so on. As an example of what is desirable in such documents, forms of specifications and contracts are subjoined, such as have been used, with the necessary variations, for a con- siderable number of houses, all of which have been finished com- plete at the contract price, without a dollar of extra charge, except in case of unexpected difficulties of ground, or unless the owner has desired to make alterations as the work went on, or to add to the contract the execution of some parts of the furniture, as man- tels, fixed book-shelves, seats, and the like. Armed with such instruments as these, we enter upon the execution of the work. We have made separate contracts for the cellar-work, the carpentry, the brickwork and plastering, and the plumbing, and have also selected a good furnace, and arranged with the makers to put in the requisite pipes and registers in the best manner when the proper time comes, under a guaranty that the apparatus shall heat a given number of rooms to a temperature of 70 when the thermometer outside stands at o, without taking air from the cellar or any other part of the house, and without regard to the direction of the wind. Occasionally, the heating apparatus is included in the prin- cipal contract, but this is most unwise. As with plumbing, the work to be done is so difficult for any one but an expert to understand or criticise, and the difference between good and inferior work is so great, in value, even more than in cost, that it should never be made the interest of any man to get it done as cheaply as possible. Explanations of these points will be 112 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE given further on. Meanwhile, we hasten to get the cellar under way. Although no rock appears in the immediate vicinity of the site selected for the house, it is not improbable that it will be found somewhere in the excavation, and the contract with the cellar mason provides a certain price which shall be paid for whatever blasting may be necessary, stipulating at the same time that the rock taken out shall be used in the cellar walls, and an allowance made for it. If there is no other stone to be had near at hand, the cost of taking out rock from the cellar is fairly offset by its value for walling material. The occurrence of ledge in the excavation will usually be accompanied by small springs, but it would be inexpedient to burden the contract with an allowance for draining them away properly, so, if they occur, the operations which they may render necessary will be best treated as extra work. The contractor and the superintendent stake out the ground together, the latter checking the rectangularity of the lines by measuring the diagonals; and batter-boards are set Staking Out i < i i 1 ^ 1 1 r , r up ; and a bench-mark, showing the level of the top of the cellar wall, is made on one of the batter-boards. The house should always be set high enough to give good cellar windows, with a sufficient fall to the surface of the ground away from the building on all sides. Three feet distance from the highest point of the natural surface in the perimeter of the building to the top of the cellar wall is none too much. This will give two and a half feet of underpinning all around, and insure a light, well- ventilated cellar. The excavation is required to be eight inches wider on all sides than the outer line of the walls, in order that the latter may be carried up smooth and strong, outside as well as inside. The whole is laid in mortar containing equal parts of lime Bunding anc * cement an d both the outer and inner faces are to be pointed neatly. The trenches are to be dug two feet below the proposed cellar bottom, and eighteen inches of dry stone chips are first put in, before starting the cement wall. All this is expensive, and the cellar will cost in this way at least twice as much as if constructed in the usual country fashion ; but it will be more than ten times as good, and nothing short of this fulfils BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE II3 the conditions which modern ideas regard as essential to a whole- some dwelling. The clear height of the cellar should be eight feet in the smallest house intended for winter occupancy, and more than this in larger mansions, in order to give sufficient height above the furnace to allow of a proper ascent in the tin hot-air pipes, without which the heat cannot be successfully distributed to the various rooms. This, with the two feet additional below the cellar bottom, will make ten feet of stone-work, one and one-half feet of which will be laid dry, and the remainder in cement. Whether the material of the cellar wall shall be brick or stone may depend upon the local custom. Hard stone makes the best wall. It is non-absorbent, and as the frozen earth adheres but slightly to its surface, a wall built of it is not subject, as brickwork is, to gradual loosening and decay at the surface of the ground. Where bricks must be used, they should be of the hardest quality. The first operation is the stripping of the surface loam from the whole area covered by the building, and about eight feet additional on all sides, and the stacking of this in some convenient place for use in the subsequent grading. The excavation of the cellar then proceeds in conformity with the lines given by the batter-boards. As the top of the wall is fixed by the bench-mark at 3 feet above the highest point of the ground, and the clear height of the cellar is 8 feet, the main part of the excavation, ex- clusive of the trenches for the walls, will be nowhere more than 5% feet below the ground; the extra 3 inches being allowed for the thickness of the concrete. We have chosen our site well, and are fortunate enough to find no rock in the excavation, and no wet places in the cellar itself, but in the trenches, two feet or so below, the water stands in several places. This is an indication of a moisture in the sub- soil, which will increase after spring rains so as to fill Si?8oii 9 the trenches, and these will overflow into the cellar unless some other outlet is provided for the water. The slope of the ground, and still more the comparative shallowness of the cellar, make this a simple matter : all that is necessary is to con- tinue the trench beyond the line of the house, giving it a slight fall to some point where the descending ground will allow it to 8 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE reach the surface. The trench may be filled some two feet deep with loose stones or broken brick, and then covered with straw and loam, or a pipe-drain may be laid through it (Fig. 83). All the water that collects un- der the walls will then be immediately drained away, and, no matter what may be the level of the ground- water outside the house, Fig. 83 the trench with its outlet forms a barrier which will prevent the moisture from ever making its appearance above the cellar floor (Fig. 84). It is true that in some clayey grounds, especially if traversed by veins of sand, water may rise through the cellar bottom in some places, but such soils are rare, and moisture so introduced can easily be carried off by small "French drains" of broken stone, or lines of agricultural tiles, leading from the wet spot to the main drain under the walls, or, still better, extending from wall to wall across the place to be drained. Where the ground is very soft or sandy, the outlet drain should be laid at a gentle pitch, in order that the current toward it may not be swift enough to scour out the soil beneath the foundations and cause settlement. Some architects, for fear of this, prefer to make stone or tile drains entirely outside the walls (Fig. 85, or Fig. 86), but this is somewhat more expensive, as the excavation must be made proportionally larger, while the former method is more effectual in keeping the cellar walls and floor dry, and if carefully carried out should be no more liable to cause settlements than the other. If small stones are used under the walls, they should be compacted with a rammer, and thus form an incom- "--J&PB* pressible mass. Fi &- ^ The building of the masonry upon this foundation is a simple matter, but must be sharply watched, for in no detail of construc- tion is the common practice so vicious as in the laying of cellar walls. In stone districts, the majority of houses stand upon base- BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE Fig. 85 ments built with blocks of the most irregular shapes, laid "dry," that is, without mortar, and depending partly for support upon the earth outside of them. The smoothest face of the stones is inside, while the ouside presents a rag- ged, bristling mass of projections ; and to improve the visible face, the crevices between the stones are "chinked" with small chips, and the joints are "pointed" by rubbing mortar over them with the point of a trowel. A coat of whitewash completes a work which, while it is new, presents on the inside precisely the same aspect as the best sort of wall. But a brief period only is needed to make its defects manifest. Streams of water, after heavy rains, pour through the loose structure, fol- lowed by rats, which burrow down next the outside of the walls until they find a wide joint from which they can easily push out the pointing mortar and obtain access to the interior ; and little by little the earth washes into the crevices between the bank and the stone-work, until the latter yields to the pressure, presenting the characteristic inward convexity of country cellar-walls. Every feature of these constructions must be avoided. In place of a dry wall, furnished only with a miserable pointing of mortar on the inside, the whole thickness must be solidly filled with cement; in place of a rough outside surface, the exterior must be the smoothest face, that water may not collect upon pro- jections and be conducted into the wall ; instead of leaning against the bank, the masonry must stand at least eight inches away from it, and the intervening space must be filled with porous gravel or sand, in order that the subterranean water-courses may be intercepted and conducted away harmlessly into the drain beneath; while all the details of bonding and proper jointing of the masonry should be as carefully attended to as in the case of a wall above ground. Further details on these points have been given in Chapter L, and need not be repeated here. Without assiduous watching, most country masons lapse con- H6 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE tinually into the wretched workmanship which has become ha- bitual to them : long stones, which they will not take the trouble to break, are set in the wall with a fair inner face, but with long "tails" projecting from the exterior into the bank, whereas the reverse would be the preferable way; and short stones are simi- larly set, leaving a cavity on the outside to gather water and con- duct it into the wall. As the earth is usually filled in behind the stone-work as fast as it is laid, such faults are not generally detect- ed until heavy rains reveal them, too late to apply a remedy ; but something may be ascertained by using the steel rod spoken of in Chapter I., while the mortar and the filling outside are yet soft. It is essential that the material next the wall should be perma- nently porous. If sand or gravel cannot be had, unsifted coal-ashes form a good substitute, and broken bricks, stone or slate chips may be used. The underpinning, or portion of the wall above ground, is very commonly made different from the rest, in order to obtain a smoother face. Long slabs of split granite or free- Underpinning J J r t. ' _ A stone are often used, and for cheaper work an eight- inch brick wall is sometimes built on top of the stone-work, from the grade line upward. Of these, the granite underpinning is much the best : sandstone and brick absorb moisture from the ground, as well as from snow lying against them in winter, and communicate it to the interior, besides being themselves subject to exfoliation and decay at the ground line. Independent of appearance, the best construction is to carry the cellar wall of the full thickness to the very top, trusting to careful "drawing" of the joints for giving the exposed portions a satisfactory finish. Care should be taken that the wall is not thinned at the top (Fig. 87), as is very commonly done in country work, to give oppor- tunity for the vicious form of floor framing by which the joists are set flush with the upper surface of the sill, their lower portion hanging down inside. What- ever the thickness, twelve inches for brick, sixteen, Fig. 87 eighteen, or twenty for stone, according to the charac- ter of the material, it should continue to the under side of the sill, leaving only the necessary places for inserting the girders, and BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE levelling off the top carefully. Frames of basement windows should, if possible, be built into the wall. The method of spiking them to the under side of the sill, leaving large, irregular holes in the stone-work for their reception, is objectionable, as the subse- quent filling up is apt to be less solid than the surrounding masonry. While the wall is in process of construction, the framing of the timber, that is, the cutting into lengths, fitting and mortising, will have been going on. Usually this is done upon the ground, from material selected in some neighboring yard, as near the required dimensions as may be; but it is not un- common for contractors to procure an "ordered frame/' by send- ing framing plans and elevations, with a proper speicification, to some saw-mill in the timber region, where the pieces are cut from the logs of the exact sizes required. One or two establishments do more than this, and ship the frame ready mortised and fitted for putting together, including when desired the boarding, shingles, clapboards, doors, windows, and other simple wood-work. There is an economy in the use of such frames, as waste is avoided, and more perfect timber is obtained, but the yard timber is usually better seasoned, and some contractors think that the time spent in overhauling after delivery the innumerable pieces of an ordered frame, except of the simplest kind, in order to select the sticks that are needed, quite offsets the waste and extra expense of framing from yard timber in the usual way. The inspection of the rough lumber is not difficult. White pine, spruce, and hemlock are the woods most commonly used. In the far West, cottonwood is sometimes employed, and redwood is the ordinary framing timber of the Pacific coast. Of these, redwood is much the best, being strong, straight-grained, obtainable in any dimensions, and less subject to shrinkage or movement than any other. White pine is the next in value, for similar reasons. Cottonwood is soft, and shrinks very much. Spruce resembles pine, but shrinks more, and is apt to warp and twist with great force during the drying process, and to "check," or crack open near the middle of the stick. The dimensions run rather small, compared with white pine or the enormous sizes of redwood lumber, but pieces up to 12" x 12", Il8 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE and 25 or 30 feet long are always to be had, and wooden dwelling- houses rarely require anything more. Hemlock is a harder wood than either spruce or pine, and can be had in large sizes, but its strength is injured by the want of adhesion between its annual rings, which disposes the timber to crack very badly in drying. The hemlock trees are very tall, and their swaying in the forest often "shakes" or separates the rings of the heart-wood, so that when sawn into scantlings or boards the interior is little better than a mass of splinters. Hard pine, or, as it is sometimes called, Georgia pine, is much used in city buildings, where its great stiff- ness is of advantage in enabling floors of wide span to be covered without employing timbers of inconvenient size, but it is rarely necessary in country houses to incur the additional expense of using it for this purpose, although it is employed in other ways. It is a very good timber, though shrinking considerably in drying. The principal point in examining the lumber will be to ascertain whether the sizes are according to the specifications, for which a few measurements will suffice. It should be borne in mind that only green lumber will show the full dimensions; and seasoning reduces them somewhat. A white-pine plank originally cut 12 inches wide will when dry measure about 11% inches; spruce, hemlock, and hard pine somewhat less ; cottonwood will shrink a whole inch in the same width, while redwood scarcely shows any change ; so that suitable allowances should be made for every case. Crooked and "waney" pieces (see Figs. 46, 47, page 63) should be condemned, as well as those affected with serious shakes. Longitudinal cracks in the middle of a thick piece of spruce need not condemn it : they are almost inevitable if the timber is dry, and do not detract much from its strength ; but if they occur in a thin piece, as a floor joist, and extend entirely through it, they consti- tute serious defects. Sticks of which portions, especially at the ends, appear livid and friable should be totally condemned. They are infected with dry-rot, and will communicate the infection to others. Amputation of the diseased part is not sufficient, for the threads of the fungus may extend a long distance into the sound part of the wood. The first timber set in place is the sill, and this should have a thick bed of soft cement mortar prepared for it by the mason, and BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE be hammered firmly down into it. This closes up the crevice be- tween the top of the stone-work and the timber, through which, in badly built houses, much cold air finds its way into the hollow floors. For additional protection, after the adjustment which is generally necessary to get the sill into position is over, it is best to point up with similar mortar along its outer edge (Fig. 88). The inside might be similarly treated, but this would interfere with the still more effectual process of lining with bricks and mortar, as described below. It is now usual to make the sill of pine or spruce, like the other portions of the frame. Our forefathers, who had no fur- naces, set their dwellings very low, and banked them up with earth in winter so as to cover the lower portions of the wood- work, in order to keep the cold air from the cellar and the floors ; and they found chestnut or cedar to be the only material which would resist dry-rot under such circumstances. We, however, prefer high, light cellars, with cement walls, kept dry by furnaces, and little dampness reaches the sills, but there is, as in all cases where wood comes in contact with masonry, a possibility of its being affected by moisture in the pores of the stone and mortar, so that it is best to provide a repellent coating by painting the sill on the under side. The other sides should be left untouched, so as not to impede the drying action of the air. The ends of girders, also, where the enter the wall, may be similarly painted. In most cases, the sill is the subject of more notching, mortis- ing, and cutting than any other timber in the building, and must be of sufficient dimensions to allow for this. Six by six inches is a common size, or six by eight, where the basement openings are large, or there is danger of decay affect- ing the under side. The Fig. 89 Fig. 90 angles are halved together (Fig. 89), and pinned or strongly spiked. Many builders secure the sill to the foundation-walls by 120 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE means of vertical bolts, about two feet long, built for the greater part of their length into the walls, at intervals of eight or ten feet. Corresponding holes are bored in the sill, and this is slipped over the bolts, and secured by nuts and washers. With light structures in exposed situations this forms a valuable safe- guard against storms. Into the sill the floor beams are framed in various ways. A very common and bad mode is to notch it some three inches deep, cutting a corresponding tenon on the upper corner of the beam, so that the upper surface | of this, when in place, is flush with the top of Fig. 91 the sill, the lower part projecting below. This necessitates the thinning off of the upper part of the wall, which would otherwise come in the way of the beams, while the tenon, from which hangs the whole weight of the beam and its load, often splits off (Fig. 90). The beams should, instead of this, be cut so as to bring their lower edges flush with the bottom of the sill (Fig. 91), with a notch, perhaps two inches deep, to hold them in place. Then the tenon will be deep enough to hold safely, and the wall can be made of the full thickness to the very top. Mortises must also be made for the corner posts, and for those to be set at the intersection of interior par- titions with the outside walls. Usually, each of the "filling-in" studs (Fig .92) has also its appropriate mor- tise, even in "balloon" frarri- ing, but occasionally a cheap builder contents himself with simply setting the end of the stud down on the sill, and securing it by nails Fig. 92 driven diagonally through the foot. Of course, the position of all the mortises is taken from the framing plans and elevations ; BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE I2 i which cannot be too carefully made, or the execution of them too closely watched, as a window, a chimney-opening, or a stairway, once framed in the wrong place, cannot be altered subsequently without injury to the solidity of the building. Workmen are very careless about such matters ; we have known a foreman to use a framing plan traced on transparent cloth wrong side up, and, regardless of the careful lettering and figures on the right side, to cut the mortises for the whole side of a house by scaling with a foot-rule the dimensions as seen inverted through the waxed linen ; and it is rare, even with the most carefully drawn plans before them, for framers to complete the mortising of a sill without gross mistakes. The young architect or superintendent should, there- fore, as soon as the sills are set in place, verify every measurement. The figures on the plans for a wooden building should always give the distances of the centres of openings from the corners of the building and from each other ; then the middle point between the mortises made in the sill for the studs which form the jambs of the opening can be readily found, and compared directly with the figure. If the plans are figured, as is sometimes done, in the way appropriate to stone or brick buildings, by giving the distances to the jambs of the openings, the verification is much more difficult, since the rough studs are always set two inches or more wider on each side than the finished opening is intended to be, to allow for the weights and lines in the case of windows, and in doors to ad- mit of a little play in setting the frames. After all the mortises for the studs have been examined, and such corrections as are found necessary made on the spot under the superintendent's eye, those intended for the floor timbers should undergo an equally rigid inspection. The openings for staircases and chimneys will almost always be found misplaced, or made either too large or too small. The latter is much the worse fault : it is possible to fill up an excess of space, but too small an opening, which can only be made available by cutting away and weakening the trimmer-beams, or by constricting the flues, is a serious mis- fortune. When these tests have been thoroughly applied, the beams may be set in place. In most cases the floor rests partly on girders, which are larger sticks, generally from 6" X 10" to 8" X 12" for the light strains of country houses, running through 122 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE the cellar under the "fore-and-aft" partitions, or those which carry the floors above, and supported by brick piers in the cellar. Occasionally, brick walls, eight inches thick, and pierced with arches for communication, take the place of the girders, but with- out any material advantage, unless they are carried up to the under side of the floor boards, in which case they serve to keep the floor warm and diminish the danger from fire, by intercepting the spaces between the beams. If girders are used, special attention should be given to con- triving the framing of the beams into girders and sills so that the shrinkage shall be the same at each end. This point is almost always neglected, to the detriment of the work, which begins, a year or two after the com- pletion of the building, to undergo settlements and de- formations, which, instead of being inevitable, as is usually supposed, might easily have been avoided by a little care at the com- mencement. If, for exam- ple (Fig. 93), a ten-inch Fig. 93 beam is framed at one end by a threef-inch tenon into a six-inch sill, all flush on top, and at the other end is "sized" down one inch, without mortising, upon a 6 X 10 girder, the total height of shrinkable timber between the floor boards and the unyielding masonry will be, at the sill end, 6 inches, and at the other end 10 + 9=19 inches. Now a six-inch timber will shrink perhaps *4 of an i ncn m drying, while at the same rate, 19 inches will shrink some 4 f an i ncn > an d after a year's seasoning the inner ends of the beams will thus be half an inch lower than the outer, and the floor to the same extent out of level, cracking the plastering of the walls above, distorting the door frames, so that the doors no longer fit their places, and caus- ing ugly dislocations in base-boards and wainscotings. To avoid these evils, an equal height of timber should be left at each end between the flooring boards and the masonry. If the proper mode of framing into the sill is adopted (see Fig. 91), a BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE I2 3 ten-inch beam will have a six-inch tenon resting upon the bottom of the notch, with four inches of the wood of the sill between it and the cellar wall ; in all, ten inches of wood. We need, there- fore, ten inches of wood, and no more, between the brick piers and the floor boards at the other end. But if the girder is ten inches high, this will furnish the whole, with none to spare for projection of the beam above it, so the latter must be framed into the girder flush with its top. This is for various reasons the best way of framing into girders. Not only is it advantageous to get rid of their projection below the cellar ceiling, but the circulation between the beams is effectually cut off. If the girder is of ample strength, it may be notched, say five inches deep, to receive a five-inch tenon Fig. 94 Fig. 95 on the beam (Fig. 94), but the best mode, preserving most effect- ually the strength both of girder and beam, is the joint with "tenon and tusk" (Fig. 95), by which the cutting is brought nearer the neutral axis of the girder, while the tusk tenon allows the joint to be bored and pinned from above. As it would be difficult to lay heavy timbers on a row of iso- lated piers without overturning them, the girders are generally held in place by shores set beneath them until the floor beams are all on, or sometimes even longer ; and the piers are then built up beneath them. These should never be less than 12 " X 12", of hard brick, laid in cement mortar. Piers 8" X 8", as often seen, soon bend, while those of soft or "pier" brick are liable to be worn and kicked away at the foot. The proper spacing for piers de- pends on the size of the girders, and the load upon them, but should not be over 8 feet, for fear of deflection, even with strong timbers. In the Eastern states, the next step always is to lay an under- floor of planed hemlock or spruce boards, over which the men move freely, while it forms a roof to the cellar, which can immediately be used for storage of tools and mate- rials. Whether this is done or not, after the floor is made prac- ticable for the passage of workmen across it the large posts should Under-Floor 124 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE be set up at the angles, and at the intersection of interior partitions with the outside walls. These should be 4" X 8", at least, even in a "balloon" frame, not so much for strength as to give good nailings for the angles of interior furrings, wainscot and base-boards (Fig. 96). The subsequent steps depend upon the mode of construction adopted, whether a "balloon' ' or a "braced" frame is specified ; and it is of importance to the young architect to understand thoroughly the nature and advantages of each. Supposing a "braced" or "old-fashioned" frame to be called for, the next step after setting the corner posts firmly into their mortises will be to secure them in their up- right position by means of the braces (Fig. 97), which have been Fig. 97 previously fitted to mortises cut in the sill and post, and on being inserted and a hard-wood pin or trenail driven through the hole, hold the post fast. The shape of the tenons is shown in Figure 98. BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 125 Girts While setting and bracing the corner posts, which always ex- tend the whole height from the sill to the plate supporting the roof, the girts (G and D G, Fig 97), or the horizontal timbers which tie the frame at each floor-level, must be put in place. In a simple rectangular frame, like the one shown on the drawing, two of these run parallel to the floor beams, and are for convenience generally set at the same level with them. The other two, marked D G in the figure, cross the ends of the beams, and are utilized to sup- port them. If it were possible to continue the girts all around at the same level, the beams might with advantage be framed with tenon and tusk into those which run transversely to them, in the same manner as into the girders in the first floor, but as the tenons by which the girts are framed into the posts would, l S- 9 if these were set at the same level, intersect and cut each other off, it is necessary to place one pair entirely below the others. The latter are called the "dropped girts," and are generally arranged so that the floor-beams may be notched or "sized" one or two inches down upon them. (Fig. 99.) The proper joint for posts and girts is shown in Figure 100. After setting these and pinning them securely, a second set of braces should be put in to tie the angle between them and the posts, as shown in Figure 97, using the same form of mortise and tenon as before. A third set is then placed in the angles between the posts and the upper side of the girts. All these pieces are accu- rately cut and fitted before any of the work is set up, so that when inserted in their mortises, and the pins driven home, the posts are drawn into their proper position, exactly at right angles with the 126 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE girts, notwithstanding the bending or twisting which the heat of the sun often causes in them when first set up ; and are thus pre- pared to receive the plate, which will not fit unless the posts are accurately parallel. The angles of the plates are halved to- gether and mortised entirely through, so as to receive a long tenon left on top of the posts; and to rtvp ^.ft^^^n facilitate this, as well as to give a certain lateral stiffness to re- - " - sist the thrust of the Fig. 99 Plate rafters, it is common to make the plate 4" X 6" or 4" X 8", and lay it flatways. If the roof is to have gables, a somewhat simple construction is used, the plate which receives the rafters first being framed on top of the posts, while the gable is supported by a sort of dropped girt, tenoned into the posts below the plate proper. The angles of posts and plate may finally be braced, making a strong and rigid skeleton, as shown in Figure 97, upon which the rafters can be set at leisure, and the framework of the side completed with "filling-in" studs, set at a suitable distance for nailing the laths in- side, and the clapboards or other covering outside. (Fig. 101.) The principle of the balloon frame is totally different, and although it may be, as is claimed for it, more philosophical, it is far inferior to the braced frame in many important respects. If balloon framing were specified for our building, the next step after setting the corner posts would be to secure them temporarily in place by means of "stay-laths," or pieces of board nailed diagonally to post and sill. The "filling-in" Frames Flg * I0 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 127 7 JJ II studs would then be set all around the building, each stud in this stystem extending the whole height from sill to plate. The best carpenters mortise the feet of the studs into the sill, but this is frequently omitted, nails being simply driven diagonally through. No at- tempt is made to cut the pieces to the right length, and their upper ends present for a time an appearance like Figure 102. To straighten them boards are temporarily nailed on outside, and more "stay-laths" brace the studs inward to the floor. As soon Fig. 101 as the building is so far advanced as to admit of climbing safely to the top of the studs, a line is marked with a chalked string at the proper height for the underside of the plate, and the studs are cut off at that level. If any prove too short, an additional piece is set on top, and "fished" by nailing a bit of board on each side. (Fig. 103.) When all are brought to the line, a 2" X 4" or 2" X 6" timber of random length is laid on top, and spikes driven through it into the top of each stud. Other similar sticks are laid in the same manner until the circuit of the building is completed, when a sec- ond row is laid on top of the first, breaking joint with them, and overlapping at the angles. (Fig. 104.) This operation brings the studs to a vertical and parallel position, but provision is needed for sup- porting the floor-beams. As be- fore, no notching or mortising is done before setting up the frame, but when all the studs are in place, the chalked string is again brought into requisition to mark I02 128 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE upon them two lines, 4 inches apart, at such a height that the upper one will be an inch above the proposed level of the underside of the floor beams. Each stud is then notched one inch deep between the lines, and a "ledger-board" or "false girt/' consisting of a strip of board an inch thick and 4 inches wide, is inserted and nailed in place. (Fig. 105.) This gives a support which is strong enough for the work required of it, but excessively slender in ap- pearance, and liable, if fire should get Fig. 103 into the spaces between the studs, to Fi s- I0 4 be quickly burned off, perhaps letting the floors fall. The bracing of the angles, which forms an important part of the old-fashioned framing, is entirely omitted by most carpenters in setting balloon frames, so that nothing but the resistance of a few nails prevents the building, as the outside boarding shrinks, from leaning gradually in one direction or another, according to the prevailing winds. (Fig. 106.) This may, however, be pre- vented by what is called long bracing (Fig. 107), 19 consisting of stout strips set flatways their whole depth into notches cut in the studs to receive them. The notches are made either on the outside or inside of the studs, but better bracing can be had by placing them outside. A spike is driven through the braces into each stud, and the angles are thus very ,*ji strongly tied, but at the expense of strength in the vertical studding. " Bl "" By these very different modes the balloon a Fig. 105 Fi *' Io6 and the braced framing accomplish the same result, the construc- tion of a timber skeleton bounded by sill, plate and corner posts, and included, with all bracings, tenons and fastenings, between BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 129 two planes, 4 or 5 inches apart, as the case may be, so that laths can be nailed uniformly all over the inner surface, and boards over the outside. All the subsequent steps, until the completion of the building, are the same for either mode of construction. The de- sign of the edifice is, however, somewhat dependent upon the mode employed. In both cases, heavy studs are used to form the sides of window and door openings, in order to give rigid support to the casings, and, as in balloon framing all the studs, large and small, extend the whole height of the building, it is quite desirable to place the windows in the different stories vertically over each other, so that one pair of "window studs" may serve for two open- ings; and any variation from this direct superposition involves expense or weakening of the por- tion of the structure involved. With a braced frame, the main posts only extend to the plate, all the filling-in studs, large and small, terminating at the girts; so that the studding of one story is completely independent of that above or below; an important consideration where any pictur- esque irregularity of fenestration is to be attempted. As soon as the studding of Fi S- I0 7 the walls is in place, the outside boarding is begun. Hemlock or inferior spruce is used for this purpose, and no great care is taken to lay the joints close, but the boards must be mill-planed on one side to reduce them to an even thick- ness, or the subsequent shingling or clapboards will not lie evenly. While this is going on, the beams of the second floor are to be set. As it rarely happens that the beams extend in one span from the girts in one wall to those opposite, an intermediate support must be provided for them, consisting generally of the head of some interior partition, on which their inner ends are notched or "sized" down, just as their outer ends are upon the dropped girts. As the 3" X3" or 3" X 4" piece which forms the partition-head is capable of withstanding a considerable cross-strain, it is unnecessary to set 9 130 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE all the studs under it at first, and isolated ones are usually put in, some 3 or 4 feet apart, in order to allow free passing between them. The second-floor beams can then be immediately laid in place, and another partition in the story above, set in the same way, serves for supporting the third floor. The notching or "sizing" of all beams upon their horizontal supports is made necessary by their inequality in size. Ordinary ,...-...0.....|...|,..- |...y..|.. timbers often vary one-fourth to T- I I I I 1~4 I 1-* one-half an inch from their speci- * * fied dimensions, but by notching Flg * them to a uniform distance from the top, they will, when laid in place, have their upper sides level ready to receive the floor. (Fig. 108.) The undersides will be uneven, but the subsequent cross-furring will conceal this. It is very common, but not judicious, to set the studs of all interior partitions either on the under-floor or on a horizontal piece resting upon the beams. If the inner ends of a tier How to Provide o f floor-beams are supported, as is usually the case, against Unequal, . . ,. - j.t_ t A i Settlement by a partition extending from the basement, these ends will be subject to a settlement equivalent to the sum of the shrinkage of all the horizontal pieces interposed be- tween the underside of the beams in question and the immovable supports at the bottom of the partition ; in this instance, the brick piers in the basement. If the partition studs stand on the beams, with a 2" X 4" "sole" interposed, a partition extending from the cellar piers to the floor of the third story will be interrupted by the basement girder, first-story beams, sole of partition, cap of the same, second-story beams, and another sole and cap ; in all, from 30 to 40 inches of horizontal timber, the shrinkage of which in such a position would be from one to two inches. The outer ends of the same third-story beams will rest upon the framing of the outside wall, which would with a balloon frame, in which the studs are continuous, present only a six-inch sill and one four-inch led- ger-board of shrinkable timber between them and the immovable basement wall. The shrinkage of this 10 inches of horizontal wood would amount to less than half an inch, so that when the wood-work became fully dried, which in our furnace-heated houses is in a year or two, the inner ends of the third-story beams would BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE be an inch to an inch and a half below their outer ends. Such a difference in level is quite sufficient to cause cracking of the plas- tered walls in the second and third stories, and to distort the open- ings in the cross partitions (Fig. 109), so as to make the doors fit badly, and "bind," or require to be trimmed, or the hinges "set up" to adapt them to the altered shape. These phenomena, which every one has observed in city as well as country houses, depend solely upon the unequal shrinkage and consequent settlement of the two vertical structures by which the opposite ends of the beams are supported, and can be avoided by any device which shall make the settlement the same at both ends. In wooden houses this may be approximately accom- plished by setting the studs, not on the floor or on the beams, but between the latter and on the same support, so that the beams cease to form a part of the vertical frame. The studs of the first-story partitions will then stand on the girders, extending thence to the underside of the sec- Fi s- I0 9 ond-story beams which rest upon their cap. The studs of the second-story partitions again, instead of standing on the floor, or on a sole-piece, will extend down between the beams to the cap of the first-story partition (Fig. no). By this arrangement there will be, supposing the height of the girder to be 10 inches, and that of the partition caps 3 inches, 16 inches only of shrinkable wood in the partitions between the basement piers and settlement the underside of the third-story beams, and the differ- in Balloon ence of level after drying between their inner and Frames their outer ends, supposing these to be supported by balloon frame, would be about y% of an inch instead of three or four times that amount, as in the case previously described. It is desirable to avoid even this inequality, if possible, and as it is evidently impracticable to diminish the amount of horizontal timber, and consequent settlement, in the interior partitions, it will 132 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE be advantageous to increase that in the outer walls. As the height of the sill is fixed, the aggregate shrinkage can only be increased by adding to the width of the horizontal timbers on which the upper beams rest. With a balloon frame nothing can be gained in this way, since the ledger-board must be nailed to the studs, and the free portion be- tween the nails and the upper edge of the ;~v board is alone capable of affecting the beams Fig. no by its shrinkage; and with such frames an unequal settlement is practically inevitable. The braced frame Settlement however, sustains the beams upon a wide girt, resting in Braced on the corner posts by its lower edge, so that the whole effect of the shrinkage tends to make the upper edge descend, and with it the beams which may rest upon it. A braced frame, therefore, with a six-inch sill and a ten-inch dropped-girt, upon which the beams of the third story are "sized" down in the same manner as on the partition-heads supporting their other ends, will give sixteen inches in vertical height of shrinkable timber, and, supposing the girders and partition-heads to be as before, the settlement at both ends of the beams will be the same, and the floor will remain perfectly level, the door-frames square, and the plaster probably unbroken, for an indefinite period. The partitions which extend from the first floor through two or more stories, even though no beams rest upon them, as in the case of those running parallel with the beams, should be set in the same way, the studs in the upper story resting on the cap of the partition below ; not for the sake of lessening the shrinkage, which would in this case do no harm, but to relieve the i floor-beams from the weight of the partition by making the support continuous from the base- ment girder upward; and partitions enclosing stairs should be similarly constructed. Besides these, there will usually be some partitions, especially in the second Fig. in story, which have no corresponding partition below. These must be supported on the beams. The simplest way of setting them is to lay the sole directly upon the under-flooring, where its position can be accurately marked ; and the sole may with advantage BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 133 or 5^4 inches wide, so as to project beyond the stud on each side by an amount equal to the thickness of the plastering. In the subsequent finishing this projection will be of great service for keeping the base-boards firmly in their proper position, and for nailing them at the lower edge if required (Fig. in). Where the partition runs parallel with the beams, it is common to provide in the framing plans for a timber of extra size, or two timbers spiked to- gether, under it, to give the extra support required. A better way is to set two beams equidistant from the centre line of the partition, seven or eight inches apart from centres, instead of close together Flg * II2 (Fig. 112). The same strength will be obtained, and there will be opportunity for a solid nailing at the ends of the floor-boards that abut against the partition, which cannot be had by the other method (Fig. 113). For the same rea- son, the framing-plans should always show a beam placed close against outer walls and partitions extending from below. A floor where the ends of the boards, for want of these precautions, are secured only to the thin under-flooring soon acquires an uneven and slovenly look. The first studs of the partitions are usually set, and the floors bridged, before the roof is begun. In the short spans usual in country houses, this construction is a matter of little difficulty. Where support is needed, it is generally obtained by carrying up the partitions which extend from the firm foundation in the basement, and heavy trusses and pur- lins a.re rarely necessary, the weight being equally distributed over all the rafters, Fig. 113 Hi which may be tied with "collars" of plank where required. At the same time, the form of such roofs is often very complex, and the framing-plans should be carefully and clearly drawn. Every ridge, valley and hip must be marked in plain letters, and the lengths of hip, valley, common and jack Roofs BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE rafters should be calculated and written on the drawings. With- out these precautions, the architect is very likely, during the fram- ing, to find a hip substituted for a valley, or vice versa; and not infrequently, either by accident or design, the height of a pictur- esque roof will be materially lessened without consulting the designer, who does not discover until too late the reason why its appearance in execution is so disappointing. The covering-in of the building gives the signal for a multi- tude of minor operations, the principal among which is the con- struction of the chimneys, which should be commenced at the earliest practicable moment, in order to avoid delay in finishing the roof. The bricks furnished for this work should be rigidly inspected. As the chimneys in frame houses are usually plastered outside as fast as built, in order to lessen the danger of sparks passing through the joints of the masonry among the furrings, the opportunity for using soft, half-burnt bricks without detection is unusually favor- able, and the young architect should look sharply to see that none of that kind are allowed to be delivered on the ground. For the purpose of aiding the meaner builders to impose bad materials upon their employers, it is common at the brick-yards to denomi- nate the half-burnt material from the outside of the kilns "chim- ney brick," "pier brick," or "place brick." The name, however, does not change the quality, and any work containing bricks whose edges can be crumbled by the fingers should be pulled down at once, and rebuilt with better materials. Unless this is done, no reliance can be placed upon the masonry ; the piers are liable to be broken away and bend, and chimneys may crack open at any moment after being enclosed by furring. We suppose that the position and size of all the openings made in the floors for the passage of the chimneys have been carefully verified long before. It not, this should be done without delay. Masons rarely think of questioning the accuracy of the carpenter's work, and whenever they find an opening framed, they suspend plumb-lines from its four corners and commence laying bricks between them; and to the endless mistakes made by the inferior workmen who are employed in framing they add others of their own. One fertile source of errors is a want of some common BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 135 understanding in regard to the system of figuring plans. Most architects, unless very experienced, figure all horizontal dimen- sions in wooden buildings from the nearest surface of the studs ; thus, a fireplace in the middle of one side of a room 16' long in the clear would generally be figured as 8' i" from the inside of the studs to its centre. Nearly all framers, however, measure to the outside face of outside studding, although interior dimensions are taken to the nearest face ; and the workman will probably set his trimmer-beams, or lay out his chimeny, by measuring the figured distance on a ten-foot pole thrust between the studs against the outside boarding, the point thus falling four inches short of the place intended; and the mistake, if discovered, is very likely to be rectified by shifting the chimney over bodily, and resting it upon the trimmer-beam. It is safest in any case to figure the openings in floors two or three inches wider on the framing-plans than they are actually intended to be. This gives a little lee-way for contingencies, and it is always easy to fill out an excess of room by nailing pieces to the timbers, while the cutting away of beams to gain necessary space should be avoided. All flue-doors, ash-doors, stove-rings and ventilating registers should be marked on the plans, and inserted as the work goes on. If left for subsequent cutting they are sure to be forgotten. Rings for furnace smoke-pipes should never come within sixteen inches of the cellar ceiling. All flues must be closed at the bottom, and kept sep- arate to the top. Bad workmen g * II4 often leave them open at the bottom into the ash-pit, or, where two flues run side by side, omit the partition, or "with," in the lower part. In either case the draught is spoiled. The withs should be four inches thick, and at least once in every eight courses in ordinary chimneys they should be bonded by two bricks rough- ly mitred with the stretchers of the walls. (Fig. 114.) Without this precaution, which it is not easy to enforce, the with forms a mere tongue of superposed bricks, standing upright in the rect- angular shaft of the chimney, and held in place only by the feeble Flues [36 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE adhesion of the mortar, so that it not unfrequently loses its balance and bends over, stopping up the adjoining flue. Ties of tin or hoop-iron laid in the joints are sometimes used to sustain the withs, but the other bond is better, particularly in tall chimneys, where a thorough interlocking of the withs with the walls adds very greatly to the strength of the shaft. Stacks of irregular plan (Fig. 115), can be better bonded than those of the common form, and are much stronger. If carried up smooth and nearly straight, without twisting or constriction in any part, an 8" X 8" flue is ample for any stove or ordinary hot-air furnace, and is sufficient for an open fireplace of moderate size ; but the danger of some obstruction is so great that it is prudent to provide the latter with 8" X 12" flues where practicable. Fireplaces are usually roughly formed during the construction of the chimney, to be subsequently lined with soapstone or brick, but if the latter material is to be used, it is better to finish the whole at once and cover it up with boards to prevent injury dur- ing the progress of the work. FIg - " 5 By this method there will be no danger of settlements and open joints between the rough work 1 Fireplaces Chimney-Bars and the lining, through which sparks may reach the space behind the furrings. Wrought-iron chimney- bars must be used to support the brick-work above each fireplace opening. Two inches by half an inch is the usual size, and two bars should be used. The whole support should be given by the bars, without any assistancef rom arches, which are liable to spread and split the masonry. The depth and form of fireplaces depend on the use to which they are to be put. Small hard-coal grates are often set with only a four-inch recess in the masonry, the front of the grate projecting three or four inches beyond the face of the wall, and work very well so if the draught BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 137 is good, but eight inches is better, and soft coal or wood need at least twelve inches depth. The "splay" or bevel to be given to the sides should conform to that of the grate, if one is to be subse- quently inserted, and as they are made with various angles, the Fig. 116 choice should be made before the fireplace is begun. If this has not been done, a splay of seven and a half in twelve does very well, and will fit many grates. (Fig. 116.) In verti- cal section, the back of the fireplace should be built up plumb about six courses, and then in- clined forward, making the throat of the chimney about two inches wide (Fig. 117), finishing with a level surface, of cut bricks, about six inches above the line of the chimney bars. By this narrowing of the throat the hot gases are concen- trated and the draught much improved, while the level surface at the foot of the flue checks and repels any downward current, in- stead of deflecting it forward into the room. In laying out the fireplaces, it should not be forgotten that they must project from the general surface of the chimney at least as far as the line of the plastering. If the chimney is furred with 2" X 4" studs, set flat- ways, and one inch clear of the masonry, and then lathed and plastered, the plaster surface will be four inches in front of the brickwork (Fig. 118), and if the facings of the fireplace are ZI 7 brought out to this point, a mantel which is flat on the back can be used. Most marble mantels, however, and some wooden ones, are constructed to allow of a further projection of four inches beyond the plaster line (Fig. 1 19), so that a choice should be made BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE as early as possible. The superintendent must watch the con- struction of the flues assiduously, as the only means of making sure that they are smooth and uniform in size. Whether they shall be "pargeted," or plastered inside with mortar, depends upon Fig. 119 I circumstances as well as on local custom. There is some danger that the pargeting may scale off and fall into the flue, dragging with it the mortar from the joints of the brickwork, so as to open a passage for sparks, and for this reason the practice is forbidden in some places, but if the mortar contains, as is advisable, half as much cement as lime, and the brickwork is kept wet, pargeting may be safely used, and certainly assists in giving smoothness and continuity of surface to the flue. In regard to plastering the outside of the chimney, there is no difference of opinion, and where it is to be subsequently concealed by furring, the superintendent must in- sist upon its being thoroughly covered from the basement floor to the under- side of the roof boarding. The "topping out" of the chimney, above the roof, should be done with mortar containing equal parts of lime and cement. Unless thus made water- proof, every rain will saturate the mor- tar, dissolving and loosening it until the V whole stack begins to lean toward the windward side, and then speedily, de- cays. For the same reason the four upper courses should be laid in clear Fig. 120 cement, unless a stone or iron cap is used. Nothing else will long withstand the disintegrating action of rain, added to that of the acid vapors from the burning fuel. No overhanging projection in the shape of a base should be al- lowed where the chimney leaves the roof. ( (Fig. 120.) In the BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 139 inevitable settlement of the whole stack the upper portion will be caught upon the rafters, and, the remainder sinking away from it, a dangerous seam will be opened just above the boarding. Even before the chimneys are started, the cross- furring of the ceilings will begin. For this planed strips are used 12 inches apart from centres, two inches wide, and % or ij4 Furrin inches thick, the latter for three coat plastering. It is of great importance to get these truly level, to prevent inequal- ities in the finished ceiling. Ordinary carpenters try the strips with a straight edge as they nail them to the beams, hacking away a little from one beam and filling up a deficiency in another by means of a chip, until an approximately even surface is obtained ; but a much better way is to notch all the beams for the furring strips before putting them on, gauging from the upper side in the same way as in sizing upon the partition boards or girts. After cross-furring, the setting of the partitions is finished, those that need it are trussed, so as to throw the weight upon firm points of support, and small trusses are put over all openings in the partitions. The trussing of partitions should be studied beforehand, and indicated on the framing plans, so that doors can be arranged without cutting off the braces. Trusses over openings should be framed like Figure 121. The dimensions and position of all the doors and partitions should now be thoroughly verified. No dependence whatever can be placed on the care of workmen in these respects, and the proportions of the plan are very likely to be hopelessly mangled unless a rigid watch is kept. The door openings must be framed about 5 inches wider and two inches higher than the finished door, to allow of proper blocking ; and the distance from the angles of the room to the openings must be verified to insure symmetry, if that is in- tended ; and sufficient space should be allowed for the architraves. After all is made correct, the partitions may be bridged. This is often done by nailing in short horizontal pieces between the Fig. 121 140 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE Partftions ^ Fig. 122 studs, a process which has its use, but is valueless for the present purpose. The proper way is to cut in diagonal pieces (Fig. 122), reversing the direction of the pieces in each row. The ^ na ^ P erat i n will be to try the partitions on each side with a straight edge, and correct the crooked studs by sawing half through them on the concave side, forcing them into place, and driving wedges into the incision. The chim- neys are next enclosed with furring, consisting of a cage of studs, supported by posts at the angles of the breast. These furrings should be measured to see that they are accurately placed in the room, that they are of the proper dimen- sions, and that the fireplace comes accurately in the middle of them; such details being little regarded by the average f ramer. Nothing now remains but the fixing of the grounds to prepare the inside of the house for lathing and plastering. Meanwhile, however, various other mechanics have been busy inside the building, and the work of finishing the outside has gone continuously on. Every hot-air pipe, gas, drain and water-pipe, bell-tube, speaking-tube and elec- tric wire which is not intended to appear outside the plastering must be fixed in place during the short interval which elapses between the completion of the studding and the commencement of the lathing. If the plans are prepared with any care, the position and size of all hot-air pipes will be indicated on them, but so much thought is required in arranging them to the best advantage that the superintendent should study the plans for himself, in season to suggest changes if circumstances render them desirable. The proper size of the pipes depends upon the form of heating- apparatus employed, and this should therefore be selected as early as possible. Most persons make contracts for furnace, pipes and registers complete, but if the pipes are put in separately it must be remembered that heaters with small radiating surface, like most of the wrought-iron furnaces, deliver air at a very high temperature, but can deal only with a small current, and therefore work better with few and small pipes and registers, while the best cast-iron furnaces, as well as a few forms in wrought-iron, and all indirect Hot-Air Pipes BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE ! 4 ! steam and hot-water heating apparatus, possess a large radiating surface, and therefore warm a much greater volume of air in a given time, but to a lower temperature, so that larger pipes are necessary to convey an adequate supply of heat to the rooms. As the only fresh air supply in winter is derived from the registers, it follows that better ventilation is obtained by the introduction of a copious, but moderately warm current than from a small admix- ture of very hot air, but the latter is the cheaper mode, in consump- tion of coal as well as in the first cost of the apparatus. With heaters of large radiating surface, the pipes to the prin- cipal first-story rooms should not be less than 12 inches in diam- eter, and 9 or 10 inch pipes should supply the larger chambers ; but for those consisting of a mere cylinder of wrought or cast iron, 9-inch pipes are large enough for the ground-floor, and 6 or 7 inch for upper rooms. Inexperienced architects and house-owners often make the mistake of putting in too many pipes and registers. Every unnecessary one, by the leakage at the dampers and the chilling of the exposed pipe, interferes with the working of all the others, and many houses are almost uninhabitable in cold weather, with a register in every room, which would be quite comfortable with half the number judiciously arranged. Wherever possible, the hot-air pipes should run through closets or inferior rooms, exposed to view, but it is usually necessary to carry up some behind the furring of chimney-breasts, or even in partitions. This involves danger of fire, which must be guarded against. Where the pipes pass through the floors, a tin ring, flanged over floor and ceiling, is usually inserted, through which the hot-air pipe runs, leaving half an inch air-space all around ; and through the whole of its course, all wood-work exposed to the radiation from it should be covered with pieces of bright tin. Specifications for furnace-work generally require all wood within two inches of the pipe to be so protected, but this will rarely be done in contract work unless the supervision is very close. A much better way is to have all the pipes which are to be concealed behind wood-work made double, < space of half an inch or so being left between the outer and inner cylinders, through which air circulates freely. Where the pipes are carried up in partitions with- out such protection, heavy wire lath should replace wood over them. 142 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE Of the plumber's work, only a small part will generally need to be done before plastering. Although supply-pipes are now generally planned to run outside the walls, in positions Work Cr ' where they can be easily reached, iron waste and ven- tilation pipes are often best carried up in partitions, and these must be set in place in time to avoid subsequent cutting of the plaster, so that the plumber should be notified in season. Gas-piping must be all completed before the lathing can com- mence, and will need vigilant watching. Careless and stupid in regard to the work of others as plumbers are apt to Gas-Piping , & , _ e . r . be, the cheap gas-fitters far surpass them in capacity for botching their own work and destroying that of others. If the plan shows two or three rooms en suite, with a centre light in the ceiling of each, the workman will generally, if the superintend- ent is out of sight, proceed to take up a board through the middle of the floor above, and notch the entire tier of beams from one to six inches deep in the middle of their span, weakening the floor dangerously and irreparably ; or short cuts will be taken in a sim- ilar manner across girders, braces, or anything else that may hap- pen to be in the way. All good specifications stipulate that no beam shall be notched at a greater distance than two feet from the bearing, where the cutting down does not materially affect the strength, and that all centre-lights shall be supplied by branch pipes at the proper points, but irresponsible journeymen, unless watched, pay little regard to such documents. Care must also be taken to see that all pipes are laid with a continuous fall toward the meter, as otherwise they may be choked by liquid condensed from the gas ; and the position of all centre- lights and brackets should be verified. No pains will generally be taken to have them accurately placed, so long as they come within a few inches of their proper position, unless the men are' strictly looked after, and annoying difficulties are likely to be en- countered in consequence when the ceiling is decorated. The height of the bracket outlets from the floor will also generally be varied to save the workman the trouble of cutting his pipe, rather than with a view to their appearance or use. The proper height for bracket outlets in chambers is 4 feet 10 inches from the top of the under floor; in halls and first-story rooms, 5 feet 7 inches is BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE the rule. Mirror lights should have outlets 8 feet from the floor. Even if the outlets are properly placed, it is usually too much trouble for the workman to cut the nipples of the right length, or to make their direction normal to the surface from which they project, and consequently the fixtures, after the house is completed and paid for, will be found to take all sorts of unexpected angles with walls and ceilings, which can only be remedied by hanging the chandeliers with ball-and-socket joints, or bending the nipples, at the imminent risk of causing a bad leak. The proper time to make sure of this point is while the work is going on. A straight piece of pipe, a foot or more in length, and of the proper calibre, should be screwed upon each nipple, as soon as set, and carefully levelled and plumbed, and tested with a carpenter's square. If any deviation from the true position is observed, it should be rec- tified before the inspection of the pipes by the mercury gauge, so that any leaks caused by the correction may be detected. All bends, tees, and other fittings for gas-pipe under two inches in diameter should be specified to be of malleable iron, which admits of a little bending, and this is often the easiest way to bring the pipes back to place. The nipples, or short pieces of pipe which project through the plastering and receive the fixtures, should all be cut to the right length, so that they may project not more than Ij4 or l ess th an Z A f an mc h beyond the finished plastering, al- lowing for the projection of the "bud," or middle portion of the plaster centre-piece. It saves trouble to the gas-fitter, to util- ize waste bits of miscellaneous lengths for the purpose, so that it is generally necessary, after the house is done, to dig some of the nipples out of the plaster in which they are buried, and to replace others of inordinate length by pieces of proper size ; at the risk in both cases of detaching the centre-pieces or causing leaks within the walls or ceilings. After the pipes are all in place, their whole extent should be examined, to make sure that no split or defective pipe, made tem- porarily tight with putty or red lead, forms a portion of the sys- tem. This once ascertained, the caps are to be screwed on, and the pipes inspected by the mercury gauge, which will always be done on a request left at the office of the company which will sup- 144 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE ply gas to the house. To one of the outlets is attached a manome- ter tube, or inverted siphon, with the short leg closed, filled with mercury. Air is then pumped into the pipes until the mercury stands at a given height in the tube, and the whole left over night. The next morning, if the mercury column remains at the same height, the piping is pronounced tight. The superintendent should witness this process, and satisfy himself of the result, instead of taking the word of the gas-fitter in regard to it. The wires for electric lights, if any are used, must also be put in place before lathing. In country houses, where economy is necessary, it is usual to employ wires heavily insulated w?ring C w ^^ India-rubber or gutta-percha, covered with black or white cotton, braided on, and to run these in floors and partitions without other protection, simply boring the floor- beams, and inserting short porcelain tubes, where the wires pass through them. If carefully done, and if the wires are of the sizes specified in the official schedule for the number of lights supplied by each, this system is sufficiently safe for the purpose, but care should be taken to see that the wires in floors and partitions are kept everywhere at least three inches apart, so that there may be no danger of short-circuiting between them; that they are not allowed to sag, so as to come in contact with the plastering, and that the insulation is not injured. Where joints are made, the insulation must be cut off, so as to expose the wires for soldering, but the joint must then be well wrapped with insulating tape. At the fixtures the wires must, of course, be brought nearly together ; but the fixture wires carry only a small current, and are easily inspected, while a short-circuit between them, or between one of them and a gas or other pipe, is much less dangerous than one occurring in a floor or partition. Where a thoroughly good construction can be afforded, all the electric lighting wires should run in conduits. A Conduits heavy braided conduit, saturated with asphalt, is much used, the wires being slipped through it before laying; but in a large building, or where the conduits are liable to injury from any cause, they should be of wrought iron, screwed together like gas- pipes, and arranged with easy curves, so that the wires can be "drawn in" after the conduit system is completed. The iron pipes BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE used for the purpose are usually lined with an insulating coating, and the wires in them are also insulated, so that they afford a very perfect and durable protection ; and, by arranging them so that the wires can be drawn in, repairs to the wiring are easily made, without cutting floors or breaking into the plastering. With the iron conduits cast iron "junction-boxes" and other fittings must be used, so that the installation is a rather expensive one. In order to prevent trouble from induced currents in metal tubes, it is usual to require that wires run in them shall be "twins," con- sisting of two or more insulated wires of opposite polarity, en- closed in the same covering ; and the local Boards of Underwriters establish, from time to time, rules for this and other systems of wiring, which must be complied with in order to secure approval of the wiring by the official inspector. Occasionally, an owner is found who prefers the old-fashioned system of wiring for bells, running plain wires, and changing their direction by means of brass "cranks." If this is used, the wires should run in zinc tubes, either buried in the plastering, or, better, carried between studs and beams. Such bell-wires, however, stretch and break, in time, unless very care- fully put in, and electric bells, for which insulated copper wires, simply fixed to the studs or beams by staples, are used, are gen- erally preferred. Whichever style is adopted, the position of the bells, and pulls, or buttons, should be shown on the plans, or care-, fully marked by the superintendent, with reference to the furni- ture which will occupy the rooms. Nothing, in a layman's eyes, does more discredit to an architect than to find gas or electric- light outlets situated behind doors, or bells so placed that a bed or dressing-case must inevitably come in front of them. With the bell-wires may be placed those for burglar alarms, or electric gas-lighting. Both of these conveniences need careful installation, or they will soon become useless. In city houses, especially, the thinly-insulated wires used for bells, burglar alarms and gas-lighting, if placed against outside walls, are often affected by the dampness of the wall in rainy or cold weather. While these operations are going on inside, the outside finish has been rapidly advancing, so that the whole building may be, so far as possible, tight against rain by the time the interior is given 10 Gutters Shingles I4 6 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE up to the plasterers. The gutters are first put on, and the shing- ling or slating, beginning at the eaves, is carried to the top. Care should be taken that the gutter is so placed as to catch rainwater, but allow snow to slide over it. (Fig. 123. ) Young architects often find their detail drawings for cornices defective in this particular. For additional protection against snow-water backing up under the shingles, or the overflow of the gutter dribbling through behind the cornice, the gutter should be ploughed at top and bottom, and "facias" inserted as shown in the figure. The shingling or slating begins with a dou- ble course, and the gauge is then marked off regularly to the top. Ordinary shingles, sixteen inches long, should not show more than four and a half inches to the weather, unless on very steep roofs. The thick Michigan pine shingles, eighteen and twenty inches long, can be laid with much more projection with- out fear of breaking or curling. Each must be nailed with two nails, which should be galvanized if a very permanent roof is de- sired. Common nails rust out long before good shingles, well painted, become unserviceable. It is easy to judge of the qual- ity of shingles. Freedom from knots and cross grain, and an ap- proximation to uniform width, are the principal requisites. Spruce shingles, which are unfit to use in any but inferior buildings, are easily distinguished by their ap- pearance and smell, which differ completely from the aromatic odor and silky grain of the "white cedar," or arbor-vitse wood, from which those in ordinary use are made. Pine shingles are of a special size, and those of the Virginia cypress, which have the reputation of being everlasting, are somewhat costly, and have but a limited market. The choice between sawed and shaved shingles depends upon circumstances. The latter allow water to run off more freely, and are to be preferred if unpainted, while the former hold paint better, and are therefore generally used by architects. Fig. 123 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 147 Painting Shingles In laying, the widest shingles are selected for the hips and valleys, where cutting is necessary, in order to give room for two nails. (Fig. 124.) Many of the best car- penters lay hips like Fig. 125, so that the cut shingle will not come at the extreme edge, and the effect is picturesque, while the durability of the roof is improved. Fig. 124 The painting of a shingle roof is impor- tant. Many architects specify that each shingle shall be dipped in paint, some even requiring the paint to be hot ; but this is tedious and expensive. A simpler and very good way is to paint each course as it is laid ; and the cheap- est is to do it all at once after the roofers are out of the way. The last process rather hastens the de- cay of the shingles, by forming little dams of paint which hold back the rain-water against the un- protected portions, but is usually adopted. Where shingles are to be used, the roof boarding is generally of hemlock or inferior spruce, planed Fig. 125 Slating to an even thickness, and one or two "plies" of tarred felt are laid under the shingles, to prevent fine snow in heavy storms from finding its way into the rooms. With slates still greater precau- tion is necessary, and the tarred felt should not only be double, with all joints well broken, but matched pine boards should be used underneath. The "lap" of the slates will vary according to the size. Ten inches by twenty, or eight by sixteen, are generally used, and for the best work should be laid with "three-inch lap" ; that is, each slate should lap three inches beyond the head of the second slate below (Fig. 126), and the length of the exposed portion will be found by deducting the lap from the whole length of the slate, and dividing the remainder by two. Two inches lap, is however, common. The slates should be put on with galvanized nails, not driven too hard, for fear of breaking them, nor too little, lest they should rattle and blow off in high winds, and the cut slates at the hips should be watched to 148 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE see that they are not hung by one nail. Patent slating nails, which have a circle of japanned tin around the head, are useful. The flash- ings should be last looked after, and the roof will then be complete. If the young architect is ambitious of being able to say that no roof built under his superintendence ever leaked, he will need to exercise both thoroughness in inspection and skill Leaks in Roofs . .,. . . . ,. in providing for various contingencies. The worst leaks come from improper position of the gutters, by which wet snow sliding from the roof is caught and held back. It soon freezes to the roof along the lower edge, the upper portion remaining free, and the water subsequently running down the slope is caught as in a long, deep pocket, in which it rises rapidly until its level reaches that of the upper edge of a course of slates or shingles, Fig. 126 over which it pours in a sheet, to find its way into the rooms below. Next to this defect insufficient flashing in valleys is perhaps the worst. As metal is expensive, the roofer's interest is to save as much of it as possible, and the superintendent must consider the circumstances of pitch and extent of roof sur- face draining into the valley, and the slope of the valley itself, which should determine the depth which the water will probably attain in it. In certain cases, where the roofs are large, this may be a dozen inches or more in summer showers, and the only security is to make the valley flashings of corresponding size. A very common place for a small leak is around the chimneys, where rain or snow often blow through between the bricks and the flaps of a "stepped flashing." The rem- edy is a liberal application of elastic or "Bos- ton" cement between the brickwork and the metal. The same cement is also needed to prevent water from getting in at the angle of a hip in a slated roof, unless the hip is pro- Fig. 127 tected by flashings (See Part I, page 78). This should always be the case where a permanent construction is intended, since the cement soon "burns out" and crumbles by the heat of the sun on the slates. Shingles fit much more closely, and will generally make a tight hip without cement or metal. BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 149 While the roofers are at work, the window frames are being rapidly set in place. These, in wooden houses, are mere fronts, in plan like Fig. 127, A being the "pulley-style," grooved for the parting-bead, while B is the outside Frames' casing. When this is put in place and nailed to the rough boarding, the space X, between the pulley-style and the stud, forms the pocket for the weights. The casing B is often moulded or ornamented. If plain, it should be i *4 inches thick, to prevent curling under the heat of the sun. Its inner edge, projecting half an inch beyond the face of the pul- ley-style, is usually made to form one side of the channel in which the upper sash slides, but it is much better to increase the depth of the reveal by inserting a slip C, some five-eighths or three-quarters of an inch wide, changing the position of the parting- bead to -correspond. I28 Fi s- I2 9 Independent of the improved appearance of such a frame, room is thus given for mosquito-nets and blinds. The shingles or clapboards are laid close up to the other edge of the casing, but when this shrinks a vertical opening is left, through which rain penetrates, and tarred felt, or still better, strips of zinc, must be laid in behind the casing and the adjacent work. The junction of the clapboards or shingles with the top of the casings must also be protected. Some carpenters do this by tacking a strip of lead to the boards just over the cas- ing, and turning it down over the edge (Fig. 128), but it is neater and tighter to rebate the top of the casing (Fig. 129). If this is done, and the vertical sides of the casing are grooved into the head (Fig. 130), the sills set to a sharp pitch, one and a half inches or so, and grooved underneath for inserting the shingles or clapboards which come below them, the superintendent may be tolerably sure that his building will not show that most annoying of defects, leakage around the edges of the openings ; and the shingling or clapboard- ing may be commenced at once. Before this, however, the back-plastering, if any is specified, Fig. 130 I5 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE should have been completed, in order that its drying may be favored by the circulation of air through the open joints of the boarding; and notice must be given to the plasterers in ample season. The mode usually considered best is to nail pfastering fi^ ets to tne s ^ es f tne studs, and to lath on these, so that in theory a double air-space is formed by the out- side boarding, the sheet of back-plastering, and the inner plaster ; but in practice it is inconvenient to nail fillets in the narrow space between the ledger boards and the outer boarding of a balloon frame, or just above the dropped-girt of a braced frame, and still more so to nail laths to them, so that these spaces are usually neg- lected, and the wind which blows in under the clapboards and paper of even the best built house finds an issue at such points into the interior. The real object should be to spread a continuous sheet of mortar from sill to plate, and this can be much better accomplished by omitting the fillets, and nailing two lines of lath vertically on the inside of the outside boarding, between each pair of studs, then lathing horizontally on these, and plastering with a thick coat of mortar, well pressed on, so as to fill in between the laths and the boarding. By this method room is left for the mason to insert his trowel and hand behind the ledger-boards or flooring-strips, and reach every inch of space between the studs, closing it against the wind, if care is taken to bring the mortar well up on the studs, with almost the imperviousness of a solid brick wall. The meaner contractors, not in consequence of scientific deduc- tion, but from desire of gain, often caricature this mode, by lath- ing vertically directly on the boarding, without the interposition of the first laths, which are essential to give a key to the mortar, and prevent it from cracking off. Some even content themselves, if not observed, with simply spreading the mortar on the boards, without any lathing whatever. It stays in place just about long* enough for the contractor to get his pay. As soon as the back-plastering is done, it is usual in good houses to apply some precautions against the spread Fire-Stops - ,, j^T r j * of fire and the passage of rats and mice from room to room. In the cellar, the whole space between the beams, from the sill to the inner surface of the wall, should be filled in solid BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE with brick-work and mortar (Fig. 131), up to the under side of the floor-boards. This not only keeps out the cold wind which would otherwise blow freely through the chinks about the sill and the base-mouldings of the house, but renders it impossible for rats and mice to climb on top of the wall and gnaw their way through the floor above. If the cellar ceiling is not plastered, the space above the girders should be bricked up, for the same reason ; and in any case a brick partition, at least four inches thick, should be built, in mortar, on top of every girder, between the studs of the partition which rest on it, and on the heads of all partitions above which cross the beams, to a height of two or three inches above the floor. By this means the hollow spaces between the ceilings and floors are divided up into compartments, effectually cutting off the circulation of cold air through the floors which is so much to be feared in country houses, while fire is prevented from spread- ing laterally between the beams. It is very desirable also to fill in with brickbats and mortar between the studs of all partitions, at about half the height of the room. This "fire-stop" belt may be laid on top of the bridging, and will check the upward course of fire, forcing it to burn out into the open room, where it will be discovered and means applied for extinguishing it. The principle should never be lost sight of, that the chief danger from fire in dwelling-houses comes from allowing it to find its way into the wooden tubes, lined with bristling splint- ers, nearly as inflammable as tinder, which are formed by the interior surfaces of the laths, studs, beams and flooring-boards. In these the flames creep, undiscovered and inaccessible, through and through a house in which no device is adopted for intercept- ing the communication between such air-spaces, until they gain strength enough to burst out fiercely in a dozen places at once, and the building, already permeated in all directions by the fire, is quickly destroyed. To carry out the system of protection with any thoroughness, the spaces between the outside studs must also be divided into sec- tions by incombustible material. With braced frames this can BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE very well be done by means of brickwork laid upon the girts, but for balloon frames it is necessary to nail in short pieces of timber between the studs at the level of the ledger boards, to build upon. A good body of masonry should also be formed on top of the plate, filling the whole space between the rafters to the under side of the roof-boards. This is an invaluable defense against cold air as well as fire, both of which usually find the cornice a very vulner- able feature. One other point remains to be guarded: the hollow space around the chimneys, behind the furring of the breasts. The easiest way of obtaining a partial protection is to lath and plaster the ceiling from the chimney outward as far as the breast will extend, before setting the furrings. A single rough coat only need be used, and it can be put on at the same time as the back- plastering, so as not to cause any delay. If stout iron lathing is used instead of the ordinary kind, and especially if the mortar is "gauged" with a liberal dose of plaster of Paris, a very efficient protection is obtained for the portion of the building most exposed to danger. Where the owner is disposed to incur a small extra expense for the sake of additional safety, iron lath will be found generally of great service. Only the heaviest kind should be used, as the numerous furrings necessary to secure the more flexible varieties detract very much from its value as a protection against fire. By applying it to the surface of chimney-breasts and the under side of the stairs, great security is gained for the building, at a trifling expense, and it may be employed also in the ceilings and walls about furnaces and stoves. Where it is necessary, as it will some- times be, to carry hot-air pipes in partitions, the lathing over them should always be of iron, unless the pipes are made double, or a casing of bright tin put all around them on the wood-work and under the laths before plastering. By first nailing laths vertically on the studs, the iron can be brought to the same plane as the wooden laths on each side, and the plastering will form an unbro- ken surface. Even the cost of using iron lath throughout a dwelling-house is in many ways repaid. Its power of holding the mortar so firmly that no amount of force will detach it, to which, far more than to its incombustible material, it owes its efficiency BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE in resisting fire, is equally valuable in maintaining a perfect sur- face for walls and ceilings. Such plastering does not crack or sag ; no violence can shake it down, and the most prolonged water- soaking fails to detach it from the lathing. , Whether a larger or smaller number of 'J I ' . _ these precautions shall be adopted will de- pend on circumstances. If wooden laths are to be used for the plastering, the super- intendent should see that they have the requisite number of nailings, and are not placed too near together. Three-eighths of an inch is the proper distance : if nearer together the mortar will not be effectually pressed through the intervals, and its hold will be feeble : if farther apart, it will not, while soft, sustain its own weight. It is usual to specify that the joints shall be broken every six courses ; but it is much better and not much more troublesome to break joints at every course : and care should be taken that the laths above the door and window heads extend at least to the next stud beyond the jamb (Fig. 132), so as to prevent the radiating cracks which are apt to appear at that point. Where the men meet with a small space, whose long- est direction is perpendicular to that of the other lathing, they are apt to fill it up with laths set at right angles with the rest. (Fig. 133.) This should never be permitted, as cracks are sure to appear afterward where the change of direc- tion takes place. After the application of the laths, if not before, the furrings should be verified. The soffits of dormer windows, the under side of stairs, and all angles of walls and ceilings Should be carefully observed to see that their surfaces are plane. Chimney-breasts should be tried with a carpenter's square, to make sure that their external and internal angles are right angles, and the position of the chimney-breasts in the room should be finally examined. All laths which show knots, portions of bark or stains should be pulled off on the spot and thrown away, and their places supplied with I54 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE fresh ones, as such imperfections in the laths are liable to cause discoloration in the plaster over them ; and for the same reason all brickwork which is to be plastered should be cleared from soot, tobacco juice or soluble defilements. At least seven days before the lathing is finished all the mortar for the first coat of plastering should have been mixed and stacked ; if possible in some place outside the house, since the evaporation from so large a mass of wet material, if stored, as is often done, in the cellar, causes the timbers to swell through dampness. The lime must be of the best quality, free from every trace of under- burnt "core." If the lumps, on being covered with water, slake for a time with considerable violence, but leave a residue which must be crushed by the hoe, the whole should be rejected. Such lime, unless it can be stored long enough to insure this conversion of every portion not absolutely inert, will surely cause the plaster- ing made from it to blister and "chip-crack," sometimes after the lapse of months; and with the best lime it is unsafe to put the mortar on the wall until it has "cooled" for a week or more, to allow all the particles to become hydrated. The ancient method, by which the slaked lime was stored in pits and not drawn upon for use until after one or two years' seasoning, unfortunately has become obsolete. Loamy sand is nearly as much to be dreaded in plastering as underburnt lime. Some varieties contain particles of compact clay or soil which will, after a season's drying, assume a powdery condition, expanding as they do so, and throwing off the mortar in hundreds of little pits, like the scars of small-pox. Moistening the sand and rubbing it on the hands will usually give sufficient evidence of the presence of loam or clay by the stain which it leaves on the skin. After seeing that the mortar is well pushed through the laths with the trowels, so as to bend over on the inside, the straightness of the angles, both vertical and horizontal, between m9 walls and ceilings should be assiduously criticised. In twcKroat work, such as is used throughout the Eastern States for dwelling-houses of moderate cost, there is no op- portunity for bringing the surfaces to a true plane after the first coat is on, since the second or "skim coat" is a mere BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE varnish, less than l /% of an inch in thickness; and the plasterer must use his judgment in laying on just mortar enough to fill out to the line after it has been trowelled down enough to force it well through the laths. This can seldom be done with any accuracy over the larger surfaces, but by applying the long, thin-edged board which is used to finish against the angle beads as a ruler, any reasonably careful man can insure the straight- j r A -u j ^- t, i? u Straight-edge ness and accuracy of the corners, and this should be insisted upon, as the eye immediately detects any irregularity in the angle between walls, or between the wall and ceiling, while inequal- ities of the intermediate portions are unnoticed. .With three coats it is easy to obtain surfaces absolutely plane, by using the proper means. The scratch-coat is to be very Joat-Work strongly trowelled and well scratched up with a sort of comb, made of sharpened laths, nailed in a row on a stick. After this is thoroughly dry, "screeds" should, for a first-class job, be run all around the margin of the ceiling, con- ^ r . r r 11 j Scratch-Coat sistmg of strips of mortar, carefully put on, and brought to a perfectly plane and horizontal surface by means of the spirit level and a long straight edge, applied diagonally across the corners as well as along each strip. For a small screed ceiling this will be sufficient, but a large one requires intermediate screeds, brought accurately to the plane of the first ones. When the screeds have hardened a little, the space between them is filled with "brown" mortar, which is easily made perfectly even by means of the straight-edge. Similar screeds should be formed in the vertical angles of the room, plumbed, and the inter- mediate spaces filled up to a plane surface. If cornices are to be run, which is always done before the last coat of plastering, the angles should be as rough as possible, to give them sufficient "key." The superintendent should study the profile of the proposed mouldings, and if a large mass of mor- tar will be left in the angle, he should order nails to be driven to hold up the coarse mortar which is used for "dubbing out" the cornice before the finer material is applied. (Fig. 134.) Some care is necessary to see that the final coat of plastering is not in- jured by freezing in winter or by too rapid drying in summer. From the latter cause the finished work near the windows is often !c;6 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE found covered with a net-work of minute cracks, particularly on the side which the wind strikes, while a breeze barely at the freez- ing point will cover the surface with radi- ating crystals, disintegrating it so that on thawing again the mortar will scale off in patches. The remedy for this is to keep all openings protected by temporary windows, or screens, consisting of wooden frames covered with cotton cloth, well fitted to the openings. Whether the plasterer or the carpenter shall provide these screens or temporary win- dows depends on the terms of their respective specifications. Per- haps the best way is to require the carpenter to supply and fit them, and the plasterer to shift them in such a way as to secure his work against freezing or unequal drying. As soon as the plastering is completed, the plumber must be summoned to finish his work, so as not to delay the joinery. The pipes will be first put up, and the superintendent must thoroughly understand the purposes and requirements of each. Plumbing r* . t. tj t. r 11 ^- j Cast-iron pipes should be carefully scrutinized, espe- cially where cut or broken. The metal, unless double-thick pipes are specified, will be very light, and in the poorer makes it is apt from careless casting to be much thinner on one side than the other. If any particular kind is called for, or known to be good, the shape of the "hub" will serve to distinguish it, if the name of the maker is not cast upon the pieces. In some places iron pipes are coated with asphaltum at the factory, for the use of the best plumbers ; the inside as well as the outside being treated. Elsewhere, painting with red lead is customary; and this is generally confined to the outside, as the inside would soon lose its coating. The asphaltum forms the best covering, but whatever is used, the exterior of the pipes must be completely coated before they are brought to the building. The joints should be made with oakum, not paper or shavings, driven in tight, and finished with melted lead, which, after the pipes are fixed in posi- tion, is to be thoroughly calked all around. It is often much more convenient to calk the joint before securing the pipes in place; but the jarring so occasioned may loosen the lead, and where the joint will be accessible after fixing its completion should be deferred. BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE It must not be forgotten that the melted lead by itself will not make a tight joint, since the shrinkage of the metal in cooling draws it away from the iron, and it must be forced again into con- tact with the calking iron, applied at every point of the circumfer- ence. A first-class workman will use three or four pounds of lead for each joint, filling the hub completely, and showing the marks of the tool all around. Inferior plumbers leave a little space above the lead, which they afterwards fill up with putty, smoothing it neatly, and, if possible, getting a coat of paint over it before the superintendent comes. Such joints will pass the test, but are not durable if there has been any carelessness in calking the lead. In- tentional swindlers fill the joint with shavings, paper, mortar or anything else which happens to be at hand, and daub the top over with putty, or perhaps with a little lead, ladled out of the pot. Rust joints, of sal-ammoniac and iron turnings, are some- times, though rarely, used. They are said to be tight and durable, but likely, if unskilfully made, to burst the hub by the expansion of the mass. All iron pipe should be very strongly supported, by iron straps and hooks, never by wires. For high buildings, school houses, and other public structures, and dwelling houses of a certain class, there is nothing so good for waste-pipes as wrought-iron pipe, such as is used for convey- ing steam, put together with screw joints. After such joints are once made, the threads being coated with red lead, and well screwed together, there is no danger of their separating; and defects are less likely to occur in wrought iron pipes than in those of cast iron. Care should, however, be taken to see that the pipes and fittings are firmly screwed together, as inferior workmen often give the joints a few turns, and leave them in a most insecure condition. Lead pipes should be examined as delivered. The weight per foot, or the letters denoting the same thing, are stamped on the ends of the coils : after the lengths are cut off, it is more difficult to ascertain whether they comply in weight with the requirements of the specification. Most lead manufacturers furnish cards showing the thickness of metal corresponding to a given weight for each calibre, but the saw used to cut it spreads out the lead, increasing the apparent thickness. BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE In general, lead supply-pipes, unless for a tank or other very light pressure, should not be less than 3-16 of an inch in thickness of metal. Waste and air pipes will be little more than half of this. There is some difference in the quality of lead pipes, but it is not easy to detect it except by analysis or the test of use. Honey- combed or corroded pipe, and any which shows unequal thickness of metal should, however, be at once rejected. In certain localities the seamless brass tubing, drawn over a mandril in the same way as lead pipe, is much in favor for plumb- ing work, and where the pressure is very heavy or the water is so soft as to attack lead, it is well worth the additional cost, which is not usually more than ten to fifteen per cent, on the whole amount of the plumber's contract. It can be had either plain, or coated inside and outside with tin, or, for use in conspicuous situations, plated with nickel and polished; and couplings, unions, bends, tees, and all varieties of cocks and fittings are furnished to correspond with each kind of pipe. Where the brass tubing is employed throughout a house, it is common to have the cold-water supply tinned inside, while the hot-water, which is not likely to be used for drinking, is conveyed in the ordinary kind. If there is no danger that either brass or lead will be corroded by the water, it is not unusual in the best work to make the hot-water pipes only of brass, using lead for the others. In this case the harder metal possesses the advantage that if properly put up, with the angles left free to move a little back and forth to accommodate the expansion and contraction of the pipe between them, it is not injuriously affected by repeated alterna- tions of heat and cold, which with the inelastic and ductile lead first stretch the pipe by contraction, and then, as it does not possess elasticity enough to recover its shape, cause it, on being again extended by the passage of warm water through it, to sag down be- tween its supports, this effect increasing by repetitions of the cause until the undulations of the pipe become sufficiently pronounced to retard or stop altogether the flow of water through it. Where, however, the brass tubing is tightly confined at the ends of a long line, the joints and fittings often become strained and leaky by the contraction of the pipe in cold weather, since the very rigidity of the metal prevents it from accommodating itself, like ductile lead, BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE to the force exerted upon it ; so that it should be used intelligently to obtain the full benefit of its good qualities. One last precaution should be observed: at the completion of a piece of brass-pipe plumbing all exposed portions of the metal must be varnished with a good coat of shellac, or it will soon become corroded and unsight- ly. This may be made a portion of either of the plumber's or the painter's contract, but unless the duty is distinctly imposed upon one or the other, it will be neglected. Paint, which was once generally applied to both brass and lead pipes, is best omitted, un- less required for appearance, but it is now not uncommon to bronze both brass and lead pipes with silver or aluminum bronze, which retains its lustre a long time, and is easily renewed when necessary. In specifying brass pipes for plumbers' work, care should be taken to call for annealed tubing. Unless annealed, the brass tubes, which are formed under an enormous pressure, are subject to internal strains, which often cause them to split without warn- ing. It is best, also, to specify that the brass tubing shall be of "iron pipe sizes," the metal in pipes of this sort being much thicker than in the so-called "plumbers' tubing." As a cheap substitute for brass tubing, where there is reason to fear the corrosion of lead pipe from the softness of the water, or its bursting from the heavy pressure under which it is delivered, iron is often used, galvanized or enamelled in various ways. It may be obtained with a lining of pure block tin, forming a very strong and pure channel for water, and lead-lined iron pipe is sometimes used ; but the ordinary coat- ing is one of coal-tar or parafnne enamel, giving a shining black surface. Whatever may be the protecting medium employed, the unions, bends, and other fittings are treated with the same, and if well put together the water nowhere comes in contact with the metal. The galvanized or zinc-coated pipes are less expensive than those properly enamelled, and more durable, unless in acid waters. The same precautions against the straining of the joints which are necessary with brass pipes should be observed with those of iron. Moreover, iron being a very rapid conductor of heat, cold- water supply-pipes of that metal will in warm, sultry weather con- dense a great deal of water upon their surfaces, which trickles BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE down them and may in time cause serious injury to paper or other decorations beneath. Where there is any risk of this the pipes should be encased in a tubing- of zinc, which will catch Zinc Casings the condensed drops and conduct them to a place of safety. This is even done with lead and brass pipes in city work of the best character. Where costly decorations or papers are in danger of being injured by a possible leak, it is always advisable, and is generally required of the plumber by the best architects, to enclose all supply-pipes in zinc tubes, which will retain the jet from a lead pipe burst by freezing or water-hammer, or the drops of condensed water, and conduct them to a safe outlet. The course, joints and fastening of all the pipes, whatever their material, should be carefully observed, and the hand of a skilful and conscientious plumber will be more quickly recognized in this than in any other detail of the work. Such a man can always arrange his pipes so that they will fall naturally into their proper places, without that dodging over or under each other which characterizes the "botch's" work; his lines will be perfectly straight, and all hot-water pipes separated by a small distance from the cold, to avoid loss of heat from one to the other ; the supports will be neatly put up, at equal and small intervals, so that no sagging of the pipes will be possible between them ; and all will be laid with a continu- ous fall toward some faucet by means of which the water can be thoroughly drained from them. Boards should be put up by the carpenter, well secured to the walls or ceilings, wherever pipes are to run, and similar ones fitted in between the beams where it is necessary to conceal them between floor and ceiling. To these boards the pipes must be attached at intervals of about four feet where they run vertically, two feet where they follow the underside of a ceiling, and six or eight feet where they simply lie on a horizontal surface. Horizontal pipes should be secured by stout brass bands screwed to the boards ; and where several pipes run side by side, a first-rate plumber will sep- arate them far enough to allow screws to be put into the band between them. Vertical pipes, in order to prevent them from creeping downward by alternate expansion and contraction, must be fixed in place by hard-metal "tacks" soldered to the pipes and screwed to the boards. I BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE All joints in lead pipes should be "wiped joints." In old- fashioned plumbing waste-pipes were often connected by "cup- joints," but these are liable to separate, unless made with special care, and should not be accepted. Brass pipes should be put to- gether with red lead, and the cast brass fittings used with them should be examined for "sand-holes." If the workman shows a disposition to neglect any of these niceties of his art, he should be always under suspicion of greater errors, and should be watched to see that he does not fasten the pipes in out-of-the-way corners by means of hooks, or leave them suspended from a ceiling, or between beams, by attachments so far apart that alternate expansion and contraction will in time cause them to sag down, forming a hollow from which the water cannot be drawn off, so that the pipe is likely to burst there if the house should be left vacant in freezing weather. The opposite fault, of allowing the pipe to take an upward bend in any part of its course, is still more to be avoided. Such a bend, whether accidental or made by ignorant intention, soon becomes filled with the air always carried in bubbles through the water, forming an "air trap," which may stop the passage of water entirely unless relieved by opening the pipe at the highest point of the curve. The number and courses of all the pipes should be minutely described in the specification. If, however, no details are given, as sometimes happens, the superintendent will have a little diffi- culty in deciding upon the arrangement which he can require with justice both to the plumber and the owner. Much depends upon the custom of the locality, and something also upon the price for which the work is to be done. In Massachusetts or New York, for instance, under a mere agreement for a "first-class job," the plumber would be expected, without special orders, to provide stop-cocks in convenient positions for shutting off both hot and cold water from any part of the house at pleasure, and draining the pipes ; and in Massachusetts he should arrange a tank in the roof, itself supplied by a rising main and ball-cock from the regu- lar house service, to contain water for the copper bath-boiler, and carry up an "expansion pipe" from the highest part of the hot- water system to this tank, turning over the edge just above the water-line, so as to allow steam and froth to escape freely ; and in ii BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE any large city he would be expected to put separate traps under all fixtures, and provide air-pipes to the same, and to carry up such air-pipes, as well as the soil-pipes, above the roof ; and finally, to fit up separate cisterns over each water-closet, for their exclusive supply, with nickel-plated pipes to the closet and nickel-plated pipes where exposed in bath-rooms; and in all States or towns which have ordinances or statutes for the regulation of plumbing work, the provisions of the constituted authority must be taken, in the absence of specific details, as forming a part of the plumb- er's contract. In New York and elsewhere, outside of New England, it is customary to fit up bath-boilers without the tank in the upper story, with its rising main and expansion pipe; but in this case very strong boilers, usually of galvanized iron, are necessary. In general, it may be said that waste and supply pipes should, for any kind of apparatus, be large, to secure speedy filling and discharge, and that putty joints, rubber washers, and inaccessible floats, check-valves or other moving parts are to be avoided ; the ideal of every plumbing appliance being a solid porcelain basin, in one piece, supplied by a quick flow of water, and discharged by the simplest means, through the shortest possible waste-pipe, into a thoroughly aerated soil-pipe. At present, this ideal is far from being fully realized in any form of apparatus. The nearest ap- proach to it is, perhaps, the ordinary wash-basin, 8 supplied through half-inch basin-cocks, and drained through Ij4-inch pipe, with ij^-inch S-trap, ventilated by a pipe of equal calibre carried to a main air-pipe, with a simple plug and i 7 chain to close the outlet. Un- fortunately a basin must have an overflow, to prevent accidental flooding of the house, and the satisfactory arrangement of this overflow presents a problem Fig- 135 which has not yet been complete- ly solved. In ordinary wash- basins a conduit is formed in the porcelain (Fig. 135), communi- cating with the basin, near the top, by a cluster of holes, and lead- ing into the outlet. The soapy water which escapes through the BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE overflow in using the basin leaves a coating of slime, which accu- mulates in the inaccessible conduit, and decomposes, the odor from it escaping through the overflow strainer into the room. To remedy this, the opening from the overflow into the basin is often closed with a removable grating, which can be taken off, exposing an opening large enough to admit a brush, or sponge, attached to a wire. In an- other form of basin (Fig. 136) there is no overflow opening in the side, but the main waste opening, which is generally situated in a recess, spe- cially formed in the porcelain, in- Flgt I3 stead of being furnished with a plug, is closed by a tube, which stands upright in the basin. Evidently, if the water in the basin rises to the top of the tube, it will flow over the top, and thence down through the outlet ; or, by lifting the tube, all the water in the basin will escape beneath it. This tube, or "standing waste," can readily be cleaned, and is usually loosely attached, so that it can be lifted, or turned around, but cannot be carried away, and perhaps lost. Theoretically, the arrangement is good; but, in practice, the space between the standing-waste tube and the sides of the recess in the basin collects soapsuds, which cannot readily be removed, and float unpleasantly out into the basin the next time it is filled. In another form of basin (Fig. 137), the standing waste is removed to the outside of the porcelain, and is enclosed in a large tube, the water in which communicates with that in the basin, and stands at the same height. Although a cap is usu- ally provided, by removing which X 37 the overflow tubes may be cleaned, this is seldom done, and the tubes collect soapsuds and scum, which 1 return to the basin through the outlet when it is next used. Bath- tubs and pantry-sinks, both of which must have overflows, present BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE the same difficulties, which are treated in a similar manner. In general, however, among the innumerable forms of apparatus in the market, the simplest are the best. Nearly all plumbing appliances, including water-closets, wash- basins, baths, kitchen-sinks, pantry-sinks and wash-trays, can be had in solid earthenware or porcelain, or in enamelled iron, in various styles, and at different prices. The enamelling of iron is carried to great perfection, and goods of this sort nearly equal earthenware, at smaller cost. Where earthenware is used, par- ticularly in the case of water-closets, "vitreous china" should always be required, this being a hard, semi-vitrified material, much stronger and more durable than the ordinary glazed earthenware. For wash-trays and pantry-sinks, porcelain and enamelled iron have certain disadvantages. In the case of pantry-sinks, they are so -hard that the breakage of china in them, even where wire or wooden gratings are laid at the bottom, is perceptibly greater than with those made of sheet-metal, either tinned copper Fig. 138 or German silver; while porcelain wash-trays warp in burning, so that they do not fit closely to- gether, and the process of transferring wet clothes from one tray to another involves copious dripping on the floor bet\veen the trays, where, with a set of soapstone or slate trays, there is noth- ing of the kind to be feared. The enamelled iron wash-trays fit together more closely, and are usually provided with a brass strip to cover the' joint between them; but this does not wholly prevent .dripping, and with either porcelain or enamelled trays there is difficulty in attaching a wringer, unless special provision is made for it. Every basin, sink, wash-tray, water-closet and bath must have a trap on its waste-pipe, to prevent foul vapors from returning from the sewer into the rooms. The orig- inal form of trap, which is still among the best, being washed clean by the discharge through it, is the S-trap (Fig. 138), consisting of a piece of pipe, bent in the form of the letter S, usually with a Lr L Traps BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE brass screw set in at the bottom, for removing sediment. When a large quantity of water, however, is discharged through a trap of this form, so as to fill the outlet completely, the descending column leaves a vacuum behind it, which draws over the water in the trap, down to the line L-L, destroying its efficacy as a check to the ascent of foul air. To prevent this, an air-pipe, or "back- vent," must be carried from the crown of the trap, at V, to some main air-pipe, from which it can draw in air to fill the vacuum behind any descending column of water in the outlet pipe, without sucking out the trapping water. This back-vent pipe is required by law in all large cities. For baths, kitchen-sinks and pantry-sinks it is usual to employ, instead of the S-trap, a "round trap," consisting of a cylinder of lead, with an inlet at the bottom, and an outlet at the top, and a large brass trap-screw, usually four inches in diameter, through which the hand can be in- serted for cleaning the trap. (Fig. 139.) This trap screw may be in- serted either in the top or the side Fig. 139 of the trap, the advantage of placing it in the side being that the leather washer, which is needed for making it air tight, is kept wet and soft by the water in the trap. Theoretically, a round trap cannot be siphoned out by the discharge of the water through it, as the air drawn after a descending column of water in the outlet bubbles through the large mass of water in the trap, instead of pushing it before it; but, in practice, such traps become filled with grease and slime, leaving only a passage from the inlet to the outlet, so that they siphon in the same manner as an S-trap, and must be back- vented by air-pipes in the same way ; the only real advantage of the round trap being the ease with which it is cleaned. Shut-off cocks generally, and basin and bath-cocks in some old houses, are made with "ground plugs," which are simply tapering plugs of brass, ground with emery into a corresponding socket, and pierced with a hole. To the top of the plug is attached the handle of the cock, by means of which the plug can be turned, so that the hole through it coincides ii66 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE I 4 I with the bore of the cock, allowing water to flow through ; or the water may be cut off by turning the plug at right angles with its former position. Figs. 140 and 141 show the ordinary shape of ground-plug "bibb-cocks," and Figs. 142, 143, and 144, explain the action of the pierced plug. Such "ground cocks" have, however, the disadvan- tage that, when much used, particu- larly where the water contains par- ticles of fine sand, the plug and socket become worn, allowing water to pass even when the cock is closed ; while, if k8 left unused, the parts corrode and stick together ; so that, in modern work, they are rarely used except for shut-offs, their place being taken by "compression," or "screw-down" cocks, in which a brass spindle, armed with a leather or rub- ber washer, is brought down, either by a screw or a lever, upon the rim of an opening through which the water flows on its way to the outlet of the cock. (Fig. 145.) The advantage of this is that the washer, when it becomes so worn as to allow the cock to leak, can readily be replaced by another, the washer being usually secured to the end of the spindle merely by a screw. To meet the demand for novelties, an endless Ccks inatl n va e ty f compression cocks may be found in the mar- ket. In many cases, particularly for baths and basins, "combination cocks" are used, which have two handles, but only one outlet, through which the hot and cold water are intended to flow mixed. In the best combination cocks, where the two kinds of water are kept separate nearly to the outlet, they will mix satisfactorily ; but in many combination cocks, when used with hot water under tank pressure, and cold water direct from the main, as is usual in New England plumbing, the higher pressure of the cold water pushes Fig. 144 back the hot water, when both handles are opened, so that the two kinds can only be drawn alternately. As combining various properties of nearly all other plumbing Water Closets Short Hopper BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE fixtures, the water-closet requires special consideration. In gen- eral, all modern water-closets consist of an earthenware basin, in which a certain amount of water is kept standing, and from which the contents can be forced out into the drain, through some sort of trap, by a discharge of water which at the same time washes the sides of the basin. The simplest of these closets is the so-called "short hopper," consisting of an earthenware or vitreous china basin, which either has a trap formed of Fig. 145 earthenware in one piece with it, or stands upon a lead or iron trap, to which it is bolted (Figs. 146, 147). In either case, water stands in the basin to a height fixed by the bend of the trap. The upper edge of the basin is curled inward, leaving either a narrow crevice, or a row of holes, between it and the sides of the basin. The "flushing-rim" thus formed is connected with a water-supply of some sort, so that water can be discharged in a sheet around the basin, with suffi- cient force to wash the contents of the basin through the trap into the soil-pipe. In either form, this is a good and inexpensive closet, free from concealed cavities which may harbor filth. As it presents, however, in its ordinary form, only a circle of water at the bottom, about four inches in diameter, the sides of the basin are apt to become foul, and need occasional washing. To avoid this, a form of hopper is made which has a deeper trap, so that the water stands at a greater height in the basin, and presents a larger surface. This type is known as the "wash- down" closet, and combines the sanitary advantages of the short hopper with some of its own. It requires, however, a copious flush, an insufficient dasK of water failing to remove the contents of the basin. In order to meet this difficulty, as well as to lessen the noise Fig. 146 i68 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE Siphon Jet Closet Fig. 147 which attends the operation of all closets dependent on the force of the flush for their action, many closets have a small orifice contrived in the bottom, and separately connected w ^k tne flushing" su pply> so that, at the same moment that the sides of the basin are washed by the water admitted through the flushing-rim, a jet of water is thrown up- ward into the bottom of the basin, assisting to lift its contents out of the trap; and the outlet of the trap is usually slightly contracted, so that the water first thrown through it fills it completely (Fig. 148). As the mass of water descends, it, therefore, leaves a vacuum behind it in the pipe, and the air above the water standing in the basin, in endeavoring to reach and fill the vacuum, pushes before it the contents of the basin. The action of these "siphon-jet" closets is effective, and compara- tively quiet, and they are very popular. A different form, the "Dececo" closet (Fig. 149) obtains the siphonic action without the aid of a jet, by a sudden turn in the outlet from the trap, which checks the flow of the water for a moment, causing it to fill the pipe and produce a vacuum behind it, as in the previous case. For houses which are left to themselves during the winter, the ordi- nary siphon-jet closet has the disadvantage that the tube which conveys water to the jet formed in the porcelain remains partly full of water when that in the trap is sponged out, preparatory to leaving it for the winter ; and the freezing of the water in the jet ruins the closet. Some makers arrange a screw plug, which can be opened from the outside, for draining the jet-tube, and it can be protected by removing the water with a rag, or small sponge, tied Fig. 148 to a wire, or by filling it with salt ; but the usual practice of plumb- ers is to take up the closet altogether, and reverse it, a proceeding which is in some ways objectionable. In the Dececo closet, as in .j BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE Fig. 149 all of the hopper or wash-down type, there is no jet to clear out, and a simple sponging out of the trap, and plugging the outlet with paper, is all that is required to make it safe against freezing. Still another type of water- closet, which is rather going out of use, is the "wash-out" closet (Fig. 150), which has a trap separate from the basin, and usu- ally under it, the contents of the basin being washed by the flush out of it, and into the trap, through an opening either at the front or back, as the case may be. The basin of this closet contains a large, though shallow, body of water, and it is neat in appearance; but the contents of the basin, instead of closet*"* being removed with certainty beyond the trap as soon as they are discharged from the basin, may, if the flush is insuffi- cient, be carried only into the house side of the trap, there to float, and give off foul odors, which escape freely into the room, al- though their source is invisible. All forms of water-closet can now be obtained with a "local vent," consisting of a tube, from one and one-half ,. r Local Vent inches to four inches in diameter, extending from the upper part of the basin, just under the seat, far enough to enable a connection to be made with a ventilation flue. When a heated flue is accessible, it is desirable, even in a private house, to connect the local vent with it ; and in school-houses and public buildings it is essential to do so, and to provide means for securing a good draught in the flue. The weak point in most water- closets is their connection with the soil- pipe. The short hopper with lead trap Fig. 150 has the most secure arrangement, the trap being in "metallic con- nection" with the soil-pipe, and the joint between the earthenware basin and the lead trap being on the house side of the trap, besides BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE being readily accessible. Other closets, of various types, are made with brass sleeves, either burnt into the porcelain, or, more com- monly, bolted to it, which can be soldered to the lead pipe connect- ing with the soil pipe ; but with closets in which the trap is formed in the porcelain, in one piece with the basin, the ordinary way of making connection with the soil-pipe is to caulk into the branch of the latter, by means of a brass sleeve, a lead pipe, which is brought up through a hole in the floor at the spot where the closet is to stand, and "flanged out," by hammering, until the edge of it forms a flat ring around the edge of the hole. Usually, a heavy ring of brass is first put over the lead pipe, and the latter is soldered to it, so as to form a substantial support for the closet. The latter, which has a projection at the outlet, approximately fitting the hole in the floor, is then set in place, a mass of putty or grafting wax being first spread to receive it, and is secured by means of bolts, previously set in the brass ring, and projecting upward through holes in the foot of the closet, so that a nut and washer hold the latter firmly in place ; or, in inferior work, where the brass ring is not used, by washers and large wood-screws, driven into the floor- boarding. If the puttying is insufficient, or the joint is opened by settlement, air may escape from the soil-pipe into the room. In some of the more expensive closets, therefore, the joint is made with brass sleeves and lead washers, instead of putty ; but a thor- oughly good floor connection for all-porcelain closets has yet to be devised. The connection between the closet and the flush-pipe is made with a brass coupling; and the local vent pipe usually has a simple slip- joint. To supply a water-closet with the proper quantity of water, under sufficient pressure to give it the necessary flushing action, it is usual to fit up over it a small copper-lined cistern, or tank, supplied through a ball-cock, with float, and discharged by a cis- tern-valve, which is operated by a chain, or rod, with a handle near the seat. The simplest cistern valve consists of a heavy plug, with a spindle to guide it, furnished with a leather washer, which fits upon the projecting upper end of the flush-pipe, and is lifted away from it by a lever, to the other end of which is attached the chain; but complications, in the shape of air-pipes, or other de- vices, for controlling the flow, and reducing noise, are usually in- BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE troduced. Where it is inconvenient to set the cistern at the height necessary for proper flushing, which is about seven feet, low cis- terns may be used. These are small affairs, set just above the seat, but, when well made, they are satisfactory in operation. For large buildings, with many closets, it is common to use valves under various trade names, which, when opened by a handle, de- liver a certain quantity of water into the flushing-rim of the closet, under suitable pressure, and then close automatically. By using these, the expense and complication of cisterns, ball-cocks, flush- pipes and air-pipes are avoided ; but they are, perhaps, less easily repaired, if any accident should happen to them, than a cistern system. Whatever appliances are chosen, the superintendent should see that the quality is that called for in the specification. Porcelain goods, particularly, are divided by the dealers into three grades, called A, B and C, which vary materially in price. The A goods should be free from any defects ; those of the B grade will have small faults, in the way of imperfections in glazing, or surfaces warped in burning; and those classed under C will be still more imperfect, although they should not be cracked, or otherwise un- fitted for use. Bath-tubs, sinks, etc., of enamelled iron, are also divided into two classes, one of which is guaranteed, so that if the enamel chips off within three years, the manufacturers will replace it ; while no responsibility is taken for goods not guaranteed. In- formation as to the guaranteed patterns may be obtained from dealers, or directly from the manufacturers. It is usual for the plumber to "rough in" his work before the building is plastered, putting in place all the iron waste and air- pipes and preparing the connections for the water- closets; and, when this is done, the pipes must be tested. The ordinary method of testing, and the most efficient one, is to close all the open connections with rubber plugs, which are expanded by a screw to tighten them, and fill the entire system of waste and air-pipes with water to the top, either by connect- ing a hose at the bottom with some hydrant or service-pipe, or by pouring in water at the top. As the soil-pipe always extends above the roof, it is easy to see when it is full, and the superin- tendent should watch it for awhile, to observe whether the level of BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE the water falls in it. If it remains constant for ten or fifteen minutes after the pipe is filled, the system of piping may be pro- nounced tight; but, if it falls, there must be a leak, which the superintendent and the plumber should search for at once. As the water in the pipes will be under a considerable hydrostatic pressure, imperfect joints, or sand-holes in castings, will betray themselves by little jets. Defects in the joints of cast iron pipes may often be remedied by more careful caulking of the lead in the joint; but pipes with sand-holes in them must be taken out, and replaced with new ones; and the system cannot be pronounced tight, nor will it be accepted by official inspectors, until it has borne the water-test successfully. After this, the plumber usually leaves the building until after the plastering is completed, when he should at once be called upon to finish his work, so as not to delay the other mechanics. When all is done, and connection made between the water-front of the range and the bath-boiler, which the plumb- er's contract should require him to do, the water should be turned into all the pipes, in order that imperfect joints in the supply-pipes, sand-holes in the fittings, or holes in lead pipes caused by driving nails into them, may be detected and remedied. If it should be necessary, as sometimes happens, to test a drain>- age system for leaks after all the plumbing work has been com- pleted and when, in consequence, the connections cannot be P lu gg ed > the easiest test to apply is that with oil of peppermint. The oil is sold expressly for the pur- pose, in two-ounce vials, hermetically sealed by melting the glass together over the mouth. A man is sent up to the roof with the vial of oil, and after stopping up temporarily all back vents or air-pipes connected with any part of the drainage system, he breaks off the top of the vial, and pours the contents down into the soil-pipe, which will as a matter of course in any modern house project above the roof. A pitcher of hot water is imme- diately handed up to him, and he pours this down after the peppermint, and closes the mouth of the soil-pipe by stuffing in paper or rags. The peppermint is volatilized by the heat of the water, and the vapor, unable to escape, penetrates by diffusion every part of the syetem. Meanwhile, another man examines all the drain, air, and waste pipes in the house, and if the opera- BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE tion has been properly conducted, the slightest odor of pepper- mint in the building will be conclusive evidence of some defect, either in a joint or pipe, which must be at once remedied. It is important that the man who carries and applies the peppermint should not be allowed to enter the house, as he is sure to carry with him some trace of the powerful scent, which will make the test useless. After the trial is over, the pipes above the roof may be unclosed, and if no leak has been detected, the plumbing can be pronounced safe. Plumbers often profess to apply this test, but do so in a manner which makes the result unreliable. Unless the apertures of vent and soil pipes are closed, a circulation is very apt to exist between the upper portion of the soil-pipe and the nearest air-pipe, which will, especially if no water is used to help the diffusion of the oil, carry off the fragrant vapor before it can penetrate into the comparatively stagnant atmos- phere which fills the lower portions of the system. The fumes of burning sulphur are sometimes substituted for the peppermint vapor, but the application is more troublesome, and the result no more satisfactory. At or before this stage in the construction the furnace should be put in, and the cellar floor concreted. If left, as is often the case, till a later period, when the kiln-dried finishings a i i. \ Furnace or floors are in place, these are very apt to absorb dampness from the mass of wet cement in the basement, and lose their shape or their glossy surface. We have to deal with a client who insists upon an ample supply of fresh air at all seasons, and have therefore advised him to select a furnace possessing as large a radiating surface as possible, in order to secure the delivery into his rooms in cold weather of an abundant supply of moderately warmed air; and in accordance with this intention we have provided for large hot-air pipes and registers everywhere. That this will involve greater expense, both in the original cost of the apparatus and in consumption of fuel, than would be necessary for obtaining the same amount of warmth by means of a smaller volume of hotter air from a furnace with less radiating surface, we have frankly told him, but he is wise enough to think that true economy lies in sacrificing something for the sake of the health and good spirits which only fresh air can give. BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE He is, indeed, so bent upon securing a perfectly pure atmos- phere in his house in winter as to be quite alarmed when we propose to him the purchase of a cast-iron apparatus, and reads to us extracts from the circulars of various manufacturers of wrought-iron furnaces, which, as he says, "prove" that carbonic acid, carbonic oxide, and other deleterious gases "pass freely through the pores of cast-iron," and escape into the house. We assure him that this danger is greatly exaggerated, if not entirely imaginary ; while the large radiating surface, which is absolutely essential to the effect which he desires, can be had in only one or two costly forms of wrought-iron furnace, most wrought-iron furnaces consisting simply of a short cylinder of sheet metal, inverted over the fire-pot, and presenting a very limited, but very hot surface to the air flowing past it. As air can only be warmed by actual contact with a heated body, such a furnace, if set in a large casing, with ample supply of air, instead of warming the whole to a moderate degree would heat a small portion intensely, leaving the remainder as cold as ever, and the registers would either deliver into the rooms alternate puffs of very hot and very cold air, or certain rooms only could be heated, at the expense of the others. To be operated successfully, this sort of apparatus must be fitted with a small air-chamber, and small atTrfg'surface P^P es an( ^ registers. The casing of the air-chamber is then heated by radiation from the dome of the furnace, close by, and the small volume of hot air which passes between the two surfaces is thoroughly and strongly warmed, acquiring thereby a powerful ascensive force, which throws it easily in any required direction through pipes of appropriate size, and heats the rooms above, not by introducing a full volume of warm air, but by means of a small current of very hot air, which mixes with that already in the apartment, so as to raise the whole to the required temperature. To obtain an abundant supply of moderately warm air, it is essential, as furnaces are now constructed, to provide at1ng C Surface a ^ ar " e air-chamber, and distribute the smoke-tubes and other radiating surfaces in it in such a way that the air cannot pass through without striking one or more of them. The air issuing from such a furnace will all be warm, BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE ij$ instead of partly cold and partly hot, as it would be without this division of the heating surface; and the quantity being greater, a much lower temperature will suffice to produce the same effect in warming the rooms above. Most cast-iron furnaces are designed with special reference to this end, which has been recognized as desirable ever since heating apparatus first came into use ; and many of them secure it tolerably well. Unfortunately, the castings are sometimes defective, and the joints are subject in several forms to separate or break by the effect of expansion and contraction, with the result of allowing smoke and gas to escape and mingle with the fresh air in the pipes. We have, however, selected a pattern in which the castings appear on close examination smooth and sound, and the joints, while occurring at the most favorable points, are all put together with short sleeves, which allow of expansion and contraction without harm. Unlike most furnaces, which receive the air from the cold- air box a little above the level of the ash reservoir, ours is intended to stand over a pit dug in the cellar floor, into which the cold air is brought by an underground conduit, to circulate first beneath the pan of ashes before it ascends among the hotter surfaces above. Unless the ground below the cellar bottom is well drained, such subterranean conduits are liable to infiltrations of unwholesome moisture, and this point should be determined before the choice of apparatus is made. The air trunk is made of brick, with brick bottom, plastered with cement, and covered with flag-stones. The pit into which it opens is walled with brick ; the same wall being extended upward if the furnace is to be "brick-set," or forming merely the foundation for the sheet-iron casing if the "portable' 7 variety is used. A brick pier in the centre serves to support the heavy castings above. Into the further end of the brick trunk is cemented the cold-air box, of iron or wood, which brings air to the furnace from a window or other opening. The superintendent must see that the cold-air box is not made too small. The obvious rule for determining the proper size is that it should be capable of conveying into the furnace-chamber as much air as is to be drawn out by means of registers ; or, to put it in another way, that the capacity of the cold-air box should be equal to that of all the 176 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE hot-air pipes which will ever be in use at one time, less one-sixth, which represents the gain in volume which the air acquires by expansion in passing through the furnace. In our present ex- ample, the registers in the parlor, dining-room, hall, and staircase- hall are, for the sake of insuring an abundant ventilation, sup- plied through circular tin pipes, twelve inches in diameter. Two chambers in the second story have ten-inch pipes, two have eight-inch, and the bath-room has a six-inch supply. The aggre- gate sectional area of these will be, expressed in square feet, (i 2 + 1 2 + 1 2 + 1 2 + (ft) 2 + () 2 + (%Y + (%r + (^) 2 X .7854 = 5.13 square feet. Six-sevenths of 5.13 will be 4.39 square feet, and this will be the necessary minimum sectional area of the cold-air conduit to insure a supply of warm air at each of the nine registers, in case they are all open at once, as they should generally be. If the cold-air box is made smaller than this calcu- lation would require, the flow of warm air at the registers will be feeble and uncertain, or "wiredrawn," or perhaps at some of them it may cease entirely, or even be reversed by the draught of the longer pipes, which, unable to obtain through the contracted cold- air box the quantity which they require, draw down through the registers nearest the furnace an additional supply. Where so liberal a provision of fresh air is to be made, it is particularly necessary to see that the outer opening of the supply- . conduit is not so situated as to be unfavorably acted Air-Supply upon by the wind. It is usual to place the opening toward the north or west, as the coldest winds come from those points, and while they blow the air is drawn through the furnace with greater rapidity than usual, and if fire enough is kept up, the supply of warm air at the registers is correspondingly increased. There is, however, under these circumstances, some danger that a high wind may drive the air through the conduit so rapidly that it cannot stay long enough to get warmed on the passage, and blows out from the registers in a chilly stream ; and to guard against this a slide-damper is usually inserted, which can be partially closed to temper the force of the incoming blast; but if a change then takes place in the direction of the breeze, the furnace is left without its needful supply of air. Occasionally the single inlet proves to be the source of still worse troubles. If, while it remains open, a BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 177 violent wind should spring up from the quarter opposite to that toward which it faces, the partial vacuum which always exists on the lee side of a building may become so decided as to cause air from within the house to flow toward it by the most direct chan* nel, which will be downward through the registers, into the air- chamber of the furnace, and thence by means of the cold-air box to the outside. By this reversal of the ordinary course, not only are the rooms deprived of heat, but the air drawn from them at a comparatively high temperature becomes intensely hot in passing again over the radiating surfaces of the furnace, and may even, if the cold-air box is of wood, be the means of setting this on fire, and with it the house itself. This is a much more common acci- dent than most persons imagine, and safety as well as comfort make it important to guard against the causes which may occa- sion it. The simplest way of preventing reversed currents in the cold- air box is to give it two openings to the outer air, as nearly as possible opposite to each other ; then, whatever may be the direc- tion of the wind, the air cannot be drawn out of the furnace. It may, however, still blow through the registers, and a still better mode is to carry the cold-air box entirely across the building, at a little distance from the furnace, opening to the outside at each end, drawing from this the supply to the furnace by means of a short, but sufficiently capacious pipe, opening into the main conduit, at right angles to it. Then the wind may blow at will through the main trunk, without affecting the current in the short pipe, which will continue to draw at all times just the supply that the furnace needs, and no more. Whether the cold-air box shall be made of wood or metal is a question to be decided according to the circumstances of each case. Galvanized iron has the great advantage of being impermeable, so that no cellar air can be mixed with colcf-Air Box the pure current from out of doors on its passage through the furnace and the pipes, and of being fire-proof, so that there will be no danger, however hard the wind may blow, of having the building set on fire by an unexpected back draught; but it is very expensive, and those who wish to secure its advan- tages must pay for them. On explaining the matter to our client, 12 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE we find that even his enthusiasm for fresh air is a little damped at learning that a galvanized-iron air-box for his furnace would cost more than the furnace itself, and he takes the question under con- sideration for a few days; but an inspection of the wooden air- boxes in the houses of his friends shows them to be full of crevices, sometimes large enough to admit the hand, and in all cases quite capable of allowing an unlimited amount of cellar air and dust to be drawn into the furnace and discharged into the rooms above, so that he finally declares in favor of an impervious conduit at any cost. The concreting of the cellar floor is generally done before the furnace is set, to avoid spattering the iron or brickwork with mortar, but all air conduits, ash pits, and other work below the floor level should be completed, to avoid breaking into the concrete coating subsequently. The thickness of the stratum should be determined by circumstances. On very soft soil four to six inches may be necessary to prevent settlement and cracks, but under ordinary conditions it may with safety be made three inches thick. If less than this the falling of heavy weights upon it, or long-continued movement on it, may break it, and when once fractured it crumbles and deteriorates rapidly. Only the very best fresh cement should be used, otherwise the concrete will be weak, and attrition will reduce it easily into dust. The proper proportion of ingredients is one shovelful of cement to two of sand, first well mixed together, and then quickly stirred up with three shovelfuls of screened pebbles or broken stone, and immediately spread upon the floor. The country masons, to whom a cellar without water in it in spring would seem almost abnormal, generally give the concrete an inclination to some point from which it can be drained away to the outside, but we do not intend, and if our directions have been thoroughly enforced we need not fear, that any water will penetrate our walls, and no provision is therefore necessary for carrying it off. After the furnace is set and the concreting finished, and while the plumber is completing his work, the joinery of the house will be going on. The first step is usually the setting of the door-frames, and the superintendent will need to refresh his memory in regard to the specified sizes and heights of the doors, BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE and measure each frame as it is set, or risk finding, too late, that transpositions of the most annoying kind have been made in them. The frames are also very apt to be set out of square , ,_. x 11 11 Door-Frame (Fig. 151), so that the door must be subsequently bevelled off to fit them, giving a slovenly appearance to the whole work. This should be provided against by rigid testing with the try-square and plumb-rule. Pocket-rules are sold at the hard- ware stores, containing a level, and a folding steel blade, which can be adjusted so as to form nearly a right angle, and although their usefulness would be much increased if they were more accu- rately made, the young architect will find them of service. In default of some such tool, the diagonals of the frame may be measured with a string, or a piece of wood: if they agree the frame is rectangular, though not necessarily plumb. The height, width, and rectangularity of the frames once verified, the position of the rebates Fi s- X 5i should be noted to make sure that the doors will be hung on the side intended. It is usual to mark the swinging of the doors on the plans, but workmen rarely trouble them- selves to look at the drawings for information in re- gard to such matters, and after it is too late to change them the doors are very apt, especially in inferior rooms, to be found open- ing across stairs or passage-ways, against gas brackets, or in some other inconvenient manner. While considering this point the superintendent may make sure that the doors will be hung on the proper edge, as well as the right side of the partition, by marking the position of the hinges on the frames in accordance with the plans, or perhaps modifying these if circumstances render it ad- visable. Next comes the application of the "standing finish," archi- traves, wainscotings, and bases. Modern moulded work is almost invariably cut with revolving knives, under which it is drawn by fluted cylinders, whose edges, in order to Finish" 9 obtain a firm grip of the piece, press so strongly against it as to cause slight transvere indentations on the promi- nent portions, varying from a quarter to a third of an inch apart, jg BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE which injure its appearance very seriously unless the marks are subsequently smoothed off with sand-paper. For hard wood even this will not be enough, and the flat surfaces should be dressed with an ordinary plane to prevent the reappearance of the ridges after polishing. Sheathing boards and mill-wrought stock of all kinds for good interior work should be smoothed with the plane in the same way. This adds considerably to the expense, and cheap contractors will shirk it if they can, but it should be insisted upon. Another way in which the inferior class of build- ers often try to gain some advantage for themselves Fig. 152 j s by "splicing" architrave mouldings (Fig. 152), out of short pieces. As the mouldings come from the mill in lengths of ten to fourteen feet, there is considerable waste in cutting unless some mode is provided for utilizing MoiHdings ^ e s ^ ort pi eces > but the appearance of a spliced archi- trave is so bad as to make it inadmissible in good work. Horizontal finish, such as bases, wainscots, wooden cor- nices, and chair-rails, must, however, be spliced, and care will be necessary to see that the adjoining pieces are properly matched, and that the joints do not come in conspicuous situations. The stairs will need constant attention to secure a satisfactory result. Before any work is done upon them, the superintendent should examine the plans to make sure that none of the flights are too narrow or too steep, and that there is ample head-room where any passage is intended beneath them. The draughtsmen who prepare working plans from the architect's sketches sometimes fail to comprehend fully the structure which their drawings indicate, or forget to make the necessary allowance for thickness of floors, stair-timbers, and landings. Where a passage-way or flight of stairs is planned under another flight, the clear vertical height beneath the latter may be ascer- tained by counting the number of risers to the point where the head-room is to be calculated, multiplying this quantity by the height of each riser as found by dividing the total distance from floor to floor by the whole number of risers, and subtracting from the dimension so found at least eighteen inches, which will BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 181 represent the vertical measurement from the top of the tread, just over the riser, to the under side of the plastering, in ordinary stairs. If the flight is steep, twenty inches, or even more, must be taken, while with long, straight flights it i: often necessary to reinforce the stringers with whole timbers, or "carriage tim- bers" (Fig. 153), set parallel with them, but at a sufficient distance below to clear the inner angle of the steps, which will in- crease the total vertical depth between top of tread and under side of plaster to thirty inches or more. It should be remembered also that a person in descending a flight of stairs usually leans forward, and that the headway under a trimmer beam which appears ample where the vertical height alone is taken may prove insufficient in execution. Inferior stairways often show defects of planning independent of miscalculations in regard to head-room. It is not uncommon to see such stairs indicated as are shown in Figure 154, where a person descending in the dark might, with a single step, from S or X, fall three or four feet. The stair-builder would probably take upon himself the responsibility of changing the flight from the Fig. 154 Fig. 155 "dog-legged" form shown in Figure 154 to an "open newel" (Fig. 155), adding a square "step in the well," W, and putting two instead of three "winders" in each turn, thus making the stairs comparatively safe and convenient, though narrower than the first plan intended; but it is unsafe to depend upon his thoughtfulness to correct errors. Another fault often seen in back stairs is the filling up of the well on one floor by a closet, 1 82 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE while the stairway below is left open (Fig. 156) . The point of the floor, P, is in this case apt to project over the stairs in dangerous proximity to the heads of those passing up or down, and should be protected by sheathing, at least on one side, down to the rail. The steps should not be too steep. For inferior stairs the risers may be eight inches and the treads 9 inches, to which the nosing will add 1^2 inches more, making the whole onSsers width of the step 10^ inches; but this should be regarded as the limit. As the height of the risers is diminished, for superior staircases, the width of tread must be increased ; the best rule being that the product obtained by multi- plying the measure in inches of rise and tread together should not be less than 70, or more than 75. Seven and a half by ten inches is suitable for ordinary cases; seven by ten and a half is unusually easy, and six by twelve gives an air of old-fashioned luxury to a staircase. Some ancient mansions possess flights which rise only five or five Fig. 156 and a half inches at each step, but these are hardly comfortable to our unaccustomed feet. The greatest care should be taken to see that the staircase as executed will correspond with the plans, or, if mistakes in framing or miscalculations in regard to headway should have rendered this impossible, that the difficulty is remedied in the best way. It is a very common experience with young architects to be obliged to modify their designs on this account, and their ingenuity, as well as the patience of the stair-builder, will often be severely taxed to extricate themselves with credit from an unexpected difficulty. The stair-builder himself is liable to errors, and his work should be examined with particular care at the outset, in order, if necessary, to set him right before the progress of the building has made it difficult and expensive to remedy faults which would have been trifling if discovered earlier. Even in putting up the rough "stringers" it is not uncommon to see mistakes make, which if passed over will spoil the effect of the finished structure. BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE Although many architects mark the calculated height of the risers on their staircase plans, it seldom happens that the actual and theoretical distance from floor to floor agree exactly, and a pole should, in practice, always be cut to the exact length on the spot, and this divided into equal parts, corresponding to the number of risers required. From this measure the notches in the strings can be set out with accuracy. (Fig. 157.) Without such precaution, the strings may, on arrival at the building, be found a fraction Fig. 157 of an inch too low, so that the topmost step must be blocked up to a greater height than the rest in order to gain the floor. (Fig. 158.) More frequently, the string will be found to have been cut too long, and one of the steps must be made shallower than the rest, or the strings must be allowed to lean backward. (Fig. 158.) Such misfits should be sharply looked out for, and condemned immediately if detected. The cutting of a new set of strings is a small matter, while stairs of varying height, or out of level, are dangerous as well as unsightly. Stair-builders and carpen- ters often content themselves with very frail sup- ports to their work, es- pecially on land- ings, and this point should receive careful at- tention. After all is ready for the steps, the risers are some- Fig. 158 Fig. 159 times first put on, the back edges of the treads inserted into grooves cut for them in the risers, and the cove mouldings put in place (Fig. 160), and glued, securing the whole together. Generally, however, the risers and treads BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE are put together, blocked and glued at the shop, and the steps brought complete to the building, ready for setting in place. In this case the mouldings are not ploughed into the under side of the treads, but are simply nailed into the angle formed by the riser and the nosing. (Fig. 161.) Whether the necessary connec- tions between the steps themselves shall be made by grooving the inner edge of the tread into the face of the riser of the next step above, as shown in Figure 160, or by inverting the process, and ploughing the lower edge of the Fig. 160 Fig. 162 riser into the top of the tread below (Fig. 162), is a matter about which the practice of stair-builders varies. Those who choose the latter mode justify their preference on the ground that by the shrinkage of the timbers and settlement of the strings, the support may be taken away from the inner edge of the tread, throwing, if this is grooved into the riser, whatever weight may come upon it on the tongue, which is liable to split off (Fig. 163), while by the other method the tread is free to follow its supporting timber, the only result of the movement being the partial drawing out of the tongue in the riser. (Fig. 164.) In practice, however, the first system is preferable for stairs over which the traffic is as light as is usual in dwelling-houses. When the risers are tongued down into the treads, the tongue necessarily escapes the painting or other finish, so that when it begins to draw out, a streak of a" different color is exposed at the bottom of each, form- ing a very conspicuous defect. The moulded "nosing" of the steps should be formed as indicated on the sectional sketches, the front of the tread being rounded, and ploughed beneath for the insertion of the upper edge of the riser. In "open string" stairs (Fig. 165), where the level top of the tread appears at the end, the nosing is continued across it by means of a piece of wood moulded to the full shape, Fig. 163 Fig. 164 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE one end mitering into the angle left for the purpose at the front corner of the tread, while the other "returns on itself" at a point vertically under the edge of the next riser. Before these pieces are finally put on, the dovetails at the edge of the tread, intended to hold the balusters, should be cut out. The balusters may then be fitted in, and the nosing being nailed firmly in place holds all secure. The best stair-builders tack the pieces temporarily together, so as to insure a perfect fit, before the final nailing. Builders of the poorest class sometimes dispense with the dovetailing of the balusters, and simply fasten them in place by a nail driven diagonally through the foot into the tread after the nosing is finished : this gives a weak as well as uneven balustrade, and should never be permitted. The upper ends of the balusters are almost always secured with nails to the hand-rail, even in the best work. With regard to the finish around the inner ends of the stairs, the practice of different localities varies somewhat. Whether it consists of a wainscot or a simple base, it is in many places custom- ary to trace upon the lower portion the exact profile of the stairs (Fig. 1 66) , including the nosings, and sink it to a depth of half an inch by means of chisels and gouges. This "wall string" base or wainscot is fixed to the walls before the stairs are put up, and the ends of the steps, as fast as put on, are "housed" into the grooves ready to receive them. If nicely done, this is a strong and hand- i86 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE some mode of fitting, but the workmanship must obviously be very careful and accurate. In New England a different mode is adopted, rather easier in execution : for this, the treads and risers of the steps are grooved, before putting together, about y% of an inch from the inner end, and the base or lower member of the wainscot is roughly "scribed" to the profile of the upper surface of the steps, and the lower edge then cut away so as to form a tongue. After the steps are all secured in place, the base is applied and driven home with a mallet. The proper termination of the rail at the top of the staircase, where, being no longer continued upward, it must be carried across to stop against the wall, is a matter not always considered when the drawings and specifications are made. The best finish is ob- Half Posts tame d by placing a half-post against the wall ; but if this is not mentioned in the contract documents, a makeshift, consisting of a round cast-iron plate, with a socket to receive the rail, and screwed to the wall, is likely to be substituted for it. As soon as the treads and landings are in place, the broken boards of the under floor, and the places cut for the plumbers and gas-fitters, should be repaired, and the laying of the upper floors may begin. This is usually commenced in the top most story, in order that each floor, as completed and planed off, may be swept out and the rooms locked. For floors intended to be carpeted spruce forms the ordinary material. It is cheap, and has the advantage of being very free from knots and defects, so that a room laid with it looks clean and handsome. The adhesion of the annual rings is, however, very slight in spruce timber, and boards taken off the outside of the log (Fig. 167), which may be recognized by their grain or "figure," like Figure 168, are liable, after being dried by a winter's furnace heat, to splin- ter up in a most annoying manner; or if the rings do not separate, the boards are likely to curl up (Fig. 169), forming ridges which rapidly cut the carpets laid over them. Both these defects will be avoided by Upper Floors Fig. 167 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE choosing spruce boards in which the figure consists rather of fine parallel lines, indicating that the annual rings are divided in a direction nearly par- allel to the radius of the trunk (B Fig. 167.) Very white, clear boards with no apparent figure are Fig. 168 often cut from sap- Sapling Spruce Pine Blue Sap Fig. 169 ling trees, but are soft, and liable to excessive shrink- age. In the Middle States pine is the favorite floor- ing material. It is softer than spruce, and little liable to curl or splinter. Clear pine, however is very costly, and the second quality, which is generally used, contains small knots and streaks of "blue sap," so that a floor finished with it is not quite so agreeable to the eye as one of good spruce. For a somewhat better flooring than either spruce or second quality white pine, North Carolina pine is extensively used. This is harder, and less liable to splintering, than spruce ; and, although the boards made of it contain a large proportion of white sap, and it is therefore inferior in appearance to Georgia pine, it is much cheaper. For a house of moderate cost, North Carolina pine, in narrow strips, matched and blind- nailed, makes a floor which is presentable without carpeting and can be polished with wax. The mode of laying the boards varies with the locality. The New England carpenters, having a difficult material to deal with, have learned to treat it with great skill. The upper floors of spruce, in the better rooms, are usually specified to be laid with boards not over four inches wide. Attics may have six-inch boards, but wider ones than these are only permissible in closets and store-rooms. The boards, whatever their width, are "jointed," or planed on the edges until these are made absolutely straight and parallel, then stacked in the kiln or "dry house" until all moisture is evaporated from them, and brought directly from the dry-house to the building. Begin- ning at one side of the room, they are, or should be, laid in "courses," from end to end of the room, breaking joints as fre- 1 88 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE quently as possible. Where all the boards are of exactly the same width, as should be the case in the best rooms, the joints may, and should be, broken at every course, but as this involves some waste of stock, it is usually necessary to make "straight joints" through three or four courses, before the varying widths of the boards on each side of the joint will add up to an equal sum, so as to admit of its being crossed by the next course. A straight joint of more than four courses should not be allowed in rooms intended to be carpeted, for fear of causing a ridge ; and it is hardly necessary to say that all heading joints should come upon a beam. "Flooring clamps" are used tq force each board closely up to the side of its neighbor, and it is usual to tack the boards at first with a few nails only, and after they are all in place to line them with a chalked string, or straight-edge and pencil, over the centre of the beams below, driving the nails to complete the work on the lines so marked. Before laying the upper boarding, it is necessary in good houses to spread one, two, or three layers of felt over the under- boarding, in order to prevent air from passing through the joints, and also, by the interposition of a non-resonant ma- Felt Deafening .. , 1.1*1. r j /- tenal, to check the transmission of sound. Cane fibre makes a clean, dry material, which will not harbor moths, but a coarse felt of woolen rags is commonly used. Certain varie- ties are so prepared as to be incombustible, and, especially if used in several thicknesses, may prove valuable in preventing the spread of fire from one story of a house to another. The felt paper made for the purpose from asbestos is the best of these, but is very ex- pensive; and, to be of much use as deafening, should be in two Fig. 170 layers. For deafening alone, a corrugated or embossed paper, which can be had also in asbestos, is useful. In the Middle States, particularly where ordinary floors are laid with a single thickness of boards, it is customary Floor in * ma t cn the boards (Fig. 170), as otherwise currents of air would come up freely through the joints from the spaces between the beams ; and the influence of this habit, more BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE jgQ than any real necessity, has made it customary to match also the the upper boarding of double floors, even in inferior rooms. The matching of spruce floors is, however, not to be recommended, as the thin edge of the grooved side of the boards (Fig. 171) is apt to curl up or split off. Pine is better in this respect, Fl &- I 7 I but stays in place well enough for an upper flooring without matching. Where hard woods are used for flooring, matching is, on the contrary, essential, since no nails must appear on the surface of such floors, and the only way of securing them to the beams is to drive the nails diagonally through the edges of the boards. This process can, however, be applied only to one edge of each board, since the other is pressed firmly against the side of the one which preceded it; and in order to hold the inner edge down, it is necessary to connect it with the outer edge of the preceding board, by means either of tongue and groove, or of some equivalent device. These floors are therefore^, 1 -j - L.- i -^ ^ - <.- Blind Nailing laid in narrow strips, each with the tongue projecting forward into the room, and the nails are driven diagonally into the upper angle formed by the tongue and the edge of the board (Fig. 172), securing this edge firmly; and the groove of the next strip is forced over the tongue so secured, so as to retain in place its inner edge, while its outer edge, furnished with a tongue, is in its turn nailed. Parquetry work, such as we are to have in one room, is gener- ally made with much more care than ordinary flooring, and re- quires special machinery, so that it is best to order it from a regu- lar manufacturer. In some sorts the pieces of hard wood are but half an inch thick, and are dovetailed and glued upon a backing of pine. The patterns are put to- _ gether in a factory, and sent out in / sections some two feet square, which Fig. 172 are na ii e d down like single boards. Simpler hard-wood floors may be made and put down by the car- penter. The oak floor of our hall, in accordance with the wish of the owner, is put down in the French manner with short pieces Fig. 173 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE laid at an angle of 45 with the beams and at right angles with each other. (Figs. 173, 174.) Figure 173 shows the most common method, the edges of the pieces being matched, but the heading joints plain. In Figure 174 the heading joints are tongued and grooved by hand as the pieces are laid, so as to fit into the matching upon the edges. We choose the former mode, as the least expensive, and the easiest to execute. All the other floors are simply laid with narrow parallel strips, 2^ inches wide in the best room, 4 in the others. It is of great importance that the un- der boarding, where a hardwood upper floor is to be laid over it, should be also of narrow strips, not exceeding four inches at most; if wider boards are used, each one of them will in shrinking gather up, so to speak, a cluster of the narrow hard-wood pieces above it, and draw them tightly together, and although the shrinkage of each hard-wood strip, if well seasoned, is very slight, the movement of the wider board compresses all the joints over it, so as to trans- fer the total shrinkage to the joints immediately over its own edge. The adjoining wide board of the under flooring acts in the same way, but in the opposite direction, so that in a few months every board below will be exhibited by an inordinately wide separation between the hard-wood strips above, the other joints remaining perfectly close. The stock for upper flooring will need close examination. Even with spruce it is necessary to see that waney pieces are not smuggled in, and to look out for knots and sap, while hard wood is liable to other defects. Oak for flooring, unless under severe wear, and, indeed, for all kinds of finish, should always be quartered, or "rift," as some say that is, sawed with two cuts at right angles with each other, and through the centre of Flooring Stock BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE the log, all subsequent cuts being as nearly as possible on radial lines. As every one knows, oak is distinguished from all other woods by the "silver grain," or medullary rays, consisting of small bundles of fibres, which shoot out laterally from the centre of the trunk, passing through the annual rings toward the bark. By quartering the log, these fibres are divided nearly or quite in the direction of their course, and show on the surface of the boards as flecks or irregular silvery streaks, upon a ground of fine parallel lines, formed by the section of the annual rings. If, on the contrary, the log is sawed into parallel slices in the ordinary manner, the middle slice will exhibit the silver-grain, as will also one or two on each side of it. Further from the centre the medullary rays will be divided almost trans- versely, appearing on the cut surface as nearly imperceptible lines or dashes, while the section of the annual rings will grow broader and broader, showing itself, since the sap-tubes of oak are quite large, as a coarse, rough figure, completely indifferent in appear- ance from the delicate and silky silver-grain, and liable to a dingy discoloration from the entrance of dust and dirt into the exposed pores. With some varieties, oak sawed in the ordinary way often appears "brashy," or of a very coarse texture,' with short fibres which break away easily. The manner in which the log is sawn affects also its disposition to warp and curl, which in badly cut oak is very strong. The inner portions of the tree are compressed and hardened by age, so that there is a gradual diminution of density toward the circum- ference, which is occupied by the soft and spongy sap-wood. The less compact substance naturally shrinks more in drying than that which is nearer the interior of the log, but with boards whose surfaces follow the radial lines the movements caused by dryness or damp are all in the plane of these surfaces, and although the board varies in width, it has no tendency to warp. Those boards, on the contrary, which are cut in lines parallel with the diameter of the log have one surface which looks toward the back of the tree, and the other toward the heart, and the fibres on one side are there- fore slightly softer than on the other, and will shrink more, curl- ing the piece outward with a force proportioned to its thickness. BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE By keeping constantly in mind these properties of oak, which belong in some degree to all kinds of timber, many annoying de- fects in hard-wood finish may be avoided. Following the same principle, the Georgia-pine floors for the inferior rooms should be specified of rift stock; that is, of boards cut like Rift Hard-Pine J , . , ,- quartered oak, on radial lines. These may be rec- ognized by the figure, consisting of fine parallel lines, in place of the broad mottlings produced by a cut tangent to the annual rings. Hard-pine boards of the latter kind are very liable to splinter, like spruce cut in a similar way, and must be rejected. Hard-pine boards containing large streaks of dark turpentine are also unfit for floors, the turpentine soon crumbling away. There are one or two points about the hard-wood finish other than the floors, which may be noted. Whitewood, or poplar, is not usually ranked among the hard woods, although it is little inferior in this respect to black walnut or butternut. It has the advantage over them of being clear, dry, and very uniform in texture. The annual rings are almost imperceptible, and the wood is little subject to any warping or checking. For large, solid piazza, posts and other heavy out-door work, it is superior to any other material, and inside finish made of it is usually durable and satisfactory. It has the peculiar property of swelling consid- erably in damp weather, even when perfectly seasoned, to retreat again to its original dimensions under the influence of furnace- heated air; so that doors made of it should not be too tightly fitted. In selecting the pieces care should be taken to exclude those streaked with white sap. The rest of the wood darkens very much after finishing, while the sappy streaks remain white, and soon, by contrast, appear as disfigurements. Black sap, which also occurs, is not generally looked upon as objectionable, but it forms too strong a figure to be admitted in delicately- moulded work. Hard-wood doors, except those of whitewood, are usually veneered upon a core of well-seasoned pine, to prevent warping, and it is necessary to examine them upon delivery, to see that the veneers are of the proper thickness. Those which cover the panels may be y$ inch; over the framing they should be specified l /^ inch, although the final BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 193 planing which such doors undergo generally reduces this thickness somewhat. There are innumerable points about the finishing of a dwell- ing-house which, though trifling in themselves, count for a great deal in the impression which the completed structure will produce upon the owner and his friends, and the architect or superintendent will do well to go thor- oughly and repeatedly over the building during the finishing, and make sure that every visible detail is satisfactory before the con- tractor leaves it. First among the points to be examined is the hanging of the windows. The sashes vary considerably in weight, and unless each one is accurately balanced, which takes both time and care, the sash will not stay in place. The sash-fasts may also be badly set, so that they will not lock, and nothing short of an actual trial of each sash r -1-n 1 .1.11 Sash-Fasts of every window will serve to make sure that all are as they should be. Door locks and knobs are also very carelessly applied, and there are few houses where all of them work per- fectly. The striking-plate, particularly, is apt to be set too high, or too low, or too far into the rebate, so that either the latch or the bolt will not enter the mortise intended for it; while the "roses," or plates, screwed upon the oppo- Furniture site sides of the door, in which the stems of the knobs move, are rarely placed exactly opposite each other, so that the spindle, instead of being perpendicular to the door, is forced into an oblique direction, causing the knobs to bind and stick in turning (Fig. 175). The knobs, again, are generally put on without inserting the proper number of thin washers which slip over the spindle for the purpose of filling out the space between the lock and the knobs on each side, and the latter are left loose in conse- Fig- i75 quence, sliding in and out with the touch of the hand in an annoying way. Many architects call in their specifications for "swivel spindles," with which spincHes the turning of the knob on one side of the door does not affect that on the other side ; but except for those front doors 13 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE which have an arrangement for locking the outside knob separ- ately, the swivel is hardly necessary. Chair-rails, picture-mouldings, wooden cornices, and other finish of the same kind will often be applied with the utmost care- lessness. Nothing is more common than to see such Chair-Rails, etc. , . - .,. . . . , . horizontal mouldings varying very much from their correct position, the workman having put them on by what he would have called "his eye/' instead of measuring at short inter- vals the proper distance from the floor or ceiling. The young architect or superintendent should train himself to quick observation of all these points. Any defects Defects P are sure * ^ e discovered sooner or later by the owner, to the discredit of the one whose business it was to look out for and correct them at the proper season. The character of the hardware about a building is also of much importance. The variety of patterns and qualities of locks, knobs, pulls, bolts, hooks, hinges, sash-fasts, and so on, is so Hardware great that nothing but a thorough familiarity with the different kinds, and a minutely detailed specification, will protect the architect or superintendent from being occasionally compelled to accept fittings which he does not like, but which the indefinite character of the specification precludes him from reject- ing as not in accordance with the contract. The locks form a very important part of a building. Those used in good houses are generally mortise locks, inserted into a mortise cut in the edge of the door. The centre of the knob should be exactly three feet above the fin- ished floor, and the mortise for the lock, in inside doors, will extend one inch above and three inches below this point. For outside doors, the mortise is generally six inches tionof Knobs ^igh two inches above and four inches below the centre of the knob. In designing the doors, the paneling should be so laid out that the lock-mortise will come beside a panel, and not opposite a rail of the framing; as, in the latter case, the mortise will cut off the tenon of the rail > weakening the door very badly. For want of attention to this point, young architects often find that doors, in whose elegantly-proportioned panels they take the BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE greatest pride, have to be fitted with handles set either at an im- moderate height from the floor, or ridiculously low, to avoid making them altogether unserviceable. This is par- ticularly likely to be the case in copying doors of Doors'* 1 colonial type, either out of books or from actual exam- ples. These show invariably at the level of the knob a wide rail instead of a panel, but it must be remembered that mortise locks were not in use then, their place being supplied by rim locks, in which the working parts were enclosed in an iron or brass box, screwed to the outside of the door, a small hole only being bored through the door for the spindle of the knobs. Of course, the tenon not being in this case interfered with, there was no reason why the lock should not be screwed on next the rail, and as many of the ancient rim locks, or the latches which were substituted for them in inferior rooms, were longer than the width of the "style" at the edge of the door, it was an advantage to place it where it could extend back upon the framing. Occasionally, a modern version of the Colonial doors is seen with a mortise lock set oppo- site a very wide lock-rail ; but this must be done by framing the latter with two tenons, far enough apart to give room for the mortise between them, an arrangement not to be recommended. For closet doors, a mortise latch is sometimes used, with either one or two knobs, but no lock or key. The case for this is only about 2% inches high, but such furnishings are only suitable for inferior houses, a closet which cannot be locked being as inconvenient as a door with a knob on only one side is mean in appearance. The hand-made locks are far superior to those made by machinery, and also much more costly ; but some of the machine-made kinds serve well enough for ordinary purposes. Any good contractor or hardware dealer can furnish the names of the most reliable manufacturers, and the safest course for the young architect is to require a first-class make by name in his specifications. The manufacturers' catalogues will furnish him with all necessary information as to styles, and he should call for exactly what he wants so clearly that there may be no mistake as to his intention, finally assuring himself by inspec- tion that the contract has been carried out. Reversible locks should be chosen, unless the architect is will- BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE ing to see a door here and there hung on the wrong side to accom- modate some carpenter who has selected his locks at random and finds himself short of the proper kind ; and the char- acter ^ t ^ ie k evs snou ld be specified, or he may find a set of locks of tolerably good appearance accompanied by cast-iron keys, tinned or galvanized. For the inside doors of ordinary houses a mortise lock from any of the great manufacturers, with brass face and striking-plate, brass bolts and German silver or plated keys, does well enough. For the best rooms a "fancy" face, formed by grinding the brass in curling forms, may be used ; or some expense may be saved by allowing the bolts to be of iron instead of brass. A cheaper lock has an iron face, lacquered to imitate brass, but there- is no real economy in using it. It is hardly necessary to say that locks for interior doors are usually of the simplest construction, the wards of the key merely fitting stationary projections inside the box, which give no security against opening by a skeleton key or a piece of stout wire ; but it is not required in such cases to provide against the operations of professional burglars. These locks are commonly used in sets of twelve, the twelve keys differing from each other, but the com- plete sets being exactly alike, so that in a house with twenty-four doors there will be two keys of each pattern, which may, however, be distinguished by a difference in the finish, one set being bronzed and the other plated, for instance. For outside doors, which must occasionally be left without the security of bolts, "lever" or "tumb- ler" locks are needed, in which the interior construction is far more complex, and the security, as well as the cost, correspondingly greater. Many varieties of these locks are made, with and without night-latches, and inspection will furnish the best guide as to the arrangement desired. Some front-door locks are so arranged that the outside knob is perma- nently fixed, but the better ones are furnished with a movement by which it can be held firm, or released if it is desired to allow the door to be opened directly from the outside, without a key. Locks of either kind, of the common construction, are somewhat liable to have the latch become slow in working, so that a sharp bang is necessary to close the door. Age increases this fault, which is BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 197 only partially cured by oiling, and a more satisfactory service can be had from the patent locks, in which the latch is in two or three parts, one, which projects in front, turning on a pivot as it is drawn against the striking plate, and by the Latches same motion drawing back the others, so that when the whole reaches its place, it slips out into its mortise without any friction of importance. Locks of this sort are made by all the principal manufacturers. Care should be taken, if locks and knobs are procured from different makers, as will generally be the case, to have the hole for the spindle correspond with the actual size. Most j n di e s locks can be had fitted to either y% or ^4 mcn spindles ; and although %-inch is the size commonly used, there are many advantages in having the knobs mounted on y% spindles, with or without swivels. What shall be the material of the knobs must depend upon circumstances. Brass, bronze, cast-iron, hard rub- ber, glass, porcelain, celluloid, wood, and various .. P - .,- 1-1111 Knobs compositions of saw-dust and glue, dried blood, glazed earthenware and other substances are used. Among these, dark bronze metal of good quality is the most satisfactory. The light bronze, even when good, is apt to tarnish in rooms not much used, and the soft, inferior bronze wears to a dirty yellow color which is very unpleasant. Moreover, there is in bronze hardware a much greater variety of patterns than in any other kind, and knobs, hinges, bolts, chain-bolts, sliding-door pulls, sash-fasts and other furnishings can be so selected as to match in color and gen- eral appearance throughout the building. There is, however, much difference in the execution and finish of the castings, and it is unsafe to trust to the drawings in the catalogues of unknown makers without seeing samples of the work. Polished brass furniture, where it is fashionable, is very costly, and requires continual attention to keep it bright. Silver-plated brass knobs soon lose their coating, and are becoming obsolete. Cast-iron is used for door-knobs only in a miserable imitation of bronze or brass. Hard rubber and celluloid make durable and pretty furniture for in-doors, but do not bear weathering well. Glass is a good material, and can be had in great variety : the old- fashioned cut knobs are the handsomest, but those pressed in 198 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE various forms are serviceable. The blown-glass knobs, silvered inside, are fragile unless of very good make. Porcelain and the vitrified materials known as "mineral"and "lava," with "hemacite" and some similar substances, are used for inferior rooms. Knobs of wood or its imitations are somewhat liable to become sticky from the softening of the varnish upon them. Bolts are necessary for all doors which need to be rendered tolerably secure against intrusion, and afford more protection than any lock. The neatest and most convenient are the patent mortise bolts, which are set into a small auger- hole bored in the edge of the door, and show only a small key Chain Bolt outs ^ e - Outside doors are frequently guarded by a chain-bolt, consisting of a strong ornamental chain, attached to the frame, or one leaf of a double door, which can be hooked into a slotted plate on the movable part of the door, and will allow the door to be unlocked and opened three or four inches, for conversation with a person outside, but prevents it from open- ing further until unhooked. This effectually resists the attempts of tramps to force their way past a servant into the house as soon as the door is unlocked, but as it can easily be dislodged from the outside by a wire, it should be used in addition to, and not as a substitute for, the ordinary bolt. Sash-fasts of the ordinary kind are the least effectual of all domestic defenses against the operations of burglars. By intro- ducing the blade of a knife between the upper and Sash-Fasts , r lower sashes from the outside the lever can be easily pushed back and the window opened, and this is in fact the com- mon mode of entrance for thieves. Of late years the necessity for preventing the movement of the lever from the outside has become so obvious that several devices, more or less perfect, are now in use for the purpose. The earliest form, lately revived, has a spring catch with a thumb-piece attached to the inner plate, which, as the lever is swung around, is first pushed back and then springs out, holding it in place until it is again pushed back by the thumb. This is convenient, and reasonably secure, but after some years' wear the catch becomes rounded by friction, and the lever may sometimes be forced back over it from the outside by a strong pressure. Other sash-fasts lock* by the dropping of the movable end of the BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE IO/9 lever into a notch, or by an eccentric motion, while, in others, the short end of the lever hooks under a fixed projection on the upper sash. There are, also, locks, operating by means of toothed bars set in the frame, which hold the sash in any position. All the varieties of sash-fast are made in japanned or bronzed iron, brass, bronze metal and nickel or silver plate, to correspond with other hardware. Hinges form the only other article of importance in the hard- ware dealer's order. Solid bronze metal, polished brass, silver plate, "Boston finish," a brown lacquer over iron, resembling bronze, black japanned iron, either plain, or with silver or bronze tips, and plain iron, are at the 1 r 1 1 T r i-j i_ i_ Boston Finish command of the architect. If solid bronze, brass, or silver plate are used, only the best quality, with steel bushings and steel washers should be used, as the softer metal wears out rapidly from the movement of the door. Iron, either japanned or Boston finish, for hard-wood doors, with tips either of the same or of solid bronze or plated, and plain for doors intended to be painted, forms on the whole the best material for ordinary dwelling-houses. Most houses are now fitted with "loose-joint" butts, which allow the door, after opening, to be lifted off and BuJ t s s e " Joint replaced without unscrewing the hinge. With heavy doors, however, there is danger of bending the projecting pin of the hinge during this operation, and it is better to re- quire "loose pin" butts, in which the pin itself can be drawn out from the top and the door removed and replaced, with as much ease as in the other case, and greater safety. Young architects occasionally forget to proportion the size of the butts to the circumstances of their door-frames and architraves, and find, too late, that the doors of their best rooms cannot be swung back to the wall. Where the open- ings are finished with unusually thick mouldings, Gothic beads, or pilasters, the proper way is to make a horizontal section of the door, with its frame and finish, including bases or plinth blocks, and capitals, if there are any ; then add the extreme projection of the trim from the plane of the door, to twice the thickness of the door, and deduct half an inch from the sum ; the remainder will be the minimum width of butt which will hang the 200 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE door securely and throw it clear of the mouldings. If the result does not correspond with a regular size of hinge, the nearest size larger should be specified. Butts are made of several widths to the same height, as 4" X 4", 4" X 4^"> 4" X 5", 4" X 6", and so on ; the dimensions being those of the hinge when opened flat. For the remaining small items, as coat-hooks, drawer-pulls, and the like, all that is necessary is to describe clearly in the speci- fication what is wanted. In certain cases drawer- pulls must be of fancy styles, but for closets japanned iron is much the best material, and the simpler and smoother the pattern the better. Architects and builders often go to a small unnecessary expense in putting fancy cast-bronze or Boston-fin- ished pulls on their cases of drawers, which serve only to bruise and excoriate the fingers of those who handle them; and fit up rows of roughly-finished bronze metal hooks, whose edges quickly cut the material of clothes suspended from them, while the artistic knobs and curves with which they are adorned always prevent them from being as serviceable as the plain, strong double hook of japanned cast-iron. It is important that the young architect should inform himself as to the character and comparative cost of the various kinds of metallic house-furnishings, and describe distinctly Fixing Prices t , t 5 ' . t . what he requires in the specification, without resorting to the slovenly practice of specifying that the different articles shall cost a certain sum per dozen, or per set, or per gross. The actual expense of such goods to the contractor is a very different thing from the cost as set down in the price-lists, and to specify articles of a given price, instead of a given kind, is usually to oblige the owner to pay a large profit on goods which he might have obtained for the net value if they had been distinctly described. If the architect has been wise enough to demand specific arti- cles of hardware from manufacturers of good reputation, the duty of the superintendent will require little more of him Hardware 1 f than to See that the order is correctl 7 filled > and that the fittings are properly put on. If, however, the specification is one of the kind that vaguely stipulates that such materials shall be "good," or "neat/' or "worth two dollars per dozen," he must prepare himself for a rigid inspection of the goods BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 2OI furnished in accordance with it. The bronze hardware of all kinds may prove to be of soft yellow metal, with a thin bronze finish over it, or even of iron skilfully lacquered or bronzed ; the brass faces of locks and bolts may be fictitious, consisting of iron, varnished with yellow lacquer, or brass-plated ; the silvered-glass knobs may be of a substance so thin, or so carelessly blown, as to crush in an incautious hand, inflicting frightful wounds ; or any kind may be so feebly secured to the metal shank as to come off altogether upon occasion ; or the hinges may be destitute of washers, and will soon creak painfully. The cases of cheap mortise locks are often made, to economize material, so short as to bring the knob within an inch of the edge of the door, so that the hand is scraped against the rebate of the frame whenever the door is shut; or sometimes the width as well as the length of the case is reduced, and the knuckles come into painful contact with the key on turning the knob ; while occasionally a lock is seen which allows the door to be opened by turning the knob one way only, instead of both ways. The screws furnished for putting on cheap hardware are also generally too small, so that the fixtures are insecurely fastened ; and the worst workmen will increase this fault by their fashion of applying them, which consists in driving the screw nearly home with a heavy blow of the hammer, finishing with a turn or two of the screw-driver. Such men also generally show an exasperating indifference to the appearance of their own or others' work, putting on bronze metal or japanned fittings with plain iron screws, instead of blued iron or bronze, and using them of different sizes, or several sizes too large, if necessary to save themselves the trouble of going after suitable ones; screwing hinges, bolts, or plates at random on veneered doors, and if they fail to fit, removing them and screwing them on again somewhere else, leaving two or three sets of screw- holes yawning in the polished surface of the wood, or in a hundred other stupid and blundering ways defacing the building which they help, after their fashion, to complete. Continual vigilance is needed to discover and correct such faults, and the superintendent of a house which on delivery to its owner proves to have all its hardware perfect, well put on, and in good working order, has at least some qualities which particularly fit him for his profession. While the joiners' work is going on inside the house, the oper- 202 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE ations of drainage, grading and sodding outside should be com- pleted, so that the dust incident to them may be laid before the final painting. Unless, as will rarely be the case in the country, drainage by regular sewers is provided, the first of the outside Grading 6 ^ P erat ions should be the selection of a site for, and the construction of, a cesspool of some kind. Usually the position of this is marked approximately on the plans, or indi- cated in the specification, which is necessary in order to lay out the plumbing intelligently; but circum- stances will often modify greatly the character of the construction as executed. For most houses, the ancient leaching cesspool or "dry well" is still adopted, as the cheapest means of disposing of house-wastes, but the architect should examine all the conditions with great care before lending his authority to this expedient. If the house is supplied with water from a town or city service, or from springs higher than the building and at a considerable dis- tance, and if the lot on which it stands is so large that the inevit- able poisoning of the ground by the soakage of putrefying filth will not affect its inmates or their neighbors, the leaching cesspool may be regarded, in view of the greater cost and trouble of other devices, -as an evil to be tolerated so long as the favorable circumstances continue. If, however, water is to be drawn for use, either in the house or stable of the proprietor or his neighbors, from any well within three hundred feet of the proposed cesspool, and on the same or a lower level, the architect should refuse his sanction to any plan whatever for discharging sewage into the subsoil. In rocky districts, and in places where deep wells are necessary, a much greater distance should intervene between them and any porous cesspools. It is positively proved that the typhoid poison contained in refuse thrown upon the ground on a rocky hillside, and washed by the rain into some hidden seam or depression in the ledge beneath the surface, has been carried down with its qualities unchanged, to infect with very fatal effect a spring, apparently of the purest water, a mile beyond ; and it may generally be assumed that with such a subsoil the crevices through which the liquid escapes from a BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 203 leaching cesspool are, if not the same, at least in communication more or less direct with the seams which, ramifying in all direc- tions, serve to convey water to the wells of the neighborhood. If, again, a well in a porous, gravelly soil is very deep, the extent of the area from which it draws its supply is enormously increased. The pumping out of the excavation in gravelly and clayey soil for a dry-dock near London drained wells at a distance of much more than a mile. After the pumping was discontinued, the wells grad- ually filled to their normal level, showing that the water was drawn from them to the excavation during the pumping, and that if they had contained foul liquids instead of clear water, and the excava- tion had been a well instead of a dry-dock basin, the sewage would, even from that distance, have ultimately reached it. Supposing that all danger of contamination to the drinking water of the house is averted, by the introduction of water either from a public service, or from a spring or well whose bottom is considerably higher than the proposed cess- cesspoofs pool, this may be excavated of a circular form, in diameter from eight to twelve feet, and of the depth requisite to reach an absorbent stratum, the sides lined with a dry wall of stone or brick, and the top drawn over in the form of a rude dome, leaving a man-hole about twenty inches in diameter at the top, which should be covered with stone or iron. Wooden covers soon rot, forming a dangerous trap. The usual way is to fix the height of the masonry so that the top of the cover shall come about four inches beneath the sod, which may be either carried over it, con- cealing it entirely, or turned down neatly around the edges of the stone or iron cover. In sandy or gravelly soils such a cesspool will dispose of the waste liquids of a house for a long time, but in the course of years the earth around it becomes coated with the fatty deposit from the sewage, and a new cesspool must be dug. Where the sand or gravel is very fine, or mixed with clay, the stoppage of its pores takes place quickly, and as years pass by a continually increasing chain of cesspools, each connected with the previous one by an overflow-pipe, serves to saturate the ground around the house with putrefaction, and the air with malaria. In very clayey soils no leaching whatever takes place, and the cesspool fills up like a tight 204 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE cistern, a few days' use, with one of ordinary size, causing it to overflow. Such ground often, however, contains strata of porous gravel or sand, and if the excavation can be carried to one of these seams, the cesspool may answer well enough; but if not, and no more favorable spot can be found, a different mode of disposal must be adopted. The simplest, though not the least troublesome, way of sur- mounting the difficulty is to drill a hole through the cover of the cesspool, and set over it an ordinary pump, by which Cesspool ^ e nc l u id mav be pumped out at intervals of days or weeks, according to the capacity of the reservoir, and spread upon the grass, or utilized in the garden. A small tank on wheels, which can be filled at the pump and conveyed quickly to the point where the fertilizing fluid is to be applied, is much used for this purpose. The operation is not offensive, or only very slightly so, since the sewage does not remain in the cesspool long enough for putrefaction to take place, and the results are excellent, but the necessary attention cannot always be given to it, and a neglect which might cause the backing up of the sewage in the drains, to overflow into the cellar of the house, would be a serious matter. To avoid this, it is customary to provide an overflow, through which the liquid can upon occasion escape over the sur- face of the ground, where, although a continued flow would be offensive, its presence is less objectionable than in the house. A more automatic arrangement, which has been gaining rap- idly in favor of late years, consists in substituting for the surface overflow, to be used only in case of temporary need, a permanent outlet, formed by a series of open- jointed pipes, laid a few inches beneath the surface of the ground, where the liquid exuding from between them will be absorbed, partly by the porous Subsoil loam which always forms the upper stratum, and Irrigation J partly by the roots of the grass or other vegetation growing upon the surface. If properly arranged, this system is very satisfactory, not only disposing of the house-waste as com- pletely, and with as little attention, as the ordinary leaching cess- pool, but accomplishing this in soils where a leaching cesspool could not be made, and what is of even more importance, perform- ing its work for an indefinite period without causing any contam- BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 205 ination of the ground, the actively oxidizing action of the bacterial colonies living in the top of the soil serving to destroy with cer- tainty the last traces of organic impurity in the liquid, which if discharged into the ground a few feet below, beyond the reach of bacterial oxidation, would retain its foulness for months, if not for years. An efficient system of subsoil irrigation must consist of two parts : the tight cesspool or tank where the waste matters from the house are retained until they dissolve into a thin, milky liquid, and the net-work of pipes which receives the sewage from the reservoir, and dissipates it into the ground. The tight cesspool should be constructed as shown in section in Figure 176, of hard brick, laid in cement, circular in plan, about 5 feet in diameter, and Fig. 176 5 feet deep from the mouth of the outlet. The walls should be 8 inches thick in most soils. The bottom may be 4 inches thick, and the top should be covered with a 4-inch dome, with a man-hole 1 8 or 20 inches in diameter, and a flagstone cover. Whether the cover shall be tight, or be provided with a vent hole and grating, depends upon the arrangement of the drain-pipes. If a separate "foot ventilation" is provided for the main drain near the house, it is best to keep the cesspool closed ; but unless fresh air is sup- plied at the foot of the soil-pipe by a special inlet, a circulation should be insured by omitting all traps in the drain, and providing a grated opening in the cesspool cover. If, as should always be the case, the soil-pipe extends through the roof of the house, no annoyance will be caused by this opening into the cesspool, as the draught will be inward at that point. 2O6 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE The inlet pipe forming the extremity of the main drain should enter the cesspool just above the water line. The outlet pipe should have a quarter-bend cemented in before setting in place, as shown in the figure. The mouth of the bend, turned downward, then protects the outlet from the scum which floats at the surface of the liquid, and would soon choke the irrigation pipes. The outlet pipe, after leav- ing the cesspool, should be laid with a very gentle but perfectly uniform pitch, with branches as indicated in Figure 177. \i i f y The best mode is to make it of vitrified \ t / pipe, laid with the "hubs" pointing downward, in- stead of upward in the usual way, and having a Y inserted between every two lengths of Distributing straight pipe> AU the j oints should be made tight and smooth with cement, and into the lateral branch of every Y should be cemented a piece of agricultural tile drain. The vitrified pipe forming the main carrier may be 4 inches in diam- eter, and the agricultural tile should be 2-inch; the Y's forming the connection being of the kind called 2X4- inch. Each lateral branch should then be continued by a line of agricultural tiles of the requisite length. If the slope of the lot permits, the outlet pipe should leave the cesspool at least two feet Fig. 177 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 207 below the surface of the ground, running however, in such direc- tions as to bring it, before it begins to ramify, about twelve inches below the sod; and the same or a less distance below the sod should be maintained throughout the system of branches. All the pipes must also be graded to a uniform fall of not more than one inch in twenty-five feet, and to fulfil these two requirements it will generally be necessary to lay all the lines in curves, deter- mined by the irregularities of the surface, and following very nearly a series of contour lines of the ground. The tiles forming the lateral branches should be laid J4 inch apart, a bit of paper put over the joint, to prevent earth from sifting in, and the trenches then filled. Either round or sole tile may be used, but sole tile are preferable. If round tiles are em- ployed, they should be laid without collars, and pebbles put on each side to keep them from rolling out of place. The end of the main line of vitrified pipe should not be closed, but a reducer should be inserted, and the line continued with open- jointed tiles, in the same way as the lateral branches. The principal object to be kept in view is the avoidance of any check to the continuous flow of the sewage until it issues from the inter- stices of the drain tiles, to be absorbed and oxidized in the soil. If any such check is offered by the displacement of a pipe, a sud- den dip in a line, or an abrupt change in direction, the liquid will throw down at that point a copious black sediment, choking the pipe in a few weeks, or, if the main line is closed at the end, filling it like a pocket, and successively cutting off the lateral branches. With the greatest care some stoppages will take place, and it is wise to provide enough lateral pipe to dispose of any possi- ble flow, with a large margin for contingencies. For an ordinary dwelling-house, inhabited by a family of five or six persons, five hundred feet of lateral outlet pipe is the best rule, and the quantity must be increased for a larger household. The character of the subsoil, whether clayey or sandy, makes with this system very little difference, the exudation being absorbed almost wholly by the surface loam, which is always porous enough to take up a certain quantity of liquid. For large houses, it is unsafe to depend upon the sluggish flow of the sewage under ordinary conditions to keep the outlet pipes 208 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE clear of sediment, and a flush-tank should be arranged, which will retain the sewage until a considerable volume has collected, and then discharge it suddenly, rilling the outlet pipes and washing them clear, at the same time that the earth around them, by the intervals of rest and aeration which follow the discharges, is kept in better condition for efficient purification. Flush-tanks containing a siphon, which is brought into action by various devices when the tank is full, are often used, but a tilting tank, made of galvanized iron, of such profile that, when full, it will roll forward on pivots, is equally efficient, and much more easily cleaned. If the tilting tank is used, it should work in a discharging chamber, from which the outlet pipes extend ; and, in this case, it is of advantage to lay several lines of outlet pipes, radiating from the discharging cham- ber, so that the choking of one line with sediment may not make the system unserviceable. In any case, the outlet pipes will grad- ually fill up, and it is desirable, even if they continue to dispose of the sewage satisfactorily, to take them up about once in two years, clean them out with a stick, and replace them, just before the winter frosts render them inaccessible. On account of the beneficent activity of the bacterial colonies with which the upper soil is filled the sewage distributed through it leaves no trace of itself. Unlike the earth around a deep cess- pool, which when uncovered discloses a foul saturation, the soil surrounding irrigation pipes shows after years of service no trace whatever of the organic matter which has passed through it, and if the pipes are carefully laid, either on hard ground, on strips of board, or in the earthenware channel pieces made for the purpose, so as to avoid depressions which may collect sediment, they will work perfectly for an indefinite period in any kind of soil. The disposition of the surface-water about the house is a mat- ter only second in importance to that of drainage. The main point to be kept in mind is that the ground should everywhere slope at a very sensible pitch away from the building, Surface Water ^ , < , so as to throw rain-water far enough away from the walls to insure its absorption by the soil, or its harmless removal by surface channels. If at any point the ground should be al- lowed to pitch toward the house, the water of spring rains will be directed against the walls, and sinking through the soft earth BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 209 which fills the trenches outside of the masonry, will make holes or "gullies" close to the building. If the walls are well drained in the manner previously described the water may pass away without finding an entrance into the cellar, but the stone-work will be soaked, and the loose soil carried down by the torrent is liable to be washed into the drain below, so as to choke it and render it useless. This point is generally understood among country con- tractors, but it is likely to be neglected in practice when the proper grading happens to be inconvenient, particularly under piazzas and porches, where deep holes are often left, to collect the streams of water which soak through from the outside, and direct them against the building. The lines, indicating the surface of the soil as it is intended to be when the work is done should be marked upon the underpin- ning, bearing in mind that where the ground is to be grassed over two lines will be needed, one showing the grade of the gravel or ordinary earth, and the other that of the loam which must be placed above it to support the proposed vegetation. Where loam enough is at hand it should be spread two feet deep. This will afford a strong, thick growth of grass from seed in a single sea- son. In ordinary cases, however, it is necessary to be contented with a foot or so : less than this cannot be depended upon to pro- duce or sustain a uniform sod. With our special agreement, where the subsoil is sandy or gravelly, the spreading of the excavated material at a proper grade around the walls, placing the loam on top, with the formation of a gravelled pathway to the doors out of the subsoil material, will constitute all the work to be expected of the contractor ; and it will remain for the owner or his gardener to smooth the surface of the loam with a rake, lay a line of sods at the edges of the paths, and sow the rest evenly with "lawn seed," and then drag a bunch of twigs or a tree-branch lightly over it, and leave the rest to nature. Where a bank or terrace forms part of the plan it should be sodded all over ; otherwise it will need to be repaired after every heavy rain. Sods should be laid in a bed well soaked with water and kept moist for some days. It will often be found difficult on sloping ground to keep paths and drive-ways from washing away in severe storms, and even edging them with paved gutters does not always keep their sur- 2io BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE face in place. Such effects are usually due much more to the working in of water at the sides of the path, under the surface, than to the direct action of the rain, which would have little power to disturb the gravel unless previously loosened by the lateral in- filtration of water ; and the best remedy is to intercept such infil- trations from the sides, and at the same time drain the subsoil of the path, by means of trenches filled with stones on each side. The trenches are best made narrow, but deep : sixteen or eighteen inches of breadth by two feet of depth. Where pebbles of suitable size are plenty a narrow path may be completely filled in with stone to within six inches of the sur- face, which gives good results at considerable expense. Drive- ways on very costly estates are occasionally built with a layer of broken stone one or two feet deep ; or sometimes a single "French drain" is run through the middle. The latter plan costs nearly as much as that of two lateral drains, and is far less effective. It is impossible to take too much pains in the laying out of avenues and paths, and they should be marked through their whole extent with small stakes on each side, three or four feet apart, so as to judge of the effect from all points before work upon them is begun. When the dust incidental to these operations has subsided, the painting of the exterior may safely be completed. The first coat has, or should have been, put on as soon as possible Pafnting after the setting of the wood-work in place, to prevent it from warping or "checking" by exposure to the sun, and will now be perfectly dry. The next step will be to fill up all nail-holes and crevices with putty, and for this purpose the heads of all the nails used for securing the exterior finish, includ- ing clapboards, must previously have been "set in" to a depth of y% of an inch or more. Then, beginning with the roof, the house is to be painted downward, so that the portions already finished may not be disfigured by spatterings of a different color from above. With the mineral reds generally used for roofs some of the color is apt to wash down with every rain for two or three weeks after it is put on, so that it is advisable to have this portion completed and dried as long as possible before painting the walls. The colors will generally be chosen by the architect, whose expe- rience in such matters will save him at least from the glaring BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 211 blunders which amateurs are liable to make ; and the general rule is that the smaller the building the lighter its color should be. Tints of green, yellowish, brownish or grayish are by far the most popular, and with reason, since the blend- colors ing of such colors with those of the surrounding vegetation serves to connect the building with the ground, and take away the fragile, portable look which all buildings exhibit whose color contrasts sharply with that of neighboring objects. In rocky districts the gray of the ledges might also be suggested in some portions of the building with excellent results. Where the structure is disproportionately high, it is advantageous to make a decided difference in the color of the paint between the first and second stories, bearing in mind that when two different colors are placed side by side they must be of very different shades, one being light and one dark : never both of the same or anything approaching the same depth. The first story may be a dark bronze green and the second a raw-sienna yellow, with very good effect, and a house so painted will seem much lower and more home-like than if only a slight variation or none at all were made in the tint of different portions. Where the proportions of the building are such that any apparent lowering would injure it, two slightly different shades of the same color may be used, or the whole painted of one uniform tint. The casings, corner-boards and blinds are usually painted of a darker shade than the rest of the house, the blinds being sometimes the darkest of all, and some- times of an intermediate tint between that of the "trimmings" and the plain wall ; but the architect will be able to judge in each par- ticular case what treatment will most enhance the effect of the design. White is often used, even on large houses, especially where they affect a classical or Colonial character, with columns or pilas- ters; and a yellow ochre body, with white pilasters, cornices and other trimmings, was often used in the Colonial period, and is still popular for buildings in that style. Stains, made with oil, creosote or petroleum, are economical, and give a pretty effect, but they do not protect the wood so well as paint does, and are not so durable as paint. Rough-cast, of two coats of plaster, mixed with cement, and put on metal lath, is much used as an outside 212 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE finish for country houses. Where this is employed, tarred paper should be put over the boarding before the lath and plaster are applied, and the lime should be thoroughly slaked, to avoid pit- ting. The second coat should be of Portland cement and sand, with or without a small admixture of lime, according to the color desired, and is usually thrown on with a dasher. In the durability of the various pigments used in house-paint- ing there is less difference than is generally supposed. All colors fade somewhat, and as the darker colors, such as olive and sage green, show the effect of fading more plainly than the old-fash- ioned paints, buffs and light grays, they are generally thought to change more. The best method of preserving the fresh look of an olive or bronze green is to put it on over a first coat of red : white lead strongly colored with Venetian red, or with Indian red and yellow ochre, will do very well. The green covers it per- fectly, taking only a transparent, mellow tone, which is very pleasant, and remains long after two coats of green would have faded to a brownish shade. The most fugitive of ordinary colors for exteriors is vermillion, which soon changes, unless under very favorable conditions, either to a black or white. Yellows bleach out by exposure, and browns acquire an ashy shade, although they are perhaps the most permanent of all ordinary pigments. Min- eral reds for roofs soon blacken. The "Colonial" yellows, if made _with ochre, are apt to blacken with mildew on the lower portion of the building, where most exposed to rain. The most durable of all materials for painting is pure white lead, and, in general, light colors last longer than dark ones. The supervision of the painting work is not so difficult as the examination of the materials used. It is hardly nec- essary to say that whatever may be the composition of the second coat, the first coat should always contain a large pro- portion of white lead ; not that it is desirable to modify the color by the admixture, but because white lead clings to the wood with far more tenacity than any other pigment, and retains with it not only the other colors which are added to it, but also a second coat of less adherent materials. The best lead will keep its hold long after the oil with which it was mixed has been washed away, forming the "chalky" surface so familiar to us on old buildings, BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 213 while zinc and other inferior paints blister and leave the wood bare. Something may be learned of the character of the paint by observing its behavior in the pot and under the brush, and still more by seeing it mixed, and observing the names on the cans or kegs from which it is taken. The oil is very likely to be of in- ferior quality, immense amounts of fish oil being employed to adulterate the linseed oil sold for painters* use. Fish oil dries slowly, never acquiring the hardness and resistance to adverse influences of pure linseed oil, so that the adulterated oil should be avoided, except for painting tin roofs, where its softness has some advantage in enabling the paint to yield to the expansion and con- traction of the metal without cracking. The patent mixed or "chemical" paints are convenient, and of carefully selected shades, and are said to last well away from the sea-coast; but for build- ings exposed to salt breezes from the ocean most architects prefer colors prepared in the usual way. Oil paints of any kind, after long standing, become "fat" and work less evenly under the brush, so that a fresh mixture of good materials is perhaps always to be preferred. The paint should be put on by strokes parallel with the grain of the wood, and long, smooth pieces, such as window and door casings, should be finished by drawing the brush carefully along the whole length, so that there may be no break in the lines. No work should be started in the morning which cannot be finished before night; for instance, if one side of the house is begun, it should be completed, if not to the bottom, at least down to some important belt or other division line : otherwise the junction of the portions executed at different times will show as an ugly streak. Where a building is much exposed to the weather, three coats of paint will not be too much to preserve it ; but it is usually better to include only two coats the priming coat and one other, in the contract. In this way the work will be done better, as there is less opportunity to cover up deficiencies, and the paint is less liable to blister than where three coats are applied at once. After two or three seasons' wear, a third coat may be put on, and will stay in place. Many houses, particularly at the seashore, where the salt air soon destroys paint, are left entirely unpainted, or have the cor- 214 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE nices, door and window casings and blinds, which would warp and split without protection, painted, while the rest is left bare. Where an effect of this kind, which is often very picturesque and charming, is intended, shingles should be used for covering the outside of the walls, as clapboards are likely to split. Occasion- ally, the outside of a house built in this way is oiled with linseed oil, but, although the effect is good for a few months, the oil, where the rain can reach it, and keep it soft, attracts the spores of mildew and the walls blacken. A good "spar," or water- proof varnish, though more expensive, is very much better than oil. The last part of the outside painting is the "drawing" of the window sashes. It is essential that these should be securely pro- tected against the absorption of moisture, and at least three coats must be applied, of red, yellow, black, bronze green, white or other color, as may be preferred. For inside work the same materials are used as for the outside, but it is even more necessary that they should be of the best quality. Fish oil, for instance, which will soften on damp days, is quite unsuited for inside use. The puttying should Inside Work - * ., ., .^ / & be done with great care, to avoid unsightly spots, and one coat of oil or paint must be put on before puttying, to prevent the putty from shrinking and falling out through the absorption of the oil from it by the dry wood. In very cheap houses, finished in hard wood or pine of the natural color, two coats of oil often complete the work, and this application answers well enough if polish is not desired. Where, however, a shining surface is in- tended, one coat of oil only should be put on to bring out the grain of the wood, followed by a "filling" of patent paste compo- sition, white wax, chalk, oil mixed with pigments of some kind, or with wood-dust, and finished with shellac, or some other suit- able varnish, or a wax polish. Of these, shellac, if simply put on in one or two coats, without rubbing down, forms the cheapest and poorest dressing. If, on the contrary, it is put on in four or five coats, rubbed down with emery-cloth dipped in oil after the last coat, it forms the most expensive, and the best of all applica- tions. The patent varnishes, of which there are many kinds, are easily applied, and give, with two coats, a good finish. The hard BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 215 wax polish gives a beautiful surface, which may be renewed, wholly or in part, at any time. Where a painted finish is intended, the principal point to be observed is the thorough covering with shellac, before priming, of knots and pitchy places, which will otherwise discolor the paint over them. Bad knots cannot be "killed" even by this application, and should be cut out, and a piece of sound wood set in their place. The most annoying stains come from the minute dots of pitch which often speckle the entire surface of a pine board, but escape notice until after the painting is completed, when each one mani- fests itself by a yellow stain. Some architects, to make sure of complete protection, specify that the whole of the pine finish shall receive one or two coats of shellac before priming. Zinc is much used for interior work instead of white lead, and is preferred by some on account of its freedom from the tendency of lead to turn yellow in rooms which are not well lighted. The character to be given to the surface varies with circumstances and fashion. Usually, a dead or "flatted" finish is preferred, and is obtained by mixing the final coat of paint with pure spirits of tur- pentine instead of oil. Where the paint is exposed to the contact of clothes or fingers, an "oil finish," containing little or no turpen- tine, is desirable, and gives a somewhat glossy surface which can be washed readily. For hotel rooms and other places liable to much wear, a "china gloss," made by mixing the paint with var- nish, is often specified for the last coat, or the whole is varnished after completion. Whatever the style of finish, the manipulation should be careful and neat. Every coat of paint except the last should be sand-papered to a smooth surface, and in each coat the brush-marks should be so drawn as to follow the lines of the wood- work, without joinings. If fresco color is used, the most experienced workmen only should be employed to apply it. So much depends upon the consistency of the size, the mode of putting on the color, and other circumstances, that an unaccustomed hand is almost sure to fail. Hard-wood floors are not easily finished in a perfectly durable and satisfactory manner. The soft, elastic varnishes which 2i6 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE answer for the doors and standing finish are, although sometimes employed, unfit for floors, while the hard spirit varnishes, though more durable, will ultimately wear away in certain portions of the floor, leaving the pores of the wood exposed to dirt, which quickly fills them, and after this nothing but planing and revarnishing will restore them. For this rea- son, the ancient wax polish, although more troublesome, is greatly to be preferred. The wax fills the pores of the wood so that, although the surface may be worn away, dust will not enter so long as any wax remains, and by periodical waxing and repolish- ing the floor may be kept clean and shining until absolutely worn out. An advantageous substitute for the ordinary wax, which is so sticky as to need frequent polishing to keep it bright, is made by mixing it with more or less hard parafHne. Such a compound is sometimes sold for use in dancing-halls in blocks, which are scraped, and the resulting powder scattered over the floor "and rubbed into the wood by the feet of the dancers; but the best varieties are softened with turpentine to a paste, which is sold in cans, and needs only to be applied evenly over the floor, and after a few hours' drying polished with cloths, or with weighted brush- es, made for the purpose and dragged to and fro over the room. The same brushes are used to brighten the surface when it be- comes dull, and any worn spots can be brought back to an equal polish with the rest by a new application of the wax. The glazing is usually done by the painter, who sends the sashes to the building with the glass all set, and the superintendent will . have little to do except to see that the glass is of the specified quality, and that all the work is left whole and clean. The difference between first and second quality sheet-glass must be learned by observation, and in judging of the glass in a building it must be remembered that it is much easier to obtain small lights free from defects or uneven places than large ones ; and that double-thick glass, such as should be specified for all lights larger than about 16" X 30," unless plate-glass is used, shows any unevenness of surface more plainly than the thinner sheets. This last item having been examined, the young architect's duties of supervision will be ended; and it will only remain to BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 217 review the notes which he ought to have made during the progress of the building, in order to fix in his mind more clearly the obser- vations contained in them, and thereby prepare himself to carry out his next commission with still greater satisfaction to himself and his client. More particularly for the information of persons intending to build, an actual set of specifications for a country house of moderate cost, together with contracts for the same, will follow. PHOEBE A. HEARST ARCHITECTURAL LIBRARY BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE CHAPTER III SPECIFICATIONS OF LABOR AND MATERIALS FOR DWELLING- HOUSE TO BE BUILT ON FAIRFIELD STREET, MELROSE, N. Y., FOR JAMES JOHNSON, ESQ., FROM THE PLANS AND UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF MR. EDWARD TYRO, ARCHITECT, 13 RIALTO STREET, ALBANY, N. Y. GENERAL CONDITIONS Each contractor is to provide all materials and labor necessary for the complete and substantial execution of everything de- scribed, shown, or reasonably implied in the drawings and speci- fications for his part of the work, including all transportation, scaffolding, apparatus and utensils requisite for the same; all materials to be the best of their respective kinds, and all work- manship to be of the best quality. Each contractor is to set out his own work correctly and is to give it his personal superintendence, keeping also a competent foreman constantly on the ground, and no contractor is to sublet the whole or any part of his work without the written consent of the owner. The architect or his authorized representative is to have at all times access to the work, which is to be entirely under his direction, and may by written notice require any contractor to dismiss forthwith such workmen as he deems incompetent or careless, and may also require any contractor to remove from the premises such of his materials or work as in his opinion are not in accordance with the specification, and to substitute without delay satisfactory work and materials, the expense of doing so and of making good other work disturbed by the change to be borne by the said contractor; and each contractor is also at his own cost (218) BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 219 to amend and make good any defects, settlements, shrinkage or other faults in his work arising from defective or improper ma- terials or workmanship which may appear within twelve months after the completion of the building, and is to clear away from time to time the dirt and rubbish resulting from his operations, and cover and protect his work and materials from all damage during the progress of the building, and deliver the whole clean- and in perfect condition. All work and materials are to comply in every respect with the building laws, city or town regulations and the directions of the Inspector of Buildings, and such build- ing laws, regulations and directions are to be considered as a part of this specification and the contract to which it relates. Each contractor is to give to the proper authorities all requisite notices relating to work in his charge, obtain official permits and licenses for temporary obstructions, and pay all proper fees for the same and for use of water for building, and entrance into sewers or drains, and is to be solely answerable for all damage, injury or delay caused to other contractors, to neighboring premises or to the per- sons or property of the public, by himself or his men, or through any operations under his charge, whether in contract or extra work. The contractor for the mason-work is to have charge of the premises subject only to the right of other contractors, the owner and the architect or his representative to have free access thereto, until the [sill] is on, and is to provide and maintain all requisite guards, lights, temporary sidewalks and fences during that time; afterwards the contractor for the carpenter-work is to take charge in the same way until the whole is completed. Each contractor is to carry on his work at all times with the greatest reasonable rapidity, under the direction and to the satis- faction of the architect. The several portions are to be completed on or before the following dates : Foundation to be ready for sill House to be entirely enclosed Chimneys and piers to be finished Back plastering completed Outside finish completed and interior ready for plastering Plastering completed Interior wood-work done Painter's work completed 220 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE MASON EXCAVATION, ETC. Set proper batter-boards and mark out the building accurately under the direction of the architect. Take off the sod and loam from site of house and for eight feet additional in width all around. Excavate the cellar to a depth of five feet below the highest part of the ground covered bv the building 1 , making; the excavation eight inches Excavation ., 1t Q ' , ... - . . * wider all around than the outside of foundation-walls ; excavate trenches for all walls two feet below cellar bottom, and for footings of piers and chimneys eight inches below cellar bot- tom ; excavate for posts and piers of porches and piazzas four feet below present surface; excavate trench four feet deep and [one hundred] feet long for drain-pipe, and excavate cesspool eight feet in diameter and twelve feet deep. Excavate for dry well to each rain-water leader where directed, eight feet from the house and five feet deep, and for trench four feet deep from each dry well to house. [AREAS, CISTERNS, ETC.] Separate the loam and stack by itself where directed and dump the other earth from the excavations wherever directed within two hundred feet of the building. Clear away and remove all rubbish entirely from the premises at the completion of the Excavation building. Refill dry wells and around cellar-walls with small stones or gravel. Refill with ordinary earth around cesspools, posts, piers, and pipes. Ram thoroughly or puddle with water all filling material every foot in height; spread and grade neatly the remainder of the material from the excavation as directed, forming gravel-walks and drive-ways neatly, and elsewhere spreading the loam evenly on top, sowing in the best manner with blue-grass seed and rolling, and finishing with two feet in width of the best sods on each side of gravel- walks and drive-ways, and three feet in width around house and piazzas, all to be done in the best manner, properly cared for, watered and kept in order until the house is delivered. If any blasting should be necessary for making the excavations above specified [seven] cents per cubic foot will be paid by the BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 221 owner for blasting, breaking up, and removing the stone ; but all stone so removed which may be suitable shall be used . in building the cellar walls or piers, and for all stone so taken from the excavation and used in the building, the con- tractor shall pay the owner at the rate of [seven} cents per cubic foot. Furnish and lay in the best manner from outside of cellar-wall to cesspool [one hundred] feet of first quality [Portland, Akron, Scotch] five-inch glazed earthenware drain-pipe, all .. , j i ?i i i i 11 j r ,11 i j Drain-Pipe, etc. uniformly graded, the bed hollowed for the hubs, and all jointed with clear, fresh Portland cement, and the joints scraped smooth inside as laid. Leave the line of pipes open until inspected and approved before refilling the trench. Include in the line of pipe a five-inch running trap of the same make, with hand-hole, to be placed not less than six feet from the house, and the hand-hole closed by tight cover ; and in- clude also a 5" X 5" T-branch where directed, be- tween the house and the trap, the branch of the T ventilation to be turned upward, and a vertical five-inch pipe of the same make to be brought to the surface of the ground and covered with a proper earthenware ventilating cap, all jointed with cement. Furnish and lay four-inch glazed earthenware pipes of the same make, all jointed in cement, from each dry well . . . . J Underground to the rain-water leaders. Each pipe to turn with Pipes for a quarter-bend at the cellar wall and to be brought Raln " Water upward to the surface of the ground to receive the foot of the leader. FOUNDATIONS All the lime used in the mason-work throughout to be Extra No. i [Rockland, Rockport, Thomaston,] and all ce- Lime and ment except that used for jointing drain-pipes to be Cement best fresh [Rosendale, Portland, Louisville,] of the Sand [F. O. Norton] brand. All sand to be clean and sharp, and used in proper proportions. Furnish all materials and build cellar-walls 18 inches thick to the underside of sills of good ledge or other approved stone ; the first 1 8 inches to be laid dry in the trenches, and the remainder to 222 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE be laid in mortar made with lime and cement in equal parts and clean, sharp sand in proper proportion; the whole to be laid to a line on each face, well bonded, the joints filled with mortar and all to be thoroughly trowel-pointed inside and outside the whole height, holding the trowel obliquely so as to weather the pointing on the outside. Set the best face of the stones outside, both above and below ground. Set stone footings for piers and chimneys and foundations for range and boiler. Level up carefully and bed the sill in cement-mortar and point up around it inside and outside, and bed and point up around frames of basement windows. Build piers of dry stone for front granite step. Leave openings for drain, gas and water-pipes, and fill up around them afterwards. Build the cesspool with circular wall of dry stone eighteen inches thick. Draw in the top and cover with three-inch planed blue-stone two feet square, with man-hole and grated cover, set in cement four inches below finished grade, and the sod neatly turned down upon it. Build in the drain-pipe properly. Furnish and set one step of best clear [Connecticut] granite at front porch, to be eight feet long, sixteen inches wide Stone Steps j A i 1 i 1 1 i on top, and twelve inches high, seven inches to be above ground ; the part above ground, top and ends, to be pene hammered. All the bricks used in the building except for fireplaces, hearths, and setting of range, furnace and boiler to be the best hard common brick, to be carefully culled for facing Brickwork . t . , - , J , of chimneys above roof, and all to be new, well- shaped, and of uniform size. All to be laid wet except in freezing weather, with joints thoroughly flushed up with mortar, and all well bonded. All brickwork to be afterwards plastered is to have rough joints, other work to have the joints neatly struck ; and all work visible outside the house to be washed down after completion with muriatic acid. Build piers in cellar and for outside work as shown on plans, rs all to be 12" X 12", laid in mortar made with equal parts of lime and cement and wedged tightly up to underside of timbers with slate chips in mortar. BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 223 Build the chimneys as shown on drawings, with flues 8" X 12" or 8" X 8" as shown, of hard brick in mortar made with one part cement to two parts lime, to underside of roof board- ing; above roof to be of selected brick formed ac- cording to drawings and details and laid in mortar made with equal parts of lime and cement, colored with Venetian red to a light red color, and the upper four courses to be laid in clear cement. The brickwork of chimneys to be kept in all cases at least one inch clear of any wood-work. All withs to be four inches thick, well bonded into the walls, and all flues to be carried up separately to the top. Plaster every flue smoothly inside to the top, and clean out at completion, and plaster the outside of each chimney from basement floor to underside of roof boarding. Build in lead flashings, to be provided by the carpenter, and pro- vide and build in eyes and set strong wrought-iron stays, as di- rected, to all chimneys rising more than fifteen feet above the roof. Provide and set eight-inch iron thimble in furnace-flue, sixteen inches clear below underside of beams, and five-inch thimbles and covers with ventilating arrangement in laundry, two feet clear below ceiling, and in two attics, to be three feet clear above floor unless otherwise directed. Provide and set also 8" X 8" iron cleaning-out door and frame in furnace-flue, two feet above base- ment floor ; and a 12" X 12" door and frame in each ash-pit, close to basement floor ; and 8" X 12" black japanned ventilating regis- ter in kitchen, and 6" thimble for range. Turn 4-inch trimmer-arches on centres to all fireplaces, to be two feet wide by the length of the breast; turn also trimmer-arches in front of range and wash-boiler to support hearths not less than 20" wide in front of each. Level up with cement-concrete or brickwork, to receive hearths. Build the fireplaces with the rough brickwork only at first, making the opening three feet high above top of beams, and put- ting in two y 2 " X 2" wrought-iron chimney-bars to each opening, each bar to be eight inches longer than the opening. After the house is plastered provide all materials and build fireplaces .and hearths according to detail drawings, and cover securely with boards for protection until the building is de- 224 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE livered. The fireplace in parlor is to be lined with ornamental cast-iron plates, of pattern to be selected by the owner, and to cost ten dollars per set, exclusive of putting up ; and to have facings of French majolica tiles, to be selected by the owner and to cost twenty-five dollars per set, exclusive of putting up, and hearth of royal blue glazed American tiles in three-inch squares, with border of two rows of one-inch black glazed tiles, with one row between of Low's three-inch Chelsea tiles of pattern to be selected by the owner; the hearth to be 20" wide and 5' 6" long, inclusive of border. All to be executed in the best manner by skilled work- men, the tile facings to be secured in place with polished brass angle-bars, and the hearth to be laid in Portland cement, and all to be thoroughly backed up with brick and mortar. Make the hearth within the fireplace of good face-brick. The dining-room fire- place is to be lined with Philadelphia glazed brick to be selected by the owner, and is to have facing of Italian griotte marble, 4" wide and %" thick, with cavetto moulding around the opening, and hearth 20" by 5', of American unglazed red tiles without bor- der, all executed in the best manner and thoroughly backed up with brick and mortar, and to have face-brick hearth within the fireplace. All the other fireplaces in the building are to be of selected pressed brick with borders of moulded brick, as per detail draw- ings, and hearths of 16" width by length as directed, of pressed brick laid flat, with border of brick moulded with half-round on the edge, miter ed at the angles and set with the half-round pro- jecting above the floor, all laid in red mortar and neatly pointed. All fireplaces to be built in the best manner, with y 2 " X 2" chim- ney-bars, 8" longer than the opening, to support those shown with square openings, all well backed up, and the joint between old and new work thoroughly broken to prevent the escape of sparks. Provide and set neat ash-grates to all first-story fireplaces, without dampers. Set the range, to be provided by another contractor, in pressed brick in the best manner, to show a 1 2-inch pier on each side, and carrying up the face-brick setting to the ceiling, with lintel of rubbed blue stone, five courses high by the whole length of the breast, to hold the brickwork above. Make BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 225 hearth to the same 20" wide by full length of range and piers, of pressed brick laid flat in cement. Do all excavation and other work necessary and furnish all materials and workmanship to prepare for setting the furnace to be provided by the contractor for the heating. Make cold-air chamber under furnace not less than eighteen inches deep, all of hard brick in clear cement, with bottom of the same, and make cold-air box ten feet long under cellar floor for supplying the same, to be 18" deep by 3' wide, with bottom and sides of hard brick in clear cement, and all plas- ^ , . 11 ** i_ r, Cold-Air Box tered with cement, and covered with 3-inch flagstones with close axed joints. Connect the cold-air box complete and make tight all around it, and leave the whole in perfect working order. Provide and set in laundry where directed a 35-gallon [Steeger's] best heavy tinned copper wash-boiler with dished soapstone top, grate, ash-pit, and doors complete, and with steam-pipe connected properly into flue. All to be set ^n pressed brick in the best manner, and to have hearth 20 inches wide by the length of the boiler, of pressed brick laid flat in cement. Lay tw< > courses of rough brick in mortar on top of foundation walls behind sill all around the building, and fill up with four courses of the same between beams on top of sill. J.-L. 11 j j Brick Filling Lay four courses of the same on top of all dropped girts and caps of partitions which carry beams in every story between the beams and studs, and build a vertical 4-inch wall of the same from the plate all around to underside of roof-boarding. After the partitions are bridged lay one course of brick in mortar between studs on top of all the bridging throughout. Lay one course of brick in mortar on top of under floor in each story around all chimneys and between the furring studs of the breasts, filling the whole space from brickwork of chimneys to outside of studs. Level off the cellar floor, roll or settle thoroughly, and con- crete the whole three inches thick in the best manner, the concrete to be made with one part fresh [Ameri- can Portland] cement to two parts clean sharp sand, and three 15 22 6 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE parts washed pebbles or broken stone, and the portion not covered by wooden floor to be smoothed off neatly, and all left perfect at the completion of the building. The mason is to assist the other mechanics employed in the building wherever his help is necessary, and is to do Miscellaneous 1t *. j -^ 1 * all cutting and jobbing required without extra charge, and leave all perfect. PLASTERER [// this is made a separate contract, the full title and the General Conditions should precede the Specification.] The plasterer is to examine and try all ceilings, partitions, and furrings, and is to notify the carpenter of all Furring!? ^at are not S( l uare > true > pl um b and level, and see that they are corrected before lathing, and that all are firm and secure. Back-plaster the whole of exterior walls from sill to plate be- tween the studs, on laths nailed horizontally y%" apart Plastering * ^ ner laths or vertical strips put on the inside of the boarding, all well trowelled and brought out on the studs, girts, and plate, making all air-tight. One-Coat Lath and plaster basement ceiling one heavy coat, Work we u trowelled and smoothed. Lath and plaster two coats in the best manner all other studdings, underside of stairs, partitions, furrings and ceilings throughout the building, except in rooms marked worif ** "Unfinished" on plans, carrying the plaster to the floor everywhere. Laths to be best seasoned pine, free from knots, bark or stains, all laid y%" apart, and breaking joint every six courses and over all door and window- heads. The first coat of plaster to be of No. i Extra [Rockland] lime, and clean, sharp sand, well mixed with a half bushel of best long cattle or goat's hair to each cask of lime, thoroughly worked and stacked at least one week before using, in some sheltered place, but not in the cellar of the house; all to be well trowelled, straightened with a straight-edge and made per- fectly true, and brought well up to the grounds. The skim coat BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 227 to be of No. i Extra [Rockland] lime, slaked at least seven days before using, and washed [beach] sand, and well floated. Run moulded cornice, not over 30" girt, with one enriched member, in Parlor, and plain moulded cornices, not // T^. . T M i f Cornices over 24 girt, in Dining-room, Library, and four chambers in second story, and in first-story Hall, carrying two members of the hall cornice up the sofHt of stairs to second story and around second-story hall : all to be in accordance with detail drawings. Form beams where shown, according: to detail , . Beams drawings. Plant plaster centres in Parlor, Dining-room and Library, to be 3' in diameter in Parlor, and 2' 6" in Dining-room and Library, all to be made in accordance with detail drawings, and two wax models to be made and approved before casting. Point up with lime and hair mortar around outside door and window frames; clear away and remove all rubbish from the premises after the second coat of plaster is on; clean the mortar off the floors and sweep out the house and leave all ready for the wood finish ; patch up and repair all the plastering at the comple- tion of the building, and leave all perfect. Whitewash cellar ceiling, walls and piers two . ,, , Whitewash coats in the best manner. CARPENTER [// this is made a separate contract, the full title and the General Conditions should precede the Specification.] Sill, 6" X 6", halved and pinned at angles. Plates, 4" X 6". Scantlings Posts at angles and opposite partitions, 4" X 8". Girts, 4" X 8". Braces, 4" X 4". Window studs, 3" X 4". Door studs, 4" X 4". All other studding, 2" X 4", 16" on centres. Partition caps, 3" X 4"- 228 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE Soles, 2" Girders, 8" X 10". Sleepers, 6" X 6", 8' apart. Floor beams, 2" X 10", 16" on centres. Headers, 4" X 10", and 6" X 10" according to framing- plans. Trimmers, 4" X 10", and 6" X 10", according to framing plans. Rafters, 2" X 6", or 2" X 8", as marked on framing plans, 20" on centres. Deck rafters, 2" X 8", 20" on centres. Hip and valley rafters, 3" X 9", or 3" X 12", as marked on framing plans. Trimmer and header rafters doubled and spiked together. Ridges, 2" X 10". Piazza and porch girders, 4" X 10". Piazza and porch floor beams, 2" X 6", 20" on centres. Piazza and porch rafters, 2" X 6", 20" on centres. Hips and valleys, 3" X 9". Piazza and porch plate, 6" X 10". Piazza and porch posts, 8" X 8". Sleepers in basement to be of locust. Piazza and porch posts to be of best well-seasoned dry white pine or white- wood. All other framing timber to be good sound spruce, free from large knots, waney pieces, and shakes. The house is to be full frame, all framed, braced, and pinned in the best and strongest manner, perfectly true and plumb, and in accordance with the framing drawings. No wood- work is to be placed within one inch of the outside of any chimney, and no nails to be driven into any chimney. The underside of sill and ends of girders are to be painted two heavy coats of oil paint before setting in place. The basement beams to be sized upon the sleepers, which are to rest on the concrete. The beams of first-story floor to be notched down four inches on the sill and mortised two inches more into it, bringing the bottom of the beams flush with the bottom of the sill, and to be framed with tenon and tusk into the girders, flush at top and bottom : all to be well spiked to the sill, and the tenons secured to girders with oak BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 229 pins. Beams of second and third story floors to be notched down four inches on the girts, and spiked to girts and studs, and sized one inch on partition caps, spiking the beams strongly together wherever possible to form a tie across the building. Headers to be framed into trimmers with double tenon and pinned, and all headers which carry more than three tail-beams to have % " joint- bolts at each end in addition. Tail-beams to be framed into headers with tenon and tusk and pinned. All floors to be bridged once in every eight feet with a straight, continuous row of double herring-bone cross-bridging of i"X4" pieces, cut in and nailed with two nails at each end of each piece. Beams under unsupported partitions which run parallel with them to be in pairs, set 7^/2 " apart on centres. Piazza and porch floor to be framed with a 4" X 10" girder from each post or pier to the house, set so that the top of the girder is i" below the top of the sill, and pitching away from the house one inch in every five feet. Each girder to be gained one inch into the whole depth of the sill, and to be secured to the sill with %" joint-bolt. Into these girders are to be framed the 2" X 6" piazza beams, all flush on top. The finished posts of piazza and porch will stand upon the floor, with tenon 4" long into the girder, and the plates are to be framed into them and pinned. The rafters are to be notched upon the plate and spiked, and strongly secured to house. Form the cornice of porch and piazza as shown on detail draw- ings, all of pine, with planceer, facia, bed-mould, and gutter all around as shown, with leaded joints, two- inch lead goose-necks and [four] three-inch [tin] conductors where directed, properly supported and entered into the drain pipes prepared to receive them. The main roof of the house is to be framed as shown on fram- ing plans. Rafters to be notched on the plate and M J T> J.-A- U ' J Mam R 0f spiked. Partitions to be carried up to support roof wherever practicable, and all to be thoroughly tied and made perfectly secure and strong. Form the main cornice as shown in detail drawings, with BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 3" X 4" gutter all around, facia, and planceer, rebated ij4" belt at top of wall, and raking moulding in the angle: all of pine. Gutter to have leaded joints and three-inch lead goose- se necks. Put on |>ur] four-inch tin conductors where directed, all strongly secured and properly entered into drain-pipes prepared for them. Gable finish to be as shown on detail drawings, all of pine, with i}4" rebated piece at top of wall, to show 8" Gable Finish . V> , 1 -j r wide, i J4 plain planceer put on underside of project- ing roof-boards with %" furring between and to show 10" wide, and corona and cymatium moulding 3^4" wide in all, to cover ends of roof-boards and edge of planceer, and 3" X 3" bed-mould in the angle. Cover all the roofs, including those of porch and piazza, with good hemlock boards, planed one side to an even thickness, and well nailed to every rafter, two plies of pine-tarred felt paper, breaking joint, and shingle with first qual- ity 1 6" sawed cedar shingles, laid 4^" to the weather, and nailed with two galvanized nails to each shingle. Form dormers, etc., as shown on drawings. Furnish wide counter-flashings of 4-lb. lead for the mason to build into joints of chimneys, shingle in wide zinc flashings to turn up against the brickwork as high as the counter-flashing will allow ; then turn down the counter-flashing, dress close, and cement perfectly tight against the brickwork. Shingle in wide zinc flashings in valleys and around dormers, and put on wide zinc apron to protect junction of piazza and porch roofs and house wall, and warrant all tight for two years from the completion of the building. Make all tight under dormer sills and around dormers. Make scuttle 2' X 2' in roof where directed, with rebated frame 4" high, and cover hung with strong strap hinges, and to have iron bar fastening and fixtures to keep it open at any desired angle. Frame and cover to be tinned and all warranted tight. Enclose the walls with good hemlock boards planed one side to an even thickness, and two thicknesses of good felt paper breaking joint. Shingle the whole of the walls above belt at second-story floor level with first quality 16" sawed BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 231 cedar shingles, laid 6" to the weather and nailed with two common nails to each shingle. Where the shingles come against door or window casings nail only at the side next the casing, with two nails. Under window sills and elsewhere where exposed the nails to be galvanized. Shingles in gables to be laid alternately long and short, without selecting for uniform width, the difference in length to be ij^". Cut shingles, of uniform width ' ' , . . Cut Shingles and to pattern as per drawings, to be used in panels where shown on elevations. All other portions of the wall to be covered with sap-extra pine clapboards, all laid to a perfectly even gauge of not over 43/2", and all nailed to every stud with galvanized nails, set in for puttying. Put strips of zinc 3" wide around all window and door casings throughout, running under casings and clapboards or . . , Zinc shingles. Form the belt at second-story floor level according to detail drawings by putting on furrings over each stud on top of the under boarding and putting a second boarding out- side, brought to a feather edge at the top. The low- est of these boards to be planed on the edges and the shingles to be brought down over. Finish under the edge with a 21/4" bead. Under the moulding will be a belt i%" thick and to show 6", with the bottom edge rebated. Make also belt at level of window-sills where shown, of a 2*4" cove and fillet moulding, bevelled on top to correspond with the pitch of the window-sills, and put on over the shingles, which are to be gauged to correspond. Form the front edge of these window-sills so as to continue the moulding without any break. Form the base as shown on detail drawings, on sides next to piazza and porch to be i}4" thick, rebated on top, and to show 6" high above piazza floor, with small bevel, stopping against half-posts of the balustrade, scribed against the wall. In other places the base will be formed by i J4 " feather- edged piece standing out from the wall, the clapboards to be brought down over it, and a i J4" bead to run underneath. All of good, seasoned white pine. There will be corner-boards only in first story where clap- 232 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE boarded, shingles being in all cases brought out to the angles. All corner-boards, door and window casings to be i%" Corne^board * mc k> an< ^ ^ widths as marked on drawings, all of good, seasoned pine, and the top edge rebated. The porch will stand on 12" X 12" brick piers to be built by the mason. Piazza, to stand on red cedar posts, 4' in the ground, fur- nished and set, exclusive of excavation and refilling, Porch 3 ^ ky the carpenter. Floors to be framed as described above, and to be covered with y" rift hard-pine boards, not matched, laid close joint and well nailed and the outer edges rounded. Finish under edge of floor with a planed board 10" wide, case the posts in front with planed boards, and fill in between them, and between piers under porch, with jig-sawed work of y%" pine boards down to the ground, finishing with board, and with mouldings broken around to form panels, all as shown on drawings. Complete the porch and piazza, as per detail drawings, the bal- ustrades, braces, turned, carved and ornamental work to be all of good, seasoned white pine ; and ceil the underside of roofs, and of all projections of oriels, balconies, etc., with %" matched and beaded spruce sheathing not over 4" wide, on furring strips 12" on centres, formed into panels by %" X 4" bevelled strips, planted on. Case over the plate with %" pine with 4" bead on each edge, and finish the junction of piazza ceiling and main wall with 2" cove mouldings neatly stopped. All outside steps except the granite lower step at front entrance to have J^ " pine risers and i *4 " rift hard-pine treads with round- ed nosings returned at the ends : all to be supported on 2" X 12" spruce strings 12" on centres, the outer strings to be planed or cased, and the foot of the strings to be notched upon the granite step or upon a 4" X 4" piece supported by two red cedar posts 4' in the ground. Enclose under ends with vertical %" pine strips, jig-sawed as shown on drawings, with bevelled base. Make bulkhead entrance to cellar, with plank steps on plank strings, all planed, and cover of 4" matched pine boards, battened, hung with heavy strap hinges bolted on, in strong plank frame, and all made tight, and furnished with strong bar fastening. BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 233 All other outside finish is to be of good, thoroughly seasoned white pine in strict accordance with elevations and detail drawings, and all leaded where necessary make it weather-tight. Project beams for bays, oriels, etc., and do all furring and other work for completing the whole in the best and strongest manner. The carpenter must call upon the painter to prime all jexterior finish before putting up or immediately afterwards, , . 1 11 1 1 j Priming and is to replace all work warped or cracked. The Hall, Laundry, and Water-Closet in basement will have single floor of first quality %" rift hard pine, square joint, not over 6" wide. All other floors throughout the build- ing are to be double, the under floor to be of good Flooring hemlock boards, planed one side to an even thickness, well nailed, and two plies of good felt paper to be laid between all upper and under floors. Under flooring in Hall, Parlor and Bath- room to be not over 3" wide; in Kitchen, not over 6" wide; else- where to be any width. The Kitchen, Back Vestibule, Store-room and Butler's Pantry on first story, and Back Hall in first, second and third stories to have upper floor of first quality rift hard pine, not over 6" wide, matched and blind-nailed. The main Hall Floods on first story to have upper floor of first quality selected quartered %" oak, 2.y 2 " wide, matched, laid in. herring-bone pat- tern, as per detail drawing, and blind-nailed. The Parlor is to have upper floor of y%" second quality white pine, not over 6" wide, matched, but not blind-nailed, with border of [Dill's] par- quetry, 20" wide, in maple and cherry, of pattern No. [twenty-six] , all laid in the best manner and warranted not to shrink. The Bath- room in second story is to have upper floor of alternate strips of maple and mahogany, not over 4" wide, matched and blind-nailed. All other rooms and closets throughout the building to have upper floor of %" North Carolina pine, matched but not blind- nailed, not over 4" wide in first and second story chambers ; not over 6" wide elsewhere. Make mitred borders to all hearths, registers, and staircase openings. All under floors to be thoroughly repaired and cleaned before upper floors are laid. 234 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE All hard-wood flooring to be of the very best selected perfectly seasoned stock, and all upper floors to be kiln-dried, laid breaking joint in every course, well strained and nailed to every beam with twelve-pennies, and all neatly smoothed off by hand and scrubbed out at the completion of the building. Put on grounds for %" plastering in first story and Y^" else- where, and put on all angle-beads. Cross- fur all ceilings, including basement ceiling, with i" X 2" strips, 12" on centres, Furring Cross-fur rafters in finished attic rooms diagonally, with strips 12" on centres; fur out attic outside walls with studding to give 4' vertical height, and fur down attic ceiling to 9' clear height. Set grounds for vertical sheathing 4' high in Laundry, Kitchen and Bath-room ; for paneHed wainscot 3' high in first and second story Hall and Vestibule, and stairs from first to second story, and for bases elsewhere of heights as specified. Fur chimney-breasts with 2" X 4" studding set flatways, to be everywhere i" clear away from the brickwork; and fur outside stone walls of Laundry in basement with 2" X 4" studs set flat- ways. Fur for beams, arches, etc., as required. All furrings, grounds and angle-beads to be perfectly strong, true and plumb. Set all partitions with 2" X 4" studs 16" on centres, try with a straight-edge, and straighten and bridge before plastering. All partitions except those that stand over each other to stand on a 2" X 5% " piece, and all partitions to have 3" X A" cap. Where a partition stands over another, the studs of the upper partition must stand on the cap of the partition below not on the floor or on the beams. Truss over all openings in partitions which extend through more than one story, or carry beams ; and strongly truss all partitions not supported from below, to take the weight off the middle of the beams. Bridge all partitions in first and second stories with two rows of angular bridging of 2" X 4" pieces cut in and nailed with two nails at each end of each piece. Re- verse the direction of the bridging pieces in each row. Line the pockets for sliding doors with planed boards. Saw-dust Fill in with saw-dust or planing-mill chips between Filling beams around all water supply pipes which run in the floors, making all tight. BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 235 INTERIOR FINISH All the stock for interior finish of every kind is to be of the very best quality, thoroughly seasoned and of selected grain, and well smoothed, sand-papered and kiln-dried before putting up. Ash to be best Indiana calico figure, and whitewood to be free from white sap. The Laundry, Kitchen, and Back Halls throughout, including back stairs, are to be fin- ished in hard pine, excepting doors, which are to be of whitewood ; the Front Hall and Vestibule in first story to be finished in quar- tered oak, except stairs to second story, which are to be cherry. The parlor is to be finished in maple and the Dining-room in ash. The Bath-room in second story is to be finished in mahogany and maple. All other rooms and closets in first and second stories to be finished in whitewood. The hall and large front room in attic are to be finished in white pine for varnishing. All other rooms and closets in attic are to be finished in pine to paint. Make panelled partitions under front stairs as per detail draw- ings, the framing to be i 1 /^" thick, moulded, with raised panel 7/ 8 " thick, all bead and flush on back, a*titions all of quartered oak. Front Hall and Vestibule in first story, stairs from first to sec- ond story, and second-story hall, to have panelled wainscot 3' high, according to detail drawings, with framing ^g " thick, moulded and raised panels 1/4" thick, and moulded cap, but no base. To be of quartered oak in first-story Hall, cherry on stairs, and whitewood in second story. The Laundry in basement and Kitchen in first story are to be sheathed 4' high with %" matched and beaded vertical strips of hard pine, not over 4" wide, without base, but with neat bevelled cap. The Bath-room in second story is to have %" matched and beaded vertical sheathing, 4' high, of alternate strips of mahogany and maple, 3" wide, with neat bev- elled cap of mahogany and y%" bevelled mahogany base, 4" high. Case pipes with the same. The Parlor and Dining-room are to have moulded base, y%" X 10", according to detail drawings, to be of maple in Parlor, and ash in Dining-room. All sec- ond story rooms except Bath-room to have %" X 10" bevelled 236 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE base of whitewood. All other rooms and closets to have %" X 8" plain board base, of hard pine in back halls and back stairs throughout ; whitewood in remaining parts of basement, first and second stories ; pine to varnish in attic hall and large front room, and pine to paint in other rooms and closets in attic. Plough all bases together at the angles and put them on before the upper floor is laid, and allow y 2 " extra below top of floor. All doors and windows in first-story Hall and Vestibule, Parlor and Dining-room, and hall and all chambers in second story, to have iy$" X 4/4" architraves, moulded as per detail drawings. To be of quartered oak in Hall, maple in Parlor, ash in Dining-room, and whitewood in second-story hall and chambers. All other doors and windows to haxe % " X 4/4 " plain square board architraves, of mahogany in Bath-room, and elsewhere of wood to correspond with finish of room. The architraves of doors and windows in Parlor, Hall and Dining-room will have corner blocks with carved rosettes accord- Plinth-blocks * n * detail drawings; all others to be mitred. All and Comer moulded door-architraves throughout will have plain Blocks plinth-blocks. Architraves in Parlor, first-story Hall, Vestibule, Kitchen, Laundry and back halls to be carried to floor ; elsewhere to be cut 3-16" short, to allow for carpet. All stool-caps to be y" thick, with round edges, of wood to correspond with the finish of the several rooms ; and in rooms with moulded finish to have moulding and be according to detail drawings ; elsewhere to have bevelled board 4" wide under. Brad all architraves, bases and other moulded work in the quirks of the mouldings, and set in all finish-nails for puttying. No splicing of any architrave will be allowed, and joints of bases must be carefully matched. Front and kitchen outside doors to be made of pine according to detail drawings, the front door to be 2j4" thick, moulded both sides, with panels raised and carved outside only as shown ; the kitchen door to be 2" thick, moulded both sides, with plain panels raised one side only. All doors in first-story Hall, Parlor and Dining-room, includ- ing each leaf of double doors, to be i J4" thick, 8' high, 8-panelled BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 237 according to detail drawings, with flush mouldings and raised panels both sides. All to have thoroughly seasoned pine cores, veneered with quartered oak in Hall and Vestibule, i -n i j 1 TV r>k Inside Doors maple in Parlor and ash m Dining-room. Doors opening between rooms finished in hard wood are to be veneered to correspond with the rooms; but doors opening from rooms finished in hard wood into closets or inferior rooms, are to be veneered both sides with the hard wood. Doors from Hall to Vestibule to be similar to other doors in Hall except that the four upper panels are to be filled with stained glass in lead work, to be selected by the owner, but paid for and set by the carpenter, and to cost $2.00 per square foot, exclusive of setting. All other in- side doors throughout the house to be ij^" thick, of solid white- wood. To be 7' 6" high throughout second story, f high in Attic, Kitchen and Basement. Second-story doors to be 5~pan- elled according to detail drawings, with flush mouldings and raised bevelled panels both sides. Attic, Kitchen and Basement doors, except sash-doors, -to be 4-panelled square with raised panels both sides. The door from Laundry to Basement hall way will have sash in upper part, in 6 lights, glazed with best J4 " ribbed plate glass ; the glass and glazing to be furnished by the carpenter. All doors to have i J4" rebated and beaded frames of wood to correspond with the finish of the room, and all to have $/&" hard- pine thresholds. Veneer frames where necessary to f. ,.,v , . ., orj- j Door Frames show different wood on each side. Sliding doors between Parlor and Hall to have astragal and hollow on the meet- ing-styles. Double front outside doors to meet with the ordinary bevel, but to have half of a turned colonnette planted on one leaf to protect the joint. Vestibule doors and double doors between Dining-room and Hall to meet with ordinary bevel, and moulding over joint. The carpenter is to furnish all window frames and sashes, and is to deliver the sashes and sash doors, excepting those which he is himself to furnish ready glazed, to the contractor for painting and glazing, and bring them back to the building when completed ; and is also to deliver all frames for 238 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE cellar windows and doors when required by the mason for build- ing into the walls. All windows in Basement except in Laundry are to have ify" rebated pine frames and 2^4" sills, and ij^" pine sashes hinged at the top, with galvanized hooks and staples to keep Windows them open, and strong japanned iron button fasten- ings ; and to have heavy galvanized wire netting with y%" mesh nailed securely on outside of frame. Make frame only for cold-air box openings, covered with galvanized netting in the same manner. The small windows in Laundry Closet in Basement and in Coat-closet, Pantry, and China-closet in first story, Fixed Sashes , J ' j T /// are to have rebated plank frames and i l / 2 pine sashes, screwed in tight. All other windows throughout the building are to have boxed frames with pockets, 2" sills pitching ij4", and ploughed for shingles or clapboards as required, all of pine except Window""" 9 beads and Pulley-styles, which are to be of hard pine; and ij^" clear pine sashes in lights as shown, with moulded sash-bars and counter-checked meeting rails, all to be double hung with best steel-axle capped brass-faced pulleys, and best shoe-thread sash-line and best iron weights, and well balanced. Inside beads to be of hard pine throughout, and all put on with round-headed blued screws. Frames in rooms finished with hard wood to have a strip of corresponding wood veneered on the inner edge of the frame. Make and put up dresser in Kitchen as per drawings, all of hard pine. To be 5' wide and 8' high, including neat cornice, with two cupboards under with shelf in each, and four shelves above, enclosed by % " sash doors to slide past each other on metal tracks, with sheaves complete ; all to be furnished ready glazed with first quality sheet-glass by the car- penter and fitted up in perfect order. Fit up the China-closet 'as shown on drawings or as directed A by the owner, with stand for sink and cupboard under, China-Closet J , , -j 1 and four drawers each side; a large cupboard with two shelves; six glass shelves 6" wide on one side, with open fronts, but to have brackets and neat fancy turned standards ; and BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 239 five shelves on the other side, 14" wide and enclosed with %" sash doors in front to slide past each other on metal tracks, all to be furnished glazed with first quality glass and fitted up with sheaves complete by the carpenter. All the work in China-closet to be of whitewood. Fit up slide in partition with porcelain pull to run sideways. Fit up Pantry with three barrel-cupboards, with neat panelled doors and lifting covers, one case of three drawers, and four shelves running all around. All of whitewood. Fit up Coat-closet in whitewood, with one case of four draw- ers, a shoe rack with eight compartments, each 8" , Coat Closet square, and two rows of hooks. Fit up all closets not specially described above as marked on plans, or as directed by the owner. All closets hi C| t second story more than 18" deep, and two closets in attic, are to have, unless otherwise indicated, a case of three drawers, with three shelves over, and two rows of hooks. The remaining closets to have two rows of hooks, and one shelf above. All drawers to have neat panelled or moulded fronts, and to run on hard-wood centre strips. Make tank in attic where directed, 4' long, 2' wide, and 2' deep inside, of I %" planed pine plank, with splined joints, to be lined by the plumber. Make cover to the same of matched and beaded pine sheathing, battened on the under side, with rounded edges, and hasp and padlock fastening. Make strong frame to support wash-trays in Laundry, with 2%" ornamental turned legs, and put neat covers to wash-trays, all of whitewood. Put beaded strips of whitewood on walls and ceilings of Kitchen and Laundry, and chen Sink mahogany in Bath-room, for pipes to run on, and case over such pipes as may be directed with neat casings of wood suited to the rooms, screwed on with brass screws. Provide and hang first quality I J^ " outside blinds to all win- dows, divided and hinged with care so as to fold back neatly and without interfering. All to have rolling slats in the lower half only. Divided blinds, and those of fixed windows, to be hung with wrought-iron L-hinges ; all others to be fitted complete with patent approved blind-awning fixtures, and 240 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE all to have approved patent ring fasts, except those for fixed win- dows, which are to have best patent wire fasts, so that they can be opened from the outside. Furnish mosquito screens to all outside doors and windows. Those for the windows to slide outside the sashes on beads put up for the purpose. Those for the doors to be hung on Net?"'* ^ e outs ide, with springs to keep them closed, and brass hook and staple fastening. All to be made in the best manner with frames of clear seasoned pine, %" thick, covered with suitable wire netting, and all to be stained, varnished, fitted, and marked complete by the carpenter, and neatly stored in a convenient place in the attic. Furnish outside sashes to all exterior windows, to be of clear seasoned pine, ij" thick, glazed with first quality double-thick glass, in lights to correspond with inner sash, packed Windows w ^ n 'sting around the edges, and arranged to be secured by round-headed screws from the inside to small permanent brass plates set flush with the outside of the cas- ing and firmly screwed to it. Six plates and screws are to be provided for each window, and for convenience in fixing, project- ing screws are to be set in the outside sash, by which it can be hung from the edge of the upper plates, while the other screws are ad- justed. All to be made in the best manner, glazed, painted three coats, fitted and marked complete by the carpenter, and safely stored in a convenient place in basement. The carpenter is to set all mantels in the best manner, and case over for protection until the house is delivered, re- Mante?s moving the casing only for painters' work, and re- placing afterwards. The carpenter is to make mantels to all fireplaces, and also shelves with brackets in chambers which have no fire- places, in the best manner, in strict accordance with detail drawings and the directions accompanying them. To be of first quality thoroughly seasoned stock to match the finish of the rooms, and all well bolted and dowelled together. Make strong step-ladder of planed spruce to scuttle Step-Ladder . , J , s in roof : to be removable. Fit up shelf along one side of Laundry and Kitchen, 4^ feet BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 241 above floor, strongly supported, and put one row of hooks on beaded strip under the same. Put up also neat roller for towel in Kitchen, and hook strip over sink, and put 20 feet run of shelving in furnace-cellar in the most suitable place, and three shelves for batteries and gas-meter where directed by the electrician, bell-hanger, and gas-fitter, and swing shelf where directed. Make in a suitable place a strong double box of i}4" matched and beaded pine, to contain ash and garbage barrels, with division between. Each part to have battened door in front, with good lock and two keys, for remov- ing barrels, and lifting cover on top, hung with brass butts, and with brass hook and staple fastening. Put base-knobs with inserted rubber to all doors, J * A L JZ ' 1 of wood to match finish of room. Fit up strong flap-table in Kitchen and one in , j r Flap Tables Laundry, of pine. Make two good coal-bins in cellar as directed, to , . , b , Coal-Bins hold ten tons each. Build temporary privy for the workmen, to be cleared away and the place cleaned out, filled up, and graded over at the completion of the house. Cut the floor for registers and hearths as may be requisite, and fit borders neatly around, and cut as required for m , 1 u c.^. j xi. i Miscellaneous plumbers, gas-fitters, and other workmen, repairing neatly afterwards. Assist other workmen employed in the build- ing, furnish centres, patterns for bays, lintels, and rough furring as may be needed. HARDWARE THE sliding-doors between Parlor and Hall are to be hung in the best manner with approved patent sheaves and track complete; to have Russell & Erwin's solid bronze sunk handles, pattern No. 332, dark finish, and bronze astragal-face sliding-door locks and pulls of the same make, pattern No. 333. 16 242 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE The front outside double doors are to be hung with 6" X 6" g Russell & Erwin's fancy solid bronze dark finish acorn loose-pin butts of pattern No. 15, three to each leaf, with steel bushings and steel washers. All other doors in first-story Hall, Vestibule, Parlor and Din- ing-room are to be hung with 5" X 5" bronze acorn steel washer japanned loose- joint butts, three to each door or leaf of double doors. All other doors throughout the building are to be hung with 4" X 4" japanned loose-joint acorn butts with steel washers, two butts to each door. The front door is to have Yale Lock Co.'s patent front-door Locks mortise lever-lock, with brass or bronze face and striking-plate and night-latch, with one key to the large lock and four to the night-latch. All other doors throughout the building to have Russell & Erwin's, Corbin's, or Nashua Lock Co.'s 5-inch mortise-locks, with brass face and striking-plate, brass bolts, and German-silver or plated keys ; no two keys in the house to be alike. The outside kitchen door is to have in addition a Yale rim night-latch, with two keys. The front outside door is to have Russell & Erwin's fancy solid bronze dark finish 2^ -inch knobs, pattern No. 923, on both sides of one leaf only. Doors in basement, kitchen and attic to have 2^-inch best lava knobs with bronze roses and escutcheons. All other doors throughout the building to have Russell & Erwin's 2j/J-inch fancy solid bronze dark-finish knobs, pattern No. 933. Double doors to have knobs on one leaf only. The outside front and vestibule doors, and double doors be- tween first-story Hall and Dining-room, are to have bronze-metal Bolts flush-bolt at top and bottom of the leaf which has no lock, and front outside and vestibule doors will have in addition a strong solid bronze chain bolt. The kitchen outside door, door at head of basement stairs, door of basement water- closet, and doors of bath-room and all chambers in second story, to have mortise-bolts with bronze roses and bronze keys. BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 243 Cupboard All cupboard doors to be hung with brass butts Doors anc i to have brass slip-latches. Drawer-Pulls All drawers to have plain japanned iron pulls. All double-hung windows to have Fitch's patent sash-fasts, to be of solid bronze in first-story Hall, Vestibule, Par- 1 j T^- - i, j T> r i Sash-Fasts lor, and Dining-room; bronzed iron or Boston finish elsewhere, and two pulls on lower sash to correspond. Put heavy double hooks of japanned cast-iron in closets and other places specified : to be in two rows unless other- wise expressly directed, and to be 8" apart in each row; those in the upper row to be set over the middle of the spaces between those in the lower row. All brass hardware to be put on with brass screws, plated with plated screws, bronze or bronzed with bronze screws, , . j i r 1 j Screws and japanned with blued screws. STAIRS [This is very commonly made a separate contract, and in that case the General Conditions should precede.] The front stairs from first to second story are to have open string, moulded nosings returned at the ends and carried around well-room, %" risers and treads, housed into the wainscot on the wall side, the treads ploughed into the risers, and risers ploughed into underside of treads; i^4" fancy turned balusters, two to a tread and around well-rooms in the same proportion, all dovetailed at the foot and tenoned into underside of rail; 2%" X 3^/2" double moulded hand-rail; 4" X 4" solid turned, chamfered and fluted posts at angles, with half-post at upper termination of rail, and 5" X 5" fluted and carved box post at foot : all to be strictly in accordance with detail drawings. The posts and rail are to be of best Spanish mahogany, all the rest to be of cherry. Outside string on stairs, and face-board around well-room, to have moulding to cover joint with plaster. The back stairs from first story to attic are to have open string, rounded nosings returned at the ends and carried 1 n ~,/n 1 11 i Backstairs around well-rooms : % risers and treads, the treads ploughed into risers, and risers ploughed into underside of treads, and both treads and risers to be ploughed for the base on the wall 244 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE side; 1%" plain round balusters, two to a tread and around well- rooms in the same proportion, and mortised at top and bottom; 2"X2%" plain moulded hand-rail, and 3%" X 3J4" solid turned and chamfered post at each angle and at foot, with half post at upper end of rail : all to be according to detail drawings, of hard pine throughout. The stairs to cellar are to go down under the front stairs ; to have %" risers and treads with rounded nosings, ploughed for Cellar Stairs ^ asej I ^ // P^ am roun< ^ balusters, two to a tread, and mortised into treads and underside of rail, and 2" X 2%" plain round hand-rail : all to be of hard pine. All stairs are to be framed and supported in the best and strongest manner, on 2" X 12" spruce strings "12" on centres: all to be thoroughly wedged, blocked and glued in the best manner, and left clean and perfect. The stair-builder is to put on all the face-boards and nosings around well-rooms and is to furnish and put on plain square hard-pine base on wall side of back stairs and cellar stairs, ploughed into treads and risers, and is to do all the work of housing the front stairs into the wainscot. BELLS [This is often included in the carpenter's contract. If it is separ- ated the General Conditions should precede the Specification. If electric gas-lighting is introduced (see specification below) the bells may be included in the contract with it.] Put in electric bells as follows, with annunciator in kitchen, battery, insulated copper wires, push-buttons to match finish of rooms and bells of five different tones, all put in in the best man- ner and warranted for three years : Bell from front door to ring in Kitchen and in Attic hall. Bell from Kitchen outside door to ring in Kitchen. Foot-bell from Dining-room to ring in Kitchen. Bell from Parlor to ring in Kitchen. Bell from second-story Hall to ring in Kitchen. Bell from second-story Hall to ring in Attic Hall. The pulls for the outside front and Kitchen doors only will be furnished by the carpenter. All wires to be run behind the plastering. BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 245 ELECTRIC GAS-LIGHTING [The General Conditions should precede the Specification unless this is joined with some other contract.] Wire all the gas outlets in the building with the best insulated copper wire, all concealed behind the plastering. The drop-light in first-story Hall is to be wired for automatic burner, to light from wall of Hall near door to Vestibule, and also from east w r all of chamber over Dining-room, just under the bracket outlet. The bracket at foot of cellar stairs is to be wired for automatic burner, to light from wall at head of stairs. All other outlets are to be wired for pull-burners. When directed, after the fixtures are in place, put automatic burners on first-story Hall lantern and on bracket at foot of cellar stairs with buttons as above specified ; and put four pull-burners on Dining-room chandelier, six on Parlor chandelier, four on brack- ets in Parlor, three in each of three principal chambers in second story, of which two will be on the mirror light, and one on bracket as directed ; one on second-story Hall bracket, and one on bracket in Bath-room. All to be of the best pattern, perfectly tight against any escape of gas; all fitted up in the best manner, with battery complete, and to be kept in good order free of expense for two years. ELECTRIC LIGHTING [The General Conditions should precede unless this is joined with some other Contract.] Wire the building complete for incandescent electric lighting on the three-wire system for no- volt 1 6 candle-power lamps, with outlets as marked on plans; all fixtures to be combination gas and electric except ceiling lights in Vestibule, Parlor and Dining-room, which are to be straight electric. Ceiling light in Vestibule to be single ; those in Parlor and Dining-room to have four lights each. The Vestibule ceiling light, and bracket lights in first and second story halls, to be controlled by switches where marked in first and second story hall, either switch to control the three lights; the Parlor and Dining-room ceiling lights are each to have two switches, each switch to control two lights; and the 246 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE bracket light at foot of cellar stairs is to be controlled by switch at head of stairs. All other lights to be controlled by key only. All wire to be approved rubber-covered, concealed, and installed complete according to rules of National Board of Fire Under* writers, and all the work is to be subject to the approval of the inspector of the Board. The contractor is to furnish service switch and main cutout where wires enter the building, and other cutouts as required, all conveniently placed, and connected com- plete, and is to wire for meter and connect switches, which are to be nickel-plated flush snap switches of approved pattern. After the fixtures are in place the contractor is to connect them, test thoroughly, and leave all the work perfect, and warranted for one year from completion. PAINTING AND GLAZING [// this is made a separate contract the General Conditions should precede the Specification.'] , Oil hard-pine piazza and porch floors and treads of steps two coats. . Stain sheathing under piazza and porch roofs with one coat of light oil of creosote. Paint all roofs one coat of pure Venetian red in oil, finishing with a second coat of pure Indian red. Paint all other outside wood and metal work two coats, of three tints as directed : the first story to be one shade, the second story another, and the doors and trimmings a third. Paint also the mouldings on belts, etc., where directed, in Ventian red. Paint the blinds three coats of color as directed. Paint sashes three coats of color as directed. All hard-wood floors and borders, including hard-pine floors in Kitchen and Basement, are to have two good coats Floors ^ ^ anc * dryer an d to be filled, and finished with best hard wax, put on in the best manner and well rubbed. Other hard-pine wood-work, and all ash and whitewood finish, to be filled with oil filler, and to have two coats of best varnish, rubbed down with emery cloth and oil. The maple finish in Parlor is to be filled with oil filler and to have four coats of white shellac, rubbed down with emery cloth and oil. The BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 247 cherry stairs are to be stained in the best manner to imitate ma- hogany, filled with oil filler and finished with two coats of best varnish rubbed down with emery cloth and oil. The mahogany posts and rails are to be filled and varnished with two coats of best copal varnish. Oak wood-work in Hall is to be oiled one light coat, filled with oil filler and finished with best hard wax, well rubbed. The pine in Attic hall and large room is to be oiled one coat and varnished with two coats of copal varnish. Other wood-work in attic is to be painted three coats of pure zinc white and oil, to finish with a plain oil surface, not flatted. Inside of sashes to be stained cherry color and sashes varnished. Varnish all exposed lead and brass pipes and e i 1 11 P 'P CS bands with one coat of white shellac. All materials are to be of the very best quality. Pure linseed oil only is to be used, mixed with turpentine or dryer as may be necessary. The body for inside work is to be pure zinc white, and for outside work to be National Lead Company's pure white lead, unless otherwise directed. Putty-stop thoroughly and smoothly all work inside and out- side after the first coat and before the last coat, Puttying coloring the putty to match the wood after dark- ening. Use wax suitably colored instead of ordinary Wax putty wherever wax finish is specified. Cover all knots, sap and pitchy places with strong shellac, and kill knots or pitch with lime where necessary. Sand- paper all inside work, rubbing with the grain, and clear out all mouldings before the first coat, and sand-paper after each coat of paint, shellac or varnish except the last. GLAZING [This is almost invariably included in the contract for painting.] Glaze all inside and outside sashes, except those specified to be furnished ready glazed by the carpenter, in lights as shown on drawings or as directed, with first-quality double-thick glass; all well bedded, puttied, back-puttied, and tacked, and all repaired at the completion of the building, thoroughly cleaned and left whole and perfect. 248 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE PLUMBER [// this is made a separate contract, as it usually should be, the full title and the General Conditions must precede the Specifi- cation.] Fixtures There will be In Basement: Set of four Wash-Trays. Cold Supply to Wash-Boiler. One flushing-rim Short Hopper with lead trap. Sill-Cock. Furnace Supply. In First Story: One Kitchen Sink with draining shelves and wall plates. One 4O-gallon Bath-Boiler. One Pantry Sink. In Second Story: One Bath. Three Wash-Basins. One Siphon- jet Water-Closet. In Third Story: Tank. All iron pipes, including both waste and air pipes, to be of the best quality, with all proper fittings ; all to be double-thick, and all to be thoroughly coated inside and outside in the best manner with asphaltum before putting up, and the outside to have a second coat afterwards : all to be put up in the best and strongest manner with iron hooks and stays, and the joints caulked with oakum and melted lead. All cold-water supply, air, and waste pipes under 2" are to be best drawn lead, and to weigh as follows: Rising Main: ^-inch to weigh 4 Ibs. per foot. Other Supply-Pipes: i -inch to weigh 5 Ibs. per foot. -?/ a (( t( ft (t t( *A 4 r/ (( (( (( ~ (( (( (( I / It (( (( ~ (( (t Waste, Air and Overflow Pipes: 2-inch to weigh 5 Ibs. per foot. T j / (( a t( _ " t( i( BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 249 Hot-water pipes throughout to be of National Tube Works' best seamless drawn annealed brass tubing, iron pipe sizes, with brass fittings, all put together with red lead in the best manner and made perfectly tight. All lead and brass pipes are to be put up in the best manner on boards set in place by the carpenter. The lead pipes are to be secured with hard metal tacks or brass bands and screws, and brass pipes with brass bands. No hooks are to be used. The hot and cold water pipes are to be kept at least y*" apart every- where. All joints in lead pipes throughout are to be wiped joints, no cup-joints to be permitted anywhere; and all brass pipes are to be put up with right-angled turns so arranged as to allow free expansion and contraction All connections between lead and iron pipes and traps are to be made with cast-brass ferrules, of the same size as the lead pipes, soldered to the lead pipes with wiped joints, and caulked with oakum and melted lead into the iron pipes. The waste-pipes are to run as follows : The main 4-inch soil-pipe is to be extended through the north side of cellar-wall, and jointed air-tight with clear Portland cement into the drain-pipe outside. From this point it is to run with uniform pitch along the cellar-wall, and under floor of basement water-closet, to a point in Laun- dry under second-story water-closet, with 4-inch Y-branch to receive trap of basement water-closet, with 3-inch Y-branch for waste-pipe from Laundry wash-trays, then turning up on Laun- dry wall with 4 t -inch Y-branch and 4-inch brass trap-screw caulked in at the turn for cleaning out the pipe, and running straight up on Laundry wall through the Kitchen floor and Bath- room with 2-inch Y-branch below Kitchen floor for waste-pipe from Kitchen sink, 4-inch Y-branch below Bath-room floor for pipe from trap of water-closet, and 2-inch T-branch above all other connections for air-pipe from traps ; and thence straight up through and two feet above the roof ; the top to be protected with brass wire netting, and a flange of i6-oz. copper, 18" square, to be soldered on to protect roof, shingled in and warranted tight. Carry a 3-inch iron pipe from the connection provided for it in Laundry with uniform pitch on north wall of Laundry to the 250 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE corner, there turning, with Y-branch and 3-inch brass trap-screw for cleaning out, accessible from the vegetable-cellar, and continu- ing with the same pitch on east wall of Laundry be- kind wash-trays, with Y-branch for pipe from trap of wash-trays, to a point nearly under pantry sink in first story, and there turning, with Y-branch and 3-inch brass trap-screw at the turn for cleaning out, and continuing up on Laundry wall to China-closet, with 1^2 -inch Y-branch under floor for waste from pantry sink, and up through China-closet and closets over it, with double 1^2 -inch Y-branch under second-story floor for wastes from wash-basins, and 2-inch T-branch for air- pipe from traps above all other connections and thence straight up through the roof and 2 feet above, with brass wire netting on top, and 1 8" X 18'" flange of i6-oz. copper soldered on and all war- ranted tight. Carry a 2-inch iron air-pipe, all caulked air-tight in the same way as other iron pipes, from trap of basement water-closet be- side the main soil-pipe to the connection with soil- Iron Air-Pipes . . , , ., . r ,. , . , ^ , , pipe provided for it in Bath-room, with 2 T-branch above Bath-room floor for connection with lead air-pipe from traps of sink in Kitchen, and wash-basin, bath and water-closet in Bath- room. Carry a separate 2-inch iron air-pipe from trap of Laun- dry wash-trays beside the 3-inch waste pipe to the connection pro- vided for it in second story, with 1^2 -inch T-branches to receive air-pipes from trap of pantry sink and second-story wash-basins. The plumber is to apply for J^-inch service-pipe from street main to house, and pay all charges, if any, for it, and is, when called upon, to furnish and fit up temporary cock in cellar to supply water for building. As soon as the house is plastered he is to complete the permanent supply-pipes as follows : Carry ^-inch four-pound rising-main up on cellar- wall and walls of Laundry, Kitchen and Bath-room to tank in attic, with stop-and-waste cock at cellar-wall, and branches as follows : In Basement: 24-inch branch to Sill-cock, branch to Furnace Supply. " " Water-closet cistern. " " Laundry wash-trays. BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 251 In Kitchen: J^-inch branch to Kitchen sink. 5^-inch branch to China-closet, running on Kitchen ceil- ing, and dividing in China-closet into three ^-inch branches, one of which is to supply the pantry sink, and the other two the wash-basins in second-story chambers. In Bath-room: %-inch branch to bath ; the same to supply wash- bowl by a 3/2 -inch branch. YZ -inch branch to Water-closet cistern. All hot and cold water supply, waste and air-pipes exposed in chambers and bath-room to be nickel-plated brass, with plated floor flanges. Every branch from the rising-main is to have separate stop- and-waste cock in a convenient place, and so arranged that the pipes can be completely drained of water ; and each of the three branches in China-closet is also to have vvasteCocks separate stop-and-waste cock, to shut off the pantry sinks or either basin and empty the pipes at pleasure. All stop- and-waste cocks to be finished brass ground cocks of the best quality. Line under and behind all pipes and traps running in floors with eleven-ounce zinc, the horizontal joints to be well soldered, and the upright joints to be lapped. This lining is to enclose completely all pipes, to protect ceilings and Pipe Lining walls from any defect or leak, present or future. The lining to be graded to certain points, and to be connected with ^4-inch drip pipes to run to basement, and empty over cis- tern of basement water-closet ; the end of the pipe to dip below the water-line of cistern. Line with i6-oz. tinned copper in the best manner the tank in attic, 4' X 2' X 2', to be furnished ready for lining by the car- penter. Supply from the rising-main, with 5/^-inch finished brass compression ball-cock and 6-inch copper float, and put in i J4~inch boiler valve, with 94 -inch pipe to boiler, and Ij4-inch lead overflow pipe, to be carried down beside rising- main and to empty over kitchen sink, with the end over the sink turned up to form a trap. Hot water will be supplied to Laundry wash-trays, Kitchen sink, pantry sink, bath, and three wash-basins. 252 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE Furnish and fit up in Kitchen, beside range, a 4Ogallon, first- quality, warranted copper bath-boiler, on Lockwood pattern cast- iron stand, to be connected to water-back of range with i" brass pipe and ground-plug sediment-cock union coupling, and to have waste-pipe carried to the waste-pipe from kitchen sink. The boiler is to have three brass pipe-coup- lings on top, one for the supply from tank, and the others for two separate ^4-inch hot-water supplies. One of these is to be car- ried on Kitchen ceiling, with 54 -inch branch to Kitchen sink, thence to Bath-room, with ^-inch branch to bath and ^2 -inch branch to wash basin, and to continue on Bath-room wall and ceiling to connect with the coupling provided on the boiler for circulation, and a J^-inch expansion pipe to be carried from the highest point of the circulation pipe two feet above the tank, and turned down over the mouth of the overflow pipe. The other % -inch hot- water supply-pipe is to be carried on Kitchen ceiling to China-closet, with ^5 -inch branch down on Kitchen wall to Laundry wash-trays, and J^-inch branch to pantry sink. Be^ yond the China-closet it is to divide into two ^-inch branches, extending to wash basins in second-story chambers, without any circulation or expansion pipe. Put three finished brass stop-and-waste cocks on hot-water Hot- Water supply-pipes in China-closet, to shut off pantry sink stop-and- and wash-basins in second story chambers separately, Waste Cocks at pi easurC) an( } drain the pipes. Put two cocks of the same kind over Kitchen sink, to shut off the sink or the Bath- room fixtures. Furnish and fit up in Bath-room and two chambers in second story, where shown or directed, three best 14 X 17 oval white earthenware overflow ground wash-basins. Each to be supplied with hot and cold water through J/2-inch pipe, and No. 4 extra nickel-plated cast-tube compression basin-cocks; and to waste through plated socket and strainer, with plated plug and chain- stay, bolted to the marble, and plated safety-chain Wash-Basins AT JJ _, . , ' . . , * . 1 No. i, i j/2 -inch pipe to main waste with i^-inch plated brass S-trap close to the outlet, and trap-screw, and ij^- inch vent-pipe to main air-pipe. All pipes, traps, etc., above floor to be nickel plated, all to have floor or wall flanges, plated, and all BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 253 to be put up in the neatest manner as directed by the archi- tect. Cover each basin with i^-inch, best quality, blue- veined Italian marble slab, dished, with all free edges ogee moulded, and with J^-inch wall-plates of the same marble, 15" high, with ogee- moulded edges. Basins to be secured to marble with three brass basin clamps and bolts to each, and the joint to be made tight with plaster-of-Paris. Marble to be supported by fancy nickel- plated brass brackets to be selected by the owner. Furnish and fit up in Bath-room, where shown or directed, one 5^4 -foot best enamelled iron roll-rim guaranteed Perfecto bath, to be supplied with hot and cold water through ^-inch pipe, plated above floor, and ^-inch extra nickel-plated compression bath bibb-cocks; and to waste through plated socket and strainer, with plated plug and chain-stay, and plated safety-chain No. 2, with 2-inch lead pipe to main waste, and 4.V 2 " round lead trap, with plated trap-screw and i^-inch lead vent-pipe to main air-pipe. Connect the overflow to the waste by 15/2 -inch lead pipe, entering below the water-line. Furnish and fit up in China-closet, where shown or directed, one recessed 24-02. tinned and planished copper 14" X 20" flat- bottomed overflow pantry sink ; to be supplied with hot and cold water through tall extra nickel-plated upright core compression pantry cocks, with screw nozzle for cold water ; and to waste through plated socket and strainer, with plated standing waste in recess, and i^-inch lead pipe to main waste, with 4-inch round trap and 4-inch plated brass trap-screw, and I ^2 -inch lead vent-pipe to main air-pipe. Cover with 1%-mch best quality, blue- veined Italian marble slab, dished, with all free edges ogee-moulded, and with %-inch wall-plates of the same marble, 15" high, with ogee-moulded edges. Furnish and fit up in second story Bath-room where shown, one first-class approved wash-down siphon or siphon- jet water-closet, of vitreous china, complete wi finished tank, seat and cover, all of mahogany, plated tank brackets, flush-pipe, rod and guide, and celluloid pull ; to be supplied through J^-inch pipe, brass Fuller ball-cock and 254 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE tinned copper float, brass cistern valve, cranks, lever, etc., com- plete ; and to waste through 4-inch lead pipe to main waste, with 2-inch vent to main air-pipe. Connect local vent to range flue by 2-inch copper pipe, carried up and across under ceiling. Furnish and fit up in Basement where shown one best vitreous china short flushing-rim hopper water-closet, with finished oak seat and cover, heavy lead trap, plain tank, lined with i6-oz. tinned copper, brass Fuller ball-cock and copper float, brass cis- tern valve, lever, etc., complete, with plated safety chain No. 2, and neat pull, and ij4" brass or heavy lead flush pipe. To waste through 4-inch lead pipe to main waste, with 2-inch vent to main air-pipe. Furnish and fit up complete in kitchen where shown or direct- ed one first-class Standard guaranteed enamelled iron roll-nm kitchen sink, 22X42, with 1 5-inch roll back, air- chambers, bronzed iron legs, and ash draining board on bronzed iron bracket. To be supplied with hot and cold water through ^i -inch pipe and J^-inch nickel-plated compression bibb- cocks, the cold water cock to have screw nozzle; and to waste through 6-inch brass cesspool and strainer, and i l / 2 -inch lead pipe to main waste, with 6-inch round lead trap and 4-inch brass socket and trap-screw, with iJ/2-inch lead, vent-pipe to main air-pipe. Furnish and fit up in Laundry where shown or directed a set of four best soap-stone wash-trays, on wood frame provided by the carpenter. All to be set complete by the plumber, Wash Trays , , ,. , . , f J , : , t and each to be supplied with hot and cold water through JHrinch pipe and ^-inch finished brass compression wash-tray cocks. To waste through best silver-plated wash- tray strainers and couplings, with plugs and safety chain No. 2 all silver-plated, and to have one 6-inch round lead trap for the set of four trays, with 4-inch brass trap-screw, and separate iJ/- inch lead waste-pipe from each tray, all entered into the trap be- low the water-line, with 2-inch lead outlet pipe from trap to main waste, and 2-inch lead vent-pipe from trap to main air-pipe. Supply the wash-boiler, to be furnished and set b y the mason > witn cold water only, through ^-i lead pipe, carried through top of boiler, and finished brass ground stop-cock in a convenient position over the BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 255 boiler ; and waste through ^4-inch 3-lb. lead pipe to main waste, with ^4-inch [finished brass stop-cock, and brass strainer in the boiler. Bore through sill of house under middle of front bay, or else- where where directed, and put on outside a J4~inch Cock best plated compression sill-cock. Supply by J branch from rising main, with shut-off as above specified. Furnish and fit up on pier next to furnace a j- & u \ inch finished brass compression bibb-cock with screw Furnace nozzle, supplied through ^-inch pipe. All work is to be done in the very best, neatest and most thor- ough manner. As soon as the waste and air-pipes are in, the outlets are to be plugged, and the main soil-pipe filled with water to the top, and all defects so shown are to be made good, until the whole system is perfectly tight. As the work is completed, every part is to be tested with the water on, and all defects are to be made good, and the whole left perfect at the completion of the building, and warranted for two years. GAS-FITTING [The gas-fitting is often included in the plumber's contract.} Pipe the house for gas in the best manner in accordance with , the regulations of the Gas Company, with outlets as marked on plans, [seventy-two} outlets in all. All pipe to be best wrought iron, and all fittings under 2-inch to be of malleable iron. All to be put together with red lead, capped, tested and proved perfectly tight before any plastering is done, and the caps left on. All pipes are to be laid with a fall towards the meter, which is to be placed [in furnace-cellar near west win- dow'] , and all are to be well secured with hooks and bands. The gas-fitter is to call upon the carpenter to do such cutting of timbers as he needs, but no beams are to be cut, notched or bored at a greater distance than 2 feet from the bearing; drop- lights where requisite to be supplied by special branches. All nipples to be of the exact length for puting on fixtures without alteration, and all to be exactly perpendicular to the wall or ceil- ing from which they project. Bracket outlets in all Halls and 256 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE passages, Parlor, Dining-room, Kitchen, Bath-room, Furnace- cellar and Basement Water-closet, to be exactly 5' 6" above fin- ished floor; elsewhere to be exactly 4' 9" above finished floor. Mirror light outlets to be 8' above finished floor. Apply and pay all necessary charges for service-pipe from street main to inside of cellar-wall, and connect the Meter *'" 9 sery ice-pipe and house-pipes with the meter in the best manner, with stop-cock on the street side of the meter, and leave all perfect. HEATING Furnish and set where shown or directed in Basement one best quality No. 26 portable [Kelsey] furnace, in- cluding heavy galvanized iron casing and top, 8-inch heavy galvanized iron smoke-pipe, tin hot-air pipes, register- boxes, registers, soapstone borders, floor, partition and other rings, wire nettings and dampers complete, and including also all cartage, transportation and labor of every kind except only mason and carpenter work. In First Story: The Front Hall is to have 1 2-inch pipe and 12" X 15" register. The Back Hal1 is to have I2 ' mch P J P e and 12" X 15" register. The Parlor is to have 1 2-inch pipe and 12" X 15" register. The Dining-room is to have 1 2-inch pipe and 12" X 15" register. In Second Story: The Chamber over Dining-room is to have lo-inch pipe and 10" X 14" register. The Chamber over Parlor is to have loinch pipe and 10" X 14" register. The Chamber over Kitchen is to have 9-inch pipe and 9" X 12" register. The Chamber over Hall is to have 9-inch pipe and 9" X 12" register. The Dressing-room is to have 8-inch pipe and 8" X 10" register. The Bath-room is to have 8-inch pipe and 8" X 10" register. BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 257 Each room is to have an independent hot air-pipe, and all hot- air pipes to be double where they pass through floors or parti- tions, or behind furrings. The pipes are to be carefully arranged so that all may draw equally, with easy turns at every change of direction. All register-boxes are to be double ; all tin- work to be of XX bright tin, and all wood-work within i" of any hot-air pipe, or within 16" of the smoke-pipe, to be protected with pieces of bright tin, securely nailed on. All registers are to be of Tuttle & Bailey's make, all placed where shown on plans or as directed ; the one in Parlor to be nickel-plated; all the others to be black japanned. Make and put up a cold-air box of galvanized-iron as shown by dotted lines on plan, to be 22" X 331" in section, all riveted together in the best manner, and strongly secured to cellar ceiling. The mouth at each end to be flanged out to protect the joint with the frame, and to have strong gal- vanized-wire netting, *4 " mesh, over the opening. Put a sliding damper of galvanized-iron in each end, and make door 24" X 30" for cleaning out, with button fastening. Clean up the iron-work and leave it neat at the completion of the building, and furnish a shaking handle, poker and iron shovel. Furnish and fit up where shown or directed in kitchen a No. 8 [Glenwood] portable range complete, with Russia iron smoke-pipe, water front and couplings, and zinc floor-board, all to be set complete, including all transportation and labor. Clean up the range and leave it neat at the completion of the building, and furnish the usual list of tin and iron ware. Furnish and set up where directed in Laundry a [Walker's'] No. i stationary laundry stove, complete, with gal- vanized iron smoke-pipe and zinc stove-board; all stove* ry to be left neat and perfect. CONTRACTS. CHAPTER IV. Not the least important of the young architect's duties is that of guarding the interests of his employer by means of a clear and explicit contract with each of the mechanics employed on his building. In general the architect himself will have to draw up these instruments, the ordinary printed forms being quite inade- quate for the purpose, and he will find the task not always an easy one. While it is incumbent on him to secure the best and safest terms for his employer that the contractors will agree to, he has no right to use unfair means to induce them to sign their names to stipulations of which they do not fully understand the meaning ; and if he wishes to be able to enforce the contract in case of need he cannot be too careful to express in the plainest language every point upon which it may subsequently be necessary to insist. In order to provide for all possible contingencies it is necessary to define the rights and duties of the parties under a great variety of circumstances, and a good contract will for this reason be some- what long; but this is better than a condensation which leaves loopholes for evasion or dispute. It must not be forgotten that contracts are often entered into unthinkingly, which may prove very disadvantageous for one of the parties, and the architect must be careful to protect his prin- cipal from such mishaps. Thus the making of a bid for work by a mechanic, and its unconditional acceptance by the owner, or the architect for him, constitute a valid agreement, by which the mechanic is bound to do the work, and the owner to pay for it, perhaps without any stipulations as to the time of completion, the terms of payment, or other very important matters, which may have to be decided afterwards by costly litigation. For this (258) BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 259 reason many architects accept a tender only upon the condition that a satisfactory contract shall be signed by the party offering it ; but such a conditional acceptance does not bind the latter, who is then at liberty to withdraw his bid, if he chooses, at any time before the final agreement is signed. If, therefore, any tender should be particularly advantageous, it may be desirable to prevent its withdrawal by a prompt and definite acceptance, and in order that this may carry with it by implication the consent of the parties to at least the more important clauses of an ordinary corn- tract, it is usual to employ the device of General Conditions, which are prefixed to every specification, and constitute a part of it ; and since the tender is always for doing work or furnishing material according to the specification, the general conditions will be included in the terms to which the bidder offers to conform, and will be binding upon him if his bid is accepted. As the general conditions relate to the duties of the mechanic, not to those of the owner, the former will usually be very willing to exchange the one-sided agreement constituted by them, under which, for in- stance, the owner would not be required to make any payments before the completion of the work, for a new one, defining the rights of both parties; and the new contract may, and should, comprise the substance of the general conditions of the specifica- tions, expressed in nearly the same words. A building contract is usually divided into two portions, the first of which is the simple agreement of one party to do a certain work for the other within a certain time, in consideration of a certain payment, which the latter promises to make; while the second comprises the conditions which explain, or modify, the principal agreement. The first portion, comprising the essence of the contract, should be drawn up with special care, and although expressed in the briefest possible terms, it should be made to include the points regarded as most important. In English con- tracts the principal agreement is generally written without any punctuation except periods at the ends of the sentences, the object of this being .as much to enforce clearness of expression as to pre- vent the possibility of fraudulent or careless change in the sense by the alteration of points, and the practice seems to be a useful one. The conditions which follow may have ordinary punctua^ 2 6 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE tion or not, but it is not easy to make them intelligible with- out it. Whether contracts should be sealed by the signers or not is perhaps doubtful. A simple agreement, in which a consideration is expressed for each promise, would not require seals, but among the many and various stipulations of a building contract some might possibly be regarded as promises to which the consideration did not apply, and a seal would be required to make these valid ; so that it seems to be a reasonable precaution to affix them. In some states building contracts must be recorded by the proper public officer, and the law in this respect should be ascer- tained by architects practising beyond the boundaries of their own state. The statutes in regard to the liens of mechanics and material-men also vary in different states, and are frequently changed, so that some care is necessary to secure owners absolutely against loss by the dishonesty or bankruptcy of the builder. In most states the right of mechanics to file liens against a building or estate to recover the amount of their wages for work upon it is barred at the expiration of thirty days from the time that they cease their labor, so that if the record after this time shows no lien to have been filed, the contractor may be paid the balance due him in full, without fear that the workmen can demand an addi- tional sum. Where sixty days or more are allowed by law for filing liens, the last payment to the contractor must be deferred until after the lapse of this term, allowing a few days more to give opportunity for examining the record. Liens for materials fur- nished to a contractor can in most states only be claimed by giving notice to the owner of the building in which they are used, before they are delivered, that he will be held responsible for the price of them, and he can then retain the amount out of the payments to the contractor, or he can notify the dealer that he will not receive them, and the latter can then only look to the builder for his pay, With these explanations, the clauses in the following form of contract will be sufficiently clear. The insurance clause may need modification according to circumstances, but the important points are to make sure that the builder's interest will be covered, so that in case of loss he may not be thrown into bankruptcy, to the injury BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 26 1 of the owner ; and to define clearly the mode in which the policy shall be taken out and paid for, so that the building may not be left unprotected through any misunderstanding between the owner and contractor as to each other's duty. CONTRACT FOR BUILDING made this sixteenth day of April in the year nineteen hundred and three by and between James Johnson of Boston in the county of Suffolk and Commonwealth of Massachusetts party of the first part and Thomas Smith and Henry Smith of Chelsea in the County and Commonwealth afore- said carpenters under the firm name and style of Smith Brothers builders party of the second part. The said Smith Brothers party of the second part for them- selves and each of their heirs executors administrators and assigns hereby covenant and agree to and with the said party of the first part his heirs successors and legal representatives for the con- sideration hereinafter mentioned to make erect build and finish for the said party of the first part on his land in said Chelsea ct dwelling-house including all the excavation and grading mason^ work plastering carpenter-work roofing painting and glazing but exclusive of plumbing gasfitting and heating and to furnish all the materials of every kind labor scaffolding and cartage for the full completion of the said works such labor and materials to be in strict accordance with drawings and specifications made by Thomas Pinch architect which said drawings and specifications are to be taken and deemed a part of this contract and including all things which in the opinion of the said architect may fairly be inferred from such drawings and specifications to be intended without being specially stipulated all the materials to be in suffi- cient quantity and where the quality is not otherwise described in the specifications to be of the best quality and the workmanship throughout to be of the best quality and the whole to be executed in a good substantial and workmanlike manner subject to the directions from time to time and to the satisfaction of the said architect and the whole to be completely finished and delivered on or before the fifteenth day of October next. And the said party of the first part hereby promises and agrees in consideration of the foregoing covenants being strictly kept 2 62 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE and performed by the party of the second part to pay to the said party of the second part the sum of Six thousand four hundred and ninety-seven dollars ($6,497) m f our several payments as follows : The first payment to be Fifteen Hundred Dollars ($1,500) when the roof is on and boarded. The second payment to be Fifteen Hundred Dollars ($1,500) when all the outside work including piazza, and porch is done and painted one coat and the masonwork and plastering finished and the sashes in. The third payment to be Fifteen Hundred Dollars ($1,500) when the stand- ing finish is done and the upper floors and stairs completed and the second coat of paint on the outside. And the balance thirty- three days after the said work shall have been completed finished and delivered and accepted by the said party of the first part unless some defect shall meanwhile have been discovered therein provided however that no payment shall be made except on the written certificate of the architect or some other person thereto authorized by the said party of the first part that in his opinion the work for which such payment is to be made is properly done and that the payment is due such certificate however not exempting the party of the second part from liability to make good any work so certified if it be afterwards discovered to have been improperly done or not in accordance with the drawings or specifications and provided further that prior to each payment by the party of the first part a satisfactory certificate shall have been obtained to the effect that the said building and estate is free from mechanics' liens and other claims incurred by the party of the second part. AND the said parties hereto hereby further agree as follows : 1. That the drawings and specifications are intended to co-operate so that any works shown on the drawings and not mentioned in the specifications or vice versa are to be executed by the party of the second part without extra charge the same as if they were both mentioned in the specifications and shown on the drawings. 2. The said party of the first part or the said architect with the consent of the party of the first part shall be at liberty to order any variations from the drawings or specifications either in add- ing thereto or diminishing therefrom or otherwise however and BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 263 such variations shall not vitiate this contract but the difference in cost shall be added to or deducted from the contract price as the case may be by a fair and reasonable valuation and the archi- tect shall have power to extend the time of completion on account of alterations or additions so ordered such extension to be cer- tified by him to the party of the first part at the time when such order for alterations or additions is given. Orders for changes which do not affect the cost of the work may be given orally but no order which increases or diminishes the cost of the work or affects the time of completion shall be valid unless given in writing. 3. Neither the whole nor any portion of this contract shall be assigned or sublet by the party of the second part without the written consent of the party of the first part. 4. If the said party of the second part shall fail to complete the said work including all variations should such be made at or before the time agreed upon with such extension in the case of extra work as may have been certified by the architect then and in that case the said party of the second part shall forfeit and pay to the said party of the first part the sum of Five Dollars for each and every day that the said work shall remain unfinished after that time unless in the opinion of the architect such delay shall have been due to causes which could not reasonably have been foreseen by the said party of the second part or with reasonable care and diligence avoided the said sums to be retained as liquidated damages out of any money that may be due or may thereafter become due to the said party of the second part. 5. All materials shall become the property of the party of the first part as soon as they are delivered on the ground subject only to the right of the party of the second part to remove surplus materials at the completion of the building, but no materials are to be paid for before they are set in place in the work. 6. If the said party of the second part shall become bankrupt or insolvent or assign their property for the benefit of creditors or become otherwise unable themselves to carry on the work or shall at any time for six days neglect or refuse to do so in the manner required by the architect or shall neglect or refuse to comply with any of the articles of this agreement then the said party of the first part or his agent shall have the right and is hereby empowered 264 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE to enter upon and take possession of the premises with the ma- terials and apparatus thereon after giving two days* notice in writing and thereupon all claim of the party of the second part their executors administrators and assigns shall cease and the said party of the first part or his agent may after using such of the materials already on the ground as may be suitable provide other materials and workmen sufficient to finish the said works and the cost of the labor and materials so provided shall be de- ducted from the amount to be paid for work and extras under this contract without prejudice to any other remedies for breach thereof. 7. The said party of the first part shall keep the building and the material on the premises insured against fire for the benefit of himself or any mortgagee and of any contractor who shall re- quest such insurance in writing and in case of fire the insurance money shall be divided between the party of the first part and any mortgagee and those contractors for whose benefit the insurance was taken out as their interests may appear and the parties here- to shall respectively proceed to the completion of this contract. The said party of the second part shall be solely responsible for all loss failure or damage from whatever cause to the said works loss by fire alone excepted until the whole is delivered and ac- cepted by the party of the first part and shall give all necessary assistance to the other workmen employed in the building and shall be solely responsible for all delay or damage caused to their work or materials or to neighboring property or to the persons or property of the public by their workmen or through any of their operations. AND for the faithful performance of each and every the articles and agreements hereinbefore contained the said parties hereto do hereby bind themselves their heirs executors adminis- trators and assigns each to the other in the penal sum of Three Thousand Dollars ($3,000) firmly by these presents. IN WITNESS WHEREOF the said parties hereto have hereunto set their hands and seals the day and year first above written. IN PRESENCE OF Thomas Pinch to all. James Johnson Thomas Smith Henry Smith THE CONSTRUCTION OF A STEEL-FRAME BUILDING. CHAPTER V. The third division of our subject will treat of a more compli- cated structure than either of the preceding, and will lead us to the consideration of new materials, as well as new ways of put- ting them together. Our problem is to construct a fireproof office-building, eleven stories high, on land so valuable that it is important to gain all the space possible available for renting, by reducing the thickness of the walls to the minimum consistent with good construction. Under the regulations of the city in which our building is situated, the walls, if of brickwork, must be thirty-two inches thick to the top of the first floor, and twenty- eight inches thick from this point to the upper floor. By making them with a steel skeleton, using masonry simply as protection, we can have them twelve inches thick, the vertical members mak- ing a projection of four inches at intervals of about eight feet. Our building is twenty-five feet wide, and one hundred feet deep, with independent walls all around, and the saving of floor space secured by the skeleton construction is thus about three hundred square feet on each story, or thirty-six hundred square feet in all, counting the basement as a story. The owners of the building hope to get an annual rent of ten dollars per square foot of floor space for the first story and basement, which will probably be let together to a bank or trust company, and an average of a dollar and a half per square foot for the ten floors above. The saving in space made by using the skeleton construction will therefore give them three thousand dollars a year more for the first story and basement than they could get if solid brick walls were used, and an average of four hundred and fifty dollars for each of the (265) 2 66 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE ten stories above the first, making a total of seven thousand five hundred dollars a year gained in income, with little or no addition to the investment, as the saving in the brickwork required for the thick walls about offsets the cost of the steel skeleton which takes its place. Such an advantage cannot be neglected; and our in- structions are, therefore, to use the steel-frame construction, tak- ing as much care as possible to protect the metal against corrosion. Our first duty is to study all the circumstances of situation, soil and surroundings of the lot to be built upon, so that the building may not only be securely constructed, but ma y rent advantageously when completed. The location is on the corner of one of the principal busi- ness streets of the city, which we will call Broadway, and an- other, which we may call Tenth Street, the narrow front being on Broadway. There would be some economy in planning in mak- ing the principal entrance on Tenth Street; but, as this is a sec- ondary street, little known except locally, our clients think that, even at some sacrifice, the main entrance should be made from Broadway. Parallel with Broadway, and two hundred feet dis- tant from it, is an inferior street, known as Regent Street, the lots fronting on Broadway, and those fronting on Regent Street, meeting in the middle of the space, with no intermediate passage or alley. Our clients have secured a long option on the Regent Street property immediately behind the lot on which we are to build, and they request us to provide for the possibility that, if the new building should rent advantageously, an addition to it may be built on the Regent Street lot. This would probably be a profitable operation, as the offices in the addition, being reached from the Broadway entrance, and arranged continuously with those in the original building, would be practically Broadway of- fices, and, commanding Broadway rents, would bring in a large percentage on the cost of what would otherwise be a rather un- attractive investment ; so that we will keep this prospect carefully in mind in our plan. Both the Broadway and the Regent Street lots are occupied by old buildings, and we examine both for evidences of party- wall agreements, or other incumbrances which would affect our plan. A party-wall agreement would be a matter either of record BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 267 or of statute, and could be looked up in the proper public records, but it will save time to see what information in regard to it can be obtained on the spot. The adjoining building on Broadway is a modern store, much higher than that on our lot, and we ob- serve that the terra-cotta facing of the front extends completely over the front of the side wall next adjoining our lot. This indi- cates that the side wall in question is not a party wall, but stands entirely on the land of the adjoining owner. If the part w n terra-cotta facing had covered only one-half of the front of the side wall, leaving a surface of rough brick, recessed four inches from the front line of the building, to be subsequently covered by the front of the adjoining building, this would indi- cate that the wall was a party wall, the usual practice in such cases being for each owner to terminate his front at the party line. We are confirmed in the conclusion that the wall is inde- pendent by measuring the distance from the corner of Tenth Street to the division line between the two fronts, which we find to be just twenty-five feet. We must next examine the wall itself, to see whether the upper portion leans over our client's land, for, if so, we may be compelled to make our building narrower, irr order not to inter- fere with the overhang, the law holding that where the wall of an innocent owner, by settlement or decay, overhangs the land of another, and cannot safely be cut away to allow a new wall to be built up against it close to the dividing line, and is not itself in such dangerous condition that it can be condemned by the public authority, the owner of the adjoining estate, if he builds a new wall, must set it back from his line, so as not to interfere with his neighbor's overhanging wall. Fortunately, no such overhang appears in the wall of the adjoin- ing Broadway building, and the division between our lot and the Regent Street property is only a wooden fence ; so that we need have no anxiety on this point. The matter of party-wall agree- ments is, however, too important to be settled by the mere obser- vation of the conditions on the spot, as the existence of such an agreement, in the ordinary form, would not only permit, but re- quire us to carry our foundation far under the adjoining prop- erty, and to make other provision for the common use of the wall. 268 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE We therefore apply to our clients' conveyancer, who assures us that no such agreement exists, nor does any statute require party walls to be built ; so that we must keep all our construction on our own side of the property line, unless some special arrangement should be agreed upon, which, he tells us, is unlikely, as the ad- joining owner does not view with favor the erection of the new building. The lawyer adds, significantly, that we will do well not to permit the slightest encroachment on the adjoining prop- erty, the owner of which will probably be on the watch, and will seize any opportunity for delaying or obstructing our work. We know from experience that the subsoil in this locality is a compact clay, of great depth, intersected by veins of sand, so that the matter of foundations will give us no serious trouble, although we intend to put a sub-cellar under the basement, to ac- commodate boilers, coal storage and machinery. It is, however, necessary to ascertain whether the sub-cellar can be drained into the sewer : so we make inquiries at the city Sewer Department, and at the Street Department, to find the curbstone grade at the corner of Broadway and Tenth Street, and the depth of the sewer below it. Fortunately, the sewer here proves to be very low, some twenty-five feet below the curbstone grade at the corner ; so that the blow-off tank from the boiler, and the plumbing fixtures in the sub-basement, will drain directly into it without pumping. We are now ready to make our preliminary plan (Fig. 178), beginning with the second story. Both to economize our costly land, and to facilitate subsequent extension over the Regent Street lot, we carry our building back to the rear Sewer Plan Fig. 178 line of our land, one hundred feet from Broadway. This will give us six offices, each about sixteen feet long, on the Tenth Street side of the building, and two small ones, one at each end. BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 269 The small office on Broadway will get light from the street, but the corresponding one at the other end would get no outside light if the Regent Street lot should be built upon up to the boundary line, so we will arrange to give it light and air from a court, which will also serve to light the toilet-room, and the hallway; and the elevators, stairs and vault will find room on the same side of the hall. As the elevators are required by law to have a sky- light over them, of the full size of both elevators, this end of the hallway will be tolerably well lighted, and the other end will re- ceive both light and air in abundance from the court; while the stairs will be sufficiently illuminated, partly by the skylight over them, and partly by the general light of the hallway. In addi- tion to this a great deal of light will come into the hallway from the glass panels and transom-lights of the office doors. Allowing one foot for each of the side walls we shall have twenty-three feet in clear width between them. Nine feet will give room for the elevators, hallway and partition, leaving four- teen feet width for the offices. Fourteen by sixteen is not a very large room, but it is quite equal to the average of Broadway offices, and can be divided, for the use of lawyers, into two offices, each eight feet wide, with a small entrance lobby, or can be length- ened as required by shifting the partitions; so that our clients approve these dimensions. The small offices at each end will be nine by twelve feet, which will suit some tenants, or they can be opened into the adjoining office. In the case of the small office nearest Regent Street, while it will be sacrificed if connection is made with a new building on the Regent street lot, a portion of it can be used for the additional elevators or toilet rooms which will then be required. As none of the partitions form part of the structure, each floor being framed as an unbroken area, changes of this sort can be made without difficulty. So far as the offices above the first story are concerned, our scheme is now tolerably complete ; but we have reason to believe that the inspectors of the city Building Department will object to the plan in its present state, as not pro- viding sufficient means of escape for tenants in case of fire. Al- though the building is to be of fireproof construction, and the stairway is nearly central, the tendency of "inspectors of egress" 270 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE is to argue that the smoke from burning papers or furniture may fill a staircase so as to render it impassable, and that every tenant ought to have a choice of two routes for reaching a place of safe- ty. If the Regent Street building should be added, later, there mU Fig. 179 would be a staircase in it, which would fulfil the desired end, of affording two staircases, one near each end of a long corridor, both accessible to all the tenants, and both leading to the street. For the purposes of the Broadway building, only, however, with but eight offices on a floor, it is unnecessary to incur the expense of an extra marble staircase, and we will arrange for an ordinary fire-escape in the court, leading to the basement. This will ob- struct some of the light from the court, but it satisfies the inspec- tor and can be removed when more permanent provision is made. The first story, which is intended for a banking-room, is to be left entirely open, except that a toilet-room and directors' room are divided off in the rear (Fig. 179) ; and a public hallway is provided at the Broadway entrance, including the stairs and ele- vators, and the entrance to the basement. The basement (Fig. Fig. 180 180), which will probably contain a broker's office, with a large vault, and vaults and clerks' rooms for the bank above, we are instructed to leave undivided at present, so that it can be fitted up later to suit tenants. We must, however, provide a small jani- BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 2/1 tor's office, which we can put under the sidewalk, where it will be well lighted by the sidewalk lights overhead. Both on Broad- way and Tenth Street the basement will extend out under the sidewalk, considerably increasing its area, and improving its illumination, by the sidewalk lights which cover the additional space. On Tenth Street, toward Regent Street, are the coal- holes, the small trap door and ladder by which the engineer and fireman reach the sub-basement, and the large trap-doors, through which ashes are to be brought up, a new boiler put in, and the old one taken out, in case of need, from the boiler-room in the sub- basement. The portion of the sub-basement nearest Broadway is occupied by the engines, pumps, dynamos and other machinery Structure Fig. 181 (Fig. 181). The courtyard is continued down to the sub-base- ment, to give light and air, and a portion of the sidewalk light on Broadway also illuminates the sub-basement. The plans being thus tentatively laid out, we must take up the structural view of the problem, which is materially complicated by the objection of the adjoining owner to any encroachment on his property. As twenty-three feet is not a long span for steel beams, the natural construction would be to set up a row of columns on the Tenth Street side, and a parallel row on the property line opposite, spreading the foot- ings sufficiently to support them, and framing the beams and girders between them. We propose to make our footings of concrete, and on Tenth Street, by carrying them out under the sidewalk, we can easily get the necessary spread ; but, as we can- not carry the footings beyond the property line on the other side, the columns would have to stand on the very edge of the concrete, which would be unsafe, as the corner of the sheet of concrete might break off. We must, therefore, devise some way for set- 272 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE Cantilevers ting the columns back from the edge of the concrete, at the same time that they must support a wall on the property line. This can be done by means of cantilevers, or projecting beams, which we will arrange thus (Figs. 182, 183). In the line which coincides with that of the walls and parti- tions separating the hallway from the small rooms and court, and with the headers of the staircase and elevator framing, we will set up a row of long columns, which need not come opposite those in the Fig. 182 Tenth Street wall. These col- umns will carry a girder in every story, to which the floor beams extending across from the Tenth Street girders will be framed. In the sub-basement, at i, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, will be set short columns, two feet back from the edge of the concrete ; and on the heads of these will rest the cantilevers, of the shape shown, framed to the side of the long columns at one end, and projecting some- what less than two feet into space, beyond the short columns. The footings of the short columns will be far enough in from the edge of the concrete to make sure that the edge will not be pushed off, and we will set long columns on the outer ends of the cantilevers, with girders in each story, which will support the walls at the property line. Below the cantilevers, which come at the level of the sub-basement ceiling, there will be a space not thus pro- vided for, which can, how- ever, be safely filled by a wall built on the edge of the con- crete extending to the under- side of the first girder. Such a wall will not load the edge of the concrete seriously and, as it is only one story high, its settlement, if built in cement, will not be sufficient to draw Fig. 183 it appreciably away from the girder above. The necessary thickness of the concrete footing is next to be determined. Although there would be a saving of concrete in BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 273 giving each column an independent foundation, reinforced with iron or not, as the case might require, it is more than likely that some of the footings would come over sand veins, and would have to be specially treated, to avoid unequal Foundation settlement, while, if sandy or soft spots should occur under the interior of the building, the material in them would be forced up by the pressure on the soil around them, causing settle- ments in the walls, and involving, perhaps, troublesome and ex- pensive operations to prevent the sub-basement floor from rising. ,We will, therefore, adopt the simpler, quicker and surer method of covering the whole area of the foundation with a slab of con- crete of uniform thickness, which will not only give sufficient foot- ing for the columns, but will resist any tendency of the sub-base- ment floor to rise, and will thus insure a solid and permanent foun- dation for the boilers, engines and machinery which will rest upon it. The thickness of this concrete slab is determined partly by the spread which the footings require, and partly by the possibility that such a slab, loaded by a row of columns on each edge, may, if of insufficient thickness, be broken through the middle by the up- ward reaction of the comparatively uncompressed subsoil in the middle. The amount of this reaction would depend upon the na- ture of the soil ; but, in a clayey ground like that with which we have to deal, a slab of concrete, not reinforced with iron, may be considered safe if its thickness is equal to one-fifth of the distance between the rows of columns which it supports. As the point of application of the pressure of the double row of columns along the interior lines is rather indeterminate, and the cantilevers may [Ml ( i i T | i i ; 1 [ 1 i ] i II i 1 i i | | : ; t * ; * J ' ; i : t ; J ; ; 1 . ' - : > !_ . ; :.! ; Fig. 184 impose a certain extra pressure on the short columns under them, we will take the safe side, and make our concrete slab uniformly five feet thick. Having decided this point, our drawings may be completed at once. The beam plan of each floor will be like Fig. 184. We 18 274 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE will space the columns on Tenth Street about eight feet apart. This will give us two bays, each with a large window, in each office above the first story. The columns opposite these will be spaced at different intervals, according to the exigencies of the plan, and there will be one intermediate column in front and rear. All the columns will be of the usual Z-bar pattern, the dimensions of the posts being determined by the load which will come on each. As the loads vary in every story, and almost for each col- umn, it would take to much space to repeat the calculations here, but they are very easily made, by measuring the length of girder that each column supports, the number of square feet of flooring carried by the girder, with the weight of brickwork sustained by the girder and the column; remembering that a cubic foot of brickwork weighs about 112 pounds, and a square foot of ordi- nary fireproof flooring, with porous terra-cotta flat arches, plas- tered underneath, and levelled up above with cinder concrete, about 65 pounds ; or, including the "live load" of one hundred pounds per square foot required by law, and an allowance for the weight of the iron, about one hundred and seventy-five pounds per square foot; and remembering also that every column, besides its own floor loads, carries the accumulated load on the columns above it. All the columns will stand on the concrete footing, with standard cast-iron bases ; and all, except the short columns under the cantilevers, will extend through two stories, the connections being made about two feet above the floor. The roof is framed like a floor, except that the load may be taken at 125 pounds per square foot, instead of 175, and the beams will be set with a pitch to carry off the water, the ceiling of the rooms below being furred down to a level with hangers and T-irons, which carry iron lath for plastering. Fig. 185 The main girders will be made with plates and angles, and the floors will be laid with I-beams of various depths and weights. The tables in the iron-mill books will give us suit- able dimensions for all these, and the standard column and beam BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 275 connections may with advantage and economy be used wherever they are applicable. There are, however, certain matters to be considered about which the mill-books will not give us much in- formation ; the most important of these, perhaps, being the brac- ing. We propose to specify that all the joints shall be riveted, a riveted joint being far more rigid than a bolted one ; but even the stiffness of riveted joints may not prevent the building from being moved slightly out of the vertical by violent winds, or by careless- ness in construction (Fig. 185). We can, however, prevent any such movement by diagonal braces across the angles, which will effectually prevent distortion. In the outside walls "gussets," or triangular iron plates, secured by angle-irons to the columns and Fig. 186 girders (Fig. 186), will give effectual bracing in that direction, but there is still a possibility that in so high and narrow a build- ing, the two long walls may lean over together. The connection between the framing of the two long walls is formed only with beams, which do not give a very good attachment for a gusset, and, although gussets could be fastened to them, they would show in the rooms; or, if concealed in the partitions, they might be exposed on removing a partition to enlarge an office. We will, therefore, arrange for gussets only between the columns and the roof-beams, on the Tenth Street side, where they can be hidden in the roof-space, and will look for an opportunity to introduce, lower down in the building, the much more efficient form of bracing known as portal framing. This consists of an arch, ex- tending across the space between two rows of columns, the angles 276 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE of which are filled in with plates, the whole being riveted together (Fig. 187), and to the columns. A portal of this sort is hardly admissible in any of the upper offices, but two ornamental arches could be thrown across the middle of the banking-room on the first story (Fig. 188) with very good decorative effect, and these would afford an opportunity for two strong portals in the middle of the building, where they would be most needed. As the long interior wall is very much stiffened by the breaks in it, and by the cross walls of the vault, and the Tenth Street wall, being secured to it by the beams, cannot lean unless both go together, two por- tals in the middle of the building, at the height of the first story ceiling, will be ample to secure the verticality of the structure. Fig. 188 We have now to consider how the brick and terra-cotta or stone casing, which must cover all the external walls, is to be se- cured to the steel skeleton. The usual method of accomplishing BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 277 this result is to provide angle irons, which are riveted or bolted on (Fig. 189) the wall girders in each story, and often to the col- Fig. 189 T umns between the girders, forming shelves, which support the exterior masonry of that story. As the shelves necessarily come at some little distance above the windows, the window opening must be covered by an arch or lintel, extending through the wall, on which rests the small portion of masonry between the arch and the shelf or floor-beams above, the inside masonry above the floor being supported by the beams and terra-cotta arches. As the piers of masonry enclosing the columns are much heavier than the portions under the windows in the spaces between the columns, it is common, particularly where stone casings are used, to put several shelves on the columns in the height of each story. This construction will answer our purpose very well, if the masonry is thoroughly bonded around the columns, and above and below the girders; so we make the shelves, which are of four-inch angle- iron, on the elevation, taking care to space them so that they will come in the joints of the brickwork and terra-cotta of the masonry casing. In the lower story, where the openings on the street side are very wide, they are covered by an ornamental iron lintel, con- sisting of a thin shell of cast iron, fastened to the girder, which is to be protected by covering with a thick coat of plastering, on metal lath, before the ornamental shell is put on. In order to obtain all the light possible, the exterior columns in the basement and sub-basement will be wrapped with metal lath and plastered in the same way, simply brought to a smooth finish. We have now to consider more closely the lighting of the base- 278 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE ment and sub-basement, and the construction of the portions of them extending out under the sidewalk. The important factor in this problem is the pressure of the earth outside, which must be effectually resisted, to prevent settlements in the Sidewalk" street and sidewalk. The ordinary rule for a retain- ing wall of masonry against a street is that the thick- ness of the wall at the bottom shall be one-third its depth below the surface of the ground to be supported. As the floor of our sub-basement is eighteen feet below the street, this would give us a retaining wall of masonry six feet thick at the bottom, sloping, or "battering," thence to the top. The municipal regulations will not allow us to set any part of the retaining wall outside the curb, and the sidewalk on Tenth Street is only eight feet wide ; so that we shall only have two feet of floor-space in the sub-basement out- side of our columns. We are allowed by the regulations, hoW- ever, to batter the retaining wall to a thickness of two feet at the top, so in the basement, where space is most valuable, we shall have between five and six feet outside the columns. We could gain a little space in the basement, and much more in the sub- basement, by making the retaining wall with steel beams, set ver- tically opposite the main columns, connected at the top with the latter by girders just below the sidewalk, and buried at the foot in the concrete foundation of the building, and '.&!&&;&&*& ^^^^firafe^-Kf^v; forming" concrete arches 'v$ l '5V*>? *" *^f^ " ^ ^^"***<^f. . '. *" <'//)"'* Fig. 190 ^yi^ between, strengthened with embedded metal lath (Fig. 190). On calculating approximately the pressure, however, we find that it would be necessary to use eighteen-inch vertical beams, which must be cased with concrete, so that the saving of clear space outside the columns in the basement would not be very great ; and the city officials make a discouraging reply to our inquiry whether such a construction would meet their ap- proved ; so we conclude to adopt the ordinary method, and make our beam plan for the sidewalk (Fig. 171) accordingly. As we wish to get all the light possible in the basement, we will provide for sidewalk lights everywhere, from the building to the inner face of the retaining wall ; and, as this will give us a very convenient BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 279 and well-lighted space for desks, we will use sidewalk lights set in reinforced concrete, which give less trouble from the dripping of condensed moisture than iron lights ; and will form the rest of the sidewalk, including the curb, of concrete. In order to save headroom in the basement, and allow ventilation over the side- ! 1 i T Fig. 191 walk, we will make the girders which carry the inner ends of the sidewalk beams of two beams, placed side by side, and bolted together, with proper separators, instead of a single deep beam. The entrances to the sub-basement must not be forgotten. The distance from the building to the inside of the retaining wall on Tenth Street is only six feet at the top ; and, as we need a space at least five feet square for lowering a boiler of proper size into the sub-basement, we must find some way of avoiding the thickening of the wall at the foot. This can be done by building two heavy cross-walls, as shown on the basement and sub-base- ment plan, one on each side of the boiler opening, which will serve as buttresses; and the retaining wall between them can then be safely reduced to a thickness of three feet at the bottom. As we must provide for getting out ashes, as well as for getting in new boilers and machinery, the most convenient arrangement will be to set a "sidewalk elevator" in the space thus inclosed, using one of the "direct plunger" type, lifted by a piston, operated by water- pressure, and moving in a cylinder sunk in the ground below it. By opening the trap-doors in the Tenth Street sidewalk at night, with a suitable guard, the ash-barrels can thus be brought out and delivered to the city teams. The engineer's ladder will require only a manhole and small trap door; and the coal-bins can be supplied through an iron pipe, connected with the coal-hole cover near the edge of the sidewalk. We have now to consider more closely some of the details of BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE the superstructure. For the floors and roof we have decided to use porous terra-cotta arch-blocks, of the "end section" type, rather than concrete arching, which, while good, and Floor Arches , u-^i i / . cheap, would introduce a large amount of water into the construction, and possibly retard its drying-out, which is an important consideration where every hour's delay in completion involves a loss in rents. As the terra-cotta blocks exert an appre- ciable thrust, the beams must be tied by rods (Fig. 192) , about six feet apart, and the flanges of the beams must be punched for them. The terra-cotta arch-blocks are only eight inches high, and they hang one inch below the underside of the beams, so that a projection on them, made for the purpose, may enclose and pro- tect the lower flange of the beam. There is thus Fig. 192 a considerable space between the top of the arch- ing and the top of the beam, which the law requires to be filled with concrete, a cheap cinder concrete being generally employed. Our halls and toilet rooms, as well as the vaults, and the banking rooms in first story and basement, will have floors of marble tiling, laid on the cinder concrete, but the other rooms are to have wood floors, for which suitable preparation must be made. The usual mode of preparing for wood floors over fireproof construction is to bury sleepers of dovetail section, spaced about sixteen inches from centres, in the cinder concrete. The upper surface of the sleepers is flush with that of the concrete, and the dovetail section prevents them, after the concrete is hard, from being pulled out, and for greater security, as well as to give a continuous nailing, it is com- mon to cut notches in the ends of the sleepers, fitting over the upper flange of the beams. To these sleepers the flooring boards are nailed as they would be to the beams of a wooden house. In- stead of embedding sleepers in the concrete, however, some build- ers prefer to lay an unbroken mass of cinder concrete to the requi- site height, and, after it is hard, to cover the floor entirely over with an under-flooring of planed two-inch planks, spiked directly to the concrete. The latter, when made with cinders, is slightly spongy, and holds the nails sufficiently well for this purpose ; and on the completion of the building, an upper floor is nailed to the BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 281 plank under-flooring. This method requires more lumber, as the plank under-flooring consumes about five times as much as the dovetailed sleepers; and more concrete is used; while the floors must be about two inches thicker than when constructed with sleepers, and the large addition to the combustible material in the building may be objectionable in case of fire, which sometimes occurs, even in fireproof buildings ; but, on the other hand, a good deal of labor, in fitting the dovetailed sleepers, is saved, and the plank under-flooring gives an opportunity for laying the upper floor in "parquetry" patterns, which are attractive in first-class offices. As our building, which is in the heart of the banking district, will probably be occupied mainly by bankers and brokers, we desire to have it as nearly fireproof as possible, and therefore choose the method of laying the floor on sleepers. We could still further increase the fire-resisting quality of the structure, making it almost perfectly secure against the communication of fire from a conflagration outside, which is the usual source of fires in such buildings, by making all the outside door and window frames of iron, covering the doors with metal, and making the sashes of copper, glazed with wire-glass, containing, embedded in the glass, a network of wire, which, even when the glass is cracked by heat, keeps it in place, opposing an effectual barrier to fire from outside. Our clients, however, after the matter has been explained to them, visit buildings with wire-glass glazing, and decide that the appear- ance of the wire network, and of the cracks which are apt to occur in the glass, even under ordinary conditions, would be so displeas- ing to possible tenants that, for their purposes, it would be better to use ordinary doors and windows, with glazing of plate glass. The partitions, which are to be of light iron uprights, covered with metal lath, we will build on the cinder concrete for further security against the spread of fire from one office to the next, although they are often built on the under floor. The main stairs will have marble treads and risers, secured to iron framework, with ornamental iron "face-string" on the side next the hall, wrought iron balustrade set at the foot into the "face-string," and curving upward so as not to interfere with the nosing at the other end of the tread ; and nickel- BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE plated brass hand rail; the string and balusters being also enliv- ened with nickel-plated ornaments which can be easily kept pol- ished. The rail will be continuous, so that there will be no posts, except in sub-basement, where a very simple post at the foot of the stairs will be sufficient. The wall side of the stairs must be wain- scoted in some way, and as it would be impracticable, without great expense, to carry a plain marble lining around Wainscot . n ,' T . , & , , the curves, we will make the wainscot of marble mo- saic. The walls of the hall will have a lining of plain marble, but, in order to assimilate this to the mosaic wainscot on the stairs, we will finish it at the top with a mosaic border. The banking rooms and toilet rooms will have plain marble lining, five feet high. The smoke-stack for the boiler will be carried up between the toilet-room and the vault, a portion of the space Smokestack , . , . , *. . . . r around it being used as a ventilating shaft for the toilet-rooms, while the remainder will draw the stagnant air from the hallways, and incidentally from the rooms. The vault, which is provided on every floor, with separate com- partments for each tenant on that floor, will be made with channel irons, set vertically, and covered on both sides with steel plates, riveted on, the space between the plates being filled with concrete; and the floors are made in a similar manner. On the inside of the vault the plates are left plain, the various drawers and boxes being simply set up against them ; but plates exposed outside must be covered with metal lath and plaster, for protection from fire. There are to be four large boxes for books on each side of each vault, and eight small ones for papers, all with independent locks ; and the door from the vault to the hall- way is made double. All this work is the subject of a special con- tract with a safe-manufacturer, who furnishes a diagram of the beams and channels required. As space in all parts of the building is valuable, and as we propose to put in an electric plant, which will make us Elevators i _, i r i 111-1 independent of accidents to the public electric power service, we have decided to use electric elevators, and, as these do not require any stand-pipe in the shaft, we need only provide space enough for the ropes beside the elevators, and the two counter-bal- ance weights, with their guides, which will not require more than BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 283 four inches. The overhead sheaves, and the beams carrying them, will be accommodated in a roof-house over the shaft, framed of steel and covered with galvanized iron, lined on the inside with porous terra-cotta slabs, for which we have made provision in our plans ; and the law compels us to roof this with a skylight, so that, if fire should break out in the building, and run up the oily ropes of the elevator shaft, as it is likely to do, the heat will immediately break the glass of the skylight, and the flames and smoke will escape to the outside, instead of being forced out into the hallways, as they would be if they could not escape at the top. In order to lessen as much as possible the amount of combustible material in the shaft, we will specify that the elevators and counter-balance shall have iron posts and guides, and that the overhead work shall be entirely of iron. In order to calculate the size of the smoke-flue, which will de- termine the dimensions of the space to be left for it, we must consider the boiler plant which will be neces- sary for furnishing power and heating the building. The largest item of power required will be for electric lighting. We must count upon three sixteen-candle incandescent lamps in each of the large offices on each floor above the first, two in each of the small offices, one in the vault, two in the toilet room, and three in the hallway. This makes twenty-eight in each office story. The first story will need about the same number, and the basement more, perhaps thirty-six lights. The sub-basement will not need more than ten lights, but two must be allowed for the elevators, making 356 lights in all. At the usual rate, of ten sixteen-candle lights to a horse-power, thirty-six horse-power will be required for lighting alone. The elevators should have twelve horse-power each, making sixty horse-power as the total to be provided. Nothing additional need be provided for heat- ing, as the exhaust from the engines, when all are in operation, will be quite sufficient to heat the building, and, when only a por- tion of the machinery is in operation, the surplus live steam can be turned into the heating pipes. The sidewalk elevator will be used mostly at night, or when the boilers are shut down, so that it will be best to operate it by direct hydraulic pressure from the mains, which is available at all times. 284 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE Although space would be saved by using a water-tube boiler, of which there are many excellent varieties in the market, our clients prefer, as they have plenty of room in the sub-base- ment, to use a plain horizontal return tubular boiler, which, if well made, is quite equal to any other in economy of fuel, and is easily managed, and comparatively cheap. A boiler of this sort, of sixty horse-power, of the usual proportions, will be 54 inches in diameter, and fifteen feet long, and can easily be accommodated, standing on end, including the steam nozzles, and the lugs riveted to the sides, on our sidewalk elevator; so that there will be no need of pulling down a part of the building when it becomes necessary to put in a new one, as occasionally happens where these points have not been considered in making the plans. The boiler should have seventy three-inch tubes, and a smoke-pipe twenty-eight inches in diameter. The rule commonly followed by contractors, of making the sectional area of the smoke-pipe equal to the combined area of all the tubes, would eive only a little over twenty-five Smokestack . , , . J .. . . - . ^ inches, and many engineers would consider this suffi- cient ; but the utmost economy of fuel cannot be secured without a free escape for the heated gases, and at least two inches should be added to the diameter of a circle equivalent to the collective area of the tubes, to offset the loss by friction against the sides of the stack. We have already arranged a place for the smoke- stack, which is to be of quarter-inch boiler-plate, with riveted seams, and made in sections, each section slipping over the end of the next below, and resting on a row of rivets put in for the pur- pose. By this construction the smoke-stack can easily be re- newed, when worn out or corroded, the necessary sections being lowered from the roof, and set in place by means of the doors opening from the hallways to the ventilating shaft. The upper sections, which are always the first to decay, are thus the most easily replaced. In order that the weight of the smoke-stack may be firmly sustained, we will extend it to the concrete floor of the sub-basement. The extra length below the smoke-connection from the boiler will then serve to catch the fine ashes, and must have a door for cleaning out. The boiler should be so set that the communication with the BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 285 chimney will be as direct as practicable, not only to prevent the obstruction to the draught caused by a long and crooked smoke- pipe, but to avoid heating the boiler-room. As the smoke con- nection of a return tubular boiler is at the front, we will place the front of our boiler directly in line with the chimney. The brick setting will take up about two feet on each side, and there must be a space behind the boiler, large enough for a man to get into, and furnished with an iron door, for removing the fine ashes which collect there, and a double wall behind this space, giving a total length to the boiler, set complete, of about nineteen feet, by a width of eight and one-half feet. We will separate the boiler room from the engine and dynamo room, which it is important to keep free from the dust of coal and ashes, by partitions, leaving a passage-way to the rear of the boiler from the boiler-room, for removing fine ashes ; and, by extending the boiler room out under the courtyard, which we can do by carrying down only the steel columns, and building a low enclosing wall at the edge of the con- crete foundation, and putting on a skylight, we can get very good light and air in the boiler-room and coal-bin, leaving the dynamo room to be illuminated partly by artificial light, and partly from the sidewalk above, on the Broadway side. It is necessary, in arranging a boiler-room to contain a tubu- lar boiler, to reserve space in front of the boiler for drawing out the tubes, when it becomes necessary to replace or repair them. As the tubes in our boiler are fourteen feet long, this is the minimum distance permissible, and more space is desirable. Our plant can be operated, with economy, with an average consumption of not more than a ton of coal per day. By carrying across a partition at the line of the third col- umn from the back of the building we shall enclose a space capa- ble of containing 120 tons of coal, or about four months' supply. This will be ample coal storage, and will leave a liberal space in front of the boiler. The dynamo room will contain the electric generators and the elevator machines, and may with advantage be fur- nished with a work-bench for the engineer, which, if placed under the sidewalk-light at the Broadway end, will be abundantly lighted. The elevator machines will be most 2 86 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE advantageously situated directly under the elevators, which de- scend only to the basement floor. In this way the ropes can run directly from the drums up through the space between Machines ^ e * wo e l eva t rs to the overhead sheaves, and thence down to the attachments on the top of the elevator cars, without the use of any leading-sheaves, and consequently, with the least danger of accident, and least liability to wear. As we have plenty of room, it will be advantageous to divide our electric plant into three sections, using one engine Dynamos , - ,. L < j i and generator for producing current for driving the elevators, and for the lights in them; the second for furnishing current for the "public lights," in the halls, vaults, janitor's office, sub-basement and toilet-rooms; and the third for supplying the lights in the offices. By this division the elevators will be inde- pendent of the office lights, so that the latter will not be affected, as is sometimes the case, by the running of the elevators ; the pub- lic lights will be independent of the elevators, so that they can be used late at night, when one or both the elevators have stopped running ; and the office lights will be independent of either of the others. Although more lights are provided for in the offices than in the public rooms, many of the tenants will not use artificial light at all, so that this division of the service is not very unequal ; and we will arrange to have the generators "cross-connected/' so that any one of the three can, if necessary, be called upon to do the work of any other, or their united force can be employed. This arrangement affords security against the disabling of the whole system by the stoppage of one generator, but we will pro- vide additional security by specifying that all the generators shall be arranged to produce the same sort of current, and at the same tension, as the regular city service in the street, and that a switch and connections shall be provided for using the public current in case of need. What sort of generator to use we will leave to be decided later. In any case a direct-connected engine and motor is preferable to one in which the two parts of the machine are connected by belts ; and, in general, a slow-speed engine is to be preferred to a high-speed one, as being more economical of fuel, more durable, and less liable to accidents ; but the direct-connected steam turbines, which run at an enormous speed, are simple, and BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 28? possess certain advantages; so that our best way will be, when the proper time comes, to make special investigation of the ma- chines then on the market. A direct-connected steam engine and generator, of almost any type, is a very compact affair, and we shall have ample room to install those that we need in such a way that they will be acces- sible on all sides. We shall have, however, certain accessories to be accommo- dated, most of which will be best placed in the boiler-room. We have decided to use exhaust steam for heating the building, but this can be done in either of two ways. By the first method the exhaust pipes from the three engines are connected to pipes running through the building, to supply radiat- ors in the various rooms; while, by the second method, the ex- haust steam is kept in the basement, and is made to pass through a coil in a tank of water, which it heats, so as to cause hot water, instead of steam, to circulate through the pipes and radiators above. The first method, although often used, has the disadvan- tage, in a high building, that the exhaust steam, being usually partly condensed, carries with it water, which collects in the ris- ing pipes and flows back, causing "hammering" in the pipes; while, being at a low pressure, it is not always easy to force it through long pipes, and some of the radiators may be left cold. An imperfect circulation may be remedied by increasing the pres- sure, but this produces a corresponding back-pressure on the en- gines, lessening their efficiency, and increasing the necessary con- sumption of coal. Devices are in use for producing a vacuum in the heating pipes and radiators, by means of an air-pump, and in this way sucking exhaust or other low-pressure steam through them, so as to avoid back-pressure on the engines ; but we reflect that our three engines will have very variable use, the main elec- tric-light engine, for instance, being in full operation for not more than an hour or two a day, and that the quantity of exhaust steam available will vary accordingly; so that constant attention will be required to turn live steam into the heating pipes to make up for deficiencies ; and it seems to us that the hot water system, in which the whole body of water in the tank, radiators and pipes, serves to store up whatever heat it receives, and distribute it 288 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE steadily and uniformly, will be the most convenient for our pur- pose ; while, as the water in the tank condenses the exhaust steam in the heating coil, there can be no back-pressure, but, instead, a partial vacuum is produced, which increases the efficiency of the engines, and saves fuel proportionately. If we could have put the boiler on a floor below the engines, or on a lower level, so that the water condensed from the exhaust steam would run down by gravitation into the boiler, the plant would have been simplified ; but this is impracticable, and the ex- haust steam, after passing through the brass coil in Tank' Vm9 ^ e ^^ wa ^ er tank, and being there condensed, must be allowed to flow into another tank, from which it can be pumped back into the boiler. This receiving tank may be of steel plate, sunk in the concrete, and it should have an over- flow, leading to the blow-off tank, which is also a steel Tank" ff tan ^ sun ^ m t ^ ie ^ oor * ^ ie boiler-room, and in- tended to receive the contents of the boiler when the latter is emptied for cleaning. It would be more convenient to blow off the contents of the boiler directly into the sewer ; but, as the hot water and steam expand and disjoint the sewer-pipes, this is forbidden by the municipal regulations, and the blow-off tank must be provided to receive the hot water, and keep it until cool enough to be allowed to flow into the sewer. The receiving tank might be dispensed with, and the condensed water from the ex- haust allowed to flow directly into the blow-off tank, and thence to the sewer, but there would be a loss in this, as fresh water from the street mains would have to be supplied to take the place of the condensed water wasted, and it would have to be heated, with a very appreciable consumption of coal, to the temperature of the condensed water, so that it is desirable to save the latter. As it is almost pure distilled water, it is very suitable for being used over again in the boiler, but it usually contains oil, brought with the steam in minute particles from the valves and cylinders of the engines, and this oil would float on the surface of the water in the boiler, corroding the boiler at the water line ; so that it must be removed by a "grease-separator" before it is stored in the re- ceiving tank. The position of the hot-water heating tank, the grease-separator, the receiving tank and the boiler-feed pump BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 289 must be so arranged that the descent will be rapid and continuous from the exhaust-pipes of the engines, as nothing is more dan- gerous to an engine than to have condensed water back up into the cylinder. The system of hot-water circulation will consist, in general, of a small number of main rising pipes, extending from the top of the heating tank to the upper story of the build- ing, with return pipes thence to the bottom of the tank, an ex- pansion tank being placed on the roof, communicating with the upper end of the loops formed by the risers and returns, to accom- modate the increase in bulk of the water, amounting to four or five per cent., due to heating, which might otherwise burst the tank or pipes, as well as to afford an escape for bubbles of steam and air. The radiators in the rooms may be supplied either from the ascending or descending stream. The most efficient, but the most expensive method is to give a separate loop of pipe to not more than two radiators in each story, supplying them from the riser, and taking the water, after cooling, into the return pipe. In this way, if the pipes are large enough, every radiator is sup- plied with water directly from the hottest part of the tank, and as the water cooled in the radiators is kept separate in the return pipe, the circulation is constant, and is most rapid in cold weather, when the heat is most needed. Where the expense of this cannot be afforded, the best circulation is obtained by carrying not more than one or two large mains directly to the upper story, carrying them along horizontally as far as necessary, and bringing down thence a sufficient number of return pipes to supply all the radi- ators, at least above the first story. By supplying the radiators from the descending pipes, the cooling in them quickens the circu- lation, so that if the pipe mains are large enough to give a free supply, the water arrives very hot at the upper radiators and does not cool very rapidly as it descends. Such cooling as is inevita- ble may be compensated by making the radiators larger in the lower stories, so as to increase the heating surface in proportion to the loss in temperature; and for the first story, which is ex- posed to cold currents from the doors, the radiators may be sup- plied from the rising mains. In this case, however, and, in gen- eral, in all cases where hot water radiators are supplied from rising mains, the return from the radiators should be carried to a 19 290 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE return main, or returned separately to the heating tank; for the reason that, if returned into the rising main, as is often done, the cooler water from the radiator mixes with the hot water in the rising main, and greatly checks the rapidity of the circulation, at the same time that the radiator above receives only the partially cooled mixture, instead of unmixed hot water from the main. Where the radiators are supplied from the descending pipes, on the contrary, the water may be returned into the same pipe from which it was taken. It will be cooler from its sojourn in the radi- ator, but its cooling will quicken, instead of checking, the circula- tion, and the hot water will be drawn over faster to supply it. The amount of radiating surface required in the rooms, and the size of the pipes necessary to supply it, depend on climate, ex- posure and other considerations, and can be easily calculated when these are known. The details of the tanks; the reducing- valve necessary where live steam is introduced into the heating coil to supplement the exhaust; the receiving tank for water condensed from the exhaust steam in the heating coil ; the grease separator for removing oil from the condensed water before it is pumped back into the boiler ; the pump, which is usually made automatic, and operated by a float, by which the water, when the receiver is full, is pumped into the boiler; the damper regulator, by which the pressure of steam automatically controls the chimney draught, by means of a damper in the smoke-pipe; the arrangement of the steam supply-pipes to the engines, and the main exhaust, which must be extended up to the roof, beside the chimney, if possible, to carry off the exhaust steam in summer, when it is not used in the heating coil, or surplus steam in winter, may be left for special study, as changes and improvements are constantly being made in appliances for these purposes. In general, however, all pipes, valves, etc., must be specified of ample dimensions, as contractors will otherwise rarely make them large enough for working easily, and with the utmost economy of fuel. The proper size of the supply-pipes required for the engines will generally be fixed by the engine builder; but the steam pipes to the engines must, in this case, where the engines are so nearly on a level with the boiler, be carried up from the boiler almost to the ceiling, and then brought over, and down to the engine, in order to prevent water BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 291 from being carried over by "priming," or foaming, from the boiler into the cylinder of the engine. Our contracts for construction, and for the heating, power, elevator and electric plants having been made, the execution will immediately begin, as every day's loss of interest on the cost of the land, and every day's delay in getting the building ready for renting, seems to our prudent clients a serious matter. The steel plans have already been made, and are at once delivered to the contractor, to be sent to the rolling-mill; and, meanwhile, the buildings on the lot must be removed, and the foundations put in, so that all may be ready to receive the steel when it arrives. The old buildings disappear with great rapidity, the temporary side- walks and other protections to the public required by law are put in, and excavation for foundations is begun, and carried on night and day. The shoring of the streets, to prevent settlement under the incessant traffic, is effected in sections, with great care, and the area is at last ready for the concrete. ~ This is to be made with one part of Portland cement to four of sand, and six of broken stone, mixed by machinery. The method described in the books, of mixing the concrete with only enough water to give it about the consistency of garden soil, and tamp- ing each layer for fifteen or twenty minutes, until the water ap- pears on the surface, is somewhat relaxed by architects and en- gineers at present, and although the concrete should not be pasty, and, if any such is put in, it should be taken out at once, it is con- sidered permissible to use it so moist as to give a film of water on the surface with little tamping. In any case, the layers should not be more than twelve inches thick; and, of course, the mate- rials must be the best possible. The manufacture of Portland cement has been so greatly improved within cement* the past few years that it is no longer necessary, as it once was, to test every barrel ; and, with a direct consignment of cement from the best American or German makers only the first few barrels will need testing. Many American makers follow the English practice of delivering Portland cement in bags; but, in this case, stricter testing is necessary, as the cement dete- riorates rapidly in bags. The mixing should be carefully watched. Workmen rarely 292 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE have any conception of the requisites for good concrete, and do not hesitate to smuggle in portions reduced to mere mud by the forgetfulness of the men whose duty it is to turn off the water, . without knowing or caring that a streak of this sort may form a dangerous seam in the mass. The sand and broken stone should also be looked after, to make sure that no loamy or clayey material is mixed with them. The positions for the blow-off and receiving tanks, which are sunk in the sub- basement floor, must be fixed, and a hole formed in the concrete for them, or the tanks themselves buried in the concrete, as it would be impracticable to dig out a place for them after the hard- ening of the concrete. As soon as the concrete is hard enough, which will be within forty-eight hours after the last layer is put in place, the building of the retaining walls may begin, and, being of simple Wans" 1 " 9 niasonry, of large blocks of granite, roughly cut, they can be carried up rapidly, so that in a few days the sub-basement floor is clear for receiving the bases for the col- umns, which are usually, though not always, of cast iron. These must be set in cement, with great exactness, and carefully lev- elled ; for, as the steel frame will arrive at the building all fitted, and with the rivet-holes punched, no variations are possible. The columns have a small base of steel plate, which is punched to cor- respond with holes formed in the cast iron base, so that they can be bolted together, and as the steel frame begins to arrive just as the bases are set, the work can go on rapidly. In order to save time in construction, although at a little extra expense for iron, the columns are usually made long enough to extend through two, and often three, stories ; and as soon as a row of columns is set up, and the girders and beams which it carries are hoisted into place, and temporarily secured with a few bolts, several gangs of riveters can be set at work, and the whole permanently secured while the next two or three stories are being put on. The inspection of a steel frame is mostly done before it reaches the building. The specifications should define very strictly the quality of the steel, requiring, for example, that the ultimate tensile strength shall be not less than 60,000 nor more than 63,000 pounds per square inch, that the elastic limit shall BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 293 not be less than 31,000 pounds, and the elongation not less than 22 per cent, in 8 inches, and should require the contractor to fur- nish satisfactory certificates that all the steel used complies with the specification. There are, at all the great rolling-mill centres, experts whose profession it is to make the tests desired by archi- tects and engineers, and, where the contract requires it, samples of the steel to be used in the frame are submitted to these experts, and tested by them, and a certificate of the result returned. The reputable rolling-mills submit their material conscientiously to test, and architects who are reasonable in their demands can de- pend on the correctness of the certificates. The workmanship, however, may be so bad as to spoil the best materials. If standard riveting and connections are called for in the contract there is not likely to be any conspicuous evasion of the agreement, which would be immediately de- , , ,, . ,. , n i i j TT 11 Workmanship tected ; but the riveting itself may be bad. Usually, the rivet-holes are punched by a machine, using, as a guide, in- dentations made by hand on the metal from a full-size drawing. Where three or more pieces are to be riveted together, the diffi- culty of marking them all by hand, and of punching them after- wards, with such accuracy that all the holes will come exactly concentric with each other, is practically insuperable. In inferior work, after the pieces are put together, and held temporarily by bolts, rivets are put in, considerably smaller than the holes, so that they may find their way past the irregularities, and are hammered down. In theory, the white-hot and soft rivet, on being ham- mered, is forced out into the irregularities of the space which it is to occupy, so as to fill them completely; but, in practice, it is usually simply bent, leaving vacancies on different sides, accord- ing to the variations in the punching, and holding the pieces to- gether very imperfectly, although, after the head of the rivet is hammered down, and formed into shape, its appearance is ex- actly the same as that of one perfectly fitted. Where the punch- ing has been so irregular that not even a small rivet can be put through the holes, it is common in inferior work to employ a "drift-pin," or long, hardened steel spike, which is driven through the holes, and, by violent compression, or even tearing, forces a passage large enough to admit a rivet. This device is likely still 294 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE further to crack the steel, which, by the concussion of punching, is generally already slightly fissured around the holes ; and its use should not be permitted in important structures. In first-class work, the holes, which are marked with great accuracy, are punched somewhat smaller than the size of the rivet to be used ; and, after the pieces are temporarily put together, are bored out with a pneumatic drill, or reamer, which leaves them perfectly concentric, smooth, free from the minute cracks left by the punch, and ready for sound and strong riveting. The difference between good and bad workmanship in these matters, in a structure whose stability may depend upon the per- fection of a joint, is so important that a local inspector should oversee the shop-riveting, and the same inspector may with ad- vantage supervise the painting of the pieces, which is the last operation before they are shipped from the mill to the building. The essential point to be observed in painting iron work is that there shall be no rust under the paint. If rust has ever begun, it will continue to increase under the paint, while, if the . metal is painted before any rust has formed, it is pro- tected as long as the paint remains unbroken. It is common to remove the "mill scale," or blackish coating which forms on the steel while being rolled, with wire brushes before painting, as the scale is so loosely attached that it may come off, and bring the paint with it. As ordinary oil paint on iron buried in masonry decays after a few years, leaving a minute crevice through which moist air can circulate, bringing rust with it, we have specified that the steel- work, after cleaning, shall be painted at the shop before shipment with a wash of Portland cement mixed with a solution of silicate of soda. This coating is more brittle than paint, but it adheres well for a time; and, after the steel has received its casing of masonry, it unites with the mortar of the masonry to form a very durable protection. After the frame is on the ground, the riveting of the pieces together begins. It was at one time common to use bolts instead of rivets for this part of the construction, but bolts, screwed up by hand, and fitting loosely in the holes, form a connection very inferior to that made with rivets, which, being hammered when BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 295 soft, are forced hard against the sides of the rivet-holes, and, by their contraction on cooling, draw the parts firmly together; so that riveting is now preferred. It is, however, necessary to hold the pieces temporarily with bolts, while the riv- ets are being put in; and joints occasionally occur Riveting which cannot be reached with a riveting-hammer, so that both must be used. As the field-riveting is even more im- portant to the stability of the building than the shop-riveting, it must be carefully watched. If a rivet-head snaps off on cooling, as sometimes happens, the rivet must be driven out, and a new one put in ; and every day the rivets put in on the previous day must be inspected, and tapped with a hammer, to see if any of them are loose; and such as prove to be loose must have their heads cut off with a cold chisel, the rivet driven out, and a fresh one inserted. As fast as the joints are riveted, they should be painted, together with any places that may have lost their cover- ing by rubbing or otherwise, with the Portland cement and sili- cate of soda mixture, so as to protect them until they are covered by the masonry. The first masonry supported by the steel work which is placed in position is the arching of the floors, but, before the blocks are set, the tie-rods, which resist the thrust of the flat arches, must be put in and screwed up tight. The floor beams should have been punched for these tie-rods, with pairs of holes in the middle of the web, the pairs being about five feet apart. As each tie-rod is a little longer than the space be- tween the floor-beams, they will alternate, one rod passing through the right-hand holes of a pair, and the next through the left-hand holes. Instead of tie-rods, passing through holes in the web of the beams, flat bars are sometimes used, hooked over the flanges, but these are much less effective. The arch blocks are of the "end section" type, and hang a little below the beams, the back of the "skewback" blocks, which come next to the beams, being formed with a deep notch, which fits over the lower flange of the beam, so as to protect it from fire. The floor arches are laid in Portland cement mortar, and are supported during con- struction by a platform of planks, hung from the beams on each side. It is desirable to level up the floor with concrete, to the 296 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE underside of the boarding, as soon as the arches are in, so that the concrete, which contains many tons of water, can be drying out while the rest of the construction is going on. If the concreting is left until later, the dampness from it will affect the floors and finish. The roof is made with flat arches exactly like a floor, and is concreted up in the same way, but no sleepers are laid in the concrete, which is simply smoothed over, and covered with a com- position roof, of tarred felt, coal-tar or asphalt composition and gravel; finishing, when the walls are ready, with a copper cor- nice, supported by iron brackets riveted to the frame. To avoid subsequent cutting of holes in the terra-cotta arches of floors and roof, which weakens them very much, sleeves should be built in for the heating and plumbing pipes; and the gas-pipes and elec- tric conduits which cross the floors should be laid in the concrete. The frame is now ready for the masonry of the walls, which may, and usually does, begin at the second or third floor, so as to leave more time for the preparation of the more elaborate casings of the metal work in the first story. As the masonry of each story is independent of the others, it is prac- ticable, where saving of time is of great importance, to begin work on several stories at once, but this is unfavorable to the ap- pearance of the finished building, unless belts or string-courses are arranged to conceal the junction of the work in the several stories. In any case the main point to be attended to is the thor- ough bonding of the work, so as to make it as far as possible in- dependent of iron ties. Our building has the two lower stories of white terra-cotta blocks, the rest being of white brick, with terra-cotta bands in the upper story. The brickwork is easily bonded around the columns, so as to make a sort of chimney, with the column in the middle, which is amply sustained in every story by the column brackets in front, the wall girders, with their wide top-plates, on the sides, and the floor-beams and arches at the back ; and the terra-cotta blocks are so formed as to bond in the same way. The remaining brickwork on the street fronts, consisting of the masonry around the windows, is efficiently car- ried by the plates on the wall-girders, the floors, and the arches over the windows, which extend through the entire thickness of the wall. The most serious problem is presented by the walls BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 297 without windows; but as these are supported on the outside by the girder plates, which extend to within an inch of the face of the wall, and on the inside by the floors, and are steadied by the columns, they may be regarded, if well bonded, as perfectly secure. The permanency of the whole construction depends, however, on that of the steel frame, so that this must be assured. The con- dition of such permanency is that every piece of structural steel in the portions of the building exposed to the weather must be buried in masonry in complete contact with it. So far as is* known, there is no limit to the duration of steel completely em- bedded in Portland cement, but any vacant spaces next the steel give an opportunity for the circulation of moist air, which quickly sets up corrosion. Our steel frame has been kept well painted with Portland cement wash, and, by laying the masonry as close to the steel as practicable, and grouting it at intervals of not more than one foot in height with thin cement, we can make sure that no air-spaces are left, or can be formed by the decay of paint, and that the building is therefore as safe as science can make it. The exposed columns in the basement and sub-basement, instead of being cased in brickwork, may, with equal safety, be wrapped with metal lath, and heavily plastered, the plaster being pressed everywhere into contact with the metal. This gives some econ- omy of space and permits occasional examination of the steel. There are two rival methods of setting window frames in brick walls. By the first method, a "skeleton frame" is made, of rough joist, for every window, of the exact size of the permanent frame, and the brickwork is built around it. When the masonry is hard, the skeleton frames are re- Prairies' moved, the recess formed by building around them is smoothly plastered with cement, and the permanent frame is set in place, fitting tightly to the space prepared for it. By the other method, the permanent frame is built in at once, and it would appear that in this way it might be quite as solidly set as by the first method. In practice, however, the permanent frame, not- withstanding the braces which are intended to hold it in position, is more or less displaced by building brickwork against it, and bricklayers always cut the bricks so as to leave a considerable space around the frame. In this way there is less danger of 298 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE moving the frame, and if it should be slightly displaced, it can be forced back into its proper position after the brickwork around it is completed ; but the space around it allows air to come through freely, making the room cold in winter, and disfiguring the inside of the walls, around the window casings, with the dust and soot which it brings with it. To prevent this, it is therefore neces- sary, in brick walls, after the masonry of the walls is completed, to take off the outside beads, which cover the joint between the frame and the brickwork, and caulk the joint with oakum, or, occasionally, with cotton, afterwards replacing the beads. When this is done, screens of cotton cloth can be put in the windows, and the plasterers' work may begin. The object of protecting the windows with screens while plastering is two- fold. It is very important to protect fresh plas- tering from currents of air, which cause it to dry too rapidly on the surface, producing "chip-cracks," and the cotton Screens doth w ^ cn c o yers the screens not only keeps out the wind, but is said to act something the part of the membrane in the dialyzer used by chemists, taking up the mois- ture from the atmosphere of the room, and transferring it to the outside, so that it assists materially in drying the room. We have specified that the inside course of all walls must be of hollow brick, which, while strong enough for this purpose, give a cellular structure which aids very much in preventing mois- ture from the outside of the wall from soaking Brick through to the inside; so that, with hard and nearly impervious brick and terra-cotta for the outside of the wall, and hollow brick for the inside course, we can apply the plastering directly to the inside face of the brick walls, with little danger that it will be stained by rains, or by the condensation which takes place on the inside of solid walls in winter; and, to make this still more certain, the two inner courses of the dead wall which rises above the adjoining building on Broadway, and which is exposed to southeasterly storms, are required to be of hollow brick. Before any plastering is done, however, the partitions must be set. To save space, these are made of channel irons, set about eight inches apart, bent at a right angle at top and bottom, and BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 299 secured to the floor and ceiling by nails driven through holes in the bent portion. The channel iron studs are covered on one side with metal lath, firmly secured to the iron with wire, and the whole is then plastered, usually with Windsor ce- ment, Adamant or other hard plaster, first on the partitions^" side which has the lath, pressing the mortar well through, and then on the other side, so as to make a solid parti- tion of hard plaster, in which the channel irons and the metal lath are embedded. The partition thus formed is from one and one-half to two and one-half inches thick, according to the height of the rooms, and consequent size of the channel irons, and is amply strong for our purpose. Its principal defect is that no nails can be driven into it, so that it does not lend itself well to the subsequent application of woodwork, but, as our building con- tains very little woodwork, the door frames being of cast-iron, and the bases of marble, this is not a matter of importance. The picture-moulding, which is the only indispensable wooden part of the construction, can be nailed to blocks, set at intervals be- tween the channel irons. The cast iron door frames, which are recessed on the back to receive the partition, and have screw- holes tapped in them for the hinges, must first be set in place, and the channel irons built around them. The ceilings will first be plastered, the mortar being applied directly to the underside of the floor arches, and the rest of the plastering can go on as usual. Three coats will be necessary, as the surfaces are too uneven to be properly covered with two coats. While this is going on, the sidewalk, which is put in by spe- cialists, under guarantees as to strength, may be completed, so as to be restored to public use as soon as possible, allowing two or three weeks for the necessary hardening. The boiler has already been put in, a certificate of test of each sheet, and a policy of insurance, being furnished with it, as re- quired by the specification. The setting has been watched, to see that the brickwork is well bonded, a point in which boiler-setters are apt to fail ; that the fire brick setting lining is of good material, and that the plans fur- nished by the boiler-setter, and approved, are carried out. It is probably impossible to set a boiler so that the brick setting will 300 BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE not crack sooner or later. Even where the boiler is suspended by rods from iron beams overhead, so as to be completely inde- pendent of the setting, this will often crack by its own unequal expansion, and the rollers usually put under one or more of the "lugs" of a large boiler seem to be of little use; so that the main dependence should be on the thorough bonding of the brickwork. The grate has been selected to suit the taste of the engineer in charge of the building, who is likely to accomplish the best re- sults with the kind of grate which he prefers. A simple smoke- consuming device, which will satisfy the official inspectors, is in- cluded in the contract for the boiler, but nothing else, in the shape of water-tubes in the fire-box, water-tube grates or similar de- vices, has been introduced, as our boiler is quite large enough for the service demanded of it, and these inventions, excellent as some of them are where the boiler is rather small for its work, or where particularly quick steaming is desired, would add to the expense of the plant, without, in this instance, any important advantage. Before the plastering is done, all the gas pipes, and the con- duits for electric wires, must be in place. Channels have been cut in the walls where necessary for vertical pipes, and the hori- zontal pipes have been carried out from them in the Ccmduits s P ace occupied by the sleepers, and buried in the con- crete, dropping down through the floor arching to their intended position. The wires are not drawn into the con- duits until later; but the position of outlets and switches must be verified, and care taken to see that the conduits are laid with easy curves, so that the wires can be drawn through them with- out obstruction. The plastering may now go on without interruption; and as soon as it is done, the plumbing pipes must be set up. All the main waste, soil and air-pipes are to be of wrought iron, screwed together. Although the use of such pipes adds some- Plastering t ? , .. i 1 1 < i- thing to the expense, nothing else is suitable for lines thirteen stories high, the expansion and contraction in which would soon loosen the lead-caulked joints of cast iron pipes. The pipes and fittings must be well screwed together, instead of being left, as they often are, hanging with only one or two turns. The BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE 301 supply pipes are all of annealed brass ; and all the pipes are speci- fied to be finished in aluminum bronze at completion. As soon as the piping is done, the fixtures can be set, but, in order to do this to advantage, the marble floors and linings of the toilet-rooms should be put in ; and the contractor wishes to com- plete at the same time the marble stairs, and the floors and wain- scoting of the halls. There is no objection to this, if the marble is carefully protected until all the workmen are out of the building, by putting sawdust or felt paper over it, and covering this with boards. If this is not done, men carrying heavy pipes, radiators or other materials are sure to drop them occasionally, to rest themselves, particularly on the stairs; and the result very fre- quently is to "stun" the marble at the point of contact, producing at first an almost imperceptible dent, but crushing the stone for some distance beyond, so that the particles crumble away and fall out, leaving a conspicuous hole. The elevator contractors have had a temporary car running, for the use of the builder, and this is now to be replaced by the finished car, of wrought iron and bronze, and the wrought iron enclosure will be put in at the same time. The construction of elevators and their enclosures has been brought to great perfec- tion, but care will be necessary to see that the guides are straight and smooth, and that the ropes run smoothly. Even the best wire ropes will endure only a certain amount of bending, and, if the bending in a given place is complicated by any twisting their life will be materially shortened. With a bad wire rope, a few weeks' wear will be sufficient to give the bristly aspect which de- notes impending rupture, and it is well to watch for this. Nearly all passenger elevators are hung with two ropes, either of which alone would hold the car ; and there are usually two more ropes carried from the car over the sheaves to the counterbalance, mak- ing four ropes to each car. Even with these, there is always some danger connected with elevators, and the danger is considerably greater in fireproof buildings, in which it is necessary to make the guides of iron, as these iron guides, covered with grease, do not give much hold to safety-catches. The space between the elevator car and the landings should also be observed. It should never exceed two inches, on account BUILDING SUPERINTENDENCE of the danger that passengers may get their feet caught; and it cannot safely be much less, as the car is apt to sway slightly in its motion. Most passenger elevator cars have no door, the doors in the enclosure on each landing being all that is required, and these doors should be set close to the edge of the shaft, so that people may not be tempted to put their heads out of the car ; still less to step out of the car upon a ledge between the shaft and the door of the enclosure. In small office buildings, which have no separate freight elevator, it is usual to put hinges on the "fixed panel," both of the enclosure and the car, so that the whole front may be opened for carrying up furniture. In the meantime, the interior finishing will be going on. Of this there is very little, the picture moulding around the top of all the rooms, and the shelves and hook-strips, forming the greater part, except the doors, which will not be hung until the upper floors are laid. The laying of these only waits until the sashes are hung ; and, while these are being put in, small pieces of floor- ing are set, at the proper height, so that the radiators may be placed on them, and connected; it being very desirable to have heat in the rooms as soon as the upper floors are finished, so as to keep the latter dry, and counteract the effect upon them of the damp masonry by which they are surrounded. As soon, there- fore, as the radiators are connected, the floors can be completed, the doors hung, the locks and knobs attached, and the painters and glaziers turned in, followed by the gas-fixture men and the electricians, who will connect the fixtures and have the building ready to be turned over to the owners. PMOFBF *. HEARST ARCHITECTURAL LIBRARY INDEX Air, Expansion of 170 Air Supply 176 Anchor 60, 69, 73 Anchorage 56 Angle Bead 97 Arch 59 Ashlar 9, 60, 61 Ashlar Line 13 Aspect '. ... 106 Avenue Building 23 B Back Plastering 150 Balloon Frame 126 Banking Room 270 Base Board 101 Bath Tub 163 Batter Boards 19 Beams, Built 87 Bell Wires 145 Bells, Specification for 244 Belly Truss 87 Bench Mark 20 Bevelling Beams 66 Bibb Cock 166 Blind Nailing 189 Blow-off Tank 288 Boiler Setting 299 Boilers 284 Bolted Joints 275 Bolts 198 Bonding 47 Bonding of Chimneys 135 Boston Finish 199 Brace 125, 129 Brace, Iron 275 Braced Frame 124 Brass Pipes 158 Brick Arches 59 Bricks 58, 134 Bricks, Hollow 298 Bridging Floors 68 (303) Bridging Partitions 94 Broach 9 Brown Coat 155 Built Beams 87 Bush Hammering n Butts 199 Cambering 64 Cantilever 272 Capped Flashings 78 Carpenter's Specification 227 Casing Steel Frame 276 Casings 149 Cement 36 Cement, Portland 291 Cesspool 202 Chain Bolt , 198 Channel Iron Partitions 249 Chimney Bars 136 Chimney, Steam 284 Chimneys 134 Church, Construction of 7 Clamps 60 Clay Foundation 27, 108 Coal Bin 285 Cocks 165 Cold Air Box 175 Colonial Doors 195 Compound Beams 87 Compression Cocks 166 Concrete 37, 178, 225, 291 Concrete Footings 271 Concrete Foundation 273 Concreting Floor 178 Conduits for Electric Wires 144 Construction of Stone Church... 7 Construction of Steel Frame Building 265 Contamination of Wells 202 Contract, Model 261 Contracts 258 Coping 73 304 INDEX Cornice, Copper 296 Cornice, Plaster 155 Cornice, Stone 73 Cotton Screens 298 Cottonwood 117 Crandle 10 Crowning Beams 64 D Derrick 56 Derrick Laid Stones 55 Diagonals, Measuring 14 Direct Plunger Elevator 279 Direct Radiation 287 Direction of Building Work I Dog-legged Stairs 181 Door Frames 179 Doors 192 Doors, Colonial 195 Draft Line 10 Drainage 202 Draining Site 113 Droving 10 Dry Rot 66, 118 Dry Wall 115 Dry Well 202 Dynamo Room 285 Dynamos 280 Electric Gas-lighting Specification 245 Electric Lighting Specification . . . 245 Electric Wiring 144 Elevator Machines 286 Elevator, Sidewalk 279 Elevators, Electric 282 Excavation, Specification for 220 Exhaust Heating 287 Expansion of Air 176 Extras 31 False Girt 128 Field Riveting 295 Figures 135 Fmials 73 Fire Escape 269 Fireplaces 137 Fireproof Building 265 Fire Stops 93, 151 Fixing Prices 200 Flashings 76 Flitch Plates 86 Floor Arches 280 Flooring Timber 63 Floors 186 Floors, Polishing Flues Footings Foundation Stones Foundations Frame, Balloon Frame, Braced Frame, Steel Framing Freestone Freezing Weather French Drain Fresco Frozen Set Furnace Furring 139, PAGE 216 136 40 42 33 126 124 273 117 71 74 23 215 75 173 153 Gable Coping 73 Gas-fitting, Specification for 255 Gas-lighting, Electric, Specifica- tion for 245 Gas-piping 142 General Conditions 218 Girders 80, 86, 121 Girts 125 Girts, Dropped 125 Glass 216 Glazing 216 Glazing, Specification for 247 Grading 22, 209 Granite 57 Grass 209 Gravel Foundation 53 Grease Separator 288 Ground Cock 166 Ground Water 107 Gutter 80, 146 Guy Ropes 56 H Hard Pine.... 118 Hardware 194 Hardware, Specification for 241 Headers 50 Head- room 180 Heating, Specification for 256 Hemlock 117 Herring-bone Floor 190 Hinges 199 Hollow Brick 298 Hollow Walls, Ties for 70 Hopper, Short 167 Hot Air Pipes 140 Hot Water Heating 287 INDEX 305 I Inside Painting 214 Inspection of Steel Frame 292 Iron Lath 152 Iron Pipes 159 Irrigation, Subsoil 205 Jamb Stones 7 2 Joinery '. 178 Joints in Pipe 161 K Keys 196 Kneelers 73 Knobs 194, 197 Lathing 153 Lath, Iron 152 Laths 153 Lead Pipes 157 Leaks in Roofs 148 Ledger Board 128 Lever Locks 196 Lime 43 Local Vent 169 Locks 194 Long Bracing 128 Loose Joint Butts 199 Loose Pin Butts 199 Lumber 117 M Marble 101 Masonry 33 Mason's Specification 220 Mason's Square 15 Matched Floors , 188 Measuring Diagonals 14 Model Contract 261 Model Specification 218 Mortar 44 Oak 191 Office Building 265 Outside Painting 210 Overhanging Walls 267 Painting 210 Painting Shingles 147 Painting, Specification for 246 Painting Steel Frame Parquetry 20 Partitions, Channel Iron 299 Partitions, Unsupported 133 Party Walls 266 Patched Stones 74 Pene Hammering 10 Peppermint Test 172 Piers 82 Pine 117, 187 Pipe, Brass 158 Pipe, Iron 159 Pipe, Lead 157 Pipe Casings 160 Pitched Joints 9 Pitching Tool 8 Plastering 95, 154 Plastering, Specification for 226 Plastering, Weight of 65 Plate 126 Plumbing 156 Plumbing, Specification for 248 Pointing 1 1, 104 Polishing Floors 216 Portal Framing 275 Portland Cement 291 Protection from Dry- Rot 66 Puddling 41 euarry Face 9 uartered Oak 191 Quoins 62 R Radiators 289 Random Ashlar 61 Receiving Tank 288 Redwood 117 Retaining Wall 278, 292 Rift Hard Pine 192 Road Building 23 Rock Face 9 Roof 75, 133 Round Trap 165 Rubble 47 Rule Joint 98 Sand 36 Sand-holes 71 Sandstone 71 Sashes 193 Sash Fasts 193, 198 Scratch Coat 155 Screeds 155 Screens 156, 298 Seams 71 36 INDEX Setting-out 13 Settlement 131 Sewer 268 Shakes 63, 118 Shingles 146 Shingles, Painting 147 Shingling 147 Shrinkage 130 Sidewalk 299 Sill 119 Silver Grain 191 Sinks ". 164 Siphonage 165 Siphon Jet Closet 168 Site 106 Site, Drainage of 113 Sizing Beams 130 Slate 83 Slate Stone 42 Slating 147 Smoke Stack 282, 284 Soil Pipes 156 Specifications 218 Specifications for Bills 244 " Carpentry 227 ' Electric Gas- lighting .. PAGE Electric Light- ing Excavation . 245 245 220 255 247 241 ' Gas-fitting . " Glazing .... " Hardware . ' Heating 256 ' Masonry 220 ' Painting 246 " Plastering 226 " Plumbing 248 " Stairs 243 Spindles 197 Splicing Mouldings 180 Spoil Bank 23 Springs 30 Spruce 117, 186 Square, Mason's 15 Staging Lumber 58 Staining 211 Stairs 180 Stairs, Iron 281 Stairs, Specification for 243 Standing Finish 179 Steam Plant 283 Steel Frame Building 265 Stone Buildings 7 Studding 120 Subsoil Irrigation 204 Surface Water . . 208 Tanks 287 Testing Plumbing 171 Test, Peppermint 172 Text-Books 3 Three, Four, Five Rule 15 Tiling Floors 102 Timber 117 Traps 164 Trap Ventilation 165 Trowelling 154 Trussing 139 U Under Floors 67 Underpinning 116 Unsupported Partitions 133 Upper Floors 186 V Vault 282 Vaults under Sidewalk 278 Veins of Water 30 Veneered Doors 192 Ventilation of Traps 165 W Wainscot, Marble 282 Waney Timber 63 Wash Basins 162 Wash Down Closet 167 Wash Trays 164 Washout Closet 169 Water Closets 167 Water Table 61 Weathered Pointing 34 Weight of Plastering 65 Weight of Timber 65 Whitewood 192 Window Frames 149, 297 Wooden Buildings 105 Zinc Casings 160 A DICTIONARY of ARCHITECTURE