The Livable H o u s c 



drains, but in places where there is liable to be standing water 

 any foundation will need drains of one sort or another. 



A tile drain laid under one gutter will usually take care of the 

 sub-drainage and may be utilized in carrying off the surface 

 water by means of tiles run to it from the catch basins. All drains 

 should be laid at least three feet six inches below grade in the 

 region of New York, in order to go down below the frost line. 



In cases where the sub-soil is a very hard clay which retains 

 the water, two drains, one under each gutter may be necessary. 

 The most important point in road construction is to have the sub- 

 soil well drained, because thorough drainage is essential to a good 

 foundation, j A sub-soil which holds water will make the entire 

 road soft and spongy, and no amount of top dressing will be of per- 

 manent value. For a careful and thorough treatise on road-mak- 

 ing, see Mr. Ira Osborn Baker's "Roads and Pavements." 



Gutters may be made of any one of a number of materials 

 equally satisfactory. Brick, stone, asphalt block, concrete, are all 

 structurally adaptable. But they all have the same unpleasant 

 quality of defining the road, and making it stand out from the 

 lawn. Sod gutters should be used whenever possible, or better 

 still gutters should be dispensed with altogether in places where 

 they are not absolutely necessary to carry off the surface drainage. 



In the consideration of approaches to the house, one is apt to 

 ignore completely the place of the footpath, which, in these days 

 of plentiful automobiles, has happily become not entirely extinct. 

 The idea of convenience in rainy weather, which makes all of us 

 who have once suffered a drenching of our best clothes unwilling 



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