32 
I F 
House & Garden 
YOU ARE GOING TO BUILD 
You Must Be Able To Read Plans arid Understand Specifications To 
Cooperate Intelligently With Your Architect and Builder 
MARY FANTON ROBERTS 
T HERE is a certain romance 
in reading architectural 
plans, as though you were 
traveling in a new country seeking a 
home and someone had given you a 
chart of the way so that you could 
get a real impression of the place 
where you intended to live. And 
yet many people at first hand find 
plans and maps a bore. They have 
a sort of hypnotic effect; when one 
attempts to fathom the strange, 
cabalistic signs and mystic direc¬ 
tions sometimes the mind lapses 
into the mental stage one associates 
with slow convalescence. But once 
you begin to make the plans for 
your own home, all other floor plans 
take on a new and vivid interest, 
and reading them becomes a ro¬ 
mantic pastime. 
The illustrations for this article 
furnish a key for the reading of 
house plans, because we believe that 
anyone who is going to build will 
want to make a thorough study of 
the subject, and the one way to study 
home architecture is to read a blue 
print as though it were a story book. 
In these illustrations we are offer¬ 
ing an explanation of some of the 
signs and details that usually mean 
mystery and irritation to the uninformed 
This single detail combines some of the most essential architectural 
features to be found in the modern doorway. It is a study in 
building phrases important to know “if you are going to build” 
And 
if you know how to read a blue print, it is as 
illuminating as though you had been told all 
the musical signs and then suddenly discovered 
that you could bring pleasant sounds out of 
a piano. You will discover yourself plunging 
into the reading of house plans with the utmost 
delight. Y r ou will find it a rare help in all 
the detail of planning your own home because 
you will see how other people have faced your 
problems successfully. 
Roof Details 
You have already decided the kind of house 
you are going to build and whether your roof 
is going to be tile or slate or thatch, but when 
you are working out your plans and specifica¬ 
tions you have to go into a great deal more de¬ 
tail about the actual method of roof construc¬ 
tion. One of our illustrations will give you 
the exact idea of the gable roof with its inter¬ 
esting lifted point at the front; the gambrel 
so often seen on the old Colonial houses, with 
its break below the ridge; the simple hipped 
roof, the Mansard, and almost the first roof 
known, the lean-to. Study this little chart 
very carefully so that you can talk to your 
builder intelligently about the “ridge” and 
the “valley” and the “eaves”. 
It is a fine idea to have a little building 
library while you are planning your own home. 
In this series of articles, “If You Are Going 
to Build,” the reader will find valuable in¬ 
formation covering all phases of his building 
problem. Each month House & Garden will 
present a different side of the operations 
and materials necessary for the making of 
a livable house. Next month—in the De¬ 
cember issue—the subject will be the con¬ 
struction of cellar and foundation walls. 
Send to the manufacturers of all 
building materials, of roofing and 
wall materials, of all kinds of floor 
coverings, of woods and stains, 
plumbing, heating and lighting sys¬ 
tems. Then when your architect is 
working out your plans and speci¬ 
fications, you can study these cata¬ 
logues and get quite a practical 
education. 
Having looked into the type of 
roof that you want to have for your 
house covering, there are a number 
of details in the construction of the 
roof that you ought to understand, 
that as a matter of fact, you will 
thoroughly enjoy understanding be¬ 
cause the more you work over this 
house, the more beautiful and com¬ 
fortable it will be and the more hap¬ 
piness you will have in it. 
So we are showing you a group of 
roof details well worth your atten¬ 
tion. The largest item is the correct 
building of the chimney, showing 
the "lead apron”, the “flashing”, 
and the “counter flashing”, and the 
“tin gutter”. Then at the right you 
will see two detail drawings of raft¬ 
ers and the construction of the 
wooden gutter which is made from a 
solid piece of painted wood which is 
coming into vogue again, and more generally 
used than tin-lined gutters. Y’ou will also 
notice the metal leader with an ornamental cap 
on a simple concrete wall. This detail, which 
may add a great deal to the ornamental finish, 
can be had from the manufacturers of interest¬ 
ing wrought 
iron designs. 
Go up and down these steps several times 
before building. You will learn much of 
the phraseology of making stairs 
Stairs and Windows 
Other illustrations that we are showing will 
take you with interest and intelligence up the 
stairway, in and out of the door, through the 
window, and all about it, and will show you 
in detail the use of the arch, its supporting 
columns, its beautiful spring, its pilasters and 
the base. 
After you have studied these illustrations 
pretty thoroughly and have a fairly definite 
picture of how your house is going to look 
finished, begin to make some rough sketches. 
I never think of house plans without recalling 
winter evenings and a group of people about 
a table in a cozy room, and the long table 
covered with sketches and blue prints. At a 
casual glance the absorbed interest and sup¬ 
pressed excitement might have suggested a 
poker game well under way. As a matter of 
fact building a home is a bit of a 
gamble, and the only way to avoid uncer¬ 
tainties and the feeling that you haven’t played 
the game well is to study your plans at the 
