CARPENTER WORK.--FRAMING.--SIZE OF TIMBERS.--HEIGHT OF
STORIES.--JOIST.--STUD WALLS.--OUTSIDE
SHEATHING.--BUILDING-PAPER.--ROOFS.--OUTSIDE FINISH.--OUTSIDE
SHINGLE WALLS.--OUTSIDE CASINGS.--WINDOWS WITH BOX FRAMES.--HINGED
OR PIVOTED WINDOWS.--OUTSIDE SHUTTERS.--PORCHES.--LATTICE PORCHES.
CARPENTER WORK.
In considering carpenter work, we will first take up framing, and
everything which pertains to the outside of the house. All material used
for framing should be sound, square-edged material, free from
imperfections tending to impair its use, durability, or strength. In
different parts of the country, different kinds of lumber are standard
for framing purposes. In the South and sections contiguous to it, yellow
pine is used; in the North, white pine, hemlock, Norway spruce, poplar,
and even hard wood. It is neither profitable nor desirable in this
connection to indicate any particular material; it is natural to use the
cheapest that is sufficiently strong for framing. The following table
indicates the sizes of timber in common use in framing an ordinary
dwelling.
Sills, outside walls 6' × 8"
Sills, inside walls 6 × 8
Lintels, over openings 6 × 10
Girders, over piers 6 × 10
Plates 4 thick
Rafters, 20 on centres 2 × 6
Horizontal purlins, or roof supports 4 × 6
Roof posts 4" × 4"
Bridging 2 × 4
Joists, 1st tier 2" × 10" × 16" on centres
" 2d tier 2 × 10 × 16 " "
" 3d tier 2 × 8 × 16 " "
" deck 2 × 6 × 20 " "
Studs 2 × 4 × 16 " "
Rafters, or deck joist, 16" on centres, when to be plastered.
Sizes here given may not be adapted to all sections. There is no
occasion for being arbitrary. The sizes may be conformed to the material
which is ordinarily used.
Stories ten and a half feet high are generally considered the limit in
an ordinary frame house at this time. Nine and a half and ten are more
common. This is quite different from the general tendency to high
stories a few years ago. Certainly, it is more rational.
JOISTS.
Joists are usually dressed, so that they have about one-half-inch crown
or curve on their upper surface, which would make the centre of the room
about one-half inch higher than the sides. They should be trimmed so
that all are of the same width and form. Double trimmers and
headers--that is, double joist--should be framed around all
chimney-breasts, well-holes, scuttles, and openings in the wall. In
dwelling-house work they should be mortised and tenoned together, as
should be the pieces connecting therewith. In very cheap work headers
and trimmers are sometimes spiked together. This is not good practice.
For very good work, where heavy weights are to be carried, trimmers and
headers should be supported on wrought-iron strips. This, however, is
not necessary in ordinary dwelling-house work.
Joists longer than eighteen feet should be twelve inches in width.
Those running adjacent or parallel to partition or other walls should be
firmly spiked thereto. Double joists should be placed under all
partitions and supports having no support from below. Where the weight
is extra heavy, the double joists should be trussed by a
two-by-four-inch stud, spiked in truss form, between them. There should
be one row of truss bridging to each span or tier, size as indicated.
Header should be framed across pipe duct, about eighteen inches
therefrom.
STUD WALLS.
See Fig. 33. Walls and partitions are usually of two-by-four-inch
studding. In large houses it is best that the studding be two by six
inches, and plates four inches in thickness and the width of the
studding are commonly placed at the bottom and top of the walls of each
story. Sometimes, however, the studding continues to the height of two
stories, and the joists are supported on a one-by-six-inch "ribbon"
piece let into the studding.
[Illustration: Fig 33]
Trusses or supports should be framed over all openings. Sliding-door
pockets or runways should be lined with flooring. All corners and angles
should be framed solid and have two-inch projections for lathing.
Studding four by four inches thick should be framed around all window
openings and on three sides of the door openings; bridging, two by two
inches, one row for each story. Grounds should be placed on the inside
openings, and elsewhere for plastering. The pipe duct, fourteen inches
wide, should be placed between studding from kitchen to attic floor. All
outside walls of frame houses should be diagonally sheathed with
seven-eighths-by-six-inch dressed sheathing. Tongued and grooved
material is best for this purpose, although it is not in common use. All
sheathing should be covered with six-pound sized building-paper.
Sometimes the insides of brick walls are furred. This means that they
are lined on the inside with wood strips two inches in thickness,
sixteen inches on centres, and then lathed and plastered. This prevents
the passage of the moisture through the brick into the inside of the
room.
Various forms of sheathing lath for inside sheathing of a frame house
are now in use. This form of lath contemplates a seven-eighth-inch
tongued and grooved sheathing on the inside with dove-tailed channels
cut into its surface, which form key-room for the plastering.
ROOF.
Most roofs can be formed with out-posts and purlins. All can be formed
in this way where cost is not considered. An ordinary dwelling-house of
the size given in these plans does not require separate posts and
purlins. There should be double rafters around all chimneys and openings
in the roof.
The roof should be sheathed with seven-eighths by four-inch material;
where exposed to view, with five-and-one-half-inch beaded flooring.
Where deck framing is required, posts and purlins are necessary, size
according to weight to be carried.
Where shingles are used for roofing, they should be laid four and
one-half inches to the weather for sixteen-inch shingles, with two nails
to each. It is best that shingles should be dipped in stain, oil, or
paint before they are put on the roof. The durability of shingles is not
increased by being painted after they have been laid. The ridge finish
of the shingle or slate roof should be of galvanized iron, with about
four-inch lap on each side. It may be made as ornamental as desired.
Wood should never be used for this purpose. Hips and ridges of slate or
shingle roofs may be finished with tin or galvanized iron, lapped on
each side about three and one-half inches. Gutters of galvanized iron
set up on the first course of shingles or slate, with metallic support
from above or below, are better than gutters of wood tin-lined.
Where slate covering is used, any size slate desired may be employed,
bearing in mind that the bond should not be less than three and one-half
or four inches. There should be two nails to each slate.
OUTSIDE FINISH.
All lumber used for outside finish should be thoroughly seasoned, clear,
smoothly dressed, and free from imperfections tending to impair its use,
durability, strength, or appearance. Poplar is the ideal building
material for outside finish. It takes paint better than other woods used
for this purpose. However, pine is generally used, for the reason that
it is cheaper. Weather-boarding is usually laid with an inch lap four
and one-half inches to the weather; three and one-half inches is better.
[Illustration: Fig 34]
Drop siding, or German siding as it is sometimes called, makes a warmer
and better wall than weather-boarding. It is usually six or eight inches
wide, and in form and construction as indicated by Fig. 34.
Outside shingle walls are now quite common. Shingles are used for
ornamental purposes in a large proportion of the houses that are built;
in some instances they are used exclusively for outside covering. In
such cases they are undressed, and are stained commonly with one of the
proprietary stains now on the market. Before being placed they are
dipped into the stain for about eight inches from their buts, and are
laid in piles to dry. Any desired color may be secured, and there are
instances where stained shingled walls have gone without any attention
or expense for eight or ten years.
Dressed shingles are commonly painted. Their form may be as ornamental
as desired. Outside shingles are sometimes laid five and one-half inches
to the weather, but four and one-half is better. It is not uncommon at
this time to leave all shingles unpainted and unstained. The effect is
very agreeable when they become weather-stained.
OUTSIDE CASINGS.
All horizontal trimmings and casings should be bevelled on the top to
shed the water. They should run back under the shingled weather-boarding
or other outside covering. There should be tin covering for all
projections in excess of one and three-eighths inch. Ordinary window or
door casings outside are usually three-eighths inch thick.
WINDOWS.
All windows in the part of the house regularly occupied should have box
frames. Pulley styles should be of hard wood, and the inside bead should
be secured with round-headed screws. Sash for plate glass should be one
and three-fourths inch thick; side rail, two and one-half inches in
rabbet; bottom rail, three and one-eighth inches; and meeting rail, one
and one-fourth inch in the rabbet. Sash for common glass may be one and
three-eighths inch thick. Other sizes, as given. Sash, for rooms
finished in hard wood is better when of the wood in which the room is
finished. However, where there is great variation this is not necessary.
Quartered oak is the material commonly used for hard-wood sash. Almost
any hard wood is more liable to warp than pine. All box frames should be
provided with turned axle pulleys. Nothing but the best plaited cotton
sash-cord should be used. Necessary weights should be provided.
In some of the plans where wide front windows are indicated, the design
is called pocket head. There is a pocket above the head of the frame so
that a high sash may be run into it. The sash may be pushed up into the
pocket; that is, it runs into the wall above the head of the frame.
Where the pocket-head window is used, it is necessary that there be a
clear space above the frame for the sash to be run up equal to the
height of the sash itself.
Hinged or pivoted windows have rabbeted frames which are usually one and
three-eighths inch thick. They are used for the most part in unfinished
cellars, attics, and unoccupied parts of the house, and preferably for
pantry, store-room, and, occasionally, bath-room windows. They may be
hung on hinges or pivots. Hinges are better, for the reason that fly
screens cannot be used where the sash is pivoted. Sills should slant
twenty degrees, with drip piece secured to outside. This prevents the
storm from blowing water to the inside.
OUTSIDE SHUTTERS.
Outside shutters are usually one and three-eighths inch thick, with
movable slats; if more than six and one-half feet high, they should be
made in three panels each. Arrangements are provided by various
manufacturers of hardware for opening outside shutters from the inside
of the room. They may be swung either from the sides or top at will.
When they are suspended from above they act as an awning; they admit the
air but not the rays of the sun.
Sometimes shutters are cut at the meeting rail, so that the upper or
lower section may be opened as desired.
PORCHES.
At this time it is not usual to provide special ceiling for porches. The
rafters and all exposed material are dressed so that they may be painted
or stained. Floor joists are not usually more than two by eight inches;
sills, about six by eight. The floor should be inclined about one-eighth
of an inch to the foot, and made of hard wood, tongued and grooved, not
over two and three-fourths inches in width. Edges should be finished
with nosings, which are rounded edges. The roof of the porch is usually
the same as that of the body of the house. Gutters are similar to those
on other roofs.
Railing and turned balusters are usual, excepting where an opening for
passage is desired.
LATTICE PORCH.
Framework of lattice porch is generally the same form as other porches.
The covering is usually made with one-and-three-eighths-inch material,
laid diagonal; openings, one and three-eighths inch. Door and hardware,
same as used for other parts of the house, are generally provided.
OUTSIDE STEPS.
Outside steps of wood usually have hard-wood treads made of
seven-eighths-by-two-and-one-half-inch pieces, with three- eighths-inch
space between; carriages should be two by ten inches, about sixteen on
centres. Railing and posts for steps should be provided if necessary.
Lattice should be placed under porches and outside steps, and between
all outside piers. Outside lattice-work in yard may be of the same
general design as mentioned for lattice-work porches.
General statements as to outside wood-work apply alike to brick or frame
houses, with certain omissions that should be obvious to an intelligent
reader.