TYPE III
The third class of dwelling is quite rare, and very few small houses are built that could be classified under it. Some builders call them fireproof houses, although this is erroneous. These buildings have walls, roofs, floors, and partitions built of incombustible materials, but the finished floors, the trim, windows, and doors are of wood. The exterior walls are of masonry construction, and the construction of the floors and roofs consists of steel beams with terra-cotta arches or concrete floor slabs, spanning in between them, and the partitions are of terra-cotta, gypsum, metal lath and plaster, or other similar materials. They may also be built of reinforced concrete throughout, or any other combination of these materials. There have been very few examples of this kind of construction used in the small house. It is an unfortunate condition that it is more adaptable to the costly mansion than to the average house of the middle-class citizen, for the high cost of construction of this character, in most cases, permits it to be used only by the wealthy man. Examples where such houses have been built generally show an investment of $30,000 or more, or, if they were built to-day, $50,000 or more. Those attempts to use this form of construction in the small house have been made by large building corporations, and have been chiefly represented by concrete houses of very ugly design.
Type III. Walls, floors, partitions fireproof, but windows, doors and trim of wood.