Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-01-17
TRANSFORMATION
ABOUT CONCRETE
Is CONFUSED WITH Cement
MORTAR BLOCK
JEALOUS FRIENDS OVERSTEP
CLAIMS OF MIXTURE
Five Various Types Of Cement Cons
struction Confuse Public Mind
with Real MonoIithic Con.
crete Construction

The misinformation about concrete
and it's confusion with cement mortar
block wall and wooden interior con-
struction on one hand, and the cement
mortar stucco plastered on to wooden
frame on the other, has been caused
fully as much by the -overzealous
friends of concrete who have claimed
everything as theirs in which cement
was used, says Cement Age, New York
as by the CareleSsness of the public in
failing to differentiate one from the
other.
The various types Of construction in
which cement forms more or less i'm
portant part and that have been con-
fused in the public mind with real
monolithic concrete construction are
five.
First, stuccO on wooden lath covering
wooden frame. This construction is
exactly identical with that of a wooden
house save only that the exterior walls
are lathed and plastered with a sand
and cement mortar instead of being
covered with shingles or cIapboards
While this construction is obviously in
no sense freproOf, it has proved ex-
ceedingly satisfactory and durable in
hot southern countries. AS the stucco
IS very poor conductor of heat, such
houses are cooler than the ordinary
NOOuCII AIOuGC, anu WI6IG In6I6u Is no
frost stucco serves to protect the wood
and make an exceedingly durable con-
struction.
The second type is of the same con-
structiOn except that metal instead of
wood lath is used. This has practical
ly the same advantages and disadvan-
tages as the wooden lath except that
it will not swell when the wet mottar
is applied and then shrink away from
the plaster when it dries out, as is
often the case with the wooden Iath,
but instead Of this the metal lath is
subject to rust
The disc advantages of stucco in north
ern ATTITUDES where frost and rapid
changes Of temperature are common
during the winter, is that moisture gets
| into the stucco and freezes. Then the
stucco peels off in great slabs.
Concrete Block Construction
The third type is of the concrete
block construction with a wooden
frame. This Of course is practically no
more ffreproOf than the stucco house.
Moreover, the blocks which are most
invariably made in imitation stone, are
pitiably crude and poor limitations
The fact, as before stated that the
cement has never been allowed to flash
and properly to bond the aggregates
together renders the block not only
weak but exceedingly porous, and I'M
less one goes to the extra expense of
Turing, lathing and plastering the in
side of the walls of such a house, an
umbrella indoors becomes an indis-
pensable adjunct to it's inhabitants.
The fourth type is a house Of terra
Gotta blocks, covering a steel frame
and succeed with concrete. The stuc-
co in this case is open to some ob1ec-
ton in northern ATTITUDES, as it is in
the case of wooden or metal lath, and
the results shown in the Baltimore and
San Francisco fires furnish ample evil
dence that terra Gotta does not in
reality fireprOof a steel frame
The late J. Edward Atkinson, founder
of the factory mutual fire insurance
system, summed up the reason for the
failure Of terra Gotta after the Balti-
more fire in one sentence: 1.-THE CO.
efficient of expansion under heat Of
! steel and concrete are practically iden-
ttcal, whereas the expansion Of terra
| Gotta is four times as rapid as that Of
steel. 1t necessarily follows, therefore,
that when subjected to heat the terra
Gotta covering of steel beams peels off,
| leaving the steel exposed to the raw
ages of the fame" Given one exposed
column or girder in a house, its de-
struction by bending under heat will
| go far to wreck the entire structure.
The fifth type is of the reinforced
concrete wall with a wooden interior.
! This construction gives a thoroughly
good exterior wall and affords some
manner of fire projection from the out
side, but not very much more than
does the stuccO or block house. Tho
interior is, Of course, no more fireproof
than that of the ordinary wooden house.