CHEAP, STRONG, AND DURABLE HOUSES.

Otago Witness, Issue 481, 16 February 1861, Page 9

CHEAP, STRONG, AND DURABLE HOUSES.

The following communication we take from the columns of a recent number of the New Zealander :—

Sir, — " Wooden buildings being so general in Auckland, and as such buildings are very liable td be ravaged by fire and infested with \ermin, perhaps the following remarks on cheap, incombustible and vermin proof houses will be Considered worthy of a place in tbe page* of your" valuable paper. " Mr. Goodrich, of America, the' original discoverer of this mode of building, says " lit making this discovery 1 reasoned thus : Has Nature not provided some other building material on these prairies but Wood, which is scarce? Cftn we find nothing in our midst? Let me see what we have. Lime abounds on them everywhere, so does coarse gravel. Will they not do? I will try." He first built an academy not larger than a schoolhouse. Part way tip, a severe storm washed it, so that 'a portioh fell. During the night, his neighbours wrote on it with chalk, " Goodiich's folly." But after it waS tfpVhe wrote in. answer, "Good rich's -wisdom."- It stood ami hardened with age. He erected a blacksmith's shop, afterwards a block. of stores and dwellings, and the plan was copied extensively. "In 1850 Mr. O. S. Fowler, the celebrated American Phrenologist visited Milton to examine the house put up by Mr. Goodrich, and found the walls harder than brick, and as hard as stone itself. He pounded "them With a hammer, and examined them thoroughly till fully satisfied as to their solidity and strength. Mr. Goodrich offered to allow him to Strike with a sledge, as ha~rd as he pleased upon the inside of his parlour walls foi* six cents per blow, which he said would repair all damages. "In building on this principle the' first object is to select the right material, ' and all that is wanted is stone and lime. The stone requires to be of various sizes, from tolerably fine sand up to' stones as large as' the fist. In fact it makes little difference how coarse or how fine the material is after it is up, for once set it will stand and grow more solid with age. There must, however, be enough of the fine to connect the coarser stones together. l?rickb'ats can also be used for this kind of" wall, breaking a part for sand, the rest serving for stones. Clinkers, coal dross from furnaces, and blacksmiths' sittings, in fact, anything hard, whatever he its size, quality,- or shape, will "furnish the main body. of. the required compost. Even oyster shells alone will serve to put up this form of house, by burning a part to furnish lime, pounding a part to serve the place of sand, and leaving the remainder in tneir natural state. j \ "Mr. Fowler, appreciating the superiority of this plan, applied it on a large scald, and greatly improved the mode of putting up the walls. His own house, built according to this method, is of an octagon form, 32 feet to the side, and four stories high, the walls of which are as follows:—^the ground storey, 9 feet high, and. lS inches thick; second storey, 14 feet high, and 16 inches thick; third storey, 12 feet high, and 12, inches thick ; upper store}', 10^ feet high and IQ. inches thick. The inside walls of the first storey are a foot thick, of the second 8 inches about 35 feet loinj and 14 feet high. There is a long high wall only 8 inches thick, yet it supports fhe downward pressure of the floors and partitions of two stories and a roof, and the .distance between these walls is 22 feet. Ami what is still more the pressure fiom above comes .down on posts, 8 feet apart, and, these ponts, -place 3; w right on the top of this ' high narrow wall, are held perfectly solid. It is a well known fact that this kind of wall of" a given thickness is much more solid than a brick wail of the same thickness ; and for these three reasons : first, bricks are smooth, so that the mortar rarely fastens directly upon them, but tneiely serves as a bed for the brick to lie in, and in taking down brick houses the mortar often cleaves from the brick very easily. Not so with the stones which compose this, kind of wall. Lime and mortar stick to stones a great deal better than to brick, partly becaute these stones are so irregular, full of edges, rough o% the surface, a >d every w.-iy better for 'mortar* to fasten upon than brick. Secondly, mortar is usually worked too dry to form an adhesion to brick, for when it is thin enough to* st'ck to brick, it is too thin to be worked*-w,ell, whereas this method allows the compost to be ju-t as thin a? can be handled with. the shovel* so that when deposited between the boards it beds all down together in one solid mass, each part sticking to each, and any. surplus water there may be settles along dowrn into the wall below, thus "rebinding all the parts together. Each tier of this, material also fastens. .to the tier below, just as firmly as if they had all been put up at' once. Thirdly, bricks are usually laid in rows, so that when a ci'ack has occasion to occur, it passes along between them, whereas stones and gravel being-thrown in promiscuously, and twisted about in every possible direction, offer much more obstruction to cracking than a regularly built brick wall. The walls of the fortress of Cindad Rodrigo in Spain, are made of the same material: The marks of the boards which retained the sertlifluid matter in their construction are everywhere visible ; and besides sand and gravel there are large quantities of round boulder stones in the walls, from 4 to- 6 inches diameter, procured from the ground around the city which is everywhere covered 1 with them. "In preparing the materials it* is of importance to have a g3W*d large mortar bed with a wide board all around the edges. ; A quantity of lime is then wheeled in, and' by adding water the lime is stirred until it.isjßS thin as milk. Sand is' next thrown in, using about double the quantity of clean, sharp sand to what there is of lime. "After thorough mixing, wheel in the stones, then mix all well together. Whea making the walls wood standards must be erected at the corners for the purpose of nailing on the boards, and of these boards it is well, to have two tiers of > about 18 inches each. The one tier is then nailed, (leaving the nails so as to easily drawn) to the standards, the compost is tlie'u shovelled in between the boards, the other tier is then nailed on, andthe space between filled in a similar manner? the first, .tjer i» then taken off and put, on for the third; and so on. Such walls IGoodrich and. Fowler estimate as four times cheaper than wood, and six times cheaper than bricfe ; this mkerial being handlecPmuch more rapidly; by tfie labourer and the shovel than bricks by the mason and trowel. " • ." ~ J "Mr. Fowler adopted the o'ctagott forn», not only because it is more beautiful' than tlie" square or oblong style of ibuilding,- but also because it is much, more economical." An octagon house of 32 feet to the sidje will contain erne fifth more space than a square one of 64 feet, and one third '.more ttian.'sn oblong of 80 by 40, the circumference of all boi»g theisaine. It is thus evident" thatr a giv#*» length of octagon wall will inclose one fifth mor»? than the same longth of wall in a -square shape, and one third more than an oblong." Of course the samesii-ed wall >. had for one iifth^or one third less money ; ; or th«j- Wail of- tt.hl>vtse;one fifth, or one.thinl larger for -tfei«','l»«ie' sum'; for this gain is Just as great in the Jfturidatioo,'. siding, plastering, white >t»?bingi the wall proper;~it appertains alike jto^mterials, labour, aud t^eryibing .alJourthvWalV/'^^t churches, school- houses, arid other fpuWite buildings, the octagpa form- & '-jS§bM^t# commended, 7 ' \ , ; " .r>^*t>*?

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