HOUSE AND GARDEN 
January, 
1914 
center of the furnace about two inches 
from the fire-side of the panel being 
tested. The temperature from this was 
indicated on a pyrometer and recorded 
every three minutes. The temperature 
was brought up to 1,700 degrees Fahren¬ 
heit in thirty minutes and kept above that 
point for an hour and a half more, mak¬ 
ing a total test of two hours, the maximum 
heat reached being 1,943 degrees. 
At the end of two hours the door was 
thrown open and water from a city 
hydrant directed against the specimen 
for two and one-half minutes. The 
sample wall was practically intact except 
that the water had washed from the inner 
side of the wall some of the plaster 
which had recalcined under the intense 
heat. When the specimen had cooled, this 
inside section was torn ofif to ascertain 
the condition of the supports. While the 
studs were charred, the outer side of the 
wall was uninjured and the key of 
plaster on the back of tbe metal lath in¬ 
tact. Neither fire nor water went through 
the wall during this rather severe trial, 
even though the mixture of plaster was 
designed particularly to resist any tend¬ 
ency of the stucco to crack, rather than to 
resist fire. 
The evidence is quite conclusive, how¬ 
ever. that the stucco house built without 
sheathing does not dififer materially in 
cost from the ordinary clapboard house. 
In some places it is slightly more, others 
less. The wall of a house “with sheating” 
will cost, perhaps, five per cent more. 
When no sheathing is used, the one and 
one-half inches of solid cement plaster set 
between and over the studs gives greater 
rigidity to the wall and its insulating 
qualities are better. 
The author has found among the ex¬ 
amples of stucco without sheathing such 
an absence of the defects sometimes 
found in the “sheathing method” that he 
is inclined to advocate the former. 
Stucco with sheathing will always be 
much used, as there are many strong ad¬ 
herents of this method among architects, 
who have been particularly successful 
with it. 
It was from these tests that the speci¬ 
fications were prepared. They apply to 
the two methods of construction de¬ 
scribed. Paragraphs marked “a” apply 
apply only to back-plastered wall without 
sheathing. Paragraphs marked “b” apply 
only to walls with sheathing. All other 
paragraphs apply to both forms of con¬ 
struction. 
In recent years there has been de¬ 
veloped a method of remodeling old 
frame houses, which is being extensively 
used in all sections of the country. In 
line with the systems herein described, 
suggestions for overcoating, as it is called, 
are here given to make the remodeled 
house fire-resisting. Cripped steel fur¬ 
ring strips are fastened vertically over the 
weather boarding by means of galvanized 
wire staples. These strips should be at 
least one-half an inch wide and in some 
StEOSMlM er OCTTAV. WARRAMT 
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