222 On Concrete as a Building Material for 



chamfered or otherwise ornamentally treated), moulded brick or 

 stone strings, ornamental brick eaves, or the rafter-feet project- 

 ing (stained and varnished) ; these expedients would certainly 

 make a concrete house look quite as well as one built either of 

 brick or stone, and at little additional expense. Everything 

 would be real, and show itself; nothing would be hidden by 

 a sham facing, which would be the case, if the walls were coated 

 Avith cement; for then the appearance of the building would be. 

 the same, whether built of brickwork, stone, or concrete. At a 

 short distance it might even be mistaken for stone, until the 

 weather and time brought a little of this veneering off and 

 revealed the real material. 



I have, in the accompanying Plates, I. II. and III., shown what 

 may be done in treating concrete ornamentally, taking as a 

 basis the Cardiff cottage design previously referred to. 



Plate I. (p. 223) shows a very simple way of treating concrete. 

 The plinth, strings, window-arches, and chimneys, are of red 

 brick ; the window-sills are of stone. A stop-chamfered wood 

 barge-board, 1^ X 9, is put to each gable, projecting about 10 

 inches ; the rafter-feet also project about 4 or 5 inches ; and both 

 are stained and varnished. Figs. 1, 2, 3, are details of strings to 

 a half-inch scale ; Figs. 4 and 5 are details of plinths ; and Fig. 6 

 shows a window with stone head and chamfered red brick 

 jambs. 



Plate II. (p. 224) is the same design, treated rather more orna- 

 mentally. The base, of red brick, is in two orders, and reaches 

 up to the ground-floor window-sills, see the subjoined Fig. 2. 

 Red brick strings run round the building, and the angles have 

 brick quoins. Barge-boards are dispensed with, and brick cor- 

 belling to gables substituted, see Fig. 3. The gables, too, have 

 alternate layers or bands of concrete and red brick ; brick arches 

 and jambs are put to windows and doors ; the rafters are not 

 projecting, as is shown in Fig. 1. A brick cornice is used, see 

 Fig. 1. A plan of chimney-stack is shown in Fig. 4. 



Plate III. shows the same design treated with stone instead of 

 brick ; this is supposed to apply to a stone district. The 

 plinth, strings, window-dressings, coping, and chimneys, are of 

 stone. Figs. 1 and 2 are details of a bedroom window. The 

 pointed arch is of red bricks, the head or tympanum being 

 set back, as shown in Fig. 2, and finished with Portland cement, 

 the sun and date being either stamped upon it or afterwards 

 applied. Fig. 3 is a plan of chimney-stack. Fig. 4 is a detail 

 of the upper part of the gable, showing the gable coping, en- 

 closing a shield, which might bear the proprietor's arms or 

 monogram. Fig. 5 is a detail of the main string ; a is moulded 

 stone-work ; h is intended for 6-inch ordinary red floor quarries. 



