HOME BUILDING AND WOOD PRESERVATIVES 



BY ARTHUR NEWTON PACK 



np HE United States needs 

 * a million more homes, 

 each one of which will be 

 called upon to do duty for 

 at least one generation and 

 perhaps for several gener- 

 ations in addition, and our 

 farmers need a million 

 more farm buildings, as 

 our agricultural communi- 

 ties are surprisingly under- 

 built. There is often too 

 little thought for the repair 

 bills of the future, but most 

 of us honestly want our 

 home to be as well built 

 and enduring as possible. 

 Some who can afford the 

 expense will build with 

 stone, brick, hollow tile or 

 cement, but our forefathers 

 built houses of wood which 

 still stand to-day, and wood 

 seems destined to remain the choice of most home build- 

 ers for present and future. 



The man who puts up a building that will endure really 

 performs a double service, first to himself and, second, 

 through conservation of our timber resources, to the coun- 

 try at large. The importance of combating waste and 

 decay is generally appre- 

 ciated, yet it is estimated 

 that the people of the 

 United States throw away 

 a hundred million dollars a 

 year in preventable decay 

 of wood alone. The use 

 of preservatives which pro- 

 long the life of wood used 

 in home building is no new 

 idea. It is not merely for 

 appearance that we paint 

 the outside of our houses 

 or stain the shingles on our 

 roofs. Paint, however, is 

 merely a protective coating 

 for the surface which must 

 be frequently renewed. It 

 does not kill the vegetable 

 organisms of decay. The 

 true preservative may Le 

 advantageously used on 

 sills, door-steps, porch and 

 stable floors and supports. 



INSIDE A PRESSURE TREATING CYLINDER 



This is the method of applying v/ood preservatives used by 

 practically all the large commercial companies. 



WHERE WOOD PRESERVATIVES SHOULD BE 

 USED 



Porch steps such as these coirld easily have been made to 

 last as long as the rest of the house and at an expense 

 much less than the renewal cost. 



roofs, chicken houses, green 

 houses, garages, barns, 

 fences, and all parts of 

 buildings exposed to mois- 

 ture and decay. It per- 

 forms a function in pre- 

 venting fungus growth and 

 rot, more important than 

 any surface coating of 

 paint. Do you know a man 

 whose porch is continually 

 rotting out ? It could easily 

 be made to last as long as 

 the rest of the house by 

 proper preservative treat- 

 ment, and at an expense 

 far less than the renewal 

 cost. The United States 

 Forest Service estimates 

 that more than twenty bil- 

 lion feet, or one-half of all 

 the lumber annually used 

 in the United States, is sub- 

 ject to rot and may be profitably treated with preservative. 

 The decay of wood is caused by living vegetable or- 

 ganisms known as fungi. The microscopic seeds or 

 spores of these wood destroyers are produced in count- 

 less numbers from the mushrooms or mold-like growth 

 which appears on rotten wood. Being easily disseminated 



by the wind they are pres- 

 ent everywhere, and decay 

 which seems to spring up 

 spontaneously really only 

 occurs where the spores 

 have found favorable con- 

 ditions of heat and mois- 

 ture in which to develop. 

 They start their destructive 

 work wherever wood is 

 moist and especially where 

 it is in contact with the 

 ground, or with walls and 

 foundations. Accordingly 

 a good wood preservative 

 must be sufficiently toxic or 

 poisonous to the spores of 

 the fungi to destroy them, 

 and at the same time suf- 

 ficiently permanent to con- 

 tinue performing this func- 

 tion. It must also be read- 

 ily absorbed by the wood, 

 cheap enough for general 



