CHAPTER XXX.
CARPENTER WORK.—FRAMING.—SIZE OF TIMBERS.—HEIGHT OF STORIES.—JOIST.—STUD WALLS.—OUTSIDE SHEATHING.—BUILDING-PAPER.—ROOFS.—OUTSIDE FINISH.—OUTSIDE SHINGLE WALLS.—OUTSIDE CASINGS.—WINDOWS WITH BOX FRAMES.—HINGED OR PIVOTED WINDOWS.—OUTSIDE SHUTTERS.—PORCHES.—LATTICE PORCHES.
CARPENTER WORK.
In considering carpenter work, we will first take up framing, and everything which pertains to the outside of the house. All material used for framing should be sound, square-edged material, free from imperfections tending to impair its use, durability, or strength. In different parts of the country, different kinds of lumber are standard for framing purposes. In the South and sections contiguous to it, yellow pine is used; in the North, white pine, hemlock, Norway spruce, poplar, and even hard wood. It is neither profitable nor desirable in this connection to indicate any particular material; it is natural to use the cheapest that is sufficiently strong for framing. The following table indicates the sizes of timber in common use in framing an ordinary dwelling.
Sizes here given may not be adapted to all sections. There is no occasion for being arbitrary. The sizes may be conformed to the material which is ordinarily used.
Stories ten and a half feet high are generally considered the limit in an ordinary frame house at this time. Nine and a half and ten are more common. This is quite different from the general tendency to high stories a few years ago. Certainly, it is more rational.
JOISTS.
Joists are usually dressed, so that they have about one-half-inch crown or curve on their upper surface, which would make the centre of the room about one-half inch higher than the sides. They should be trimmed so that all are of the same width and form. Double trimmers and headers—that is, double joist—should be framed around all chimney-breasts, well-holes, scuttles, and openings in the wall. In dwelling-house work they should be mortised and tenoned together, as should be the pieces connecting therewith. In very cheap work headers and trimmers are sometimes spiked together. This is not good practice. For very good work, where heavy weights are to be carried, trimmers and headers should be supported on wrought-iron strips. This, however, is not necessary in ordinary dwelling-house work.
Joists longer than eighteen feet should be twelve inches in width. Those running adjacent or parallel to partition or other walls should be firmly spiked thereto. Double joists should be placed under all partitions and supports having no support from below. Where the weight is extra heavy, the double joists should be trussed by a two-by-four-inch stud, spiked in truss form, between them. There should be one row of truss bridging to each span or tier, size as indicated. Header should be framed across pipe duct, about eighteen inches therefrom.
STUD WALLS.
See [Fig. 33]. Walls and partitions are usually of two-by-four-inch studding. In large houses it is best that the studding be two by six inches, and plates four inches in thickness and the width of the studding are commonly placed at the bottom and top of the walls of each story. Sometimes, however, the studding continues to the height of two stories, and the joists are supported on a one-by-six-inch “ribbon” piece let into the studding.
Trusses or supports should be framed over all openings. Sliding-door pockets or runways should be lined with flooring. All corners and angles should be framed solid and have two-inch projections for lathing. Studding four by four inches thick should be framed around all window openings and on three sides of the door openings; bridging, two by two inches, one row for each story. Grounds should be placed on the inside openings, and elsewhere for plastering. The pipe duct, fourteen inches wide, should be placed between studding from kitchen to attic floor. All outside walls of frame houses should be diagonally sheathed with seven-eighths-by-six-inch dressed sheathing. Tongued and grooved material is best for this purpose, although it is not in common use. All sheathing should be covered with six-pound sized building-paper.
Sometimes the insides of brick walls are furred. This means that they are lined on the inside with wood strips two inches in thickness, sixteen inches on centres, and then lathed and plastered. This prevents the passage of the moisture through the brick into the inside of the room.
Various forms of sheathing lath for inside sheathing of a frame house are now in use. This form of lath contemplates a seven-eighth-inch tongued and grooved sheathing on the inside with dove-tailed channels cut into its surface, which form key-room for the plastering.
ROOF.
Most roofs can be formed with out-posts and purlins. All can be formed in this way where cost is not considered. An ordinary dwelling-house of the size given in these plans does not require separate posts and purlins. There should be double rafters around all chimneys and openings in the roof.
The roof should be sheathed with seven-eighths by four-inch material; where exposed to view, with five-and-one-half-inch beaded flooring. Where deck framing is required, posts and purlins are necessary, size according to weight to be carried.
Where shingles are used for roofing, they should be laid four and one-half inches to the weather for sixteen-inch shingles, with two nails to each. It is best that shingles should be dipped in stain, oil, or paint before they are put on the roof. The durability of shingles is not increased by being painted after they have been laid. The ridge finish of the shingle or slate roof should be of galvanized iron, with about four-inch lap on each side. It may be made as ornamental as desired. Wood should never be used for this purpose. Hips and ridges of slate or shingle roofs may be finished with tin or galvanized iron, lapped on each side about three and one-half inches. Gutters of galvanized iron set up on the first course of shingles or slate, with metallic support from above or below, are better than gutters of wood tin-lined.
Where slate covering is used, any size slate desired may be employed, bearing in mind that the bond should not be less than three and one-half or four inches. There should be two nails to each slate.
OUTSIDE FINISH.
All lumber used for outside finish should be thoroughly seasoned, clear, smoothly dressed, and free from imperfections tending to impair its use, durability, strength, or appearance. Poplar is the ideal building material for outside finish. It takes paint better than other woods used for this purpose. However, pine is generally used, for the reason that it is cheaper. Weather-boarding is usually laid with an inch lap four and one-half inches to the weather; three and one-half inches is better.
Drop siding, or German siding as it is sometimes called, makes a warmer and better wall than weather-boarding. It is usually six or eight inches wide, and in form and construction as indicated by [Fig. 34].
Outside shingle walls are now quite common. Shingles are used for ornamental purposes in a large proportion of the houses that are built; in some instances they are used exclusively for outside covering. In such cases they are undressed, and are stained commonly with one of the proprietary stains now on the market. Before being placed they are dipped into the stain for about eight inches from their buts, and are laid in piles to dry. Any desired color may be secured, and there are instances where stained shingled walls have gone without any attention or expense for eight or ten years.
Dressed shingles are commonly painted. Their form may be as ornamental as desired. Outside shingles are sometimes laid five and one-half inches to the weather, but four and one-half is better. It is not uncommon at this time to leave all shingles unpainted and unstained. The effect is very agreeable when they become weather-stained.
OUTSIDE CASINGS.
All horizontal trimmings and casings should be bevelled on the top to shed the water. They should run back under the shingled weather-boarding or other outside covering. There should be tin covering for all projections in excess of one and three-eighths inch. Ordinary window or door casings outside are usually three-eighths inch thick.
WINDOWS.
All windows in the part of the house regularly occupied should have box frames. Pulley styles should be of hard wood, and the inside bead should be secured with round-headed screws. Sash for plate glass should be one and three-fourths inch thick; side rail, two and one-half inches in rabbet; bottom rail, three and one-eighth inches; and meeting rail, one and one-fourth inch in the rabbet. Sash for common glass may be one and three-eighths inch thick. Other sizes, as given. Sash, for rooms finished in hard wood is better when of the wood in which the room is finished. However, where there is great variation this is not necessary. Quartered oak is the material commonly used for hard-wood sash. Almost any hard wood is more liable to warp than pine. All box frames should be provided with turned axle pulleys. Nothing but the best plaited cotton sash-cord should be used. Necessary weights should be provided.
In some of the plans where wide front windows are indicated, the design is called pocket head. There is a pocket above the head of the frame so that a high sash may be run into it. The sash may be pushed up into the pocket; that is, it runs into the wall above the head of the frame. Where the pocket-head window is used, it is necessary that there be a clear space above the frame for the sash to be run up equal to the height of the sash itself.
Hinged or pivoted windows have rabbeted frames which are usually one and three-eighths inch thick. They are used for the most part in unfinished cellars, attics, and unoccupied parts of the house, and preferably for pantry, store-room, and, occasionally, bath-room windows. They may be hung on hinges or pivots. Hinges are better, for the reason that fly screens cannot be used where the sash is pivoted. Sills should slant twenty degrees, with drip piece secured to outside. This prevents the storm from blowing water to the inside.
OUTSIDE SHUTTERS.
Outside shutters are usually one and three-eighths inch thick, with movable slats; if more than six and one-half feet high, they should be made in three panels each. Arrangements are provided by various manufacturers of hardware for opening outside shutters from the inside of the room. They may be swung either from the sides or top at will. When they are suspended from above they act as an awning; they admit the air but not the rays of the sun.
Sometimes shutters are cut at the meeting rail, so that the upper or lower section may be opened as desired.
PORCHES.
At this time it is not usual to provide special ceiling for porches. The rafters and all exposed material are dressed so that they may be painted or stained. Floor joists are not usually more than two by eight inches; sills, about six by eight. The floor should be inclined about one-eighth of an inch to the foot, and made of hard wood, tongued and grooved, not over two and three-fourths inches in width. Edges should be finished with nosings, which are rounded edges. The roof of the porch is usually the same as that of the body of the house. Gutters are similar to those on other roofs.
Railing and turned balusters are usual, excepting where an opening for passage is desired.
LATTICE PORCH.
Framework of lattice porch is generally the same form as other porches. The covering is usually made with one-and-three-eighths-inch material, laid diagonal; openings, one and three-eighths inch. Door and hardware, same as used for other parts of the house, are generally provided.
OUTSIDE STEPS.
Outside steps of wood usually have hard-wood treads made of seven-eighths-by-two-and-one-half-inch pieces, with three- eighths-inch space between; carriages should be two by ten inches, about sixteen on centres. Railing and posts for steps should be provided if necessary. Lattice should be placed under porches and outside steps, and between all outside piers. Outside lattice-work in yard may be of the same general design as mentioned for lattice-work porches.
General statements as to outside wood-work apply alike to brick or frame houses, with certain omissions that should be obvious to an intelligent reader.