One of the greatest advantages of stucco construction is its flexibility 
of adaptation, and if well waterproofed it is highly desirable 
Even though comparatively new, a brick house soon attains an appear¬ 
ance of age suggestive of Colonial times 
House Walls and Their Making 
AN EXPOSITION OF THE DIFFERENT MATERIALS, SHOWING THE ADVANTAGES 
AND ^DISADVANTAGES OF EACH — INTERIOR FINISHING OF VARIOUS STYLES 
by Arthur Byne 
Photographs by Mary H. Northend, Harry Coutant and Others 
M ASONRY, hollow tile, concrete and frame are the four 
kinds of walls for present-day houses, the first mentioned 
including' brick as well as stone. Their cost is in the order named. 
Eliminating concrete, since it is seldom used for the walls of the 
entire house, we might further say that wood is but little cheaper 
than hollow tile. This is the result of long years of neglected 
forestry. Any statement about comparative cost can only ap¬ 
proximate the ever shifting truth ; ever shifting since it depends 
on whether the owner 
could use the stone on 
his property instead 
of bringing some 
other material from a 
distance, or on 
whether he has any 
means of getting any 
material at minimum 
price as in the case of 
a lumber or brick 
merchant, to mention 
only a few of the pos¬ 
sible modifications of 
relative cost. 
It is more easy to 
speak of advantages 
and disadvantages 
than of price, since 
these are already 
fixed, except for the 
constant improve¬ 
ments that manufac¬ 
turers are ever seeking to make in their products. Hollow tile 
is undeniably fireproof, so are brick and concrete, stone partly 
so, wood not at all. Wood and hollow tile provide the non¬ 
conducting air spaces which brick and stone do not ordinarily 
afford arid are therefore warmer in winter and cooler in sum¬ 
mer. It is erroneous to think that a solid masonry wall, because 
it is thicker than a wooden wall, is therefore warmer. If stone 
walls are cold outside they are cold inside, no matter how thick, 
since there are no air spaces to check the passage of cold or 
dampness. 
As to how the various materials adapt themselves to design, 
care must be taken not to violate architectural precedent. Wood 
is hardly the material for an Italian villa; nor should the home¬ 
builder be beguiled into copying the “frame Moorish bungalows 
with Colonial porch¬ 
es’’ sometimes ad¬ 
vertised. To get an 
artistic house, style 
must determine the 
material, generally 
speaking; but where 
the exigencies of the 
locality demand a cer¬ 
tain material, the style 
should be chosen to 
suit it. To illustrate 
this, there is a marked 
tendency around 
Philadelphia to ad¬ 
here to the precedent 
set by Colonial build¬ 
ers, of local stone laid 
with wide joints and 
finished with white 
wooden trim. Local 
architects therefore 
design the type of 
house suitable to stone, for naturally they cater to popular demand. 
To take up some practical points in building with these ma¬ 
terials it may be said of stone walls that they are generally 
designed too thin. Much of our country house work is reduced 
to sixteen inches. A sixteen-inch stone wall plastered on the 
inside with no furring is not an adequate protection against the 
Although frame houses can scarcely be termed fireproof, much can be done to increase this 
quality. When well built and cared for they are very durable 
( 32 ) 
