News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-02-21
A Concrete Barn.

Mr. George T. Powell, Client, n. Y,
at a recent meeting of the Columbia
County Farmers Club, of which he is
president, remarked on the increased
cost of timber-an expensive building
material at best-aud the necessity of
economizing its use; and he suggests
that there are several obvious advantages
in utilizing for country houses and other
structures the cheap and abundant ma
terial which in most cases is within easy
reach-''sand, gravel and stones" He
has shown his faith by putting up a con-
concrete barn with walls twenty-four
feet high, inclosing a space sixty-five by
seventy-five feet. Details of the con-
struction we quote from the Chatham
Courier
at stands on slight embankment, so
as to give a basement eight feet high. A
heavy foundation was laid below frost,
and upon that the concrete wall was be-
gun. Studding was set i'll two rows,
with a space between them, allowed for
the thickness of the walls. Boxes were
made by fastening two ten-inch hemlock
boards together, and these were raised
as soon as the material was sufficiently
set. One-inch strips were nailed to the
studding, and the boxes to these strips.
In raising the boxes, the nails were
drawn from the strips, driven from be-
hind the boxes, so they could be raised
easily from the wall without breaking it.
Where the wall comes in contact with
the earth, mixture of one barrel of
cement to four barrels of creek gravel
was found to be strong enough, and in
this mixture were imbedded as many
StpDaS nc oo,111 ba yvai1 oOvnra1
''The stones used may be of any kind,
but want to be kept three fourths OF an
inch from the boxes, so that the finer
materials appear on the exterior surface
of the wall. 1t makes better finish and
keeps the frost from penetrating. After
getting above the earth, a mixture of
one barrel of lime, one and one-half bar
rels of cement, and twelve barrels of
gravel was found to be sufficient, and
made very strong wall to the top of the
basement. For the balance of the wall
the proportion was kept the same with
the exception of the cement, which was
reduced to one barrel. The lime is
first Stacked and mixed with the gravel;
the cement must not be added until the
material is ready for use. Did not use
lime at the foundation, as quick lime
must not come in contact with the
ground surface.
"The estimated cost of the structure
at the beginning was 10 cents per cubic
foot. The cost of each days building
was figured at evening. 1t was found
that while using the cement mixture the
cost was 10 cents a cubic foot. When
the lime mixture was used in the base
ment, the cost was reduced to 81 cents a
cubic foot; when using less cement above
and materials could be obtained most
readily about the building, the cost was
reduced to g. cents. The higher the
walls were built the more men were re-
quired, and the cost was somewhat in
creased. Upon completion, it was as
certained that the expense of all the
walls, ranging from sixteen to twenty |
inches in thickness, was less than nine |
cents cubic foot.
'aThe middle wall of the basement is
eighteen inches thick. Those on the |
outside sixteen inches; above the base
ment, fourteen inches; those around |
silos, twenty inches. Lighter walls |
could have been made with perfect |
safety, and there is no way to-day that
building can be erected so economically |
and substantially as with concrete walls,
provided the materials do not have to
be drawn too long a distance. The cost
Of the cement, bought in large quanti-
ties, was 81 barrel. delivered at
Client. The lime cost Slip. L en-
pIoyed ordinary day laborers; wages
rom $1.25 to $1.5O per day, boarding
themselves. Only two mechanics were
most Of the time"
Judge J. L. Hogeboom remarked that
-four times as much cement is required
when gravel has uniform cOarseness,
Is when coarse aud fine are mixed, and
hat trough, broken stones are better
han smooth cobbles, as the cement does
lot adhere so well to the latter"