New-York tribune., 1921-06-26
Into the Country-Heres an Attractive Place for You
Cracks in Building Should
Not Bring Condemnation
no Not Necessarily Indicate Poor Workmanship or
y Material, but Natural Condition Due TO Causes
Which Cannot Be Avoided; Not Right for Years

when this wetness disappears great
deal OF it goes into the wood floors.
walls and partitions
Lumber Holds Water
But. of course, lumber cannot be
put direct from the kiln into the build
ing. It has to be transported to the
yard, usually in open cars, and stacked
until it is wanted. Both in the process
of transportation and of waiting for 81
sale il is subject to varying weather
conditions, and in wet weather this
means absorption Of moisture and con
sequent swelling. So that by the time
it is finally built into a building 1t is
bound to be due for considerable
amount of shrinkage.
This is the condition which causes
most of the trouble complained of un-
der the head Of settlement cracks. 1t
Is manifested in surface cracks in the
plaster, cracks in finished flooring and
around door and window openings in
the joints of the trim. Usually such
cracks are very fine, but in places due
to accumulation of shrinkage in floor
joists, studs and lath they may be
quite large. They cannot be prevented.
They must be expected and borne with
until the house has reached it's final
condition of stability. At this time
they can be patched up with practical
certainty that they will not open up
again.
Cracks in the end and side joints of
finished hard wood flooring are espe-
cialiy annoying to owners. They are
almost certain to occur in greater or
less degree for the reason that the
hard woods are particularly suscepti-
bic to the influence of moisture. The
only way for an owner to guard against
them is the way he usually rejects,
namely, to refuse to permit any fin
ished flooring to be brought into his
house until the plastering is not only
entirely completed but also thoroughly
dried out. Under such conditions a
hard wood floor may be laid with rea-
sonable certainty that no unsightly
cracks will open up in the joints. But
owner, he usually rejects it on the
ground of the additional time and ex-
pense involved by waiting,
What Sticky Windows Mean
very frequent complaint made by
an owner on taking possession of a
new house has to do with sticky doors
and windows. The builder is urged to
send men to ease the doors and win
shut properly. If the builder knows
his business he will protest against
doing this, because he knows that the
doors and windows, if properly fitted,
are almost certain to absorb enough
moisture from the drying plaster to
cause them to stick in their frames.
And he knows that if left to them
selves, after the heat is on and the
house once properly dried out, they
are bound to come back to their origi-
nal condition of perfect fit. But fire.
quently the owner insists, and when
this happens and the house dries out
it is always found that the sash leak
and rattlel when the wind blows and
that daylight can be seen around the
doors. The worst of such a condition
is that it is permanent. Nothing can
be done to increase the size OF the
leaky sash and doors and it means
heavy expense for additional weather
stripping to correct the mistake which
should never have been made.
House Is Not Right for Year
An owner should make up his mind
that his house cannot be considered
completed until after he has been liv-
ing in it for year; that during the
first year Of its occupancy he must
look for certain adjustments to take
place which will entail certain small
expenditures for repairs, and that he
should not worry unduIy when the
necessity fer these repairs appears.