3rick may be chosen not only for its enduring qualities but also for the wide field for artistic treatment. 
of stone 
Its cost is little cheaper than that 
The Comparative Costs of Building Materials 
P ROBABLY the factor in six cases 
out of ten which determines the 
appearance of the exterior of the build¬ 
ing- is the question of cost, and 
I find that almost every one 
who intends to build a house 
makes some inquiry as to how 
much more his house would 
cost in brick or stone than in 
wood, and whether some of 
the comoaratively new forms 
of construction, such as terra 
cotta blocks or concrete are 
not cheaper than wood. The 
same answer does not always 
meet these questions; local 
conditions and factors have 
much to do with determining 
the cost of any particular sort 
of material, but there is one 
factor which is constant in any 
locality, and that is the com¬ 
parative prices of labor in the 
several trades. Masons and 
carpenters are paid the same 
relative amounts all through the United States, and although at 
first sight it appears strange that a mason whose work includes a 
small range of subjects should be paid more than a carpenter who 
must be a skillful mechanic in a wide range of sub-divisions of 
carpentry, the discrepancy arises from the fact that a mason is 
very rarely busy more than two hundred to two hundred and 
twenty-five days a year, because of bad weather conditions; while 
a carpenter seldom loses a working day. The cost of the labor 
then in general is greater for masonry 
structures than for frame, and for 
buildings of the same size the masons’ 
materials must be greatly 
cheaper than lumber if the 
whole building is to cost the 
same amount. Another factor 
which enters into the cost is 
that the carpenter deals in 
large pieces easily worked, 
while the mason deals in 
smaller pieces, or in the case 
of stone walls of medium¬ 
sized pieces hard to work. All 
the modern endeavors then at 
reducing the cost of masonry 
work have been to develop a 
material which was strong, 
light enough to be easily han¬ 
dled, of such shapes that little 
or no cutting is required, and 
large enough so that the 
amount of labor per piece is 
reduced; or by devising a ma¬ 
terial which could be handled 
by machinery and unskilled labor, to reduce the labor cost. The 
most successful material evolved along the first line of endeavor 
has been terra cotta, and along the second concrete, and the 
manufacturers of the blocks, and of the cement used in making 
the concrete, have for the last three years been conducting an 
enormous and successful advertising campaign to awaken the 
country at large to the advantages of their several materials. 
(Continued on page 6o) 
BY A Y M A R Embury, II 
Photographs by Mary H. Northend, Jessie Tarbox 
Beals, Thomas W. Sears and Others 
A very good combination is made of brick wall below and stucco 
over brick above. The cost per square foot averages 66c 
(36) 
