THE COLONIST. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1920. HOUSE-BUILDING.

Colonist, Volume LXII, Issue 15311, 26 February 1920, Page 4

THE COLONIST. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1920. HOUSE-BUILDING.

It is undoubted that the increased cost of materials and labour, and tlie actual scarcity of certain materials, are impediments to building operations at the present time. There is, for instanec, a shortage of some lines of timber. This has led to the advocacy of the use of other materials, especially for residences. The. "Spectator," the wellknown London weekly journal, has | helped to make the public acquainted with the good points of the pise de terre system of building, a system in which walls are made of earth, rammed j hard between boards. This is a- very old and well tried system. It must! not hJB confounded with cob, a system that Avas ?>Wd in the early days inj Nelson. It also differs in one important respect from a system that has been used in some of the orchard districts, in that no water is used. Cob is clay and shale put up wet and mixed with straw. Pise is earth put up dry and without admixture, and consolidated by hard ramming between boards, and is in every way a better material" both mechanically and chemically. Walls of pise de terre can be constructed of almost any kind of earth except real clay or almost pure sand. No skilled labour is required. Earth is rammed between shutters "until it rings," and the shutters can be rff-erected on the completed wall, and the process repeated over and over again is fast as may be desired. These walls grow harder under the influence of time, until they become almost like smooth close-grained sandstone into which a nail can be driven only with difficulty. They are much too dense to harbour rats, mice, or other vermin. The house can be occupied immediately after completion, particularly if summer built. The interior walls can be plastered in the ordinary way or colour-washed on the pise direct if the walls ire well and truly built. The exterior of the walls can be rendered with lime and cement or otherwise, but the walls of an experimental house

built four years ago without any exterior treatment are standing well and getting harder each year. This system of building is -eminently suitable for houses, cottages, sheds, staWes, and other farm buildings. The. method o? construction is being considered by I British architects and builders, municipal bodies, and all interested in housing schemes. It is being employed by individuals with success. Then there is the house that is built of concrete. "In nearly every part of the country," says a British writer, "there are materials to be found—often at a nominal cost—suitable for concrete for building the thousands of cottages which the new housing schemes contemplate. These would reduce the ordinary cost and provide healthful and durable ;liomes, superior in many ways to those built of brick and stone, and capaible of being constructed by discharged and demobilised soldiers. The writer j speaks from experience, having lived in' concrete houses for many years." Concrete has been used in European countries from time immemorial for foundations and walls. It was a long time' before Portland cement took the place' of lime as a cementitious material for; concrete, but it is now nearly the only one used for the purpose, .except occasionally in the case* of foundations. The materials required for its -manu-i facture are to be found in almost every country, and as a result there are manufactories in most parts of the world. New Zealand has several cement works, and Nelson has a. particularly well equipped manufacturing •plant at Tarakolie, Golden Bay. In the United States the Government Board of Agriculture, in conjunction with the universities, issues at frequent intervals publications dealing with concrete, which are obtainable post free on application, and the universities appoint lecturers and specialists to instruct, builders and others how to make use of it. This may to some extent account for the fact that more cement is made in America than in any other country, and it is employed there for a greater number of'purposes than anywhere else. In conclusion, the suggestion may be made that brick should be used to a greater extent in Nelson for house-building. With hollow walls and a damp course, a residence constructed oi: brick has distinct advani* ages. But it seems difficult to secure the adoption of now ideas, and in saying this we are not oblivious to indusI trial conditions that stand in the way.