DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



239 



DOMESTIC NOTICES, 



The Best BtriLDiNG Materials. — Will you be 

 so good as to sjive us your opinion as to the most 

 proper materials for a dwelling house, where all 

 are equally convenient — whether brick, stone, or 

 wood : 1st. With regard to health : 2d. Cheap- 

 ness : 3d. Facility and propriety of ornament, 

 with creepers, trees, &c.: 4th. Durability, Yours, 

 E. Nichols, Walhonding, Ohio, 



Answer. — We repeat here, in reply to our corres- 

 pondent, the following remarks, written by us, and 

 published in the American edition of " Hints to 

 Young Architects :" 



" Of what materials to build, is one of the first 

 questions to be settled, when the site of the house 

 has been determined upon. In some parts of the 

 country, indeed, the abundance and cheapness of 

 one material, and the scarceness and high cost of 

 others, renders it imperative upon the majority to 

 employ th-^t which is most easily obtained. A 

 large part of the United States is still in this con- 

 dition, with regard to wood, which, especially in 

 the new States, is still so abundant as to be much 

 the cheapest building material. When it is neces- 

 sary to build of wood, our advice is, always to 

 choose a style which is rather light, than heavy — in 

 other words, one in which the style and materials 

 are in keeping with each other. It is as false 

 taste to erect a wooden building in a massive and 

 hea\'y style, which originated in the use of stone, 

 as it would be senseless to build a mock fortifica- 

 tion, intended to stand a real siege, whose walls 

 and battlements are of thin pine boards. 



" In the atlantie States, however, a large por- 

 tion of the better class of houbes, erected within 

 the last five years, are of rough hard brick, cov- 

 ered on the exterior with a coat of cement. This 

 afTords, on the whole, perhaps, the warmest and 

 dryest house in winter, and the coolest in summer, 

 that can be built. The art of stucco-work, or ce- 

 ment plastering the exterior of the walls, formerly 

 badly performed, is now becoming well understood, 

 and when well done, (and more especially when 

 protected by a projecting roof,) it will last, without 

 repair, for twenty or thirty years. On this account 

 it is greatly to be preferred to wood, which re- 

 quires painting every third or fourth year, to pre- 

 serve it from decay. Any pleasing, neutral, stone 

 tint may be given to stucco, and thus all the eflect 

 of handsome dressed stone obtained, at one-fourth 

 its cost. There is no doubt that, from its many 

 advantages, brick and stucco is destined to become 

 the prevalent mode of building the better class of 

 country houses. 



" Where stone of an agreeable color can be ob- 

 tained, we do not hesitate to give the preference to 

 it. It makes the most solid, substantial, and endu- 

 ring house, and there is, perhaps, a look of perma- 

 nence about a fine stone mansion, which no other 

 material ever has. But one would decidedly pre- 

 fer brick and stucco, for a cottage or dwelling of 

 moderate size, to stone of a cold or gloomy color, 

 such as dark blue limestone, or dark granite. The 

 expression of a cottage or villa of moderate size, 



in the country, should, by all means, be that of 

 cheerfulness ; and, when built of a dark stone, it 

 can scarcely fail to be the opposite. Only in a 

 larofe mansion do we think dark stone can be hap- 

 pily employed for a dwelling house, since there it 

 often adds to the grandeur and dignit}' of effect. — 

 Some of our li{?liter freestones, like that of Trinity 

 Church, New-York, and that so much used in Cin- 

 cinnati, are beautiful building materials, which 

 cannot be too much or too frequently used. 



'* There is a strong prejudice, we find, in the 

 eastern States, against stone houses, which we 

 think entirely erroneous, and which retards the 

 progress of domestic architecture ; for it is undoubt- 

 edly true, that this art advances in proportion as 

 the materials employed possess solidit}* and per- 

 manence. This prejudice has arisen from the bad 

 manner in which the old stone houses of that part 

 of the country were all constructed. There were 

 two errors in their construction ; 1st. The founda- 

 tion M-alls were often laid in damp or springy soil, 

 with common lime mortar : 2d. The interior walls 

 were plastered on the solid walls of the house, 

 without _/irriHg. Now it is impossible, that a house 

 built in this way, should be dry. The moisture of 

 the soil is absorbed by the foundation walls, and is 

 carried up, by capillary attraction, often as high 

 as the second story, and the dampness which the 

 outer walls absorb in long storms, passes through, 

 more or less, to the walls of the i-ooms. To pre- 

 vent the former evil, it is only necessary to lay the 

 foundation walls with a mortar composed of ce- 

 ment, or water lime, and sand, instead of the com- 

 mon lime and sand — this effectually prevents all 

 dampness being absorbed or conducted up from the 

 soil itself. To prevent all dampness finding its 

 way from the outside to the inner walls of the rooms, 

 what is technically called " firring oflV that is, 

 making a hollow space between the lathing and 

 the outer walls, is a most effectual and simple 

 remedy." 



To the foregoing we will here add, that the health 

 of a dwelling depends almost entirely on the dryness 

 of the walls, and the foregoing will show how 

 stone or brick walls may be rendered perfectly dry 

 at all seasons. 



As regards '' facility and propriety of ornament 

 with creepers, See," that is a question which re- 

 lates more to the style than the materials of a 

 dwelling. The more rural styles, such as the 

 English cottage, the Swiss, and the Bracketted 

 Italian, allow, and indeed almost require the sup- 

 port of the richest accessories of climliing plants, 

 and all the intricacies of trees and shrubbery. The 

 more highly finished classical modes, on the other 

 hand, may be surrounded by trees, but are seldom 

 improved by any portions of the edifices themselves 

 being hidden by vines and creepers. 



Stune walls, or brick walls, (the latter of course 

 painted with some soft agreeable color,) are much 

 better adapted to the growth of such plants as the 

 Ivy, Virginia Creeper, &,c., than any others, since 

 wooden structures are more liable to be injured by 



