HOUSE AND GARDEN 
JaNUAKY. 1QI2 
An improperly built cel¬ 
lar wall which cannot 
be rightly finished 
tering put directly on this. 
The finish floor may be of 
tile; or, if preferred, wood 
sleepers may be laid down on 
the damp-proofing, concrete 
filling poured in between to 
hold them in place, and then a 
wooden floor put on. Prefer¬ 
ably, this floor should 
be double, with rosin¬ 
sized paper under the 
top layer; then if any 
possible dampness 
should leak through 
mne^ 
house 
The cellar is dug to the exact 
size of the stone-work; then 
the masons will run the wall 
up against the earth. That 
leaves a great many good- 
sized crevices; the water run¬ 
down the side of the 
The excavation should be 
made six inches larger 
than the foundation area 
of course soon fill these, 
and make its way through 
into the basement. A 
much better way is to dig 
the cellar six inches too 
Brick founda¬ 
tion walls 
are not ad¬ 
visable, but 
where neces¬ 
sary should 
be carried 
below the 
cellar floor 
what 
a pinhole in the paint, the rosin-paper will still keep it from the 
finish floor. 
Not so long since, I arranged a basement billiard-room; the 
rough floor and walls were damp-proofed, and then finish floor 
and walls of brick were built in. These latter walls, by the way, 
were in mosaics of red-and-white brick; and very effective they 
were, too. 
Under ordinary conditions these various methods will keep a 
cellar dry without any trouble; but sometimes extraordinary con¬ 
ditions are met with. The soil may be porous and sandy, with a 
river, lake, or bay near at hand; and at times, the water-level will 
rise above the cellar floor. It is useless to try any interior damp¬ 
proofing in such cases; the pressure will burst it away from the 
wall. jMaking an old cellar tight is nearly hope¬ 
less, under these conditions; the only possible 
thing is to wait for fairly dry weather, and put 
an extra thick layer of damp-proof on floor and 
walls; then, build complete new walls and floor 
inside the old, of water-proofed concrete, rein¬ 
forced with expanded metal. It is best to get a 
competent engineer to design this reinforced- 
concrete work; otherwise, you will have your 
walls and floor either too thick or too thin — one 
means waste, and the other, failure. If the build¬ 
ing is a new one, the 
concrete walls and 
floor should be rein¬ 
forced in the same 
way; if not, the water- 
pressure may burst 
them in. If necessary, 
then can be double, 
with damp-proofing 
between. 
Occasionally, it is 
desirable to lay porous 
drain-tile under the 
cellar floor, or just 
outside the walls, at 
the same level; but 
this should be done 
with care. If a heavy 
rush of water gets go¬ 
ing through this tile, 
it may wash out the 
earth, and let your 
cellar floor cave in; 
or, worse, undermine 
your walls. 
In a great many 
cases, water is led into 
the cellar by an im¬ 
properly-built wall. 
large, all around; then let the mason run up 
is known as a ‘‘two-face wall,” properly pointed 
outside; afterwards, clay is rammed into the six-inch space, very 
tightly. And, by the way, most masons are extremely careless 
about filling the wall properly with mortar; they lay three or 
four stones, dabble a little mortar on top, and hope that somehow 
it will work its way into the joints! 
Mortar, is, I am sorry to say, too often nothing but so much 
dirt. Really good mortar is composed of three parts clean sand 
and one part cement or lime; for work below grade, equal parts 
of lime mortar and cement mortar are usually mixed; this is just 
as good as if cement mortar only were used. But the sand is very 
important; frequently it contains clay or loam, in sufficient quan¬ 
tities to make it nearly worthless. Grab up a damp handful, and 
squeeze it firmly; if it drops apart as you open your fingers, well 
and good; but if it retains its shape, don’t let it 
go into your mortar. 
Brick is not a desirable material for cellar walls, 
save in very dry, sandy places; it is so porous 
that it is virtually nothing but a sponge. If you 
must use it in clay soils, put down two or three 
courses below the cellar-floor level; then paint 
the top with damp-proof paint. Let the excava- 
When there is no cellar, lay ^ion be about a foot too big; then, when the wall 
waterproof concrete slabs on is built, paint the outside of it with two coats of 
cinders with wooden floor above damp-proof paint, using a whitewash brush ; fill 
in the space with clay 
and stamp it down. 
Unless you do this, 
the dampness will be 
drawn up, by capillary 
attraction, clear to the 
top of your house; 
and your brick walls 
will be hopelessly 
whitened and d i s - 
colored. 
Cement-block is a 
fairly good material 
for cellar walls ; but it 
is rather more porous 
than stone. In wet 
soils, it must be damp- 
proofed on the inside, 
and then plastered 
with cement-mortar. 
But, did it ever 
occur to you that in a 
great many cases the 
cellar isn't really 
necessary, and that 
the best way to have a 
dry cellar is to have 
{Continued on page 
57) 
Where a site is comparatively level the leaders are run into tiles carrying the water into 
barrels of loose stones some distance away from the house underground 
