HEARTH AND HOME

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18549, 26 November 1925, Page 4

HEARTH AND HOME

(By Builder.) "Builder" invites contributions from readers on any matter of interest which they might like to propose. Correspondence on subjects of interest frill also be accepted. NOTES. The preliminary work in connexion with tho Children's Fresh Air Homo School at Cashmere is now being done, ind the material for tlio structure is on order. According to Mr AY. IT. "Winsor, who has recently returned from a visit to* Australia, tho mast and sc-huto method of pouring concrete has almost disappeared in Sydney, and a return, made to the direct hoist by crane method. Concrete lifting towers, said Mr Winsor, wero still m evidence, but were used mainly for tho handling of small jobs on the large contracts. Fro mi tho window in his hotel he had seen n big concrete and steel building which had reached a heigiit of fourteen .storeys. There were .seven cranes there as "we!! as two concrete towers, but no cement sohutes. Another contract, a few blocks away, had four cranes but no schutes nor towers. All wooden shuttering appeared to- bo used, this mostly consisting of Oregon and Richmond River pine. The opinion was also expressed by Mr Winsor that, while nSydnoy was far uhead of Christchurch. in large commercial structures and big buildings generally, it was as far behind in domestic architecture, especially the smaller type of dwelling. Even the most casual observer in liuuediji cannot help being struck at the present time (says tho "Otagoi Daily Times'") with the unprecedented amount of building construction and alteration .work that is being carried out in the city and suburbs. For months Dunodin li.i s been tho Mecca of carpenters, and all tradesmen whose calling is associated with tho building trade, and the result is amply apparent in the sound of busy hammers and saws th.it greets tho passer-by in any street. Although the big Exhibition has naturally attracted tho majority of the workmen, its presence is accompanied by a general building boom, a noticeable foafr.ro of whidi is the number of Additions which are being mado to houses in nil parts, of Bnuedin. During the month-of October permits were issued by the! City Council authorities for constructional work to the value of i' 50,808. This sum docs not includb any single amount of more than £3OOO, outside of Exhibition building work, and is mostly luado up -by a host of dwelling additions a,n<l alterations. A comparison is afforded by a glimpse of the fighres for October, 192-1, which total £3G,7BG. A version of tho origin of tho Perpendicular style of Gothic that is new to us is given in the current number of "Kahncrete Engineering," says a London paper. The monks of Gloucester decorated tho plain Norman walls of the south transept of their church with a, beautiful slender tracery placed flat upon the bare stone, tho design naturally falling info perpendicular lines. The .effect was so beautiful that when they pulled down and' rebuilt tho east end they adopted' for the solid .stonework tho design of this' surface tracery; and it is thus we got tho wonderful cast window of Gloucester, and a new stylo which spread like wildfire all over England from A.D. 1400 to 1450. This theory, for which tho Dean of Gloucester appear? to be' responsible, is more interesting . than., convincing. Tho natural requirements of a construction aiming at tho largest possible window spaces, combined with an unexampled mastery of mason-craft, would more easily account for the development of the decorated into the perpendicular style.

Mr T. H. Jvash, of St. Paul's Cray, London,-has produced an experimental ;eottage which- certainly takes a place iainong the more successful of thp 'many efforts that have been made to pioduce a cottage that - working-class ;tcnants can afford to live im Its great distinction is its low cost. Built iu bulk, the cost, it is claimed, will not exceed £250. There are three bedrooms, kitchen, parlour, and bathroom. Concrete blocks of two sizes—4ft by Ift by 6in and 3ft by Ift by 6iii—are used in the construction. The woodwork is creosoted, and paint is usea only for tlie mantelpieces and rainwater pipes. The foundation is of brick rubbish, clinker and ashes well rolled in, and having on top clinker and ashes mixed with bitumen and tar. is calculated, probably, on the assumption that very litle sk'iled labour will be employed on the building; in fact, Mr Nash puts it forward ais a merit of his house that any handyman with a few tools could in" a great measure build his own bouse. 1 A smart piece of building work—the erection of one of the first concrete residences in the Brighton (England) district—has just been carried out at Hove for a man who wanted his house quickly. Hie house, which is now practically finished, is a detached villa on the Stanford Estate, and stands on land which was under cultivation less than a month ago. Apart from the foundations, the bulk of the work wns done bv two bricklayers within eight dnvs. In this short space of time the whole of the walls and the concrete (zaratre had been put up, and the flooring joists and window frames fitted. Blocks for the job were moulded on the site, and in order to speed up the work these were made of ferrocrcte. which allowed of the blocks beine handled within twenty-four hours. K-ed bricks, required for decorative effects, were manufactired of same material mixed with sand and red oxide.

NEW BUILDING METHOD. SPEEDY HOUSE CONSTRUCTION. (specially -WRITTEN for "'the press.") (By A. J. Harrop, M.A.) LONDON, October 20. Ever since the war the housing problem has affected the welfare of England so vitally that many of the acutcst brains in the country liavc been engaged in endeavouring to simplify forms of construction in order to facilitate the completion of the vast housing schemes which local bodies have undertaken in different parts of the country. Yesterday, at the Palace of Housing, Wembley, I was present, at the first public demonstration of a new machine by which tho complete walls of a four or five-roomed' house can be- laid in one day by two bricklayers and four labourers The invcutor, Major W. H. Smith, who during the war was Engineer-in-Charge of the Munitions Inventions Department, explained the working of the machine to inc. In place of bricks, triangular-shaped hollow blocks of concrete and clinker aro used, the outside blocks being of concrete and the inside of clinker, thus eliminating that condensation of the walls 'whieli is 'tho chief defect of concrete houses. Where tho apexes a' r tho triangular blocks of clinker roach tho outer air they are covered with cement. The new machine enables the blocks to be laid at a great rate, two laborers being necessary to keep one bricklayer going, and the position of tho blocks is regulated so exactly by tho machine that the mortar can belaid on top of them by an arrangement similar to a stencil. The machine; is then adjusted and . a second layer of blocks is dropped into it- These fall exactly into position, and sn -Jie wall goes up at. a truly amazing rate. During seventeen minutes, while we watched. one bricklayer with an unskilled assistant, erected a wall .SO feet long, '2 feet 3 inches high, and 9 inches broad. At tho same rate for a day's work the equivalent of 16.000 bricks would have been laid. In England, and T presume it is about the same in ??ew Zealand, one bricklayer under the, present system lays about 500 bricks. Besides tho obvious advantage of speed, the new method represents a saving in labour and mortar costs on an £BOO house of at least. £BO, and the machine is so simple that, while utilising all tho .skilled bricklayers available, it will absorb a far greater ■proportion of unskilled labour, and thus inlp materially to reduce tho unemployment. problem. Tho triangular blocks, too. arc manufactured quite simply from local materials by local unskilled lalwnrers, thus avoiding tho cost of transport. Machines for tho purpose aro already on the market at a very reasonable prioe. They weigh only six hundredweight and arc mounted cm wheels so as to bo easily portable from one job. to the other. Ono machine is capable of producing either the ballast blocks for exterior faces or tho clinker blocks for interiors at tho rate of from thros to four hundred a day, and each block is equivalent to six bricks. The new machine for actually erecting the wall will also soon "bo on tho market. There will ho small typos for builders on a small scale and an elaborate apparatus for work on hig schemes. The patents aro held by the Triangular Construction Company, Imhor Court. East Molesey, Surrey, and Now Zealand builders interested in this latest development could doubtless obtain particulars of costs from tho Company.

BIG WELLINGTON WORKSHOPS. There is a, £30,000 job in Wellington ahead for some contractor. It is the construction of the ne;v tramway workshops beside the ear-barns at Kilbirule, and it will cost £30,000 and more. The work,- which is now open for tender, is to provide new shops to take the place of' those at iNewtown, which art no longer adequate to meet the demands of the city's traction. The Council wants tho structure fiu'shed in 12 months, as the need is there already. The new workshops, oil the southern side of, the sheds, will bo of irregular shape. Their length will bo 435 feet, and at one end thev will measure 300 feet, at tho other 175 feet. They will be bigger than the existing sheds when completed. The shops arc to be divided into three sections. Down one side, a long alleyway, the "traverser" runs. Along this the street car is taken, and by dinE of cranes and light, sliding carriages, the car, body, and truck will receive attention from workmen. In the truck shop the car uuder repair will.be dealt with by a, number of departments, including weldefs, fitters, blacksmiths, and electricians. In the car-body shop will be the • woodworkers, while the paint shop speaks for itself. The building will be of steel and brick, with many large windows, and the usual overhead .lighting. Inside it will be 30 feet high. RIVER SANDS. (to the nuu,ding editor.) Sir, —In reading through .your very interesting supplement I 1 a<st week panic across a statement which I think rc-'i quires correction. j Amongst your remarks on ''Con-! cretc" you stated, in effect, that river sands aro not suitable for concretemaking (because of the smooth, spherical shape of tho grains. As to their suitability, I know nothing. If they aro not suitable, however, it must be due to some factor other than the shape of tho grains, because • the grains of, river sand are characteristically angular. During its formation each grain is protected by a thin film of water, | which preserves the sharp angular i shape. Desert sands, or wind-blown. sands, are, on the other hand, smooth and spherical. . Such general acceptance does this -view obtain that millet grain (i.e., spherical) sands found in ancient sandstones arc taken as representing former desert regions.—Yours, etc., c.c.w.

CAST-IRON HOUSES. FIVE ROOMS FOR £425. One of the most interesting experiments in new method* of house construction in Britain is the manufacture of cast-iron houses on mass production methods in an ironworks near Sheffield. Contracts have already been placed ior considerable numbers of these houses by several local authorities, one order, that of the Derby Corporation, being for -200 houses. ~ . , ~ Messrs Newton, Chambers and Co., who have made iron for oyer 130 years, made sketches in 191— with a view to manufacturing houses out of cast-iron on the same lilies as itbe tanks that thev mad'' to contain water and chemical' liquids. La.st year Mr T. V. Miles, a director, deckled to encourage further experiments, and a pair of bouses were built-. The system has received the sanction of the' Ministry for Health for a 40-venr loan. Some U tons of pig iron are used or each house. The blocks are moulded ill the foundry. The cast-iron p. sites are joined together in the walls by bolts through the" flanges. between which there is a wood-packing strip used lot securing tlio internal linings. lhe outer Malls are faced with a- special cement rough-cast, and the roots are tiled. . . The specimen houses contain, a In mg room measuring 17ft lOlin by lift llin, a kit-hen lift 3iiii by 9ft 3m, a- larder 7ft 1 lin by 6ft 3in, a. coal place 6it 3in by 2ft Sin, and on the first floor three bedrooms and a bathroom. The walls are s'lft high. They arc being delivered and erected within a- radius of 50 miles, complete with internal fittings. ('.replaces, hath, w.<\, wash-basin, auif 3iot water (system at £4£3. The increased cost quoted for erecting such a bouse at Brighton recently was £lO. Arrangements have been made to suppi v these houses complete to erect them unci finish them tor orciupa-tion. All the houses arc built tinder budding trade conditions. 'I lie price, or course, excluder, the provision of foundations ati'l drains. At the firms works there arc castiron tanks that were ma.de over 100 vears ago, have been out in tire open exposed to the weather, are, unprotected bv paint, and are still in use. It is claimed that, east-iron houses will be similarly resistant.

THE GREATEST ART. COMMERCE AND ARCHITECTURE. Architecture an-I commerce ;irc inseparably bound, and the motive behind all modern structures is the commercial instinct, ever striving to make better conditions for industry and trade, and, incidentally, more profit. Such is the expressed opinion of Professor C. K. Knight,• of t.hc Auckland University School of Architecture, who addressed members of the Wellington Rotary Club. Architecture, he contended, was a work of art, and the greatest of all arts, because it involved, more of the utilitarian than did others. At one time naval and military dominance were the recognised saviour of the commercial world. To-day the position had been reversed, and these great forces were reliant upon the success of commerce, while the world over the object of the architect- was to make commercial things function better than hitherto. The Classic Example. As'an instance of his contention, Professor Knight dwelt- upon the classic example, Fifth avenue, New York, which had during the past quarter of a century been transformed froni an essentially residential street to a. mighty commercial thoroughfare. The aim of those responsible for the erection of the Woolworth building, well known as the highest, edifice in the world, was to secure t.h-.> maximum amount of floor space, and also to erect something spectacular, which would atract the attention of the world. This building was recognised by architects as the greatest commercial btfildiug in tho world. On account , of the consequent congestion of street traffic, however, a restriction, had to bo placed upon the height of these structures. This was the era of city building—and the era of commerce—and it. was encumbent upon the commercial in t.erests to analyse the relations between those of architecture a>id their own, so that the facilities which this young country afforded in this direc.tiou could be utilised to the fullest, advantage. "You may escape the doctor or the dentist," he said, "but you cannot, get away from architecture. It is always with you."