328 Gravel Wall Houses. [July, 



" No other mode of building can compare with this for cheapness. 

 My walls are one hundred and fifty feet around and elev^en feet high, 

 and as near as we can calculate the cost was only $55 all told, and going 

 two and a half miles for materials. I have my fronts finished with a 

 coat of lime and coarse sand — the same as the inside — and then colored 

 in imitation of granite." 



[And the following additional item concerning the same matter, is from Mr. 

 D. Kennedy, of Erie, Pa., giving liis experience in regard to the "Gravel Wall'' 

 for building purposes, originally published in the " Rural New Yorker." He 

 says : J 



" The house which I built was 25 feet long, 18 feet wide, and two 

 stories high — the first 8^ feet high, the second Ih I dug the trench 

 for my foundation two feet deep and fourteen inches wide. For the 

 foundation, I put into my mortar-bed one bushel of quick-lime, and two 

 of water-lime. I added water, and stirred the lime until it wa? as thin 

 as milk, then added gravel until it was so thick that I could not stir it 

 with a hoe. 1 then set my man to shoveling it from side to side, after 

 ■which was added pounded stone, slate and small round hard-heads. The 

 mortar was then wheeled to the spot and deposited in the moulds. The 

 boards which I used for moulds were common pine, one inch thick, four- 

 teen inches wide and twelve feet long. I laid a course around my build- 

 ing every day. When the wall was high enough to commence the first 

 story, I leveled with a little fine mortar, laid on the top of the wall a 

 thin board six inches wide, and placed my joists on the board, which 

 equalized the pressure. 1 then used only quick-lime, about one bushel 

 to sixteen bushels of sand and gravel, and mixed no more mortar than 

 I used each day. It took but forty-eight bushels of quick-lime, and six 

 bushels of water-lime, to lay up my entire house, or about five cents per 

 square foot. I finished it about the 15th of November, and although it 

 has stood all winter, exposed to sudden atmospheric changes, without 

 the outside coat of hard-finish being on, yet it stands as firmly as a rock. 

 I am in favor, however, of commencing in the early part of the summer, 

 as it gives walls a longer time to harden before frosts come on." 



Mr. Kennedy suggests the idea of laying an outside tier of good hard 

 brick in the foundation, one foot below the surface of the ground and 

 one foot above. It strikes me to be a good idea, lessening the liability 

 to scale off by the frost, and also giving it the appearance of a brick 

 foundation. Let others report their experience in this department of 

 building. AVe want the cheapest modes of constructing houses, barns 

 and out-buildings ; and if it is the gravel-wall, then give us the prac- 

 tical experience. 



