Convenient Houses, With Fifty Plans for the Housekeeper

by Louis H. Gibson

CHAPTER XXIX.

STONE MASONRY.—CUT STONE.—TERRA COTTA.—PRIVY VAULTS.—CISTERNS.—FILTERS FOR CISTERNS.—BRICK PAVEMENTS.—CEMENT PAVEMENTS.

Stone foundations for dwelling-houses are usually made of native stone, and anything that may be said here must necessarily conform to general rather than special conditions. The best stone that can be used for this purpose is hard, non-absorbent limestone. There are many varieties of stone conglomerates throughout the country which are valuable for foundation uses. Stone should be laid up in lime mortar in the direction of its natural bed in the quarry, with a sufficiency of bond stone. For ordinary dwelling-house work there should be at least one footing eight inches in depth, and six inches projection on each side of the wall. Stone walls for foundations are usually made not less than eighteen inches in thickness. It is not easy to lay a good stone wall less than eighteen inches in thickness. While the same number of cubic feet of stone work may cost less than brick work, a stone foundation ordinarily would cost more than one of brick for the reason that a brick wall does not have to be so thick. It usually takes about half the number of cubic feet of brick work that it does of stone work to answer the same purpose. Where stone is available at low cost it is best to use it. Interior brick walls may rest on stone footings. The inside of stone walls should be neatly pointed after other work has been finished. Stone work above grade may be finished in many ways—random range work, rubble work, regular course range work, etc. After the other work has been finished, the mortar should be raked out a short distance and a finish joint added.

CUT STONE.

Cut-stone work is too large a subject to consider in detail. There are several points which cannot be overlooked. There should be drips cut under all projections, so that the water will not run down the other stone or brick work and stain it. A drip is merely a little V-shaped channel cut on the under side of the stone work. They are found on the under side of most window-sills. In door, window, or other openings, the stone work should underlie or overlie all wood work at least two inches. This may be explained by stating that the stone window-sill should underlie the wood sill two inches, and the window cap should overlie the wood cap at least two inches. Generally speaking, coping should project on each side of the wall about two inches. Sills should extend at least one inch beyond the face of the wall. Window-sills should be no less than five inches in thickness. Door-sills should generally be about seven or eight inches, and extend at least one inch beyond the face of the wall, and through its full thickness. The water table of the stone foundation usually forms the window cap of the cellar windows, and the cap course, which comes at the grade line, the cellar window-sills. In this case it is necessary that the stone should run farther into the wall where the openings occur.

Stone steps are not over six and one-half to seven and one-half inches in thickness, with from nine to twelve inch treads. They underlie and lap about one inch, and have walls, the same material as the foundation, for lower supports. These walls should go to the full depth of the house walls with which they come in contact. Thus there is no danger of settling. Stone steps are frequently used in the front of the yard from the side-walk to the grade level where there is considerable elevation. In such cases it is necessary to use stone side pieces for the steps, to prevent caving and to make a neat finish. Where flagging is cheap, it is well to use it for walks and porch floors.

TERRA-COTTA WORK.

Terra cotta is the perfection of brick-making. It is the only building material which is not affected by changes of temperature, or other natural or artificial conditions to which the building may be subject. It may be described as being a very plastic material; that is, anything can be done with it. It can be worked into any form that is desired, excepting long lintels, and even in that case there are means of arriving at the desired result and giving a lintel form in a very proper manner. Ornamental terra cotta is modelled by artists before being burned, and the best results may naturally be expected.

PRIVY VAULT.

The size of the privy vault is usually three and one-half by four and one-half feet, elliptical, and from ten to twenty feet deep, according to the character of the soil. Usually it is walled up with four-inch dry brick wall. Piers should be provided at corners for privy building. In some instances it is required that the privy vault should be made water-tight. In that case it should be built the same as a cistern, with round bottom and cemented interior surface. When it is desired to connect the privy vault with the sewer, it should be cemented in the manner just described, with a siphon vitrified pipe connection with the drain to the sewer. The siphon prevents solid rubbish, which may be thrown into the vault, from getting into the drain and clogging it.