Type I Wooden Frame
All small houses may be classified into four types, according to their construction. The first type is the commonest and is the wooden frame structure. This has exterior walls and interior partitions built of light wooden studs, and the floors and ceilings framed with wooden joists. The exterior walls may be covered with clapboard, shingles, stucco, brick veneer, or stone veneer. The roof is generally covered with wooden shingles, although slate, tile, asbestos, and asphalt shingles are often used. These houses are the most numerous, because the cost of wood in the past has been so much less than other materials that they appealed to the average builder’s financial sense. However, the cost of such dwellings to the country as a whole has been very high, for they are extremely dangerous when attacked by fire. More than twenty-two millions of dollars are wasted by fire each year in these houses. They also cost us a great deal in up-keep. It would be interesting to see what was the total cost per year to repaint them and keep the roofs in order. It certainly would run into the millions. Although wood increased from about $30.00 per thousand board feet to about $85.00 in the Eastern markets from pre-war days, and is now dropping below $55.00, yet the wooden house is still listed as the cheapest, for the cost of other materials has also increased, as brick from $10.00 per thousand to $23.00 until very recently, and cement from $2.00 to $3.25 per barrel. In any comparison of cost the wooden frame building is taken as the base or cheapest type of construction, although it is the most expensive in up-keep and fire-hazard of all. Until the price of wood increases in excessive proportion to other materials, there is no doubt that this type of house will be the commonest. However, there is much that can be done to make them more fire-resisting, and, although we cannot look to the speculative builders to use such methods, since they increase the costs slightly, yet the architect should not overlook them.
TYPE II
Type II Masonry and Wood
The second type of dwelling which is next in vogue has exterior walls of stone, brick, concrete, or terra-cotta, and interior floors, partitions, and roof of wooden frame construction. These are very slightly more fireproof than the wooden frame structure, and as a class they are more costly in the beginning, but require less expense in up-keep. They resist attack from external fires better than the wooden frame building, but if the fire starts within, they will burn just as readily. Although the fire loss per year of this class is not nearly as great as for the first type, yet it must be appreciated that there are not so many of them. The chief advantage of the masonry house of this second type lies in the lowered cost of up-keep, longer life, and saving of heating-fuel in the winter. A great deal of literature has been circulated by brick, cement, and hollow terra-cotta tile manufacturers by which the public has been educated to believe that this type of structure is much more fire-resisting than it is. Of course this campaign of education was intended to stimulate interest in their product, and it had no unselfish motive back of it. The result of this propaganda is evident in the public belief that such houses are fireproof houses, while as a matter of fact they are not.
Type II · Masonry walls · Interior·Wood