The south-east aspect is most suitable for the best rooms of a house, because it escapes some of the east wind, and part of the scorching heat and beating rain of the south. It is admirably adapted, therefore, for a drawing-room or day-room, is the most pleasant aspect for bedrooms, and is best suited for the nursery or for the rooms of an invalid. The south-west aspect is the least congenial of all, because it is so open to a sultry sun and blustering winds. This aspect should never be chosen for a dining-room; in summer it is unpleasantly hot for bedrooms; and it is not suitable for a porch or entrance, on account of the driving rains which prevail during a portion of the year. The south aspect is not very desirable for the windows of a dining-room, and is unpleasant for a morning-room, unless a verandah has been provided. The larder and dairy should never face the south. The west aspect is not quite agreeable for a dining-room, on account of the excessive heat prevailing in the summer afternoons; neither is it desirable for the drawing-room; and it should never preferably be chosen for bedrooms, although it is very agreeable for a smoking-room. One side of a conservatory should always face to the west. The north-west aspect is very good for a billiard-room, also for a dining-room, if the windows are fitted up with blinds to shade the sun.
Construction
Construction. Foundation.—Bearing in mind what Dr. Simpson has said as to the house acting as a suction pump, drawing up moisture and gases, often most noxious, from the soil on which it is built, it is clear that the foundation ought to be air-tight and water-tight; for besides the emanations due to the soil, we must remember that escape from the gas-pipes laid in the street is a very common occurrence, that sewers are apt to leak, and so the soil in the neighbourhood of houses may become saturated with filth. Fatal instances are known where coal gas and other foul vapours have been drawn, as it were, long distances and poisoned the air of a house or houses. The only way of guarding against this is to have the foundations, and some distance outside the foundations, laid in concrete. There should also be a space between the basement wall and the surrounding earth. No one, in Eassie’s opinion, would think of building a dwelling on a patch of ground without first removing the vegetable mould to some depth below the level of the floor; and however good the soil, it is very desirable to cover the site with a layer of concrete to keep out damp and bad exhalations. Rawlinson even advises a bed of charcoal below the concrete. Simpson insists that if a cottage floor has to be laid on the bare ground, there ought at least to be a bed of good concrete below the tiles. Cellars add to the dryness and healthiness of a house if the walls and floors are made impervious to air and water, and are properly ventilated. The walls of the house ought to have a damp-proof course to prevent the moisture rising in them. To show the importance of this, Simpson quotes a well-known fact, but one seldom thought of when we look at the brick walls of our houses. An ordinary well-baked brick, which is 9 in. long, 4½ in. broad, and 2½ in. deep, though apparently solid, is not really so. It contains innumerable minute spaces through which air may pass, and into which water may enter; and when it is soaked in the latter, and all the air is driven out, it will contain nearly 16 oz. (the old pint) of water. If one brick will retain in its pores so large a quantity, it is easy to see that a large wall may hold what most people would at first think an incredible amount. As Dr. de Chaumont says, “A cottage wall only 16 ft. long by 8 ft. high, and only one brick thick, might hold 46 gallons of water!”
Walls may be made damp not only by water rising in them, but by rain driving against them, and by water running down from the roof in consequence of the stoppage of a rain-water pipe. The latter cause is simple and easily remedied, but the former is far too frequent in cheaply-built houses. It may be prevented by having cavity walls, as they are called—that is, a double wall with a space between. There are several advantages from this. The air space, besides helping to keep the inner wall dry, is a good non-conductor, and so the house is all the warmer. There are other methods which may be used in addition to this, as cementing, plastering, or covering with slates or boards. There is some difference of opinion as to the advantage or disadvantage of the walls of a house being porous, as bricks are when dry; and Prof. de Chaumont seems to think that in our climate the porosity of the walls is not a point we need trouble ourselves about maintaining. Still, in Simpson’s opinion, with the ordinary arrangements of houses as regards supply of air and ventilation, some porosity of the walls is desirable. Without the freest and most perfect ventilation, walls absolutely impervious to air, and therefore to water in a gaseous form, will almost always be more or less damp on the inside.
2. Damp Course and Area Wall.
Another source of dampness in dwellings, as pointed out by Eassie, is to be found in the practice of building the house walls close against the earth, without taking the precaution to erect a blind area-wall between the house wall and the earth excavation. Fig. 2 exhibits both these important improvements—the damp-course and the area-wall—applied to the same dwelling: a represents the main wall of the house, and b the area-wall, which is built against the excavated subsoil, leaving the space c between the two walls; the thick black line underneath the floor-joist represents the damp-proof course, which interposes between the subsoil d, with the foundations built upon it, and the main wall of the house. This damp-proof course usually consists of a layer of pitch or asphalte, or slates bedded in cement, or specially glazed tiles, known as Taylor’s or Doulton’s manufactures. By the use of this impervious course, the upward passage of the ground water is effectually arrested. The intervening area c it is also well to drain, but this water should never drain into the soil drain, if avoidable, and certainly not until it has been thoroughly disconnected. There should always, also, be a current of air introduced from the outer air, by way of ventilators put at the top of the blind area c, and an air brick placed above or below the damp-proof course—preferably above—in order that the space between the ground and the joists or stone flooring of the basement may be thoroughly ventilated. This ventilation is shown by the arrows between e and e. Such air currents should always be provided under floors, whether there be a basement or not, and also always between the joists of the upper floors, and in the roof, in order to ward off dry-rot and ensure a constant circulation of air. (Eassie.)
Roof.—The first detail to be decided on is the “pitch” or slope to be given to the roof, and this will depend both on the nature of the covering material and the character of the climate. In the tropics, where rain falls in torrents, a flat pitch helps to counteract the rush of water; in colder regions the pitch must be such as to readily admit of snow sliding off as it accumulates, to prevent injury to the framework by the increased weight. The pitches ordinarily observed, stated in “height of roof in parts of the span,” are as follows:—Lead, 1/40; galvanized iron or zinc, ⅕; slates, ¼; stone, slate, and plain tiles, 2/7; pantiles, 2/9; thatch, felt, and wooden shingles, ⅓ to ½.
In country districts the roofs of cottages and outbuildings are frequently covered with thatch. This consists of layers of straw—wheaten lasts twice as long as oaten—about 15 in. in thickness, tied down to laths with withes of straw or with string. Thatch is an excellent non-conductor of heat, and consequently buildings thus roofed are both cooler in summer and warmer in winter than others, and no better roof covering for a dairy can be found. Thatch is, however, highly combustible, and as it harbours vermin and is soon damaged, it is not really an economical material, though the first cost is small. A load of straw will do 1½ “squares” of roofing, or 150 superficial feet. First class thatching is an art not readily acquired. While really good thatching will stand for 20 years, average work will not endure 10.
A convenient roofing material when wood is cheap and abundant consists of a kind of “wooden slates,” split pieces of wood measuring about 9 in. long, 5 in. wide, and 1 in. thick at one end but tapering to a sharp edge at the other. Shingles, or wooden slates, are made from hard wood, either of oak, larch, or cedar, or any material that will split easily. Their dimensions are usually 6 in. wide by 12 or 18 in. long, and about ¼ in. thick.