Entering the cellar-door, the first thing we notice is that at the base of the stairs leading to this door is a puddle of water left from the last rain-storm. Upon inquiring concerning it we learn that in every rain-storm, and especially during the winter when the ground is frozen, the surface water flows down the steps, collects in the areaway in front of the cellar-door, and overflows the sill into the cellar itself—all because the builder had omitted a drain-pipe in the centre of this area to save money. Becoming interested in this matter of drainage, we look around at the areas under each of the cellar-windows and find that the drains have been omitted from these, and that a few broken pebbles were thrown into the bottom to give the impression that the water could drain off into the soil, and all this to save money and deceive the buyer. Inspecting the ground around the foundation-wall we notice that about each leader the earth has been worn down by dripping water, as though the leader had backed up and the gutter had overflowed. Inquiry shows that such is the case in every rain-storm. Apparently the outlet for the leader has been stopped up, so, in order to find out whether this is true, we need to remove the lower section of the leader from the terra-cotta pipe to look into it, for often it becomes clogged at this point with leaves and dirt. Breaking away the cement joint and pulling gently upon the sheet-metal leader, we suddenly find that it crumbles in our hands, and that the leader consists of a coat of paint holding a few particles of rust together. Yes, cheap, thin, so-called galvanized-iron leaders to save money and deceive the buyer! But continuing our search for the stoppage we poke our cane into the section of terra-cotta pipe projecting above the ground which received the leader, and find that it stops short. Twisting it around to remove the material which seems to block the pipe we find, much to our surprise, that the entire section of terra-cotta pipe breaks off, and then, looking closer, we find that this pipe does not connect with a cast-iron drainage-pipe leading to the plumbing system or to a dry well, but had merely been stuck into the ground to give this appearance and to save money and deceive the buyer. No wonder the leader backed up and the gutters overflowed in a rain-storm!
By this time we have become very suspicious of the house, so that when we finally go down into the cellar our attention is attracted to a section of the cement floor near the furnace where the large ash-cans are standing. The top surface has cracked under the weight of the cans, and it appears to be in thin slivers of cement. Leaning down and prying under one of these cracked pieces with a knife, a thin slab of concrete, about a quarter of an inch thick, is lifted up from the floor, and beneath this slab we find about 2 or 3 inches of tamped ashes, and then dirt. We marvel that this floor has lasted even as long as it has with so much water running into the cellar in damp weather. Think of it, 2 inches of ashes and a quarter of an inch of cement mortar on the top, when the correct method of building is to lay about 6 inches of cinders for a foundation, then 3 inches of concrete on top of this, and finally a top coat, 1 inch thick, of cement mortar over all.
Looking up from the floor we are rather impressed by the clean, whitewashed effect of the walls of the cellar, and one would hardly believe that it was a damp one, but around the windows and at certain points in the wall the whitewash is streaked with black, as though water had leaked in. Going over to these places in the wall it is quite evident that during the winter and damp season water has soaked through these crevices. Poking around with a penknife we are amazed at the ease with which the knife penetrates the mortar between the joints of the stones. Working at it a little harder with the knife soon shows that if the cellar were a prison it would not be very hard to scratch one’s way out through that wall. Suddenly, without warning, one of the stones in the wall drops out onto the floor, and we get a view of the construction within. For certain it is one of those stone walls built up with two faces, not bonded together, except by mortar which seems to be made up of mud and a small trace of lime, which lime has disintegrated with the constant dampness to which it has been subjected. A piece of the mortar we find can be crumbled easily in the hand. This is evidence of the employment of the cheapest kind of labor for the masonry work and the cutting down of expense in using poor materials. We only have to look closely to see that there is developing a long diagonal crack in the wall, and we can imagine that if the contractor built so poor a wall above the ground, the chances are that there is no footing beneath it. Near at hand a large bulge is noticeable, and when we hit it with a hammer the whole thing has a rotten sound, for the inside face is bulging inward from the load upon it and the uneven settling of the foundations.
Looking up now at the neatly whitewashed ceiling we cannot help but be suspicious of the plaster beneath the surface, so going over to that part of the ceiling above the smoke-pipe leading from the furnace to the chimney we jab our cane against it, and, as we expected, a big slab breaks off and crashes to the floor, revealing partly charred wooden lath beneath, which have been baking in the heat rising from the smoke-pipe, and which would eventually catch fire. Examining the plaster very closely we observe that in addition to being a very thin coat it has no hair in it to act as a reinforcement for the plaster key which held it to the lath base.
But being rather inquisitive about the construction hidden behind the plaster, and having broken some of it down, the removal of the few lath is worth the look behind them. And there we see the girder which supports the floor-joists resting upon the chimney instead of on a special pier or column. This saved the contractor the cost of the pier or the column, but the owner would probably lose his house some day by fire creeping through the joints of the brickwork of the chimney to the ends of this wooden girder, for it was quite evident that the mortar used in the chimney was not much better than that used in the wall, and it is well known that lime mortar disintegrates under the action of hot gases from burning wood.
Turning our attention now to other parts of the cellar, we notice that in the floor of the laundry a place had been broken into, and upon inquiry we find that this hole was dug by the plumber in repairing a stoppage of the system of drainage-pipes under the floor. It seems that the contractor had omitted placing any clean-outs in the pipes which he had laid under the cellar floor, and the owner’s wife, by accident, in pouring a pail of wash water down the water-closet in the cellar had allowed a rag to go down with it, which clogged up the system, so that the waste from the kitchen-sink began to back up into the laundry-tubs. As there was no way to get at the pipes, the plumber, in cleaning out the system, was obliged to break through the floor and cut out a hole in the pipe to run a wire through to the clean-out on the house-trap. The contractor who built the house had saved about fifteen dollars in omitting this clean-out, but the owner lost fifty dollars in plumbers’ bills before he repaired this defect.
Fresh Air Inlet
Under Window
Another defect was also found by the owner in the system of water-supply. There had been installed only one shut-off cock for the entire building, so that whenever a new washer had to be placed upon a faucet on any fixture the entire system had to be turned off. As most of the faucets throughout the house were of very cheap design, this had to be done very often, until one day the owner had turned the main shut-off cock once too often for its strength, and the handle broke off. He was obliged to call in the plumber to turn the water on again, as well as install a new shut-off cock.
Questioning the owner further, we learn that a disagreeable odor of sewage enters the dining-room windows during the summer months when all the sash are open, but as he admits he knows little about plumbing, he isn’t sure of its cause, but he thinks it comes from a pipe which opens directly beneath one of these windows. When we investigate we find that it is the fresh-air inlet of the plumbing system of the house. The contractor had saved money on piping by carrying this to the nearest outdoor point, which happened to be directly under the window of the dining-room, so that whenever any water-closet was flushed in the house a puff of foul air was blown out of this pipe in the most convenient place for it to enter the house if the windows were open. Instead of spending the extra money for piping to carry this fresh-air inlet well away from any windows, the contractor had put in the shortest length possible.