Practical hints to builders and those contemplating building / Facts worth considering relating to foundation, cellar, kitchen, chimney, cistern, brick-work, mortar, heating, ventilation, the roof, and many items of interest to builders.

by National Sheet Metal Roofing Co.

CHIMNEYS.

We will not moralize on the evils of smoky chimneys, but just tell you in plain language how to construct them so they will not smoke. Make the throat of the fire-place not more than half the size of the flue; carefully smooth the inside of the flue, and have it of the same area all the way to near the top of the chimney, when it should be gradually tapered inward to about half the area of the flue. At the extreme top, the cap stone should slant from the opening in all directions downward at an angle of about twenty degrees. This will insure a good draught and prevent the smoke blowing downward. No two fire-places should enter the same flue; neither should a stove-pipe enter a flue unless the fire-place is closed. Each stove and fire-place should have its own flue. The size necessary for a flue depends on the fuel to be used.

Soft or Bituminous coal requires a flue nearly double the size of one where Anthracite is to be used; an open fire-place for wood, larger flues than either. For instance, an 8 × 8 inch flue answers for Anthracite, because it makes but little soot, while if Bituminous coal is used, 8 × 12 is none too large.

You will find in houses all over the country flues smaller than the above, and a corresponding number of smoky chimneys, which it is impossible to remedy without re-building from the bottom up.

The carelessness displayed in chimney construction is astonishing. As the work is hid from view on completion, be watchful during the process of construction from the ground up. All chimneys should, if possible, extend above the apex or comb of roof, and should be built of good hard burnt brick, and no woodwork should be allowed to enter within five inches of inside of flue, and not within twelve inches anywhere near the fire-place.

Design H.—Front Elevation.

EIGHT-ROOM, TWO-STORY HOUSE.

Estimated Cost, with Bath and Furnace, $3,500 to $4,000.

Roof covered with 10 × 14 No. 1 Standard Tin Shingles; gables with Queen Anne; second story, sides, with 7 × 10 Standard Tin Shingles; and porches with Broad Rib Tin Roofing; use No. 2 Five-foot Finial on tower.

First Floor. Second Floor.

Design H.—(Elevation, [page 18].)

A retired plumber thus gives a point for the gratuitous relief of householders: “Just before retiring at night pour into the clogged pipe enough liquid soda lye to fill the ‘trap’ or bent part of the pipe. Be sure that no water runs in it until the next morning. During the night the lye will convert all the offal into soft soap, and the first current of water in the morning will wash it away and clear the pipe clean as new.”