New-York tribune., 1921-06-12
Come Into the Country
Safeguard Investment and
LiUes BY Building Right
Fire Insurance Should Mean More Thans Under
writer's Certificate to Home Owner; Best As
Is House That Is Proof Against Fire

! even though their ends may be protect
ed with four inches of brick, is moth
| ing short Of criminal and its preva-
lence shows that no sufficient apprecia-
| ton of this fact exists in the public
mind.
Four inches of brick will not fire.
proof stick of timber. On the CON
trary, it is perfectly possible for four
inches of brick to set fire to stick
of timber in contact with it. Floor
joists should In all cases be carried
around the chimneys on trimmer beams
so that there is an air space between
the ends of the joints and the chin
neys. Under such conditions the brick
work can get as hot as it likes with
out doing any special damage.
Chimneys Without Flues Criminal
1t used to be the practice to build
brick chimneys without fue Innings,
and many old houses in New York are
standing with chimneys only one brick
in thickness. Both these practices are
inches of brick is the minimum thick
ness which should be permitted for
chimney wall, and even an eight-inch
chimney should be lined with terra
Gotta fiue lining. There are two rea-
sons for this:
Ordinary brickwork is not per-
fectly solid mass, the joints between
the brick not being entirely filled with
mortar. This being the case, flame
can leak out of an unlined flue. The
second reason is that terra Gotta is
more fire resistant than brickwork. 1t
can stand more heat without crumbling,
or disintegrating, and is therefore an
added protection. Furthermore, there
are fewer joints in terra Gotta fiue
Innings than there are in brick fues.
Such joints as there are, however.
should be very carefully and solidly
filed with cement mortar so that the
flames and gases cannot leak out into
the brickwors.
The greatest danger comes from hid
den fires; j. e., fires which have start
ed in some obscure place and have
gained sufficient headway before their
discovery to make it difficult or I'M
possible to control them.
Fire frequently travels inside of the
partitions or walls of a house, and is
not discovered until it has completely
burned out the supporting framework
of the walls or partitions, by which
time the chances are that it cannot be
gotten under control.
To prevent this, "fire-stopping" is
resorted to. This consists of filing up
the spaces between LHe JOiStS VI tiiC
studs, as the case may be, with brick
and cement mortar. SO that the fire
cannot enter the partition or the wall.
In other words, fire-stopping draws the
fire out into the open where it can be
seen and fought, instead of permitting
it to work under cover until 1T is too
late. This is form of fire insurance
which costs the owner much less money
than the premiums which he pays on
his fire insurance policies, and is of
much greater value to him.
Hearths for kitchen ranges and fire.
places should be fireproof. This seems
automatic. but it is amazing how many
people are blissfully ignorant of the
fact that the fire which they are enjoy
ing so comfortably on a cool evening
in their living room is actually built
in part, at least, on the wood floor
under their feet. Half an inch of tile
laid down on q. piece of paper is not
adequate freproofing for these fire
places. 1t is not fireproofing at all.
Proper fireproofng can be simply and
cheaply secured by providing founda-
ton for the tile or brick hearth, IS the
case may be, of concrete placed be-
tween and around the floor joists. Cast
iron Innings for freplaces should be
suspected unless you know that there
is some such freproofing beneath them.