Double Floors
The floors are all built double. The under floor may be of any kind of rough boards, and carefully covered over with one ply roofing of any good quality, the laps, as elsewhere in the building, being carefully cemented and nailed down with large, flat headed, galvanized nails made for the purpose. The upper floor should be of a cheap quality of tongued and grooved boards, well driven up and securely nailed. Preferably this upper flooring is laid crosswise of the building.
The outside of these buildings is covered with any cheap, rough boards obtainable. These should be securely nailed over the studding of the building, and then covered with a good grade of two ply roofing paper. On the sides and ends of the building the roofing should be put on upright, but on the roof it is better to lay it lengthwise of the building and lapped, on the plan of laying shingles, the joints all being securely cemented and nailed down, and then the joints and nails painted over with cement, to make sure against any possible leaks.
The inside walls of the building are lined with one ply roofing, with the joints carefully nailed and cemented, and then both walls and ceiling are covered with matched flooring. This gives four inches of dead air space to all the walls of the building, making them cooler in Summer and warmer in Winter than any other known construction. Owing to the roof rafters being ten inches in width, the dead air space under the roof is of course ten inches.
The three outsides of the building, north, east and west, are covered with roofing down to the ground, there being, of course, no inner lining below the floor under the House. To the south the House is entirely open from the floor to the ground. Each House, raised five feet from the ground and open to the south, gets the sunlight underneath clear to the back of the building, which eliminates all dampness, and, being so open prevents rats and other vermin making any attempt to get into the House.
The window openings are nine feet long by three and a half feet in width. As the studding is three feet apart this permits the making of the openings without cutting the studding, and so weakening any of the supports under the roof. These openings are spaced off so that their total length comes as near as may be to one-half the length of the south front of the House.