SOME HOUSES ARE ALL WRONG

Evening Star, Issue 20252, 13 August 1929, Page 2

SOME HOUSES ARE ALL WRONG

FAULTS IH DESIGN Many designs that Jock well on paper are failures when built, and many houses would have been successes and the designcis jusi a little more feeling for those details that make or mar. The subject is fai too complex to allow any comprehensive treatment here; it is one, mo reeve that bristles with technical points; but the lay reader may bo. interested to know' a tew’ of the faults that are frequently found in houses of to-day and yesterday, THE TUDOR STYLE To start with tho Tudor style which is often adapted to modern needs—-in the genuine old houses tho bricks used were much thinner than the Georgian bricks, and the texture was coarser and, as a rule, full of. flaws. As soon as Tudor work is built of the larger bricks it at once looks wrong and no amount of clever design or beauty of line can rescue it., This fault is to be observed most markedly in all the Victorian Tudor, as the narrower bricks have only recently 7 been made again. The layman may look, at these buildings and think that they seem all right, and yet feel something wrong. It is the different texture due to the large bricks. Another feature that is persistently wrong is the angle of the roof. This is apt to be too flat when carelessly designed and too pointed _ when created by a designer who is trying to be picturesque. Again, in this style the leading of the window's needs careful consideration. The leads should bo flat and wide—fin is a good siz* for common use—and seldom should diamond panes be used. Of couro, all casements must be of iron and never of .-wood. TIMBER AND PLASTER.

Then there are the timber houses of the Tudor period, frequently reproduced to-day in fantastic form. In these the proportion of timber to plaster is most important. They should be almost equal, and the dominant lines should be vertical. But the detail nearly always wrong is.that the plaster should be flush _ with the timber, whereas froqugntiy it is re-

cesscd an inch or so. This at once spoils the effect. The timber, also, must be roughly adzed, not mechanically sawn, and they, must not bo set at precisely exact distances apart. In the old work no such exactness existed, and to gain the effect of the original the same methods must bo followed, ft is hardly necessary to add that the halftimber "work must be genuinely constructional, not mere packing-case stuff nailed on a brick backing, with a skim of plaster between. Tho timbers, of oak. should not bo stained or oiled, but either left alone to weather, or given a greyish tone by applying a coat of limcwasii, allowing this to remain for a' few days and then brushing it off. GEORGIAN STYLE For a house in tho Georgian manner it is essential to have good proportions between tho windows and the wall space, and to use good bricks. Many a bouse is spoilt by wrong proportion of the sash - bars. Where the window is flush with tho wall, the sash bars should be thick and the panes not too largo, but when tho window is recessed, the bars may be thinner and the panes larger. At the present time there is a fashion for whitening houses. This is right when over plaster, if the wash is properly mixed so ns not to flake, but on brickwork it produces a streaky effect, peeling and staining disastrously; and the expense of rowhitoning every few years ought to bo considered. These details are all small, but they are all important to the success of a house.