The Construction of the Small House / A Simple and Useful Source of Information of the Methods of Building Small American Homes, for Anyone Planning to Build

by H. Vandervoort Walsh

TYPE I

Type I Wooden Frame

All small houses may be classified into four types, according to their construction. The first type is the commonest and is the wooden frame structure. This has exterior walls and interior partitions built of light wooden studs, and the floors and ceilings framed with wooden joists. The exterior walls may be covered with clapboard, shingles, stucco, brick veneer, or stone veneer. The roof is generally covered with wooden shingles, although slate, tile, asbestos, and asphalt shingles are often used. These houses are the most numerous, because the cost of wood in the past has been so much less than other materials that they appealed to the average builder’s financial sense. However, the cost of such dwellings to the country as a whole has been very high, for they are extremely dangerous when attacked by fire. More than twenty-two millions of dollars are wasted by fire each year in these houses. They also cost us a great deal in up-keep. It would be interesting to see what was the total cost per year to repaint them and keep the roofs in order. It certainly would run into the millions. Although wood increased from about $30.00 per thousand board feet to about $85.00 in the Eastern markets from pre-war days, and is now dropping below $55.00, yet the wooden house is still listed as the cheapest, for the cost of other materials has also increased, as brick from $10.00 per thousand to $23.00 until very recently, and cement from $2.00 to $3.25 per barrel. In any comparison of cost the wooden frame building is taken as the base or cheapest type of construction, although it is the most expensive in up-keep and fire-hazard of all. Until the price of wood increases in excessive proportion to other materials, there is no doubt that this type of house will be the commonest. However, there is much that can be done to make them more fire-resisting, and, although we cannot look to the speculative builders to use such methods, since they increase the costs slightly, yet the architect should not overlook them.