456 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December, 
pieces of wood, and are stiffened with stays 
from the ground. Planks with smooth sur¬ 
faces for each face of the wall are then laid in¬ 
side of the posts around the whole length of 
the building, or intended walls. A piece of 
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Fig. 3.— THE MIXING HEAP. 
iron, shown in fig. 10, is used to prevent the 
planks from bulging outwards by the pressure 
of the concrete. These clips are also shown at 
a , a , figs. 5 and 6. The clips, or clamps, are 
made tight by wedges driven between their 
ends and the planks, as seen in fig. 9, and at 
b, b, figs. 5 and 6. The walls may be made 
9 inches thick or more for the outer ones, and 
6 inches for partition walls. 
When the trench formed by the planks is filled 
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Fig. 4. —MIXING THE HEAP. 
up, these are moved up and held to their proper 
place by means of counter wedges, seen in two 
different positions at a, a, figs. 8 and 9. Fig. 8 is 
a view looking downwards upon the wall, and 
fig. 9 looking endwise, showing the planks, b, b, 
and the clip and wedge, c ; the posts are shown 
to 
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Fig. 5. —ARRANGEMENT OF THE PLANKS. 
at d, d. The planks should cover the concrete 
already laid at least 14 inch, to prevent the 
fresh laid concrete from being forced out 
through any crevice. This is shown in fig. 9. 
In filling up the frame with concrete, it is best 
to arrange the work of raising the planks, mix¬ 
ing the day’s supply of material, filling it in, 
Fig. 6. —ARRANGEMENT OF THE POSTS. 
and completing the job, so that all may be 
done by the close of the day, and the concrete 
be left undisturbed to dry and harden during 
the night, leaving everything ready for the 
next day’s filling. With such arrangements as 
these, no skilled labor is necessary, but the 
supervision of any intelligent owner or em¬ 
ployer is sufficient, with faith¬ 
ful compliance with the simple 
directions here pointed out. 
No scaffold-poles are needed 
in this plan: stout brackets may 
be nailed to the posts to sup¬ 
port all needed staging. For 
the windows, doorways, gables, 
flues, and fire-places, special ar¬ 
rangements will be required. 
The door and window-frames 
should be built in, and a few 
nails driven through the frames, 
or a few cleats fastened thereto, 
will be sufficient to hold them 
firmly in their place. The joists 
are to be built into the walls, 
and a few spikes driven in the 
ends, or a cleat nailed to the 
upper part of each end, will 
serve to hold them to the walls. This is 
shown in fig. 11. For fire-places wooden 
arches must be provided, and for the flues 
wooden cores, or molds, slightly tapering, so 
that they can be raised along with the wall, 
wifi be needed. If the wall is desired to be 
furred for lathing, pieces of wood should be 
built in the wall in the proper places. But this 
is a needless expense, as the concrete, being 
porous and a poor conductor of heat, no 
moisture gathers upon the inner surface of the 
wall by condensation in cold weather, the 
finishing coat of plastering may therefore be 
laid directly upon the wall. The writer has 
lived for a year in a lime-concrete 
house in a cold northern climate, 
where brick-houses are always 
damp inside by reason of the con¬ 
stant condensation of moisture 
upon the walls in the winter, un¬ 
less they are furred, but never dis¬ 
covered the least tendency towards 
dampness. This is one of the ad- 
_ ( vantages of concrete houses, and 
- ! not a slight one. One of the chief 
objections to concrete buildings, is 
their usual flatness, squareness, 
and severely plain, not to say unsightly 
appearance. The walls are usually mere slabs 
set upon end, and pierced with square holes 
for windows and doors. Recently, however, 
the greatly enlarged use of concrete as a build¬ 
ing material in England, has led to many 
improvements in the style and finish of this 
class of houses, and architects 
have turned their attention in this 
direction. Mr. George Hunt, ar¬ 
chitect and surveyor to the Royal 
Agricultural Society of England, 
has designed some plans for the 
ornamentation of concrete houses, 
which have been published in the 
Society’s Journal, and which we 
gladly reproduce as suggestions, 
if not for models for our readers. 
The simplest improvement con¬ 
sists in using the finest broken 
materials for the face of the work, 
and backing that up with the 
coarser stuff. This gives a bet¬ 
ter finish. Then a brick or 
stone plinth may be put around 
the building, or a mold may be made by which 
moldings may be run around the base, with 
bases colored by the addition of some cheap 
earths. Brick arches, or colored blocks of 
concrete, may be built around the doors and 
windows, with plain or chamfered edges, or 
these portions of the building may be stained 
Fig. 7.—LAYING THE CONCRETE. 
of some suitable color, or a somewhat different 
make of concrete of finer material, might be 
used for these portions. A great variety of 
new ideas will spring up from these hints and 
suggestions. Figures 12, 13, 14, and 15, illus- 
PPP 
Figs. 8 and 9.— raising the planks. 
trate these details sufficiently to give a clear 
idea of them, as well as a good basis from 
which to greatly enlarge these ideas. In fig. 
12 the “ plinths ” of brick or concrete are 
shown at a and b. At c, 
d, are shown details of 
“strings” in section; at e, 
the “ string ” d, is shown in 
perspective, and at / is seen 
a plan for window or door¬ 
way with head and jambs. 
The elevation of the build¬ 
ing finished in this style, 10 ‘ 
is seen at fig. 13. The rafter-feet project a 
lew inches, and a board of 9 inches in width, 
projects around the gables. Fig. 14 shows a 
more ornamental design. At a is the base 
which reaches to the lower floor window sills, 
Fig. 11. —FASTENING THE JOISTS. 
(as seen also in fig. 15), at b is the cornice, of 
brick work wholly or in part, with gutter. 
