HINTS ON HOUSES

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 98, 20 January 1926, Page 15

HINTS ON HOUSES

Have you ever thought how important a part chimneys play in the health of your home ?

“Decorative chimneys on plain cottages are clearly out of place. On the other hand, most beautiful effects can be produced by ornamental brick or stone chimneys on buildings which are designed for them and with which they are in keeping. No room without a chimney should be used as a living room or a sleeping room,” states Sir John Robertson, medical officer of health of Birmingham, in "The House of Health.” just published. "Apart from windows and the provision of through ventilation, a chimney is the best of all ventilators,” he adds. “No variety of patent inlet or outlet can compare with the ventilating quality of a chimney. In an ordinary closed dwelling every properly arranged chimney draws up air with considerable force, and that is why it becomes such a valuable ventilator for our ordinary bedrooms. Gas- companies are too apt to block up the ordinary chimney when they insert a gas fire. By so doing they very materially restrict the ventilation of the room.

"There are several causes why chimneys do not draw, but the main reason is that in the neighbourhood there are other dwellings higher, or higher ground is near, so that wind blpwing towards these buildings is obstructed in its free passage and produces a down draught. Occasionally the flue of a chimney is so wide and so straight as to hinder the current of air going up, and therefore it is well that all chimneys should be made -with at least one bend in them. “Cowls of various kinds will occasionally remedy a smoking fireplace.’* Window draughts, too, are dealt with by Sir John Robertson, who recommends the provision of small steam or electric heating radiators or hot water pipes under the windows during cold weather. “The best form of window for an ordinary cottage,” he states, “is the sash window.”

Other “hygienic housing” points included in tiie book are:

“More harm is done to health by damp floors than by damp walls. “The cheapest floor and the most wholesome is the ordinary boarded floor, of well-seasoned wood. “Partition walls should be soundproof and'substantial as it is often exceedingly trying to have to listen to the conversation in the next room.

“The important thing to remember about the walls of a dwelling is that they should be capable of being kept clean, therefore the plasterer should arrange as few ornaments on the plaster as possible, for these allow dust to accumulate.

“It is on tile whole cheaper to paper a house than to provide a really good distempered surface.”

A French fashion that is being copied to some extent in England is that of stretching cretonne at the head and foot of wooden bedsteads.