Part 11
Tin, approximately in thickness 30-gauge, U. S. Standard, is called IC, and recommended for the roof proper, while valleys and gutters should be lined with IX tin, approximately 27-gauge. It should be painted on both sides, before laying, with pure linseed-oil and red lead, or red oxide, Venetian red, or metallic brown. Two coats should be given to the exposed side and a third coat about a year later. Before the second coat is applied the first should have dried for at least two weeks.
The construction of the standing seam roof is shown in the drawings to consist of long strips of tin, made of standard sheets fastened together with the flat and soldered seam, but the edges of the strips fastened to the next strip with the so-called standing seam, which must run parallel to the pitch of the roof. Cleats, spaced a foot apart, are used to fasten the tin to the sheathing-boards. One edge of the next strip is turned up 1½ inches, and then over the top of the edge of the other strip. The cleat is locked in between the two. The upstanding seam is then turned down again upon itself, tightly locking the strips together.
_Copper and Zinc Roofs_
For a while, during the high prices created by the war, the thought of building a copper roof or a zinc roof on the small house would have been received with a doubtful shake of the head. This is no longer the case, however, for the prices of these materials have come down to within reason, and there is no doubt as to their durability. No one has questioned the weathering qualities of copper or zinc. The copper roofs which have shown such practical durability on large buildings have usually been laid about the same as that described for standing seam tin roofs. Cold-rolled or soft copper sheets, usually 20 inches wide, are used for this roof covering, weighing not less than 16 ounces to the square foot.
This type of roof is rather expensive for the small house, even with the reduced cost of copper, and for this reason a lighter grade has been made, and offered for use in the form of pressed-metal shingles of very flat design. These copper shingles have been treated so that other colors than the copper shades can be secured.
The zinc manufacturers have also placed on the market zinc shingles of special interlocking flat design for use on small houses.
It has always been a debated question as to whether pressed-metal shingles were architecturally permissible. Certainly there are some forms which imitate the clay tile shingle that are decidedly inartistic, but the more natural flat patterns are less subject to this criticism.
XV PAINTING AND VARNISHING THE HOUSE
Actually the process of varnishing or painting the woodwork and metalwork on the house is the spreading of a thin protective coat, one thousandth part of an inch thick or less, over the surface, in order to protect it from the wear and tear of use and weather and decay. And a marvel it is that any material could be found which spread in so thin a film could withstand the chemical action of the sun’s rays, the expansion and contraction of the surface over which it is laid, the abrasive action of blown sand, hail, and rain, the natural wear of walking feet and rubbing clothes and bumping furniture, and a dozen other accidents which conspire to mar the surface of woodwork in the home.
Is it a wonder that for this protective coat of varnish all experts demand that the best materials be used? But out of ignorance it is not always so, for the lower cost of varnish and paint is more evident than the quality of the substance of which they are made.
The varnishes which are most used in good houses are made of resins, melted in a kettle and mixed with linseed-oil, and thinned with turpentine as they cool. They have the peculiar property, when spread with a brush over a surface, of hardening by a chemical change brought about by absorbing oxygen from the air, and making a strong, transparent, protective coat over the substance upon which they have been applied. The kind of resins[A] have much to do with the quality of the varnish, since the linseed-oil and turpentine are apt to be about the same grade in all varnishes. Dark or light varnishes can be made; hard or soft and elastic surfaces can be produced; varnishes capable of resisting the wettest kind of weather and those which turn white under the least dampness are manufactured for various purposes, and practically in all cases those varnishes which are the best are the highest in cost.
[A] Varnish resins or gums are imported from countries that the average man knows little about. The island of Zanzibar furnishes one of the costliest and finest of gums. It is called Zanzibar copal and is the gum of a fossil tree. New Zealand furnishes the most widely used gum, kauri. It is dug out of the ground by the natives. The west coast of Africa furnishes the gum known as Sierra Leone copal, which is used much in automobile work.
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.
Another one of the causes of failure of lead and zinc paints for exterior work suggested by some authorities is the use of volatile thinners like turpentine and benzine. They say that such thinners should not be permitted on the job, for they are a temptation to the painter. If raw linseed-oil is used, and it is necessary to shorten the time required for drying, some good drier should be added, say 5 per cent. This drier should be pale in color and free from rosin. Driers are usually made of oil combined with a good proportion of lead and a little of manganese.
White pine, Douglas fir, yellow pine, cypress, or any of these woods, usually contain some knots, which are sure to damage exterior white paint unless properly treated. These knots have a certain amount of pitch in them, which will penetrate through any oil paint and leave an ugly mark. They should be covered with shellac, which is not affected by the pitch. Shellac is a spirit varnish made from shellac resins dissolved in alcohol. The yellow shellac is the strongest, but the white is used where a light-colored paint is to be applied on top of it. The pitch which is so bad in knots is often distributed throughout the wood, as in Southern yellow pine, and this will often cause the paint to peel off. To prevent this to a certain extent, some specifications advise using benzol in the priming coat, in order to make the paint penetrate more deeply into the wood and get a better grip on the surface.
The priming coat of any painting job should either be pure linseed-oil or linseed-oil with very little pigment in it. Its purpose is to fill the pores of the wood before the other coats are applied, for if an ordinary thick coat of paint were applied to raw wood, the surface would draw so much oil out of the film of paint that most of the pigment would be left dry and unfastened upon the outside.
Only after the wood has been given the priming coat is it then time to putty up the nail holes and other defects, and not before, because the dry wood, as in the case of paint, will suck out the oil from the putty and leave it without anything to bind it together. The best putty for this work is made of linseed-oil with enough white-lead in it to make a thick paste. The putty which is commonly used, however, is made of whiting or ground chalk mixed with linseed-oil. This is durable if real linseed-oil is used, but often some inferior adulterant is substituted.
After the holes are all puttied, the other coats of paint may be added. At least two good coats should be applied, and three coats give superior results. Plenty of time should be allowed between coats to permit thorough drying of the previous one.
XVI LABOR-SAVING DEVICES FOR THE HOME
_The Demand_
The need for labor-saving devices to help in housekeeping is more evident in the small house than in the larger house, although the cost of such machinery often prevents its installation in the former, whereas in the latter it is more to be found, since the person who builds a large house is apt to have more funds to draw upon. Yet labor-saving devices really belong to the small house, for the large house is still run by the servant, but the small one is kept by the lady of the house. She rightly objects to working in the old-style kitchen, which was very large and ugly, and the useless up-keep of many rooms that are really not needed is not to her liking, so that in practice the small house is in a way a labor-saving device in itself, since it reduces the amount of house to be kept, and makes the kitchen small and attractive. Then, frankly, labor-saving machinery is more becoming to this house, which is in itself designed to save labor, and money wisely spent upon such devices is by no means out of proportion to the cost of construction, even if in direct comparison it shows a larger percentage ratio to the building cost in the small house than in the large house.
The fundamental needs which demand mechanical power in place of brawn can be classified into the following:
(_a_) Machines for cleaning. (_b_) Machines for preparation of food. (_c_) Machines for moving objects about the house. (_d_) Machines designed to watch over various household cares. (_e_) Machines to simplify and make pleasant the toilet.
But before such machines could be developed to a point of usefulness, some source of power had to be found which could be used by the average family. This to-day is electricity. If the house cannot tap in on some public generating plant, then it is not at all too costly a proposition to install a private generating plant run by a gasolene-engine. The rapid spread of public-service wires throughout the country and the increasing demand for private generating plants is evidence that, where money permits, the people are ready to take advantage of the power of electricity to reduce the labor of keeping house. This electric energy which is being more widely distributed has called forth invention after invention of labor-saving machinery. It would not be hard to compile a list of some five hundred or more such machines, good, bad, and indifferent. Pick up any magazine and glance through the advertisements, and a fairly comprehensive list of housekeeping machines can be made, or look through some one of the popular scientific magazines and page after page will be found devoted to new inventions along this line. For example, in the latter, this is a small list made from a page of one of these magazines: A combined electric toaster and heater, a special brush on a long wire handle for cleaning the drain-pipe of the refrigerator, an electric clothes-wringer which has rollers soft enough not to break the buttons, a combined crib and wardrobe, the latter being under the mattress, a dust-pan which is held in position by the foot, a counterbalanced electric light that can be hung over the back of a chair and an electric water-heater to fasten to the faucet.
_Machines for Cleaning_
Under this classification ought to be included machines which reduce the need of cleaning, for they accomplish the same results, but in a negative way.
One of the dirtiest and meanest jobs about the house is the sifting and shovelling of ashes from the furnace. The light ashes are bound to be tracked through the house on the feet, or float in the rising warm air to the rooms above, while the sifting process is going on. The continued need of removing ashes and putting more coal in the furnace to make more ashes often disgusts the housekeeper so much that the apartment-house looks very attractive, for here this dirty work is done by the janitor.
Now the modern oil-burner, suitable to heat the furnace of a small house, represents a real labor-saving device, because it eliminates this problem of the ashes, but it requires electric power to make it practical, since a mechanical movement is necessary to properly atomize the oil for burning. Looking impartially at the latest inventions along this line that are now on the market, one cannot help but admit that they are highly desirable from the labor-saving point of view, if not always from an economical one. The easy control of the fire of one of these oil-burners is admirable. In mild weather the flame can be turned down quite low, burning perhaps only twelve gallons of oil in twenty-four hours, but if the weather suddenly becomes cold the flame is easily advanced to meet the conditions. No extra shovelling of coal is required in cold weather, and the worry of banking the fire in the evening is eliminated.
But one must not forget the various improvements which have been made in coal-burning furnaces to eliminate the ash-and-coal-shovelling labor as much as possible. There is the self-feeding boiler, which has a large magazine of coal which can be filled once a day and which automatically supplies the fire with fuel as it burns up. Then, too, there is the large ash-pit in which the ashes may accumulate for some time before removal is necessary, or the revolving ash-collector sunk into the floor below the furnace into which the ashes may be dropped and taken out in cans.
For cleaning purposes, one must recognize the enormous grip that the vacuum cleaner has had on the popular mind, and nearly every housekeeper would own one if money permitted it. Perhaps the installation of pipes throughout the house for a central cleaning-machine in the cellar is a little too expensive for the small home, but certainly electric base plugs should be located in the rooms to which the portable type of cleaner can be attached. Such outlets should be placed in central positions in order to permit the moving of the machine to all parts of the various rooms.
The laundry should be equipped with electric outlets to which an electric washer can be plugged. These machines usually require about 300 watts. Electric irons require about 600 watts. If laundry labor-saving devices are to be bought as a complete equipment, a small fortune can be spent upon them, for there are electric wringers, electrically driven mangles for ironing flat work, a special ironing-board with electric iron attachment, and electrically heated clothes-driers. A plan of a well-equipped laundry is shown in the cut.