FOR BUILDERS AND CONTRACTORS
[Sidenote: The Builder’s Problems]
The rapid increase in population, and especially in its density, the
congestion in great cities, with the consequent building up of suburbs;
and the equally rapid upward tendency in the scale of comfort, are
factors of modern civilization which make the work of the builder and
contractor increasingly complex. The good builder is probably much
commoner than ever before, in spite of the popular impression that
building materials are poorer and that construction work is more often
“scamped” than they used to be. Increased transportation facilities make
the builder much less dependent on local and often inadequate materials.
And there has been a change in the theory and practice of government:
the old easy-going policy has been abandoned, and new laws, strictly
enforced, have resulted in such inspection and control of building
operations as would have seemed tyranny to the builder of a generation
ago and as make modern buildings, especially in cities, much safer than
ever before. Insurance companies have done much to the same end.
There is a general prejudice against the modern builder on the part of
the temperamental “praiser of the past.” Occasionally similar complaints
are made even against the builders of the past. Kipling sings:
Who shall doubt the secret hid
Under Cheops’ pyramid
Was that a contractor did
Cheops out of several millions?
Or that Joseph’s sudden rise
To Comptroller of Supplies
Was a fraud of monstrous size
On King Pharaoh’s swart civilians?
The mere duration of the pyramids, undamaged except by the hand of man,
is an answer to such a charge; and in the Britannica article PYRAMID the
reader will find (Vol. 22, p. 683) that even where the hidden material
was rubbly or of mud bricks, “the casings were not a mere veneer, but
were of massive blocks, usually greater in thickness than in height”—in
other words, that the construction was of the best character.
But the builder must be a far better-informed man under present
conditions than ever before. To give him the necessary information there
is a large and growing literature ranging from builders’ and
contractors’ pocket manuals to special periodicals. This literature is
expensive, and like all special literature puts the intending purchaser
in a difficult position, for _if he buys it all_, he must pay much more
than the returns from his purchase warrant, and he will then have to
_read it all_ and use his own judgment in deciding what is best. If he
does not buy all, he must be an expert, not merely in every branch of
his business but in the bibliography of his business, to make a wise
selection,—and if he is sufficiently expert for this he will probably
need no such library. But he will find, to a remarkable degree, the best
of all that there is in such special literature in the Encyclopaedia
Britannica, with the strongest assurance of its being authoritative, and
with the certainty that for an outlay, small in comparison with what he
would make for such special information elsewhere, he will get the
guidance that he needs for his work and also information as excellent on
any other subject that he or any member of his family may wish to
pursue.
The key or foundation article for the builder or contractor is BUILDING
(Vol. 4, p. 762), by James Bartlett, lecturer on construction, etc.,
King’s College, London, who has contributed other articles on related
topics. The article deals with:
The relation of building to architecture and with building laws and
special types of plans according to local governmental requirements
The conditions necessary for a successful building, namely—ease of
access, good light, good service, pleasing environment and approaches,
minimum cost with true economy, and, for office buildings, ease of
arrangement to suit tenants
Construction, its general principles
Materials of construction, especially stone and brick
Particular objects of construction
Foundation walls
Footings to walls
General procedure for an intended building
Builder’s sphere
American building acts
Fire-resisting construction.
This general article is supplemented by the following articles:
FOUNDATION, containing 13 diagrams and paragraphs on: load on
foundation; trial boring; construction; types—concrete piers, pile
foundations, concrete piles, plank foundations, caissons, well
foundations, coffer dams, dock foundations, cantilever foundations,
building on sand (at Cape Henlopen, Delaware)
CAISSON
MASONRY, with 18 diagrams, and with special treatment of tools,
including hammers, mallets, saws, chisels, setting tools, hoisting
appliances; of seasoning stone; of setting stones; of use of mortar;
of bonding; slip joints; footings; walling; random; coursed rubble,
ashlar, etc.; backing to stone work; pointing and stonewash. There is
also a brief vocabulary of technical terms and a discussion of methods
of facing; joints; cramps; dowels; joggles; stone arches; tracery and
carving; and the articles ASHLAR, RAG-STONE, RANDOM
CEMENT, with 3 figures; description and analysis of Pozzuolanic and
Portland cement; mixing; loading of kilns; types of kilns; cement
clinker; testing; hydraulic lime; Roman cement; natural cements;
Passow cement; uses of hydraulic cement; calcium sulphate cements
CONCRETE, with 16 illustrations and paragraphs on constituents;
proportions; mixing; moulds; depositing; strength; durability;
convenience and appearance; resistance to fire; cost; artificial
stones; steel concrete, including columns, piles, beams, floor slabs,
etc.; concrete arches
MORTAR, with sections on slaking; hardening; magnesia in mortar;
strengths; adhesion, decay, effects of salt and frost; legal
restrictions; limes and cements for mortar
LIME
BRICK, with sections on brick-clays and brick-making
BRICKWORK, with 15 diagrams; sections on hollow walls; materials and
labor; varieties of bricks; strength of brickwork; mortar; pointing;
footing; binding; prevention of damp; arches and plates; chimneys and
flues; brick paving
BASEMENT
HOUSE, with 17 illustrations
BUNGALOW
CARPENTRY, with 36 diagrams showing joints, notching, cogging,
dovetail, housing, halving, mortise, tenons, wedging, dowelling,
turning-piece, lintel, floors, strutting, partition, half timber
construction, braced frame; and descriptive text on these and other
topics
STEEL CONSTRUCTION, with 4 illustrations; sections on skeleton and
steel-cage construction; local laws; protection from corrosion;
columns; girders; floors; windbracing; materials; floor-filling;
partitions; time and cost of construction
STONE, with sections on constitution, colour, testing, preservatives,
natural bed, seasoning, varieties, artificial stone
MARBLE, a descriptive article, about 4000 words long
GRANITE, with descriptions and analyses of typical granites
LIMESTONE, about 2500 words
TIMBER, with paragraphs on: felling timber, conversion of timber—with
diagram of bastard and quarter sawing; seasoning; defects; decay;
preservation of timber; varieties, with description of the principal
coniferous and hard woods—and separate articles on PINE, FIR, LARCH,
CEDAR, BIRCH, BEECH, CHESTNUT, WALNUT, ELM, TEAK, MAHOGANY, MAPLE,
etc.
HALF-TIMBER WORK
CHIMNEY-PIECE
SCAFFOLD, with 4 figures; sections on bricklayers’ and masons’
scaffolds, material, erection, gantries, derrick towers, cradles,
chimney scaffolds, accidents
SHORING, with 8 figures; sections on raking shores; braces, horizontal
or flying shores; needle, vertical and dead, shoring; rules and sizes
for all shores
STAIRCASE, divided into architecture and construction, the latter
having 4 diagrams, description of dog-legged or newel stair, open
newel stair, geometrical stair, circular stair, spiral stairs; a
defining vocabulary of technical terms; concrete and stone; moving
inclines; local building laws
BALUSTER
BALUSTRADE
ELEVATOR, with 3 illustrations; paragraphs on history; construction,
essentials of design; safety devices; traveling staircases; freight
elevators
PARQUETRY
CEILING
ROOFS, with 23 figures and two plates; with sections on forms of roof,
trusses, open timber roofs, mansards; iron roofs, covering
materials—felt corrugated iron, zinc, lead, copper, “tin,” slate,
tiles, miscellaneous—weight of roofs, building laws; and separate
articles on SLATE, TILE, TIN, TIN PLATE, etc.
PLASTER WORK, with paragraphs on lathing, metal lathing, limes, hair,
substitutes for hair, sand, external work, rough stucco, roughcast or
pebble-dash, sgraffito, internal work, three coats, moulding, cracks,
slabs, fibrous plaster.
JOINERY, with 13 illustrations, and treating such topics as: tools and
materials; joints, mitre, dovetail, etc.; warping; moulding; flooring,
including wood block and parquet; skirting, dados; picture rails;
windows, bay windows; shutters; shop-fronts; doors; church work;
ironmongery, including hinges, locks, etc.
DOOR
DOORWAY
CASEMENT
WINDOWS
GLAZING
STAINED GLASS
WALL COVERINGS, with sections on marble wall-lining, mosaic, tiles,
metal sheeting, tapestry, wall-papers—and see MURAL DECORATION.
PAINTER-WORK, dealing with paint bases, vehicles, thinners, driers,
pigments, enamel, paints, woodwork paints, varnish, gums, French
polishes, putty, tools, workmanship, graining, marbling, painting on
plaster and on iron, repainting on old work, blistering and cracking,
distemper, gilding, etc.
SEWERAGE
LIGHTING, with sections on oil, gas and electric lighting
LIGHTNING CONDUCTOR
HEATING, with sections on open fires, closed stoves, gas fires,
electrical heating, oil stoves, low pressure hot water, high pressure
hot water, steam heating, hot water supply, safety valves, geysers,
incrustation, Lockport central steam supply
VENTILATION, with sections on rate of air consumption, ventilation of
buildings, with table; chimney draught; other outlets; inlets; window
and door ventilation; arrangements in barracks, in public buildings,
exhaust cowls; extraction of vitiated air; fans; water spray
ventilation; extraction by hot-air shaft; measurement of air; systems
in public buildings
Both the builder and contractor will find valuable information to govern
their financial relations with their clients in the article BUILDING
SOCIETIES, of which the American part is by Carroll D. Wright, late
United States Commissioner of Labor.
The contractor will find the following articles of importance to him, in
addition to those of more particular interest for the builder:
SURVEYING
GEODESY
BRIDGES
CANTILEVER
CAISSON
COFFERDAM
RIVER ENGINEERING
HARBOUR
DIVERS AND DIVING APPARATUS
DOCKS
DREDGES
BREAKWATER
TUNNEL
CANAL
ROAD
LIGHTHOUSE
IRRIGATION
RECLAMATION OF LAND
and the article RAILWAY, with the other articles on railway construction
listed in the chapter _For Railroad Men_ in this Guide.
For an alphabetical list of the principal articles and topics of
interest to builders and contractors, see the end of the chapter _For
Architects_ in this Guide.