25.
Typical Concrete
block wall
The concrete house, especially that built of blocks, often has the defect of being damp on the interior, unless precautions have been taken to avoid this. It is always best to fur the interior of walls, although there have been cases where the blocks have been waterproofed and the interiors remained dry. Usually those blocks which are cast in a very dry state are porous, while those which are poured show considerable compactness. The great difficulty in using concrete blocks lies in the inexperienced and inartistic work of the large number of “would-be manufacturers,” whose only claim to the product consists of having purchased a machine which will turn out so many blocks a day and reap them an advertised fortune in a short period. A thoroughly reliable concrete block can be made, if there is used plenty of good cement, clean aggregate with proper proportions of fine and coarse to secure density, sufficient water to make a wet mixture, and then the product kept damp while curing. The surface should also be finished in some artistic manner. A good method consists in applying about an inch of white cement and showy aggregate to the outer facing of the block, and then, when the block has been set into the wall, finish it off with a stone-tooling machine, such as a pointer, operated by a pneumatic hammer. Blocks, also, should be of the hollow-wall type, so that an air space between can be secured for ventilation and insulation.
MONOLITHIC HOUSE
The commonest method of building monolithic walls of concrete is to use wooden forms. These are built in sets of panels, one for the exterior and the other for the interior face of each course. These are successively raised, one above the other, in pouring the walls. Mr. Ernest Flagg, architect, has developed a remarkably simple system of concrete-wall construction with the wooden form. Roughly broken stone are set against the inside of the forms, used for the exterior face of the wall, and the rest of the wall is filled up with concrete. By raising the boards which are used for the forms, as each layer hardens, the wall can be erected without skilled labor and yet have the appearance, on the exterior, of a stone wall. Of course it is necessary to point the joints of the stone work after the forms have been removed.
| 22. | 24. | |
| Typical monolithic wall construction | Stone faced concrete wall developed by Ernest Flagg |
Of the light steel forms, the most important on the market are the Metaforms and the Morrill forms. The Metaforms, originally the Reichert forms, are composed of individual form units. All units are standardized and interchangeable, and equipped with the necessary clamps and locking devices. These units are built of sheet steel, strongly reinforced, and measure 2 feet square. A single course of Metaforms is composed of an inner and outer shell of plates. As the work progresses the bottom course is taken off and placed above for the next, there being usually three courses of forms in operation. The Morrill form is also a sheet-steel form, only it uses a hinged “swing-up” construction, by which the lower courses of the form can be swung up into position for the new course as the work progresses.
The Van Guilder double-wall machines have been gradually increasing in use throughout the country. They are not for sale, but the company establishes a contracting organization in different centres. The machine is a steel mould which is moved along and upward as the concrete wall is tamped in it. It builds a double wall in tiers. Each tier is 9 inches high and 5 feet long. A complete circuit of one tier is made around the wall, and then the next tier is begun on top.
