34 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
January, 
22H I 
An interesting use of vitrified hollow tile that is particularly suited to 
small houses of the bungalow type 
The exterior of the brick house need not be uninteresting. Variety of 
design is well shown over this entrance 
ness and additional warmth, but it supplies the space required 
for proper wiring and piping. 
No one material has so revolutionized modern construction as 
concrete. But the small house has been affected less than larger 
structures, except, perhaps, in the matter of foundations. For 
heavy sustaining and retaining walls it is cheaper and stronger 
than stone. Cheaper because unskilled labor can be used in the 
making. For upper walls, and we are confining ourselves now to 
residential work, it 
has not proved a very 
satisfactory material. 
By concrete we mean 
a house the walls of 
which consist of 
structural concrete, 
and not a frame house 
covered with stucco, 
as is so often under¬ 
stood. Concrete walls 
as a final material are 
heavy, and lack in- 
t e r e s t, particularly 
when cast in imitation 
of rough-hewn rock. 
Of all the shams in 
the building trade this 
is the most inexcus¬ 
able. The builder in 
concrete must take 
every precaution to 
prevent his wall from becoming water-soaked, for this material 
is very absorbent if not properly mixed. This mixing process 
and the selection and proportioning of ingredients must be care¬ 
fully attended to in order to produce a waterproof substance. 
Some concrete blocks are of course much more imper¬ 
vious than others, depending entirely on the mixture and ingre¬ 
dients. The top of a concrete wall should never be left flat unless 
covered with tile or metal either to shed or keep out the moisture. 
Due to careless workmanship and speedy construction very often 
the desirable fineness of concrete is not achieved, and in general 
it is conceded that the use of some waterproofing mixture is 
desirable to insure against the percolation of moisture. 
Ffollow tile is daily becoming more popular. Omitting the sev¬ 
eral reasons for this and concerning ourselves only with its prac¬ 
tical aspect, it may be said that its oft-quoted advantage of pre¬ 
senting a rough surface to which both exterior stucco and interior 
plaster finish adhere readily must be discounted by the fact that 
for a hollow tile house also, inside furring is highly desirable. 
Otherwise the chances of dampness and sweating are too great to 
risk, as such an accident could mar the interior decorations. 
Whether furred or not, some approved coat of waterproofing 
should be applied before the inside plastering is put on. If below 
ground the tile should 
be waterproofed both 
inside and out, and 
here vitrified tile only 
should be used, being 
less porous than the 
ordinary sort. Sev¬ 
eral patented inter¬ 
locking hollow blocks, 
ofifering greater re¬ 
sistance to weather 
and a firmer bond for 
both wall and cement, 
are now being manu¬ 
factured, and as these 
become more widely 
used, the need of in¬ 
terior furring will be¬ 
come less imperative. 
Complete waterproof¬ 
ness will overcome 
the one great objec¬ 
tion to hollow tile, in every other respect a most desirable material 
for a well ventilated fireproof and soundproof wall. However, 
in reading hollow tile literature, which frequently dwells in¬ 
sistently on the advantages of its air spaces, it must be remem¬ 
bered that in every residence the window and door area 
(comprising a large proportion of the total) offers more or less 
inevitable leakage and draughts which do much to discount the 
advantages quoted. In hollow tile walls the treatment around 
door and window openings is most important. It has been cus¬ 
tomary to use ordinary sized perforated brick in conjunction with 
the hollow tile around the frame to insure a tight job. There 
are now being made special window- and door-frame hollow tile 
blocks, so rabbeted as to receive the frame and hold it firmly in 
(Continued on page 55) 
The house of rough stone, however substantial its exterior may appear, must have very 
thick walls to insure warmth 
