154 
What to 
House 
& Garden 
Under This Roof is More Slate 
S OME uses of slate are common knowledge. 
For example, slate has been the preferred 
roofing for more than twelve centuries. It 
supplies every architectural requirement and is the 
most permanent roof that can be applied. 
No man-made roofing has ever equaled the stabil¬ 
ity, economy and life of slate. 
But, perhaps you have never considered the almost 
limitless uses to which slate is adapted. Slate may 
be fashioned into massive blocks and slabs or cut 
almost as thin as paper without losing any of its 
valuable properties. 
Slate is the most workable of nature’s enduring 
minerals. It is insoluble. It is fireproof. It is 
impervious to water, oils and chemicals; does not 
absorb dyes or odors; is a non-conductor of elec¬ 
tricity. Wonderful protective properties, these. 
And slate is as beautiful as useful. It is found in 
a wide variety of natural colors ranging from 
dense black to soft grey; blues, greens, purples, 
reds and beautiful variegations and mottlings. 
What wondrous decorative effects are made possible in 
roofs, floors, walks, stairways, hearths and mantels; for 
wainscoting, base and sills. 
Consider its uses in sanitation—for damp-proofing; for 
toilet and shower-stalls; for kitchen, laundry and laboratory. 
Slate is most practical for bulletin, score and blackboards. 
It is invaluable protection for electric switch, fuse and panel- 
boards ; for insulating floors and walls. 
Consider its uses for your own home—in your own business. 
The local architect or contractor knows and will guide you. 
A more complete story of slate and its uses is ready for 
mailing to people who are interested—as you must be. May 
we send a copy to you ? 
NATIONAL SLATE ASSOCIATION 
757 Drexel Building, Philadelphia 
Know About Wood Paneling 
>(Continued from page 152) 
place, and sometimes a number of small 
blocks of wood glued and nailed to 
the styles and rails are used in place of 
a continuous strip. It is very important 
at this point to call attention to the 
fact that the panel itseif should never 
be nailed to styles or rails, because any 
shrinkage of the panel, or the set¬ 
tling of any part of the wall to 
which the styles were fastened would 
instantly split the panel, especially if it 
is solid. In a laminated panel, the ver¬ 
tical-grained veneer would be likely to 
split. Proper paneling construction 
leaves the panel firmly held, but not 
fastened, between the rabbeted styles 
and rails, and the strips or blocks in 
the back. 
In early English paneling it was cus¬ 
tomary to peg the rails and styles to¬ 
gether, and while this is sometimes 
done today, for effect, the “pegs” are 
often only little plugs of wood, driven 
into deeply counter-sunk screw-holes. 
There are several treatments for the 
edges of styles and rails. Sometimes 
these are perfectly plain, as seen in the 
paneled interior by Mellor and Meigs, 
and in two of the diagrams, sometimes 
run with a molding, or a “bead”, as 
in the large-scale diagram, and some¬ 
times beveled or chamfered. 
An interesting detail which is charac¬ 
teristic of the best-designed paneling of 
the English type is seen in one of the 
detail photographs, and also in the 
large-scale diagram. This is the bevel¬ 
ing of the top side of all the rails, so 
that the molding, if any, around the 
panels, is found only on three sides. 
There are two theories on the origin 
of this bevel in the construction of 
paneling: both are good theories, but 
I have never been able to find con¬ 
firmation for either of them, or to dis¬ 
cover any additional theory. The first 
the theory that the sloping bevel is a 
survival of exterior stone work, espe¬ 
cially sills, which in the architecture of 
Gothic and Jacobean times were 
usually steeply slanted to shed rain: 
the second (and a very practical 
theory) is that the sloping bevels on 
the top sides of the rails were designed 
to shed dust, and to make dusting more 
easy than if a molding ran around all 
four sides of the panel. Be the origin 
what it may, the beveled rail is the 
ear-mark of good paneling of the 
Jacobean type. 
Putting Panels in Place 
In planning the paneling for a room, 
it is important to know the manner in 
which it is set, or fastened to the struc¬ 
ture of the wall. Before the walls are 
plastered, strips of wood, called 
“grounds” or “plaster grounds”, (usu¬ 
ally 2" x J4" stock) are nailed horizon¬ 
tally to the wall studding, as shown in 
one of the diagrams. Where paneling 
is in the form of a wainscot, two 
“grounds” are usually enough—one 
near the top and one near the bottom. 
They provide a “nailing” for the framed 
up paneling, and also, as shown in the 
diagram, make a stop for the plaster. 
The “ground”, obviously, is exactly as 
thick as the finished plaster. In the 
best work, the plastering is carried all 
the way down to the floor, behind the 
paneling, though “grounds” are placed 
in the same way as shown in the dia¬ 
gram in order to give a nailing. It is 
very unwise to set paneling against a 
plaster wall while any dampness re¬ 
mains in the plaster, on account of 
danger of warping. This is one reason 
why the plaster is often stopped on 
the topmost “ground” and not carried 
behind the paneling. The method of 
setting “grounds” in a brick or hollow 
tile wall differs from the method of 
setting them on studding as they are 
set in the diagram. Ordinarily stud¬ 
ding is set on the inside of a stone, 
brick or hollow tile wall, in which 
case the inside of the wall is water¬ 
proofed and the “grounds” are nailed to 
the studding as shown, but where 
paneling is to set directly against a 
brick or hollow tile wall, holes are 
chipped out of the mortar at intervals, 
in a horizontal row at the heights at 
which the “grounds” are to be set. 
Wooden plugs are then driven tightly 
into these holes and sawed off flush 
with the face of the wall. The plugs 
give “nailings” for the grounds, which, 
in turn, give nailings for the paneling. 
In this kind of construction, the wall 
is waterproofed and the entire back of 
the paneling is given a heavy coat of 
red lead waterproofing paint to meet 
whatever danger of warping might 
come from the dampness of the mortar, 
or from moisture drawing through 
the wall. 
The finish of a piece of paneling will 
depend largely upon the kind of wood 
used, and the architectural character 
of the whole scheme. 
WOODS FOR PANELING 
Paneling of the kind called “Co¬ 
lonial”, and intended to be painted, is 
usually made of white pine, which is 
easy to work and of an even grain and 
consistency. There are probably very 
few examples of actual Colonial and 
early American paneling not built of 
white pine, except in cases in which no 
paint was to be used. 
For all paneling of Jacobean Charac¬ 
ter, which includes Tudor and Eliza¬ 
bethan, or for Gothic paneling, oak is 
the first and usual choice. It is the 
right wood in point of historic prece¬ 
dent, and it will take antique stains 
and finishes especially well. The 
staining of interior finish woods, how¬ 
ever, is a detailed study in itself, and 
paint-makers have developed a number 
of excellent formulae which include 
ammonia fuming, waxing and other 
materials and processes which will 
achieve any desired result. Some of the 
more progressive makers have estab¬ 
lished service bureaus which undertake 
to demonstrate different stain finishes 
on pieces of the actual wood used in 
a given room, and, after these have 
been submitted for selection and ap¬ 
proval, furnish the exact formula by 
which the approved result was reached. 
The achievement of a successful stain 
is not only a matter of filler, stain and 
wax, but of the manner in which these 
materials are worked into the wood and 
applied. 
In the point of appearance, native 
white ash is a beautiful wood for 
paneling, because of its striking and 
effective figure and the richness of its 
stained effects—but it is one of the 
toughest and hardest of all American 
cabinet woods to work. 
Birch is often used, yellow pine 
sometimes, and cypress more often, 
probably than any other wood for 
paneling of an informal character. It 
has an attractive figure, works easily, 
comes in wide boards and is compara¬ 
tively inexpensive. On the Pacific 
Coast redwood and Douglas fir are ex¬ 
tensively used for paneling, and of the 
more expensive woods, walnut is prob¬ 
ably the finest and most beautiful of all, 
especially for carving. 
The most important point to re¬ 
member in staining a piece of paneling 
is that the panels should be stained 
separately from the framework of rails 
and styles so that if the panels should 
shrink slightly no unstained line of bare 
wood will show. Nothing gives a piece 
of paneling a more careless or slovenly 
effect. 
