142 
House & Garden 
Build 
Fireproof 
Truscon Steel Joists are simpler to use than 
wood because they reach the job cut to length 
ready for placing. They are supported by the 
walls on the outside, and steel beams and posts 
in the interior. The joists are easily handled 
and placed by one man. The metal lath and 
concrete are quickly applied. The entire con¬ 
struction is easily installed and is preferred by 
practical, conscientious contractors. 
This rigid first floor construction prevents set¬ 
tlement and shrinkage cracks. It stops dust and 
dampness from seeping up from below. It 
makes the home rat-proof and vermin-proof. It 
is more economical in the long run than ordin¬ 
ary floor construction. 
Whether building a home, or any other kind of 
building, write now for useful suggestions and 
literature. 
Truscon Steel Company 
Youngstown, Ohio 
Warehouses and Offices from Pacific to Atlantic. 
For addresses see f.Phone Books of Principal Cities. 
Canada: Walkerville, Ont. Export Div.: New York 
National Steel Joist Company 
Massillon, Ohio 
Ninety per cent of all residence fires start in the 
basement and are caused by overheated flues, 
defective wiring and inflammable ash recep¬ 
tacles. Yet eight hours out of every twenty- 
four you and your dear ones are asleep and in' 
sensible to the deadly danger lurking beneath 
you. Make up your mind now to do away for 
all time with this great menace by insisting that 
the first floor be built of Truscon and National 
Steel Joists. 
TRUSCON 
Vand NATIONAL 
Protect your family from 
menace ^/basement fires! 
First Floors 
ARE THESE YOUR PROBLEMS? 
Each mail brings into the House & 
Garden Information Service a big batch 
of letters from readers who desire to 
avail themselves of the expert advice 
offered by this sendee. It would be im¬ 
possible to reprint all of these letters, 
so we have selected a few on building, 
decorating and gardening which may 
be of assistance to many others whose 
problems are in some way similar. 
Question: As a subscriber and admirer 
of your magazine for many years, I 
wish to ask your advice in planning a 
home which I wish to build this Spring. 
The enclosed picture is taken from 
your “House & Garden’s Book of 
Houses” and I am using the exterior 
as my model. 
I wish to know what to use on my 
hearths and fireplaces. I do not like 
glazed tile and I find marble stains 
very badly and almost impossible to get 
off. In my mother’s home, experts have 
failed to clean the marble. I should 
like to know the best material to use 
for porch floor. 
Could I use white plaster as material 
for lower story and front gable and 
the board for upper floor? 
Answer: Answering your inquiry of 
recent date relative to hearths, we 
wonder if you have thought of dull 
matt finished tiles or brick tiles? 
There are, of course, only a certain 
number of materials available for 
hearths. You can always use cement, 
with a coloring matter mixed with it; 
you can use tile, brick or stone. If 
the fireplace is an informal one, flag 
stones make a very pleasing hearth. 
From the point of view of suitability, 
of course, it is difficult for me to make 
you a recommendation without know¬ 
ing the kind of fireplace you have. 
On the question of tiles, we enclose a 
list of manufacturers to whom you can 
write for catalogues. I quite agree 
with you in not liking highly glazed 
tiles for fireplaces, especially for a 
hearth, but among the reproductions 
of antique dull finished tiles, which are 
now made, you might find just the 
thing you are looking for. 
Relative to material for a porch 
floor, if the porch is like the one of 
the house you are copying, brick is 
undoubtedly the most attractive. It 
is also a very serviceable material. 
Porches of this kind are sometimes 
edged with brick and floored with 
square red tiles called “quarry tiles”. 
Often a mixture of cement colored red 
is scored in squares to resemble tiles, 
and while this is quite attractive, it is 
not as good as the red tile. 
Your last question can be answered 
in the affirmative. Stucco for the first 
story and front gable and clapboards 
above would give a very pleasing effect 
and would be quite in character with 
the kind of house. 
Question: I have recently purchased 
an old Colonial house. Its roof is now 
covered with a prepared roofing. I 
will make necessary repairs to same 
and among other things will put on 
a new roof. Will you kindly tell me if 
a red slate roof would be appropriate 
for an old Colonial house which is to 
be painted white, or should it be cov¬ 
ered with wood shingles? 
Answer: In answer to your inquiry 
of recent date, our architectural advice 
would be all in favor of the wood 
shingle roof, as a red slate roof would 
be quite out of keeping with the type 
of house you describe. 
Well-stained shingles are very long- 
lived as far as weather is concerned 
and from the fireproof point of view, 
there is little point in making a fire¬ 
proof roof on a non-fireproof house. 
Probably the best shingle to use un¬ 
stained, allowing the action of the 
weather to give it imperviousness, is 
the cypress shingle which is carried by 
practically every lumberyard in the 
country. 
Trusting that this information will 
be of help to you. 
Question: I should much appreciate 
some information concerning the ex¬ 
pense of building a country house of 
stucco or cement of two stories com¬ 
prising an area of 1700 sq. ft. Same 
is to be substantially built but simply 
with four bathrooms, steam heat, hot 
water heater with no basement except 
space for laundry and furnaces. 
Also the cost of a house containing 
the same amount of square footage, 
on the ground, only with two wings, 
each one story high and each wing 
consisting of two hundred square foot¬ 
age. The total area of the houses on 
the ground floor is the same—but in 
the second house the second floor 
would be four hundred square feet 
smaller than the first. The house is 
to be built on the outskirts of a suburb 
of Chicago. 
Will you also kindly let me know 
where I can obtain some further in¬ 
formation regarding the more perma¬ 
nent floor covering such as Mr. Henry 
Compton describes in his very interest¬ 
ing article in the January issue of 
your periodical? 
Answer: The best answer to your in¬ 
quiry of recent date is a recommenda¬ 
tion to send for the advertising books 
and booklets, listed on another sheet, 
describing with plans and illustrations,, 
houses of the type you have in mind. 
Stucco of course, is not a structural 
building material, but a finish applied 
to hollow tile or frame construction. 
It would not be possible for us to 
get you even an approximate estimate 
on the cost of your house without 
knowing exactly the method of con¬ 
struction you intend to use, and even 
then, local conditions of labor and sup¬ 
ply would make the local contractor 
your only source of information on 
this subject. 
The floorings mentioned in the arti¬ 
cle in January House & Garden are- 
made by several different manufacturers, 
whose addresses we are glad to furnish, 
you herewith and all of these manufac¬ 
turers gladly send their descriptive- 
booklets with full details to prospective- 
builders. We would suggest your 
writing to them. 
Question: W T e have read with great 
interest the article in your March 
issue entitled “Three Barns” by 
Harriet Sisson Gillespie. 
It appeals to us particularly because- 
we have just taken over a fine old 
country house in New Hampshire for 
our summer classes and shall have to- 
convert the barns and out-houses there¬ 
on into studios and living quarters. 
I was wondering if you could help us 
by some suggestions. You have had so 
much experience and we want to make- 
these buildings really homelike and 
cosy for our students. 
I haven’t the exact measurements of 
each of the buildings to be converted! 
(Continued on page 144) 
