HOUSE AND GARDEN CORRESPONDENCE 
IMPROVED WOODEN HOUSE CONSTRUCTION 
I am about to build a house here in-for my ,own 
use. Prevailing conditions, personal and local, make a wooden 
house the only practical solution of my needs. Local stone 
can be had, but the cost of a stone house is prohibitive and 
there are no good stone cutters. Local bricks are of poor 
quality, and the cost of imported would be too high even if 
I desired to use them, which I do not. I should be greatly 
obliged therefore if you will suggest some practical improvement 
over the usual type of wooden construction which, for a mod¬ 
erate increase in cost, will promote the following qualities in 
my house, viz: strength, warmth, and if possible, less suscep¬ 
tibility to destruction by fire. M. A. W. 
1 he durability of wooden houses when carefully built, is suffi¬ 
ciently attested by the examples still remaining from Colonial 
days. Such houses, however, were built by a very different method 
from any possible at the present day. All the timbers of the frame¬ 
work, most of the planks for the fioors and the outside sheathing, 
the clapboards and the roof shingles, not to mention all of the 
interior finish, were hand wrought, and the frame often pinned 
together with hard wood trenails. Compared to modern con¬ 
struction the timbers were of larger scantling, and the planks 
usually thicker than in modern use. This old system is however 
not essential to a well built house, and if you care to go to a moder¬ 
ate outlay over the cost of fire prevalent fiimsy construction you 
may have a well built wooden house vastly superior to the usual 
type. 
I should recommend in the first place a balloon system of con¬ 
struction because this is stiffer and stronger if properly built than 
a framed and braced type of much heavier timbers. Starting on 
the usual stone foundations, I would suggest an oak or locust sill 
not less than 4x8, well bedded in cement and lime mortar. Out¬ 
side studs should be 2x6, 16 inches on centres, with the inter¬ 
mediate floor joists on 2x6 ledger boards gained in flush with the 
joists notched down over. Outside sheathing ij thick, well 
nailed on diagonally and close fitted everywhere and reversing 
direction on opposite sides of the house. This outside sheathing 
need not be tongued. Over this lay two thicknesses of stout, soft 
te.xtured building paper, or one thickness of this paper, and one 
thickness over it of Cabot’s Sheathing Quilt. It is of the utmost 
importance that the sheathing paper be well lapped and that the 
two thicknesses break joint with each other, and also that they 
be run out close and snug to all window and door frames, well 
down over the sill and up over the plate, and that they be not torn 
in the handling. If tears occur these must be thoroughly patched 
with a good lap all round. It is perhaps a counsel of perfection 
to advise a lining of J boards on the inside of the frame. I have 
seen this done in Western New York and in New England, but it 
materially increases the cost of the house and my opinion is the 
money can be expended to better advantage elsewhere in the con¬ 
struction. Before, however, any inside work is done on the 
frame fire stops of brick in cement mortar should be put in. 
These are built of two courses of brick supported on 2 x 6 pieces 
cut in between tbe studs, and should be built on the plate and sill 
and at every floor level, at least, and I should consider it desirable 
to run an intermediate course between each floor. 
In some of the old frames the space between each pair of studs 
was filled in with bricks and mortar solidly from sill to plate. 
“ Bricknogging” tins was called, and the result came near being 
a brick house. Interior partitions should be of 3 x 4 studs with 
the same system of fire stops as on the outside frame. Partitions, 
not having diagonal sheathing, must be braced in the usual way. 
The staircases and the dumb waiter are the weakest points 
from the fire protection side. Some mitigation of the former is 
had when the stairs are only one story high. That is when they 
do not continue on up to the next story over those below. The 
dumb waiter should have the brick fire stops and should be lined 
throughout, top, bottom and sides with galvanized iron. 
The floor construction must be carefully looked after, floors 
everywhere should be double, and if the rough floor is at least 
thick or even more it would be better than the usual f. Over 
the rough floor lay two thicknesses well lapped of waterproof 
building paper, the courses to be laid at right angles to each other. 
Over these lay 1^x25 wooden strips and fill in flush between 
them with cement mortar made i to 4. When this is thoroughly 
dry, the upper finished floor may be laid in tbe usual way. In 
place of tbe usual bridging strips nail securely 2 inch blocks of 
wood of the same height as the floor joists, with the grain of the 
wood horizontal. 
The ceiling of the basement or cellar should be plastered on 
wire lath or expanded metal. The roof rafters should be of 
sufficient scantling to be both strong and stiff and if a cool upper 
story is desired, have the roof plank not less than 2 inches thick, 
w'ith strips and mortar and an outer thickness of plank under the 
shingles similar to the floor construction. This is very fire re¬ 
sistant as well as cool. Do not have any double ceiling or air 
space over the upper rooms. 
If these instructions are carried out under competent inspection, 
you will have a strong, stiff, tight, durable house, warm in winter 
and cool in summer, and one that will not burn up in a flash like 
a spark of tinder. C. E. 
PREPARING TO BUILD A HOUSE 
“I hope you will pardon me writing’you.on business of my owm. 
I am thinking of building a house, and before seeing our archi¬ 
tect would like some book showing homes, plans, and estimates 
of same. This house will be built on a good sized bill, facing 
south and overlooking the river. It must be a pure Colonial 
house. I have purchased two books, but do not see anything 
which just suits me. Can you recommend such a book as I wish, 
and the price.? I am a subscriber of “House and Garden” 
and very much pleased with it, and as you have made it such a 
success, I venture to write you on my own business, hoping 
you could tell me of such book or books which might help me. 
Again hoping you will pardon me, I am,-” 
It gives us great pleasure to say in reply to your letter of May 
27th that we are always ready to assist subscribers in their 
affairs in any way that we can, quite outside of the pages of “House 
and Garden.” If you care to have us do so, therefore, we will 
make the following suggestion. Before making this suggestion, 
however, allow us to call your attention to our advertisement of 
American Country Homes and I'heir Gardens.” We think it 
extremely likely that you will find somewhere within its pages 
the house you have in mind. In any event whether you do or 
do not, if you will send us a rough sketch of your property, 
accompanied by a pbotograph of it taken either from the river 
looking toward the hill top where you propose to build, or from 
the hill top showing the river view, and will accompany this 
with a brief suggestion of the rooms you were thinking of in¬ 
cluding in your plan, not forgetting the very important essential 
of the points of the compass, we can perhaps make you some 
suggestions that will help you. “House and Garden” does 
not in any sense act in lieu of a professional architect, but we are 
quite willing to give you some expert advice with regard to gen¬ 
eral preliminary conditions whicb will enable you to go to your 
architect very much better prepared to talk to him and in a 
way which will greatly expedite his'work. “House and Gar¬ 
den” is about to begin tbe publication of a series of photo¬ 
graphs of houses which have been erected at costs varying from 
one to ten thousand dollars, and these are actual examples, and 
the cost of the house has been obtained in every case from the 
architect. C. E. 
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