The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1907-05-27
HOUSE CANNOT BURN
No Wood Used in the Structural
Parts Like Skyscrapers

| NEW YORK, May 27-No incen-
diary could duplicate the Helicon hall
disaster in a house just built on abso-
lutely new lines at Briarcliff Manor,
N. Y. Architects and builders who
have inspected the house, now practi-
cally completed, say that it embodies
solution of the problem of how peo-
pie with ordinary means may build
| fire proof country homes.
The increase of from 40 to so per
cent. in the price of lumber had a
good deal to do with the search for
something different from the ordinary
frame house. But the main thing was
to find some way of building a house
far from fire departments, that would
be as safe for it's occupants, as though
they were located next door to a New
York fire engine house.
Architect and owner went thorough
ly over the ground, searching for some
building material that could be OBJ
tanned within a reasonable price limit
and at the same time insure comfort,
dura bility and fireproof qualities. A
combination of concrete and terra cot
ia blocks was finally decided upon, and
of these materials the Briarcliff Manor
house has been put up.
There is not a scrap of wood used
in any of the structural part of the
house. Nothing about it can burn ex-
cept the DOORS the window frames and
the small amount of interior trimming.
Even the roof is carried by concrete
beams with hollow tile blocks in be-
tween. The floors are built in the same
way, and the outer walls and partitions
are also Of the burnt clay blocks famil-
lar to those who have stopped to
watch any of the big New York sky
scrapers in course of erection.
The Briarcliff house has 10 living
rooms and two bath rooms. To build
the same house of wood the contractor
bid $4,000 For concrete with wooden
floors the cost would have been $500.
Built of hollow tile blocks and con-
crete the cost was $500. In the pro-
cess of making, these hollow blocks go
through enormous temperatures In the
kilns where they are baked, so that
attack by the heat of an ordinary
fire has no effect on them whatever.
Finding that the hollowtile blocks did
not make an attractive exterior, the
outer walls have been coated with
pebble dashed stuccO, applied directly
to the surface of the blocks. On
succeed frame house the cement is ap-
piled on wire mesh, which rots out
from moisture and the chemical action
of the plaster.
No insurance will be carried on the
Briarcliff Manor house, for the simple
reason that it can't burn up, making
insurance superfluous, and resulting in
a considerable annual saving in this
direction. No Helicon hall disaster
could happen in the house because
there is nothing upon which a fire
could feed except the furnishings, and
there could not be enough combustible
material of this nature in the house to
make a fire that would menace its
safety Another big advantage the'i
owner figures on is that the house will
need practically no repairs for an in
definite period. There is nothing about
it to deteriorate, and the terra Gotta
walls, roof and partitions will practi-
ca:Iy last forever
The air spaces in the hollow blocks
that form the walls, make them excel
lent nom conductors of heat an dcold,
assuring warmth in winter and making
the house cooler in summer than one
with ordinary solid walls. Here, then.
al pears to be a kind of house that will
soon be very common; a house that
c. ut burn down; one that will need
little or no repairing, and that is still
within the reach of people of moderate
rltanS.