What happens to the small house after it has been built? This is a
question which should interest both the architect and builder, because
from the answer can be had some very important lessons in construction.
To know where the weather, mechanical wear and tear, fire and water,
begin the decay of the house is to know where to specify materials
which will give the greatest durability to the whole.
This decay is called the natural depreciation of the house, but it
is the architect’s duty to make this as insignificant as possible.
It is essential to study the local conditions under which the house
will have to stand. At the edge of the seashore, where the damp and
salty winds are prevalent, one would be foolish to specify metal for
screens, gutters, valleys, and leaders, which tended to go to pieces
by corrosion. But in a dry locality the specifying of, say, galvanized
iron for these parts would save money on the initial cost, and might
not cause too great depreciation.
Likewise, the choice of the general materials of which the house is
built should be influenced by the experience of the neighborhood.
A wooden house in a seashore resort requires painting very often,
and perhaps a brick house would in the end be more economical. A
wood-shingle roof on a house, tucked away under the dense trees of a
lake shore, would have a very short life, and the use of some more
permanent material would justify the additional expense.
Indeed, on all hands, in every locality, we have lessons to learn
concerning what happens to a house after it has been built, and how it
might have been avoided. To stimulate the reader to observe more in
this direction we will call attention to some of the most obvious ways
in which a house depreciates.
Examine most houses which have stood for ten to twenty years, and
it will be found that the foundations in nearly every case have
settled unevenly, to a greater or less extent. This may be due to
unforeseen causes, such as the action of underground water, frost, and
disintegration of mortar, but generally it is the result of foundations
built by the rule of the thumb. A wooden house seems so light that the
average builder never bothers to consider the footings nor the loadings
on them. Many walls are built without any footings at all, even though
part of them rest on stone and other parts on earth. Now, of course,
nothing serious as a rule comes of this slightly uneven settlement,
but, add it to other things, and the depreciation of the property goes
on rapidly.
[Illustration: Uneven Settlement]
As an example of this, one house might be mentioned which was greatly
marred by the settling of the footings under the porch columns. These
columns supported the second floor, which projected over the porch.
The amount of settlement was only about two inches, but this caused
the windows to lose their rectangular shape, making the operation of
the sash impossible, destroyed the drainage direction of the gutters,
necessitating the relocation of the leaders and the repitching of the
gutters, opened up the crack between the floor and the base-board, and
made a large crack in the plaster wall and ceiling. The cause of it all
was the building of the porch column footings upon filled-in earth,
while the foundations of the rest of the house were upon rock. Uneven
settlement was sure to take place under such conditions.
This same damaging effect of settlement is often noticeable in wooden
frame houses, which have not been properly constructed to avoid uneven
distribution of cross-section wood in the walls and partitions.
Wherever there is a difference of cross-section of wood in two walls
which support the same beams, there is sure to be uneven settling.
The wall which has the greatest number of linear inches vertically of
horizontally laid timbers will settle the most. This will cause sagging
floors, sprung door frames, and open joints.
Many cracked stucco walls on the exterior have been caused by too much
cross-section wood in their framing. A balloon-framed wall makes the
best backing for an outside wall of stucco, because the studs extend
from sill to plate without any horizontal timbers intervening.
But it can always be predicted that the masonry walls and parts of the
house will settle before the wooden walls and partitions. The chimney
will settle more rapidly than the surrounding partitions of wood, and
should, for this reason alone, be built entirely independent of any
other part of the structure. Where the wooden framed wall butts into a
chimney and the plaster is continuous over the brick of the chimney and
the studs of the wall, there is sure to develop a crack at the joint
because of the unequal settlement, unless the plaster is reinforced at
this point with metal lath. Likewise, it is bad to support any part of
the wooden floor upon a girder which bears upon the chimney, not only
on account of the excessive sinking of the chimney, but the subsequent
danger of fire which it creates.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
A very bad method of constructing a chimney was imported from Europe,
years ago, which develops serious fire dangers from its manner of
settling. Instead of flashing and counter-flashing the joint of the
chimney with the roof, this method employed the use of a projecting
course of brick begun at the level of the roof. Thus the part of the
chimney above the shingle roof was made larger than that underneath,
and the outward step was used as a weather lap over the roofing
material, and no flashing was needed to make the joint tight. Now, when
the chimney settled faster than the roof, as it would, the upper part
could not drop, but was caught upon the roof, and lifted from the lower
part. This made a crack through which the hot gases could escape to the
attic timbers and start a fire.
On the other hand, wooden framed walls will settle badly, too, when
dry rot sets into the sills. This is a very common defect in old
houses, and generally, when any remodelling must be done, the sills
have to be cut out and new ones set into place. Dry rot in the sills
is caused by excessive dampness with no circulation of air. Very often
a builder may take great pains to fire-stop his walls around the sill,
but forget to leave ventilation space, and the sill is soon attacked by
the fungus of rot. Unless timbers which come in contact with masonry
are treated with creosote, or painted, they will be subject to dry rot
in the average damp, warm climate.
[Illustration: Solid Column]
Many porch columns rot at their base and permit the settling of the
roof. Solid columns are the least durable in this respect, for in a
short time their core will go bad and the lower part will crumble.
Wood base blocks for columns should be perforated with holes to permit
the seepage of water under them. Cast-iron bases are preferred to the
wooden one, when the column is to set upon a masonry porch floor.
Settling causes many other defects besides those mentioned. The
house-drain may be broken and the cellar flooded with sewage, if the
wall around the pipe has been cemented up and it settles. The pitch of
drain-pipes may be altered so much that back-up action of waste water
may occur; steps may be caused to sag so that they become unsafe;
lintels may be broken.
The movement of the footings by frost is another evil that is
noticeable in many old houses. Sidewalks are cracked, porch stairs
loosened, drains in areas closed. In most cases like this the footings
are not extended far enough below the frost-line, or insufficient
cinder foundations are laid.
[Illustration: Weathered Chimney]
But the action of freezing water leaves its marks on other parts of
the house. Unless some corrugations in leaders are made, the ice in the
winter may burst them. The mortar on copings is loosened by this
action, and on chimney tops, where heat and gases also help, the
brickwork soon breaks down. Many failures of stucco work are directly
caused by frost, and sometimes water leaks into the cells of hollow
terra-cotta blocks, freezes, and bursts out the shell-like sides.
The putty around the window is loosened by the drying action of the
wind, and the prying action of the frost. Water-supply pipes in wall
near the outside are broken when the cold winds freeze them, and the
exposed gas-pipes in the chilly parts of the cellar are often entirely
clogged in a severe winter. Leaks around windows in masonry walls are
started by frost, and it is common to see tile on the porch floor, or
brick borders and bases loosened by the same powerful agent that breaks
boulders from the mountainsides.
The heat of the sun is another destroyer of the house. It is death
on paint, for it is forever baking it in the steam of the dew of the
previous night, and when the body of linseed-oil is gone, the paint is
no good. And it dries out the wood too much some days and spoils the
jointing. It warps boards up and opens the mitred joints. It causes
the wood shingles to crack and shrivel, so that when the next heavy
rain comes the ceilings are stained by leaks. Tar for the roof and soft
cements are caused to run out of place.
Then, too, there is the deteriorating influence of the artificial heat
inside of the house. The fireplace tiles are baked loose from their
mortar beds, cast-iron dampers are cracked, chimneys are clogged with
soot and catch fire, and thimbles which receive the smoke-pipe of the
furnace are broken. But the heat from the radiator does much damage. It
blackens the ceiling above it by hurling little particles of dust up
against it; it warps and twists the wall-paper; it misshapes the doors
and windows, and breaks loose the strips of veneer, and it often spills
water over the floor to ruin the ceilings below.
Added to all of the above depreciation is the natural wear and tear
caused by the tenants. Floors are worn to splinters where they were
of flat-grain wood; thresholds are thinned down, stair tread scooped
out. Plaster is broken by moving furniture, and decorations stained by
accidents of all varieties. Locks, hinges, and bolts are broken.
Particularly is the mechanical equipment of the house subject to
such deteriorating influences. Plumbing fixtures are broken, pipes
are clogged, and joints made to leak through the corroding action of
strong acids poured down the pipes. Radiator valves are turned out of
adjustment, boilers are burned out, and hundreds of other things happen
to this part of the house because of careless hands.
Thus we may say that the important factors of depreciation which an
architect should keep in mind are unequal settlement, action of frost,
washing-out effects of rain-water, corrosion, the heat of the sun, the
artificial heat of the furnace, and the foolishness of tenants.
Unequal settlement can be prevented by carefully examining the
construction, and the action of frost, heat, and sun can be minimized
by the use of proper materials, and the foolishness of tenants can be
partly offset by selecting those mechanical devices which are as near
fool-proof as human hands can make them.