_BUILDING THE HOUSE, CONCLUDED.--OUTSIDE COVERING, PAINTING_
That part of the house which of necessity must be exposed to the
buffetings of snow and rain, wind and sun, should be considered more
carefully than any other part except the foundation. If economy demands,
the doors, floors, bath rooms, and wardrobes may be of plain and
inexpensive material, for later they may be replaced when means justify
additional expenditure; but if the outside covering be faulty, the house
is a partial failure from the beginning.
The first principle to be observed is to place all projections intended
to serve as water-tables at somewhat acute angles, for if placed at
nearly right angles with the sides of the house, rains accompanied by
heavy winds will certainly reach the framework. The water-tables which
crown the top of the base-board are more exposed than those which are
higher up, and therefore should be steep and rabbeted to prevent the
water from reaching the sills. The too usual method is shown in Fig. 71.
An enlarged view of a better style of water-table is shown in Fig. 72.
[Illustration: Fig. 71. A faulty water-table.]
[Illustration: Fig. 72. A good water-table.]
Outside window frame sills which have insufficient pitch tend to become
water-soaked, and not infrequently the lower member of the window itself
rots by reason of the water which drives in and remains under the sill
of the window for considerable periods of time. Figs. 73 and 74 show
perfect and faulty methods of construction.
[Illustration: Fig. 73. Perfect construction of window sill.]
[Illustration: Fig. 74.
Faulty construction.]
The siding of a house for various reasons would better be put on
horizontally, although material put on this way, unless it is kept well
painted, is not so durable as when placed vertically. The horizontal
covering is more beautiful, lends itself better to the numerous
openings, and gives better protection from cold and wind than does the
vertical covering. If the building is not to be painted, then the
covering would better be placed vertically. Nearly all wooden houses are
covered with either thin lap-siding or inch siding, prepared in various
ways and known by various names. The inch or novelty siding was first
introduced in the West, and costs but little more than the lap-siding,
because, being thicker, it can be made of somewhat inferior lumber. The
novelty or rabbeted covering gives greater strength to the building and
is much more quickly and cheaply put on. It may be said that this style
of covering is extremely faulty if placed on the building in the usual
way, namely, before the doors and windows and corner boards are in
position. If the same method of placing the material be practiced as in
placing the lap-siding, then the objections to this class of siding
disappear to a certain extent. The diagram, Fig. 75, shows the novelty,
or drop, or O G siding (A), the rabbeted (B) and lap-siding (C). It will
readily be seen that if a drop (A) or rabbeted (B) siding be put on
before the window frames are placed, as is the usual custom, an opening
(x) is left under the facing of the window frame which extends through
to the studding. This permits the rain, in a driving storm, to pass
horizontally along this opening to the studding and then downward along
the framework of the building. Many instances could be cited in which
these openings have had to be filled by triangular blocks of wood or
putty, and even then the water was not entirely excluded.
[Illustration: Fig. 75.
Forms of siding.]
This method of covering houses or even barns with this new kind of
siding is usually disappointing and wasteful of material. All that is
gained is a little more facility and cheapness in placing the covering.
If it is put on, as it should be, after the window and door frames are
set, it is more difficult and more expensive to place than lap-siding.
No way of covering a wooden house has been found superior to the
one-half inch lap-siding with joints tight enough at the frames and
corners, in conjunction with the paint, to make water-tight joints. The
lap should not be less than one inch, and the nails should be so placed
that in case of considerable shrinkage in the siding the inside will
give or even check, instead of the outside (z). If made as at y, the
outside will check. This implies that the nails are to be driven rather
more than one-half inch above the edge of the siding. The nails which
hold the outer covering should either be set and puttied, or the heads
should be left even with or slightly above the surface of the wood, that
the paint may cover all parts of the nail head. If the nails are driven
too far in the heads are not fully covered and protected by the paint,
in which case they will rust and present an unsightly appearance.
Some one has said that if a woman’s feet, hands, and head are well and
appropriately clothed, the balance of the dress may be plain and simple,
and yet she will have an elegant appearance. So, if a house has a good
foundation and a suitable and well-placed roof, the balance of the
outside may be extremely plain and yet it will be beautiful. Some of our
modern houses rest on unpointed, poorly constructed, and narrow
foundations, are bedecked with peaks, pigeon lofts, and dog-eared
cornices, and remind one of the suspenderless, barefooted darky crowned
with a cast-off silk hat.
If the foundation is too small and shabbily built, no amount of paint
and cornice can relieve the house from a look of shabby gentility. A few
brown or cream-colored stones or bricks, when placed on the outside of
the foundation where it shows above ground, will give dignity, beauty
and a substantial look to the whole house. It may do for it what a
nickel does for one’s shoes.
The roof of the farm house, and for that matter of all other houses,
should, in the trying climate of America, have an ample projection. An
abbreviated cornice may be admissible if the building is constructed of
stone which is of sufficient density to resist the American tooth of
time. Fig. 76 shows a section of an abbreviated and a well extended
cornice. The house which has this short-cut cornice stands within a few
hundred feet of the one with the wide projecting eaves. During the past
twenty years it has been necessary to paint the former twice as often
as the latter.
[Illustration: Fig. 76.
Deep and narrow cornices.]
The roof covering would better be of slate or tiles, for the time has
passed for building temporary, make-shift houses, though they might have
served their purpose well in a new and rapidly developing country. With
rare exceptions, the houses to be built in the future should be
permanently located, well built, and of durable material. The slates
which compose a roof should be not more than 8 inches wide and should
not be put on roofs of less than one-third pitch, since they are only
double-lapped and do not lie as closely, one upon the other, as do
shingles, which are laid triple-lapped. Slate and tile roofs are
comparatively heavy, and hence require stronger roof structures than
shingles.
The roof boarding for slate roofs should be matched--tongued and
grooved--and covered with paper to prevent cold and draughts of air from
passing into the attic. Since slates, on account of their somewhat rough
surfaces, do not lie closely together, the wind is likely to pass
through the cracks in the roof, if there are any, and carry snow and
rain into the upper part of the house; therefore the roof covering
immediately under the slates should be virtually air-tight. The roof
boards for a shingle roof should be narrow and laid with openings of
from 1¹⁄₂ to 2 inches between the boards. Rain and snow seldom drive up
and through the shingle roof, and since wooden roofs are more likely to
rot out than to wear out, the more perfectly the shingles are dried out
after a storm the better. The narrow roof boards and the spaces between
them allow the shingles to dry quickly, and therefore are better than
matched boards.
The short, or common, shingle of commerce is 16 inches long, ³⁄₈- to
¹⁄₂-inch thick at one end, and ¹⁄₈ of an inch at the other, and is
computed at 4 inches wide. A bunch of shingles contains one fourth of a
thousand. It should have 25 double courses and the band should be 20
inches long. Not infrequently there is a course or two wanting, or the
bands are an inch or so short. Having this data, one can easily
determine if the bunch is of legal size. A little cheating is not
uncommonly done by placing the shingles in the bunch loosely. This can
be detected by examining the bunches at the thick ends of the shingles.
Theoretically, 1,000 shingles should cover 10 feet square, or 100 square
feet, known in carpentry as “a square,” if the shingles are laid 4
inches to the weather. Since shingles are usually laid 4¹⁄₂ to 5 inches
to the weather, 1,000 shingles should cover about 120 square feet.
Two-thirds of the lower part of the roof may be laid 4¹⁄₂ inches, and
the upper third 4³⁄₄ or 5 inches to the weather, if the roof is not
flat.
If shingles are treated with lime water or diluted gas tar, or be
painted as they are laid, the life of the roof may be prolonged. The
painting of roofs with tar or common earth or mineral paints, after they
are laid, does little or no good in preserving them. Sometimes painting
is resorted to to make the roof harmonize with the color of the sides of
the building.
Neither extremely narrow nor extremely wide shingles are desirable.
Those from 3 to 6 inches wide, when carefully laid, are satisfactory.
Each shingle should receive but two nails; one is usually enough, and
these should be placed about ³⁄₄ of an inch from the edges, and about 1
inch above the point where the butts of the next course will come. When
the courses above are laid upon the shingle having but one nail, two or
three other nails, which are driven in the courses above, will serve to
help hold it in position. The joints of shingle roofs should be double
broken: that is, the joints in the shingles of one course should not
coincide with the joints of the first or second course below. Consult
Fig. 77.
[Illustration: Fig. 77. The laying of shingles.]
If two nails be driven in the sides of an unseasoned shingle, when it
shrinks it is likely to split in the middle; and in laying a roof the
joint immediately above the course under consideration is likely to come
at or near the middle of the shingle, which splits by reason of the
shrinking. The case is still worse when three nails are put in a
shingle, for then it is almost certain to split in the middle and
immediately in line with the joint in the course above.
Unscientific placing of shingles and insufficient mixing of mortar
results in an unsatisfactory house, both inside and outside, however
good the materials may be.
[Illustration: Fig. 78. A veneered wall.]
VENEERED HOUSES
A most excellent way to secure a warm, durable house, and one that will
require the minimum of care-taking, is to first construct a 4-inch wall
after the balloon pattern, as has been previously described. To this
frame, sheathing surfaced on one side is attached. The 4-inch brick wall
is securely fastened to the wooden structure by means of 30-penny
spikes, one at each studding, which are driven in at the top of every
seven courses of brick. (See Fig. 78.) A wooden house may also be
veneered with stone, the veneering being held in place by means of metal
anchors attached to the boarding.
The foundation needs to be a little stronger than for the wooden house,
and must be provided with a stone water-table for receiving the
veneering.
In a veneered house, all the lightness and dryness of a wooden house are
secured on the inside and on the outside all the durability and solidity
of a brick or stone house. When the veneering is of hard-burned,
cream-colored or neutrally tinted brick or brown stone, the effect is
extremely pleasing. The first cost of such a house is somewhat more than
an all-wood house, but its greater durability and freedom from constant
repairs makes it no more expensive in the end. When one builds such a
house and covers it with a steep slate roof, he feels that he has
builded for many coming generations.
It is not necessary to speak in detail of stone and brick houses, since
such structures are quite expensive, and their construction should
always be placed in the hands of experts. It may be well, however, to
discuss them generally. The cost of building brick houses is nearly
twice as great as those of wood; stone houses cost more than brick
houses. The foundations of brick or stone structures must be broad and
placed deep in the ground, to sustain the great weight placed upon them.
However much pains has been taken, the walls of the superstructure often
crack by reason of the unequal settling of the foundation or by unequal
strain on the walls, due to the window and door openings. Once the walls
are cracked they become unsightly, and cannot well be restored without
being rebuilt. Unless the windows are extra large the house will not be
well lighted because of the thick walls. (See Fig. 24, p. 108.) The
walls do not heat and cool as quickly as do wooden walls, hence brick
and especially stone houses are likely to be damp, since the warm air of
the rooms tends to part with its moisture when it comes in contact with
the relatively cool walls. This tendency of the walls to condense
moisture may be obviated by studding and plastering them on the inside,
but all this adds to the expense. Until building material becomes much
less expensive than it now is, the farmer would better build either a
wooden or veneered house.
[Illustration: Fig. 79. Re-siding an old wall.]
OLD HOUSES
Houses which were built some time ago and before building paper and
better methods of construction were in vogue, are usually too cold and
often extremely unsatisfactory. The outside covering may be warped and
cracked and too often paintless. Where these conditions prevail the
house may be re-sided without removing the old covering. The window
frames, corner boards, and like members which receive the siding are
built out by placing bands around the frames and on the corner boards of
sufficient thickness to receive the new second siding. Strong building
paper is then placed over the old siding, and strips one inch thick and
two inches broad are nailed immediately upon it and over the several
studs of the old frame. (Fig. 79.) The house is now ready to receive new
siding. If paper be laid on the floors and a well seasoned second floor
be laid upon it, they will be greatly improved at slight cost.
[Illustration: Fig. 80. Faulty gutter or eave trough.]
[Illustration: Fig. 81. Well constructed gutter.]
Eave troughs should be placed outside the perpendicular line of the
walls to prevent water from entering the house should the troughs leak
or overflow from being filled with ice. Eave troughs are frequently made
of tin which is too narrow, in which case, especially on flat roofs, the
water will back up under the shingles and run over that part of the
gutter which lies hidden in the roof. The elevation of the front edge of
the gutter should be at least 2 inches below the extreme upper edge of
the tin of which the gutter is made. (Compare Figs. 80 and 81.) Gutters
placed at the end of the rafters are usually not as durable as those
placed on the roof, but if carefully put up so that they will keep their
position they serve their purpose well and may be made to give
additional beauty to the eaves of the roof. The conductors which lead
the water from the gutters to the ground should be made large and of
corrugated material, that expansion may be provided for should they
become filled with ice.
What has been said about using too narrow tin for gutters is doubly
applicable to the valleys. Open valleys are better than closed. All tin
used for gutters or valleys should be painted on both sides before it is
placed upon the roof, and all used about the outside of the building
should be kept well painted, as it is more economical to paint often
than to mend leaks.
PAINTING THE HOUSE
After much solicitude and money have been expended on the construction
of the house, it is poor economy to let it suffer for want of paint. Not
infrequently the house is planned so large, or so much is spent on its
erection that means are not at hand for fully protecting the outside
with suitable paints.
As to the colors of paints or their combinations, little can be said,
since tastes and conditions are extremely variable. A farm house should
have its own distinctive features, and its own personality, and while it
may be similar to many other houses it should not be a duplicate of any
other one.
In manufacturing towns long rows of houses are built, each one the exact
duplicate of all the others in shape, dimensions, and color. The effect
is abominable. This illustration of exact imitation only goes to show
how necessary it is to have diversity of style in the houses themselves
and variation in the colors of the paints if the maximum beauty of the
home and adaptation to landscape and site are secured. In painting the
farm house beauty should not be ignored, but beauty may not be
compatible with durability and necessary economy. The farm home may and
should be placed in such beautiful environment that the paint which
covers it sinks into comparative insignificance as compared to the
painting of the city house; therefore the elements of economy and
durability play as important parts in the painting of farm houses as
does beauty. Even a great, plain, two-story white farm house with green
window-blinds can be made to look beautiful and home-like if it has a
suitable setting of noble trees.
If the outside covering of the house is placed some time before it
receives its first coat of paint, the wood tends to check and usually
becomes too dry for applying it. If exposed for some days to the direct
rays of the sun before painting, so much of the oil of the paint will
be taken up by the wood that there will not be enough left to bind the
mineral matter of the paint to the wood. This is especially the case
where an attempt is made to complete the painting by the application of
but two coats, in which case, the first or prime coat must contain
relatively much mineral material and little oil, and must be spread
thickly if the surfaces are to be well covered by the two coats. Not
infrequently, the outside woodwork is swollen and somewhat displaced by
rains before the roof is in place. Even after it has dried out the ideal
conditions are not secured. The roof should be placed as soon as the
siding is completed, or if possible before. The carpenter should put on
the first, or prime, coat as fast as the house is sided; that is, the
woodwork which has been placed from one scaffold or stage should be
painted from the scaffold before the one above is constructed. The
corner boards, window sash, and frame should receive one coat of paint
before they leave the shop. The prime coat may be of yellow ochre mixed
with some white lead, since the after painting with the desired color
will cover the yellow if two coats be applied. Good yellow ochre is a
most durable paint when properly mixed and spread, although it may be
said that the more white lead used in the prime coat the better. Yellow
ochre should contain a large per cent of iron; when ochres are composed
largely of colored clay they are inferior. The paint for the first coat
should, in any case, be thin, since the oil which it contains plays an
important part. This first coat tends, or should tend, to fill the wood
with oil so that the oil in the after coat will mostly remain with the
paint, and not leave it and pass into the wood, thereby destroying its
binding force. Too much stress can hardly be laid on the necessity of
rubbing the first coat into the wood by vigorous use of the brush. To
realize the value of this principle one has but to visit a first-class
carriage manufactory and observe the methods which are in use to prepare
a carriage body for its final coat of dark paint and varnish. In too
many cases the first coat of paint is mixed too thickly and is not
pressed into the pores of the wood as it should be, in which case the
paint may either peel or rub off in a few years. The country boy dressed
in his best black suit often has a reminder of this if he chances to
lean against the outside of the old country church while “waiting for
meeting to take up.”
All outside painting, with the exception of the first coat, should be
done, as far as possible, in cool weather. Early spring and late fall,
when flies and dust are not present, are the best. If the house is
built in the summer, the second coat may be put on in the fall and the
third coat the following spring. The paint of the second coat may be a
little thicker than that of the first, and that of the third a little
thicker than the second. If the best job is desired the paint for all
three coats should be mixed thinner than is customary, in which case a
fourth coat will be required the following fall. The house will now have
a polish similar to the well painted carriage body, and, like it, will
resist moisture and remain good for a long time. If a building is to be
painted at all it would better be painted at the beginning and be kept
well painted, as it is the more economical in the end. Better curtail
the size of the house than to build it so large that the outside
covering must be neglected.
The oil used in paints is usually derived from the vegetable oil found
in flax or linseed. Although many other kinds of oils have been tried,
nothing has been discovered which can take the place, in paints, of
linseed oil. This is most remarkable, for there are many vegetable oils
which are very similar to this one. Linseed oil is expensive as compared
with several other kinds, hence many attempts have been made to find an
oil equally as good for painting; so far as I am able to learn, none
have been discovered. Linseed oil in paints, when dried, forms a hard,
tough, gluey coating which serves to bind firmly the particles of paint
together, and to the wood, and to exclude water as no other oil does;
hence if any other oil is mixed with the linseed oil, it is said to be
adulterated. At the present time linseed oil is adulterated in some
cases, and it is believed that this adulteration is the chief cause of
the lack of durability in many of the ready-mixed paints. If linseed oil
be mixed with other oils which are wanting in its valuable
characteristic, it is certain that such oils will not bind the particles
of paint together as they should be bound.
At present the only protection is to purchase guaranteed pure oil of
dealers who are reliable beyond peradventure. Outside painting should be
done with unboiled oil unless, on account of the weather, boiled oil
must be used to hasten drying. In extreme cases a drier (litharge) is
used. The drying process should not be rapid in outside painting, as
slow drying promotes durability.
The substances mixed with the oil to form paints are extremely variable
in composition and color. Some are good, and are usually relatively high
priced. Others are inferior and relatively low priced. Now that so many
brands of ready-mixed paints of many tints are in common use, it is
impracticable to analyze all of them and determine their quality so that
the inferior may be distinguished from the superior. There appears to be
but two ways out of this serious dilemma: use the best brands of the
ready-mixed paints and await results, or purchase pure white lead and
zinc paints and pure oil, and tint to suit tastes and conditions.
Heretofore, to do this successfully has required much skill and
patience, especially if the house was to be painted in many colors.
Paints are now so universally adulterated that I deem it my duty to call
attention to a company which virtually guarantees the material sold. The
National Lead Company makes white paints of pure white lead and pure
linseed oil. It also manufactures pure tinting colors, at least the
company so advertise, and without doubt would be liable for damages
should the paints prove to be adulterated. Sample tint cards are
furnished and directions given as to the quantity and kind of tinting
material to be mixed with the white paint to give the desired color. All
this greatly simplifies painting, and if these paints are pure, as
represented, the farmer will have no difficulty in securing pure paint
of any tint desired.
The farmer who desires a beautifully painted house, and simplicity, may
well restrict the colors of the paints he uses to two, being careful
that they are in harmony, one with the other, and with the character of
the house and its surroundings.
The following figures show the composition of some common paints (No. 1
was analyzed at the Cornell Exp. Sta., the others at the Iowa Station):
I. The paint known as white lead, when pure, is a basic carbonate of
lead mixed in oil. A sample showed--
White lead 93.62%
Oil and undetermined 6.38%
There was no evidence of adulteration.
II. White lead--
White lead 41.12%
Barium sulfate 30.29%
Zinc oxide 28.59%
Adulterated with barium sulfate and zinc oxide. Barium sulfate is very
heavy; in fact, in nature it is known as heavy spar.
III. Venetian red, dry--
Ferric oxide 24.12%
Calcium carbonate } 66.36%
Calcium sulfate }
Undetermined 9.52%
Adulterated with calcium carbonate and calcium sulfate. Venetian red
is ferric oxide, or a natural red oxide of iron. Calcium carbonate is
chalk or limestone, and calcium sulfate is plaster.
IV. Venetian red in oil--
Ferric oxide 12.82%
Calcium sulfate 3.54%
Barium sulfate 63.98%
Oil and undetermined 19.66%
--------
100.00%
Adulterated with barium sulfate and calcium sulfate.