The Importance of Cement and Its Products in House Building 
CONCRETE WORK ON THE FARM 
Atlas Portland Cement Company 
plastering on the wire. The resulting 
partition is less than two inches thick. And 
as to durability, if concrete construction has 
a fault it is just here. Any one who has 
noticed workmen attempting to cut a hole 
through a concrete wall, or a well laid con¬ 
crete sidewalk needs no further evidence as 
to durability or the difficulty of tearing down 
or extensively altering a concrete structure. 
The exterior of a concrete house may 
receive either one of two treatments. The 
surface, after the removal of the boards, is 
somewhat rough and of an irregular or 
patchy color. This is unavoidable. But 
it may easily be overcome either by coloring 
the surface uniformly with water paints, or 
by having a stone cutter go over it with a 
tool known as a pick. I his works off the 
discoloring skim coat and leaves an effect 
very similar to that of a pebble dashed 
wall. This effect is well shown in the illus¬ 
tration of the concrete baluster on page 242. 
The interior walls of the house may be finished in 
the usual manner with plaster, and receive wooden 
wainscoting, marble linings, stamped leathers, paint 
or paper, or any other decorative treatment desired. 
The roof is usually covered with tiles, though slate, 
or any other covering may be used. 
Finally, concrete houses are dry, warm in winter, 
and cool in summer, and wholly unaffected by the 
weather in general. 
Garden just as concrete, either plain or rein- 
Accessories forced, lends itself to all demands of the 
house structure, so its use has rapidly extended to the 
minor accessories of the garden. Seats and fountains, 
terraces and steps, sun-dials, benches, gate posts,fences, 
and any other feature needed may be readily built of it. 
It lends itself sympathetically to every demand for pic¬ 
turesqueness, and is especially adapted to bridge work. 
Farm For farm buildings concrete seems al- 
Buiidmgs most an ideal material. The only ex¬ 
pert labor needed is a foreman, as any unskilled la¬ 
borer can, under such direction, mix the concrete and 
put it in place. 
INTERIOR OF A CONCRETE STABLE Turner Construction Co. 
A Caution 
Relative 
Cost 
While cement walls may 
readily be built as above 
described, it is very important that 
the work of building the floors and 
the roof should be placed in the 
hands of expert builders. 
There are several companies under¬ 
taking this work with offices in all 
parts of the country, and their prices 
are very reasonable. 
I have been assured by 
a very competent firm 
who do a great deal of such work 
that the cost of concrete construction 
for houses need not exceed by more 
than fifteen per cent the cost of the 
same house if built of wood through¬ 
out, and in not a few instances, where 
the conditions have been favorable, 
the cost has actually been less than for 
frame construction, 
cinder I he house shown on 
Concrete page 238 is noted as 
built of cinder concrete. This is a 
term used to denote a concrete in 
243 
