_INSIDE FINISH, HEATING, AND VENTILATION_
As a rule, houses are built too quickly. The frame timbers are only
partly seasoned when placed; the rains which fall before the house is
roofed-in and the dampness caused by plastering all conspire to swell
and make damp all portions of the wooden parts of the structure.
Formerly, the casings of doors and windows and the floors were placed
before the rooms were plastered; the better practice of plastering on
“grounds”[6] and placing the woodwork after the mortar is dry is now
observed by the builders of all good houses. In most cases even these
improved methods of construction do not result in securing what is
wanted--tight floors and doors and casings which will not shrink and
warp out of shape. Nearly all of this trouble may be traced to two
principal causes: the lumber which constitutes the inside finish may not
be thoroughly seasoned, or the house may be so damp that the finish
swells after it is placed. In either case, when the house becomes
thoroughly dried out by artificial heat or otherwise, unsightly and
dirt-holding cracks will appear. When expensive hard wood polished
floors are laid, pains is taken to provide against shrinkage by
kiln-drying the floor boards and by laying them where the air and sun
unite to take up extraneous moisture in the rooms and in the floor
boards used.
[6] Narrow strips of sufficient thickness to receive the lath and
plaster, placed on the frame and other places where needed.
Comparatively few persons can afford hard wood floors, but this fact
does not preclude having floors without wide cracks, which serve to
retain dangerous and filthy material. There is no reason why tight
floors may not be made of hard pine or other suitable material, provided
a little extra pains be taken in their construction.
The laying of the floors should be the last carpenter work done in the
new house. All this implies that a rough, cheap floor has been laid when
the frame was constructed. The rough, diagonally laid sub-floor will
cost something extra, but it results in so many benefits that it should
never be dispensed with.
[Illustration: Fig. 82.
A plain base board.]
[Illustration: Fig. 83.
A complex base board.]
Windows and door frames must have inside casings, and baseboards,
kitchen wainscoting and picture moldings cannot well be dispensed with.
All these should be of the simplest and plainest construction. Fig. 82
shows a cross section of a plain baseboard, and Fig. 83 one of complex
construction. Two styles of facings are shown in Fig. 84. The one style
forms lodging places for dirt; the other reduces dust catching to the
minimum. I notice that some of the newer passenger coaches, though most
elegant, are built with smooth inside finish. With the exception of the
window sills there are no lodging places for dust and cinders. The
old-fashioned doors with thin panels, and numerous moldings have been
discarded, and those as plain and uniform in thickness as a pane of
window glass, substituted for them. The picture molding, as shown in
Fig. 85, may serve to support the picture and catch dirt as well. The
other illustration (Fig. 86) shows one which may serve quite as well for
the purpose desired without forming a dust shelf. If the window sashes
are made with plain bevels and not molded, and all other window
fixtures, as stops and the like, are constructed in the same way, the
labor of keeping the house clean will be greatly reduced.
[Illustration: Fig. 84.
Two styles of facing.]
[Illustration: Fig. 85.
The common but faulty picture moulding.]
The wainscoting and the ceilings, if they are made of wood, should be
constructed of wide boards, the cracks being covered with beveled
battens. The old-fashioned, beaded, narrow ceiling material is not only
difficult to keep tinted or varnished, but almost forbids cleanliness.
[Illustration: Fig. 86.
A sanitary picture molding.]
Most stairs are too steep; some are little better than ladders and more
dangerous. The risers in the main stairway should not exceed 6¹⁄₂
inches, nor the steps be less than 12 inches wide. The back stair may
have 7 to 7¹⁄₂ inches risers, and 10- to 11-inch steps. The best and
most beautiful stair has one or more broad landings. The spiral or
“corkscrew” stair is worst of all. The effort to economize space by
cramping the stair is almost universal. The difference between a cramped
stair and an ample one may not amount to more than 12 square feet of
space, equivalent to the top of a small table. True, the children may go
up an easy stair two steps at a time, but when their hair whitens they
will bless the man who knew the difference between an easy, dignified
stair and a step-ladder. Diminish the size of a room, add a foot to the
width of the house, do anything rather than cramp the stairway.
As far as possible paint should be kept off the inside woodwork. There
are but few varieties of wood which may not be made smooth; and by the
use of hard oil, which is really oil and varnish mixed together, all
woodwork becomes beautiful and can be easily cleaned. It appears almost
sacrilegious to cover the fine grain of our native woods with cheap,
adulterated paint. If some of the woods, such as ash, oak and chestnut,
be sawed “on the quarter” and properly finished, they become more
elegant and are in better taste than any of the imported high-priced
woods. The farm house should be plain, substantial, and durable, and in
many cases there is sufficient wealth to make it elegant and even
refined by decorating the walls with a few fine pictures and providing
useful books. We judge people somewhat by the furnishings of the rooms
in which they live, and by their appreciation of things which are really
beautiful and useful.
The comfort and elegance of the rooms depend quite as much on the
plastered walls as on their wooden finish. Few things are more annoying
than poor walls, which may fall at any time upon the furniture and rugs,
and may even endanger the lives of the little ones. With quick-lime and
sand and an honest and efficient workman, a good, durable wall may be
secured; provided, however, that the joists and studding are strong
enough to prevent vibration when the floors are walked upon or the doors
are closed quickly.
In plastering, the green-coat finish should not be adopted, since poorer
walls will inevitably be the result than by the scratch-coat method. To
the new settler on the prairies living in a covered wagon, the time
consumed in building a house was important; therefore the second coat of
plaster was put on a few hours after the first. The pressure required to
spread, level, and smooth the second coat often disturbed the clinches
formed by the first coat. The bond of these mortar clinches being broken
or disturbed, the wall was made weak. It is well known that if the bond
between the lath and mortar is once broken after the mortar sets, it
never reunites. The only safe way to place a wall when the common mortar
is used is by the scratch-coat method. This consists in allowing the
first coat to become fully dry, having, however, scratched the surface
of the plaster slightly soon after it is put on. When it is perfectly
dry the second coat is placed, and when this is dry, a third (skim) coat
may be added, which should be but little thicker than whitewash. This
leaves the wall smooth and nearly white. However, many walls are now
finished on the second coat which is left level but rough, and may be
tinted by mixing coloring material with the mortar. The quality of the
wall depends largely upon the mixing of the mortar and the amount of
firm troweling which it receives. The fewer interstices between the
particles of sand the better. Firm, persistent troweling tends to reduce
interstices, and hence to make the wall firm and strong. Plastered walls
are much strengthened by being painted, and wherever such painting is
appropriate, as in the bathroom, wardrobe, and kitchen, they should
receive two coats of light cream color or other warm-colored paint.
A new mixture, cement and hair, or wood-fiber, has been put on the
market, and is likely to be used extensively, for when properly used a
stronger, harder, and more durable wall is secured than by using the
ordinary stone lime and sand mortar. This cement is sold under a variety
of names, and is usually known by the builders under the generic name,
adamant or adamant plaster. It is put up in barrel packages, and sells
in central New York from $2 to $2.50 per barrel, wholesale. It is mixed
in small quantities immediately before using, in the proportion of one
of cement to two of sharp sand. One barrel suffices for thirty square
yards of two-coat work, three-fourth-inch grounds being used;
seven-eighth-inch grounds are required for three-coat work. As mortar
made of this material sets quickly, the laths should be thoroughly wet
before the mortar is applied, and the rooms should be closed while the
work is progressing, or the mortar will harden too rapidly. Not only
plastering mortar, but that used for other purposes which depends on
cement for its binding force, should not be allowed to dry out rapidly.
One serious objection is urged against walls made of cement mortar,--it
being said that they are so resonant as to be annoying. To overcome this
objection the walls of one public building were covered with burlap and
painted. Notwithstanding the objections raised against cement plastered
walls, they are likely to come into common use, since they are so
superior in hardness and durability to the old style wall.
Ordinarily, a full year should be allotted for building the house, and
it should not be occupied until it has become thoroughly dried out.
Perhaps this hint of the unsanitary condition of a damp house may be
sufficient for the American. In Germany the law requires that a new
house must have been completed a full half year before it may be
occupied.
HEATING AND VENTILATION
In the future as in the past, most farm houses, without doubt, will be
heated by stoves. However, some farmers will desire either an air,
water, or steam heater. Air heaters are dangerous, because if the valves
are not properly managed, the pipes may become superheated and may set
the building on fire. They carry fine dust into the rooms, and the heat
cannot be evenly distributed when the house is exposed to the full force
of the wind, as it usually is in the country. The system of heating by
means of hot water has many objections when used in the farm house. The
water in the pipes is likely to freeze at night in the unused rooms if
it is cut off; if it is left on, all the rooms must be heated, which is
frequently not desirable. Then, too, heat cannot be secured as quickly
in the morning as desired, and in case of too much heat, the rooms cool
slowly unless doors or windows are opened. The first cost of placing a
steam heating plant is expensive, but once in place it is most
satisfactory. Wherever steam power can be used to advantage in the
dairy, the steam plant might well be placed in one end of the summer
kitchen or in the wood house, where it may be separated from the balance
of the room by a partition. There is no more danger of fire from a
boiler than from a stove. The one plant which furnishes steam and hot
water for various purposes, such as churning, sawing wood, and pumping
water, need not be more expensive if it also is made to serve for
heating the house.
A simple contrivance now in common use,--when several buildings are
heated from a central station,--serves to govern the amount and pressure
of steam introduced into the building. The farm steam plant should be
situated, when possible, below the level of the radiators on the first
floor, that the warm water from the condensed steam may be used again in
the boiler instead of cold water. In the long run, this system would
heat the house more cheaply than stoves, require less care-taking, and
be cleaner and more satisfactory in every way.
Much has been written about ventilation; and too often the systems
applicable to ventilating large, overcrowded rooms and public halls have
been applied to dwellings. However complex and difficult the ventilation
of large buildings may be, the ventilation of a room in a dwelling is
simple. If there are two or more windows in a room, ideal ventilation
can be secured by raising the lower and lowering the upper sash as much
as desired. By this method three streams of air are allowed to enter or
leave the room, as there will be openings at the top, bottom and middle
of the windows. The impure air is largely found at the top of the room
and at the bottom. If, then, the warmer and lighter air is allowed to
escape at the top, the colder air will rush in at the bottom, which will
result in keeping it moving as water moves when the inflow is at or near
the bottom of a vessel and the outflow near the top. Whenever only one
window can be secured in the sleeping room, large transoms should be
placed over the doors into the hall. While this method does not
ventilate as well as the other, it serves to keep the air pure in the
chamber. When there are many rooms situated on one hall, the hall should
be ventilated by means of windows at its end, or at the top of the
house. Many farm houses are over-ventilated in winter, the cold air
entering the loose casements until the wash water expands and breaks the
pitcher. In such cases storm sashes are a necessity, and are more
economical than feather beds or coal in preserving a living
temperature.