The Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, Ohio) 1853-1861, 1854-03-13
Timely Hints about Building.

as genius. 1t has been said, truly enough
that though a man should build for himself
twenty houses, he would find before the
last is finished, that he had made some error
either in the mode of building or in the ar
rangement of the interior. Where one has
little or no experience in building, it is the
better way to contract with some competent
mechanic to furnish full plan, with speci-
fications &C., covering everything, which
will show at q glance whether you are to
have comfortable dwelling or barely wall
and roof shelter. The cause of so many
errors in building houses, lies in the want
of suitable plans, and the haste with which
we build. We form plans and build, as
though house was thing of day, and
not to endure for t1Go hundred gears, and
serve the purposes of human habitation-
as it should be. Every generation, therefore,
is obliged to rebuild, or rearrange the old
house at heavy expense.
Never build in hurry Get everything
in readiness and then give your mechanics
time. They will do their work better, and
will, in most cases, make reduction of Is
to 25 per cent. on what they would charge
you, if obliged to force the job through
Have your plans we'll matured, for rest as
sured you will have to pay double for all
extra jobs. Whoever looks to economy,
more than to outside show, or wishes a
large amount of inside room for small sum
of money, should build square house; as
that form gives a much larger amount Of
inside room for its outside wall than any
other. Let us illustrate this: A house 100
feet long by one foot in width, requires 202
feet of wall, and gives 100 square feet of in
side room; make it 2 feet wide and you
double the inside room, while you can only
add 2 feet of outside wall. Here is one foot
of room for each foot of wall. Make it
fifty feet wide, and you have 5000 feet Of
inside room, or nearly II feet of inside room
for one of wall So it advances till you
reach the square, which gives more inside
room for its wall than any other quadrangle
form. This is something worth thinking
about, for while in the first case you would
have to build 202 feet of wall and only get
100 square feet of room, in the latter you
would only build 300 feet of wall and get
5000 square feet of room =; and if 100 square
feet was all the room you wanted, you
would get it by building house 10 feet
square, making 40 feet Of wall, and save
1862 feet OF wall, Or more than three-fourths
of the expense for this part of your house.
We request particular attention to this state
meat, for it is part of the subject which
escapes the notice Of builders generally
The Shape Of your house simply, if large,
may make several hundred dollars difference
in the expense.
The latter part of January and early part
of February, IS perhaps the best time in the
year to get out timber for building, both as
regards the quality of all timber trees, or the
convenience of farmers and others. Expert
ence proves that timber elled at this season
will resist decay twice as long as if cut in
March or any other month. Have your
floor joists well seasoned. Most people
think these may 90 into the building green,
but it is great error. They soon shrink
and leave large crack between the floor
and Dashboard If you build of bricks, they
should be laid wet, and the mortar should
be thin, which will cause it to adhere
strongly to the bricks, and give an eight inch
wall as much solidity as one a foot thick
where the bricks are laid dry. Brick walls
should be laid hollow, IA hollow space be-
tween the outside and inside courses,) or
they should be fired and lathed otherwise
dampness is sure to find its way into the
rooms, rendering them disagreeable and un-
healthy. If fired, pieces of lath should be
laid in the courses of brck-work, to nail
the firing strips to, instead of blocks of
scantling which will shrink and become
loose, while the other becomes frmer as the
wall settles