Farm Buildings and Cottages. 221 



Drake's Patent Concrete Building Company, 37 to 41, Rock- 

 ingham Street, Nevvington Causeway, S.E. 



The Cost of Concrete compaeed with that of Brickwork. 



To show the relative cost of concrete and brickwork, I will 

 take for example the Cardiff plan of a pair of labourers' cottages, 

 which appeared in the ' Journal ' for 1873,* and I will suppose 

 that a patent concrete building apparatus will be hired. 



In that design there are 618 yards of reduced 9-inch brick- 

 work, which at 5^. per yard superficial would amount to 154/. 10s. 

 The same quantity of concrete, which costs on an average 2s. 

 per yard superficial, 9-inch thick, would amount to 61/. I65. ; 

 to this I will add the cost of hire of one of these patent appa- 

 ratuses for a month, which would amount to about 18/. 9^., 

 making a total of 80/. 5^. against 154/. 10s., leaving a balance 

 in favour of concrete, even when the apparatus was hired, of 

 74/. hs. 



This comparison should direct the attention of those interested 

 in building to the consideration of this valuable and economical 

 material, and help to remove any prejudice respecting its use as 

 a building material for farm-buildings or labourers' cottages. 



Ornamentation of Concrete. 



In commencing this paper I said that the bare concrete face 

 Avould not please every eye. We have been so long accustomed 

 to see regular horizontal and vertical joints, with the usual 

 building materials, that when a new material is introduced, 

 having a different appearance, we cannot all at once bring our- 

 selves to like it ; hence a certain prejudice against the appearance 

 of concrete as well as against the material itself. A concrete 

 wall, in opposition to one of bricks or stone, is a large slab, 

 being a mixture of broken stones, bricks, ashes, gravel, sand, 

 &c., and lime or cement. There are no joints ; all is one con- 

 glomerate mass, resembling, as it were, in its texture, magnified 

 granite. Now the finer the several materials are of which it 

 is composed, the more perfect the mass, both in strength and 

 in appearance. Of course the expense of manufacture is in- 

 creased, as it takes men a longer time to break material up to 

 the size of small gravel than to the size of a walnut. The bare 

 concrete face may be improved by putting some of this fine 

 concrete to the face of the work, and backing it up with coarser 

 stuff, at little extra trouble. Again, I would suggest that a brick 

 or stone plinth be put round the building, brick arches of various 

 colours put to windows or doors, stone heads to windows (stop- 



* Second series, toI. ix., part 1, p. 246, rn I Plate I. 



