The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1884-07-11
of paint. AID the house iooks as il il

of paint, AID the house LOOKS as il il
were lust built.
''Brick is the hardest job of all. The
trouble is, if you paint it, it shows the
paint ana so shows the age. Renovators,
Is We call ourselves, don't agree at all
upon brick houses. Some paint and
| line front, some wash and then oil it,
| and some wash and then go over
it with what they call soluble glass. 1
think the secret depends upon the kind
of brick used. With some brick boiled
oil makes it look like a first-class now
Philadelphia front; with others it would
make it as dark as if it were fifty years
old. There's another kind of brick,
made at Haverstraw, / think, which oil
runs. But if you 90 over it with soluble
glass and wash it down with acid, it
as new and fresh as can be.
with marble, limestone, and these
I fancy-colOred sandstones, q scrubbing-
brush. water and sand are all you
should use. The stone gets discolored
from the dust aud smoke flying about,
but the color is merely on the outside,
and a good scrubbing takes it all away.
Brown-stone is puzzler. Sometimes
it is cut with the grain, and then it
splits off in flakes; sometimes across
the grain. and then it wears into irreg-
ular hollows. The best way is across
the grain. Take the houses in Fifth
aven e, near Fifteenth street, and you'll
hardly see single perfect stone on the
whole front. On the 9th T hand, the
newer houses, and especially Wander
bits, are made of stone cut across the
grain. and they'll last for years. The
trouble is chiefly with the frost. The
stone is porous, and absorbs good
deal of water. A cold night comes on
and the water freezes. If there's
enough water in a piece. it either loOs-
ems or splits layer, and the next thaw
knocks it down. Of course. the best
treatment is to soak the stone with
something that will keep the water out.
Raw oil. boiled oil. soluble glass and
acid and glycerine have all been used,
but l think soluble glass is the best.
You see, all the oils gum. and after a
time allow water to soak in, but
glass never gums, and STAYS where
you put it for years. I'd make a con-
tract to keep brown-stone front Tor a
lifetime if l were allowed to give it
three coats of glass acid. The only
object on is that it's little more expen-
sive than boiled oil. With some lime
stones that are porous the dirt and
smoke get way into the pores. A scrub
bling won't do the work then, and you
must eat away thin layer with acid.
1t makes no difference what acid you
use so far as eating the stone away is
concerned, vitriol, muriatic acid, or
a ,uafortis. But think muriatic is the
best, because, besides attacking the
stone, it al o bleaahes perfectly white
many things vitriol won't touch.
s.Granite is hard to renovate, but
then it's not often used in building.
It's not simple stone, but q mixture,
and its chief con 'tituent, feldspar,
weatiers more rapidly than the rest.
The only way TO renoyate granite is
with the chisel and pune e stone. Of
course, you can keep it by vanishing
it with soluble glass, but very few peO-
pie take the trouble to do that. Solu-
BILE glass isn't used so much here as in
Europe. It's a mixture of silica and
soda, or potash. You put it on like a
regular paint and then wash it over
with acid. The acid combines with
the alkali and flows of with the water,
leaving thin deposit of silica upon the
surface and in the pores of the stone
At first it is soft like gum, but it hard
ems, and in month makes thick,
tough and hard varnish.
Renovation becomes harder every
year. People have become tired of old
III laI ,,1to oil g
building material. Terra Gotta, as
phalted brick and Ohio stone are now
largely used. where twenty years ago
they were unknown. In the old days l
could renovate front for five cents a
foot. A three-story brick house. fifty
feet high and twenty wide, would cost
about fifty dollars. Nowadays, what
with carving and relief work, stone
and metal, it runs up to ten and twelve
cents foot. For example: l got last
week two hundred dollars for house
on Grammercy Park. l don't like this
increased use o: metal. Zinc and iron
are the curse of modern architecture.
Beside their gradual rusting. they pro-
duce electric action, and so increase
decomposition ten times over. Then
iron. rs it rusts, makes a reddish-brown
crust that soaks into everything. l can
take out these stains to 6 certain eX-
tent with acid, but 1 can never make
the stone as good as new.
lis there much renovation? There
are ut least twenty men In the trade,
and we've got all we want to do. A
renovated house will bring a thousand
dollars more when it's sold, and, as
renovation seldom costs more than $500,
you can see where the profit come in"
N. Y. Sun.