HEARTH AND HOME.

(By "Builder.")

"Builder" invites contributions from readers on any matters of interest which they might like to propose. Correspondence on various subjects pertaining to .building will also be accepted.

NOTES. Not xnucli now remains of the old Colosseum or the three shops in Armagh street which are being demolished to make way ior the new Itegont street. Within a few days it will be possible to commence the construction work.

Permits issued in the past few weeks by tho City Council for buildings in the inner area of the central ward have included the following:— Nash Motors, Ltd., service station in Gloucester street (Messrs Packer and Jones); Church Property Trustees, reinstatement of factory, 1)9 Tuam street (Mr G. G. Brooks); Calder Mackuy and Co., Worcester street, alterations (Mr It. J. Emerson). Since the Now Year tho Heathcote County Council has issued only one permit.

If a door rattles when there is a wind, euro it in this way. Cut a slice from a sound cork and fix to the door frame with a long tin tack. Place low down or high up where it will be unnoticed and colour to match woodwork. Tho cork having a certain amount of resiliency, is effective in stopping the rattle.

At the last meeting of the New Zealand Master Painters' Federation the Wellington Association advised having passed the following remit:— "That it be a recommendation to the New Zealand Federation of Master Painters that a prize be given to each centre for apprentices' exhibits at the annual conference at Auckland, February, 1931." The suggestion was fully considered, and while members agreed that it wns desirable to give some prizes for tho forthcoming initial exhibition, it was felt that no decision could yet be arrived at. Finally it was agreed to recommend the conference to award some prizes to deserving exhibits.

A recommendation by the Municipal Association of New Zealand that cheques lodged as deposits should be hela, and not banked, until tenders are dealt with was approved by the One Tree Hill Borough Council (Auckland) at its last meeting, r.ubject, however, to the reservation that wherever it is deemed advisable the deposit should be banked immediately. The secretary of tho Association paid that tenders were often held for some time before they were dealt with, and when deposit cheques had been banked and deposited to the firm's accounts, overdraft intm-st was incurred against the tenderer. With local bodies it was Tiot unusual for the consideration of tenders to be belated, and the local authorities would then bo holding thousands of the tenderers' monovs. With some contracts it was tho practice to hold cheques until the tenders were .dealt with. The cheque of the approved tenderer was then banked, and upon its being met, the other cheques accompanying the tender were returned, and advice was circulated of the decision in regard to the awarding of tho contract.

Writing in the "Illustrated Carpenter and Builder," Mr W. J?. Derby gives some useful hints on the colouring of brickwork: —The painting or distempering style of brick colouration is never a good job. It is too flat and looks too much like what it really is. To mako a good job of brick colouring one requires to use stains, and before they are effective to produce decent variegated colours it is usually necessary to get some soluble limo into the brick. Dissolve some lime into acetic acid or strong vinegar, and when no more will dissolve spray or wash the solution on the old brjeks. then when it has dried in follow with a solution of copperas in water, about one part to thirty of water In some hours, when it has all dried, it will be found that a red oxide of iron will have become fixed to the brick pore 3 and surface, while it will be patchy or variegated because of the extra porosity of some parts as compared with others. The effect producible by. this method is very munli better than by the use of ochres, oxides, and paint vehicles, and moreover, these are permanent stains. A range of yellows and reds can be had or made by the use of ferric chloride and ferric sulphate (or copperas) in various percentages of solution, and on surfaces that have been treated with varying strengths of the limo vinegar solution above mentioned-