Part 1

Transcriber’s Notes:

Underscores “_” before and after a word or phrase indicate _italics_ in the original text. Equal signs “=” before and after a word or phrase indicate =bold= in the original text. Small capitals have been converted to SOLID capitals. Illustrations have been moved so they do not break up paragraphs. Typographical errors have been silently corrected. The advertisements between pages 48 and 49 in the original text have been moved to the end of the text.

=_A Request_=

Should you find this book helpful in building with concrete, we would consider it a favor to have you so inform us. Likewise, we would appreciate a description (and a photograph if possible) of whatever you have built in concrete.

In this way you will assist us in aiding others in the same way we hope we have helped you.

If you do not fully understand any part of this book, or if you desire further information, write us and we shall be glad to do anything else we can.

CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION _for the_ HOME _and the_ FARM

“CONCRETE FOR PERMANENCE”

1916

THE ATLAS PORTLAND CEMENT COMPANY 30 Broad Street, New York 134 So. LaSalle Street, Chicago Philadelphia Boston St. Louis Minneapolis Des Moines

INDEX

=Special Index to Directions=

PAGE Bank-run gravel, 13 Cleaning forms, 24 Definition of concrete, 9 Dry mixture, 13 Forms, 22-24 Gravel, 10, 13 Hand mixing, 17-21 Materials, 9, 10 Measuring boxes, 12 Measuring materials, 11-13 Medium mixture, 13 Mixing, 15-22 Natural mixture, 13-20 Placing, 25, 26 Portland cement, 9 Proportions, 11-13 Protection of concrete after placing, 26 Publications issued by the Association, 8 Quantities of materials, 21, 22 Reinforcement, 26, 27 Runs, 15 Sand as an aggregate, 9 Selecting lumber for forms, 23 Stone as an aggregate, 10 Tools, 15 Wet mixture, 13

=General Index= PAGE Acetylene gas house, 83-87 Alleyways, 41 Barns, 62 Barn approach, 60 Barn floors, 54-59 Barn foundations, 61, 62 Barnyard pavements, 47, 48 Base for machinery, 87-89 Bee cellars, 92, 93 Carriage house entrance, 39 Carriage washing floor, 42 Cellar steps and hatchway, 90, 91 Chimney, 50, 51 Chimney caps, 97 Cistern covers, 69 Cisterns, 68-70, 72-73 Coal house, 83-87 Cold-frame, 99, 100 Concrete in the country, 5-8 Corn crib floor, 53 Corner stones, 105 Cow barn floors, 55-58 Culverts, 108, 109 Cyclone cellar, 92-93 Dairy, 83-87 Dipping vats and tanks, 76-80 Dog kennel, 83-87 Drain tile outlet, 106 Drinking troughs and tanks, 74, 75 Driveway of concrete, 40, 41 Drop gutters, 54-59 Duck pond, 95 Engine base foundation, 87, 88 Engine house, 82-89 Entrance floor, 39 Farm buildings, 82-89 Feed cooker, 50, 51 Feeding floors, 43-45 Feeding troughs, racks and mangers, 49, 50 Fence posts, 104 Field rollers, 102 Field spring improvement, 70, 71 Floors, 39, 42, 45, 47, 48, 53-56, 58, 79, 82, 83, 87, 98 Foundation gutter, 35 Fruit cellars, 92, 93 Garbage receiver, 103 Gasoline engine base, 87, 88 Gate posts, 104, 105 Granary floors, 53 Gutters, 35 Hatchway for cellar steps, 90, 91 Hay cap weights, 103 Hen house, 94 Hens’ nests, 94 Hitching post, 104 Hog wallows, 52 Horse barn floors, 58, 59 Hot-bed, 99, 100 Housing for driven well, 67, 68 Hydraulic ram house, 89 Ice house, 83-87 Lawn roller, 102 Mangers, 49, 50, 57, 59 Manure pits and cisterns, 45 Milk house, 83-87 Milk vat, 81, 82 Nests for hens, 94 Old buildings and their repair, 36-38 Porch floor, 98, 99 Posts for fences and gates, 104 Posts, hitching, 104 Poultry house, 94 Ram house, 89 Repairs to farm buildings, 36-38 Retaining wall and steps, 96, 97 Roadways, 40, 41 Root cellar, 92, 93 Rollers, 102 Sanitary water supply, 67-75 Septic tanks, 110, 111 Sidewalks, 28-34 Silos, 65, 66 Small farm buildings, 82-89 Smoke house, 83-87 Snow fences, 63, 64 Spraying tanks, 107 Spring improvements, 70, 71 Steps, 90, 91, 96, 97 Stones, corner, 105 Survey monuments, 105 Swimming pool, 112 Tanks, 74, 75 Tarpaulin weights, 103 Tool house, 83-87 Trash burner, 103 Tree repair, 101 Troughs, 74, 75 Vegetable cellar, 92, 93 Walks, 28-34 Walk specifications, 29 Watering troughs, 74, 75 Weights for hay caps and tarpaulins, 103 Well cover, 69 Well protection, 67-70 Wind walls, 63, 64 Window hatch, 112 Wiring forms, 23

Concrete in the Country

=How the American Farmer is Solving His Conservation Problem=

Conservation is no new problem—it is as old as life itself. It becomes a highly important question to the person or the nation only when the resources scarcely supply the demands. Such is the situation in the United States to-day. In the early days the removal of the forests was necessary that much grain might be grown. The young Nation had to have money, and as farming was the only means at hand to furnish it, the natural fertility of the fields was reduced. But the money thus supplied was merely a long-time loan on the Bank of Natural Resources. To-day the vanishing forests and the failing fertility of the fields bear witness that the loan is now due. Hence the problem of conservation. Strange as it may seem, the farmer is using one material not only to replace lumber but also, in a way, to restore the fertility of his fields—that material is concrete.

The national and state governments and the railroads were the first to make extensive use of concrete. Not only did the beauty and mystery of this new construction naturally appeal to the farmer, but he concluded that the railroads did not use it, in preference to wood, steel and stone, merely to decorate the landscape. He knew too much about railroads. So strongly did the railroads’ idea of economy (the dollar argument) appeal to him that the farmer of the West is now building practically everything about the farm of concrete. At first, and quite naturally, land-owners in the rock and gravel regions began using this new form of construction; but, since its cheapness in first cost and value in lasting qualities have become generally known, a wave of enthusiasm for farm structures of concrete has swept the entire country. A gravel pit is now more valuable than many a gold mine.

With little help other than looking and listening, the farmer grasped the idea of a concrete walk, and being a natural inventor and jack-of-all-trades, improved on the method by adding a small curb next to his flower bed to keep the dirt from washing on the white walk. This walk was a blessing to the boy—all the time formerly given to scrubbing and weeding the old brick walk could now be devoted to fishing. The yard walk was extended to the barns and outlying buildings. Wading through seas of mud and resulting tracked-up kitchen floors became a thing of the past. By simply increasing the width of the walk, a cellar floor was provided and the farmer had a dry cellar. This was so clean and so odorless that he considered such a floor fit for that most immaculate of all places—the milk house. Concrete cellar hatchway and steps, safe under the heaviest barrel of vinegar, and water-tight, were made in a manner similar to walks.

Brick work had long been laid up in a mixture of Portland cement and sand. As this kept the water out, the farmer reasoned that it would keep the water in, and he started to build cistern floors, walls and cover of Portland cement concrete at one-third to one-half the cost of the old brick cistern.

After a little more observation, he quit digging deep cistern-pits, with the necessary annoyance of thawing out frozen pumps and carrying water—he built a concrete cistern on top of the ground and made the pumping and carrying of the water a mere matter of turning a faucet in the kitchen and the bath room.

Several years ago corn was so cheap that in some sections it was burned for fuel instead of coal. No consideration was then given to the bushels wasted in muddy feed lots. If the mud became too deep, the feeding was transferred to the blue grass pasture. To be sure, as the sod wore out, the feeding-place had to be changed; but somebody had advanced the idea that this particular method of feeding was good for the soil. Many farmers had tried wooden feeding floors and had found them a paying proposition as far as the saving of feed was concerned, in the general health of the animal, and in the shortened time of fattening. But two great drawbacks were the rats that infested them and the constant need of repairs. In concrete the thoughtful farmer saw the possibilities of an ideal floor—an easily cleaned, rat-proof, disease-proof surface upon which his hogs, sheep, cattle and poultry might consume the feed even to the smallest particle.

So satisfactory did the feeding floor prove that the same treatment suggested itself as a remedy for the fly-breeding, muddy holes in the earthen floors and the rat-infested wooden floors of the barns. But the careful horseman held up a bit: he was afraid that stamping at the flies, his valuable Percherons, Shires and Morgans might stiffen up their legs. He experimented by placing concrete floors in his open sheds, which were usually too muddy for the stock to lie down in stormy weather, just when the straw stacks afforded no protection and when he needed the sheds most, and found such floors satisfactory.

To-day the manure question is one of the most important considerations of the time. The virgin soil of the prairies, of the cleared woodlands and of the broken-up ranges, for a few years produced immense crops of cotton and grain. To build up the decreasing productiveness of the fields the farmer soon learned that barnyard manure was the best thing at hand. The passing of the cattle ranch and the resulting higher price of meats made stock raising very profitable even to the small farmer, especially since feeding floors made it possible for him to return to the soil, in the form of manure, all the fertility which had been removed in the growing of grain. Leaving out the matter of foods, the strength of manure is dependent directly upon its manner of storage. Manure piled on the bare ground or in wooden pens loses one-third to one-half of its fertilizing properties on account of leaching, due to heavy rains and tramping of the stock, and later because of fermentation or “firing” brought about by the lack of sufficient moisture. This fertilizer usually sells at from 75 cents to $1.00 per load.

The farmer of to-day builds a water-tight concrete cistern or pit in which he stores the manure and keeps it as moist as need be. He extended the concrete floors to the dairy barns with the result that they were so clean, so odorless and so sanitary that state inspection is now often insisting and will soon force careless dairymen to put in such floors as a means of protecting the public health from disease germs carried in unclean milk. The drop gutters carry all the liquids, the richest part of the manure, formerly wasted, to the manure pits. Consequently, one load of manure, thus properly preserved, is easily worth two loads as ordinarily stored. By confining the manure in pits and by paving the barn lot with concrete, the farm has been rid of the chief breeding-place of flies, gnats, mosquitos and disease. Moreover, such an interior court, surrounded by buildings and concrete wind walls, forms an excellent feed and winter exercise lot.

Government statistics show that the human death-rate on the farm, in spite of the fresh food and pure air, is greater than the death-rate in the city. State University tests of drinking-water have shown beyond a doubt that the waters of many ordinary shallow and unprotected wells contain the germs of such dangerous diseases as typhoid fever. To prevent the polluted surface waters from seeping into the well, many people are covering their wells and walling them up with water-tight concrete. Others are sinking “driven” wells and protecting them with concrete housings. The principle of deep wells for pure water, among other things, has made gasoline engines a necessity on the farm. These engines and hydraulic rams at springs, firmly set and housed in concrete, supply an abundance of water for the concrete reservoirs or elevated, reinforced pressure tanks. From these places of storage water is distributed to float-controlled, rot-proof watering tanks and troughs of the same material. With such a water supply animals never suffer for water. Even springs and mouths of drain tile are improved and the water made clean and wholesome by the use of concrete.

Thus the conservative farmer of the present time gives careful attention to the health, comfort and convenience of his family. Moreover, the care of the animals is not neglected. A concrete dipping vat holds the liquids which free horses, cattle, sheep and hogs of mange, lice, mites, ticks and fleas. The Department of Agriculture is stamping out the Texas fever and sheep scab by insisting on the use of dipping tanks throughout all quarantined districts. A hog wallow with concrete sides and bottoms gives the hog the pleasure afforded by running streams and at the same time protects him from the cholera often carried down from animals affected further up stream.

The continual rotting off of wooden fence posts, the constantly increasing cost of new ones, and the annual expense of fence repairs, called for the introduction of some substitute. Land is entirely too valuable and life too short to attempt growing wooden posts. Even before the telephone and telegraph companies had thought of the possibilities of concrete in this line, a few venturesome farmers had given reinforced concrete posts a trial and found their use not only advisable from the standpoint of cheapness in first cost, but more profitable on account of their everlasting qualities. The Department of Agriculture at Washington has thoroughly investigated the use and methods of making concrete posts and is furnishing a free bulletin describing the process. Such posts are also valuable in the culture of grapes and hops.[1]

[1] Farmers’ Bulletin 403, Concrete Fence Posts. Sent free on application.

The use of concrete in farm buildings has gradually developed from the ground upward. The drip soon rots out timber near the ground and eventually crumbles away the brick foundation. At first, uselessly making the walls as heavy as those of brick, the farmer gave concrete a trial in foundations. Concrete is stronger than brick. As a wall it kept the basement and back barn dry. The height of the foundation wall increased until it supported the joists of the hay loft. Finally, after a study of methods, of reinforcing, the entire barn—basement, walls, floors, mangers, troughs, gutters, beams and even the shingles—became concrete. Matches or lanterns accidentally dropped on concrete floors in concrete barns do not cause the terror of former times. The oil will burn until smothered out with a horse blanket, but no further damage will be done.

Poultry raising on many farms has become well-nigh impossible on account of rats. To free the farm of these destructive animals, as a last resort and in spite of the assertions that the grain would spoil, the thoroughly provoked farmer put concrete floors under his cribs and granaries. Corn matured enough not to spoil on other floors kept perfectly on concrete. The rats had to go; they could not get through such floors. And so we might continue, describing how farmers have successfully used concrete in building every class of structure from a stepping stone to the entire group of farm buildings.

Just as there are right and wrong methods of farming, so, too, are there right and wrong ways of using concrete. It is the aim of this book to give such directions and information as will enable the reader to build with concrete surely and successfully.

“CONCRETE IN THE COUNTRY” does not pretend to fully cover the subject—the field is too large to be exhausted in one such volume. But the publishers have attempted to deal with as wide a variety of types of concrete construction as is possible in the space available.

Fuller details are given in other pamphlets, which will be furnished free to anyone who will write to the address given on the first page of this book.

=Publications issued by the Association of American Portland Cement Manufacturers, Philadelphia, Pa.=

At the office of the above Association there are available books dealing with concrete construction of all classes. These books describe the construction of silos, fence posts, tanks, troughs, concrete roads, and many other works. Upon request there will be sent a list of the publications in print. The books, with one or two exceptions, are sent free of cost.

What is “Concrete”?

Concrete—a manufactured stone—is made by mixing together Portland cement, sand and stone (or gravel). Various proportions of each are used, depending upon the use to which the concrete is put. About half an hour after mixing these materials together, the mass begins to stiffen, until, in from half-a-day to a day, it becomes so hard that you cannot dent it with the hand. By a month the mass is hard like stone—indeed, harder than most stones.

Materials

Before attempting to describe the actual process of mixing and placing concrete, it will be well for us to have a pretty clear understanding as to the nature of the materials with which we are to work, and how best these may be selected.

Portland Cement

For domestic use, Portland Cement is furnished in cloth sacks and paper bags. When furnished in cloth sacks, the price per barrel includes the cost of the sacks (four sacks making a barrel). When the sacks are returned in good condition, the amount charged is rebated to the customer. Where cement is furnished in paper bags, the price also includes the cost of the paper bags which, however, are not returnable.

Many cement users prefer their cement furnished in paper bags, as it does away with the bother of keeping account of the cloth sacks and sending them bade to the dealer for credit.

The paper bag or cloth sack of cement weighs 94 pounds, and four such make a barrel of 376 pounds.

The storage of cement is very important. It must be kept in a dry place. Once wet, it becomes hard and lumpy, and in such condition is useless. If, however, the lumps are caused by pressure in the store house, the cement may be used with safety. Lumps thus formed can be easily broken by a blow from the back of a shovel.

In storing cement, throw wooden blocks on the floor. Place boards over them and pile the cement on the boards, covering the pile with a canvas or a piece of roofing paper. Never, under any circumstances, keep cement on the bare ground, or pile it directly against the outside walls of buildings.

Sand

Do not use very fine sand. If there is a large quantity of fine sand handy, obtain a coarse sand and mix the two sands together in equal parts; this mixture is as good as coarse sand alone.

Sometimes fine sand _must_ be used, because no other can be obtained; but in such an event an additional amount of cement must be used—sometimes as much as double the amount ordinarily required. For example, in such a case, instead of using a concrete 1 part cement, 2 parts sand, and 4 parts stone, use a concrete 1 part cement, I part sand, and 2 parts stone.

Besides being coarse, the sand should be clean, _i. e._, free from vegetable matter. “But,” you say, “how shall I tell whether the sand is what you call clean?”