HOUSE AND GARDEN 
[ A Y ■ I 9 12 
29 
In the first going" over two things should be borne in mind: 
the general visible condition, and the possibilities of the general 
arrangement. The latter one will naturally keep in mind while 
determining the former. This first survey will tell you whether 
your house walls are plumb or nearly so and your floors level. 
Bv the swing of doors over the floor, one may tell something of 
this. The condition of the doors and windows and the standing 
finish should be investigated and. what is of considerable impor¬ 
tance, the easy tread and accessibility of the stairs. This last is 
really vital inasmuch as the extra space required to make easy 
stairs may not he forthcoming, however much you may desire it. 
Right here it 
may be well to in¬ 
troduce a few 
simple technicali- 
t i e s regarding 
stairs in general. 
The treads of a 
flight of stairs are 
the steps or hori¬ 
zontal members 
on w h i c h w e 
tread; the risers 
are the vertical 
members between 
the treads. Speak¬ 
ing in figures, we 
say that the rise 
is so much and 
the tread so 
much; in this 
way we definitely 
define the stairs. 
On a large scale 
the height from 
floor to floor is 
called the rise and 
the available hor¬ 
izontal space the 
run of the flight. 
Modern calcula¬ 
tion has reduced 
the problem of 
easy stairs to the following rule: the product of the rise and tread 
in inches should equal seventy or nearly so. It has been found 
by experiment that the nearer we keep to the rule, the easier the 
■Stairs. Like all rules, this one is not infallihle; within it there 
is a happy medium, from which in either direction it is dangerous 
to travel far. The happy medium lies in a tread of ten inches and 
a rise of seven — this for the front stairs of a dwelling. If we 
increase the rise we decrease the tread and vice versa. It is 
hardly likely that we will find, in an old house, stairs as easy as 
seven by ten — they are more apt to be steeper. For the front 
stairs it is not best that they be steeper than eight and one-half 
by eight and one-half. The fact that they may be much flatter 
than seven by ten is so improbable that one hardly need consider it. 
Now supposing the stairs in question to be too steep: in their 
correction we must, in reducing the rise, increase the total number 
of risers and consequently the total number of treads and, as in all 
probability the depth of the treads will be increased to come any¬ 
where near the seven by ten standard, we can see at once that the 
total run of the tread will be a considerable gain on the original 
run. Vital question; Have you the space for the extra run ? 
Vdien there is a chance for a new and independent flight of 
stairs which will be the most used medium of inter-story commu- 
iiication, the question of the steep original is not so vital. 
Then, too, there is the condition of the plastering. If one 
taps it lie can determine whether or not it has broken away from 
the clinch. Such as may be loose will of course have to be re¬ 
placed. And in the case of a large area and old-fashioned laths 
it is best to tear out and relath, as it is a considerable job to free 
the intervals in old lathing from plaster. Old pla.stering was 
generally better than ours, being made for the most part from 
shell lime. Their lathing in most cases was inferior, as it did not 
give a uniform chance for a clinch of the plastering. 
Look out for the sagging or saddle-back roof — it is hard to 
rectify. In its settlement it has exerted a tremendous pressure 
against the outer walls of the house and forced them outward. If 
the house walls had held there would have been no settlement of 
the roof. This problem is so difficult as to require practically 
the rebuilding of the entire structure involved. Not only have 
the walls spread at the plate or junction of the roof, but they 
have probably pulled away from the second floor as well. 
Next to the true level and plumb condition of the structure is 
the real condition of the main timbers. The sill first of all: it 
stands to reason that if this is badly decayed, other members 
which have depended upon it for support have settled—the first 
floor timbers are affected—the settling studs and other uprights 
have either dragged other members with them or allowed them 
to follow after of their own weight. The same general result 
may be expected if the ends of the uprights themselves become 
deteriorated. Now, it may be possible that the evidences of decay 
are not visible, in which case a knife or some long sharp instru¬ 
ment should be used from both inside and out, where practical. 
If there be not too much settlement, lesser timbers, or to a lim¬ 
ited extent larger timbers, may be replaced, with less expense in 
the case of floor timbers or girders, which are more or less in¬ 
dependent of the outer walls. Often, too, a slight local settle¬ 
ment may be rectified, although the problem is rather hazardous, 
involving besides the first expense others which may arise from 
it, such as a broken plastering and sagging doors and windows. 
{Continued on page 52) 
A stone walled and elm flanked driveway such as this is far beyond the possibilities of the man who builds a new house 
