Hints to househunters and householders / by Ernest Turner.

  • Turner, Ernest.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hints to househunters and householders / by Ernest Turner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    acted by the simple expedient of protecting them. Every such wall should be topped with a projecting slab of stone laid, in the case of a flat wall, at a slight inturned slope. Similarly, the overflow from pipe or gutter must be treated by clearing out, mending, or renewing, as the case may be. The straight beating of the rain is in most cases a minor evil. Through the perpendicular face of a wall the soakage is but slow, most of the water running off as fast as it is poured on. A much exposed wall, however—as at the seaside —may be protected by a coat of cement, or, in extreme cases, by covering with slate. There are also sundry kinds of washes, but few of these are of any great practical value. None but hard bricks—bricks that ring when struck with a trowel—should ever be used for walls. All joints should be thoroughly filled with good mortar or cement. Much labour may be saved and the work greatly expedited by substituting just a little dab of mortar along the outer edge ; but the gain is entirely to the builder and his men. Hollow walls are admirable things in every way. They are constructed of two thicknesses of brick with from two to three inches between, and banded together by ties either of iron or glazed stoneware, or other impervious material. In a hollow wall the intermediate layer of air acts as a blanket, and keeps the temperature equable—warm in winter, cool in summer.