The Construction of the Small House / A Simple and Useful Source of Information of the Methods of Building Small American Homes, for Anyone Planning to Build

by H. Vandervoort Walsh

The cheap varnishes which are the most abundant upon the market, and which are used for cheap furniture and houses, are made of rosin and not resin, or are resin varnishes adulterated with rosin. Most houses erected by speculative builders are finished with cheap rosin varnishes, but no architect should be guilty of specifying them, for he should know better than to attempt to save money by purchasing the poorer grades of varnishes, since the real cost of varnished work is in the labor rather than in the cost of the materials used. These cheap rosin varnishes cannot stand up under the sponge test, which is merely the application of a wet sponge to the surface overnight. The next morning the rosin varnish will be found to be white and dissolved down to the wood, and will never recover its appearance. Better grades of varnish may turn white under this sponge test, but upon drying return to their original color, but the finest grades of varnish will not be affected at all. The difference between these varnishes can also be observed by rubbing the thumb over the surface of such a fine varnish as is on a piano and noticing that no effect other than a higher polish is produced, while if the same rubbing is done on a cheap varnish, it will be crumbled off from the wood. Every one has seen the ugly surface cracks which develop with age in old doors or upon old church pews in musty churches of the dark ages of American architecture. In nearly all cases these cracks are due to cheap rosin varnishes.

Before varnishing or painting any interior woodwork, it is important to observe all the preliminary precautions, or else failure may result, even though the work is conscientiously performed in the latter stages. One of these early precautions is to paint the back of all trim for doors and windows with some good linseed-oil paint, and apply a first coat of filler to the outside surface, and all this as soon as it arrives on the job. This is to prevent the wood from absorbing the dampness which is prevalent in all new buildings, and as most trim has been kiln-dried beyond ordinary requirements for construction work, it is very thirsty for water, and will soak it up quickly from the atmosphere. This trim should not be permitted to stand in the building overnight without the priming coat. As the first coat of filler is linseed-oil, there is not much excuse for not doing this, for it can be applied very rapidly. Of course where the wood is to be stained with an oil stain, the application of the linseed-oil before the stain is applied will prevent the proper penetration of the stain into the wood, and, as the architect generally insists upon seeing samples of the staining work before it is applied, the above precautions of protecting the wood as soon as it comes are often thrown to the winds.

And in connection with this matter of stains, a word may not be amiss. Most manufacturers make among their many stains certain brilliant-red mahogany colors, bright Irish-green colors, and horrible yellows. These are made to meet certain gaudy tastes shown by the public, but of their use by architects no word could condemn them enough. And on a par with these stains is the varnishing with no stain at all of yellow pine trim, an architectural atrocity which is committed on every hand in small houses. The quiet browns, grays, grayish greens, and the like are the only safe ranges of color for staining interior trim, for, after all, the casing of doors and windows must blend in with the walls and serve as a background for the furniture and not screech at it. And directly in line with this statement should be emphasized the rule that highly polished surfaces in varnishes for trim are as much out of place as brilliant colors. Many architects prefer wax in place of the polish of varnish, and with good reason. The manufacturers of varnishes make certain grades which dry with a dull finish, and also show samples of beautiful dull finishes which can be secured by the laborious method of rubbing the final coat of varnish with powdered pumice-stone, water, and felt.

But before any varnishing can be done, and for that matter any painting, it is essential that the pores of the wood are filled, so that the surface to be varnished has no soft and absorbent places, but presents a hard and glossy body. Woods like oak, ash, and chestnut have such large pores that paste fillers are required to fill them in. These paste fillers consist of a solid part like pulverized quartz and a liquid part of a quick-drying varnish. It is rubbed over the surface of the wood and into the pores and permitted to set, when the excess is then wiped off with excelsior and, finally, felt. When the wood is stained with an oil stain, this filler may be colored to match.

Architects are often shown samples of the beautiful finishes which are possible with the use of this or that manufacturer’s stains and varnishes, and supplied with specifications by which they are told they can secure these finishes, but much to their sorrow the results are not like the samples, and probably never will be. All of these samples are made under ideal conditions by the most careful experts. Laboratory conditions and regularity and first-class skill can produce finishes on a small sample board which could not possibly be reproduced in a building except at enormous costs. In the first place, there is always more or less dust blowing around in a newly constructed building, and not the greatest care is taken in it to provide the exact control of humidity and temperature required for drying varnishes. And, as every one knows, the men who do the painting are generally far from being the most skilful artisans of their trade. It, too, is a big temptation to put on one or two heavy coats of varnish instead of three or four thin coats, and there is not an expert living who can tell how many coats of varnish are on a piece of wood after the work is done. Unless the architect has observed each step of the application, he cannot deny, when the painter shows him the finished woodwork, that there are not as many coats of varnish on it as he required in his specifications. Yet time will tell the tale, but then it is too late.

However, the treatment of floors and stair treads is the worry of many an architect, although he ought to remember that in factories sheet steel is laid on the floors at the doorways, and even this wears through. Why should he be disheartened if after a year the stair treads and the patches of floors near the door-sills are scratched down to the wood through coats of varnish one-thousandth of an inch thick? Even the best varnish will break down under this abrasion, but only the best should be used. Cheap floor varnishes are not worth the labor of laying, and yet how many spend money on them. Some architects, and with good reasons, prefer finishing the floors with wax instead of varnish. As a base for this wax, a thin coat of varnish is excellent. Various manufacturers have different formulas for floor waxes, and they are more or less complex, but generally turpentine is the softening and drying material. The wax paste is rubbed into the floor and polished with weighted brushes—a tedious job. However, it is a job which any servant or housewife of ordinary intelligence can perform, so that whenever the floors become worn around the doors or the stair treads become shabby, the housekeeper is able to repair them easily, and there is no doubt that a waxed floor is more beautiful than a varnished one. But remember the slipping and sliding rugs on a wax floor and be sure to fasten them down.

When examined critically, paint is not much more than a varnish with a finely ground opaque powder, called the pigment, suspended in it. This pigment takes away the transparent qualities of the varnish and gives a definite color to the surface. Enamels actually do use varnishes as their vehicle or base, but ordinary paint uses linseed-oil, which acts much like a varnish, in that it has the property of becoming hard and elastic under the oxidizing effect of the air.

The exteriors of most houses are painted with white-lead or zinc-white pigments mixed with linseed-oil. Zinc makes a harder paint than white-lead, but it is best to mix the two pigments together in the proportion of one-third of zinc to two-thirds of white-lead.

In extensive investigations the U. S. Bureau of Standards suggests that much saving of money in paint would be made if white paint were abandoned altogether in favor of dark-colored pigments for exterior use. Horrible suggestions, but these are the facts in the case! White and light-tint paints invariably fail on the south side of a house, before the paint on the other side shows signs of deterioration. This is because the light of the sun breaks down the strength of the linseed-oil, which is the body of the paint film. For this reason dark pigments, which are more opaque, cut off the light and protect the oil film more than the lighter-colored pigments.

Another common cause of failure in exterior painting is the application of it to the wood during unseasonable weather, when the surface of the wood is wet. Paint will only properly adhere to a wood surface when it is free of any moisture.