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How to Build.
By A. C. Ochs, Springfield, Minn.
Why a brick building costs more than a frame building.
When a frame store or residence is built, the owner thinks that any man handy with a hatchet can erect it. He is usually an inexperienced man with no financial standing and the owner considers it safer to buy the material himself. The lumber bill is made out by the so-called contractor, and is bought by the owner; the extra lumber bill often amounts to more than the original figures.
This contractor sticks a few stones under the sides and ends of the building for a foundation; a small hole in the middle, stoned up with a few “[omitted word which means large smoothly rounded stones]” serves the purpose of a cellar. Instead of using 2x14x12 in. on centers, 2x8x16 in. on centers are used for joists with a sill through the center. The front is a cheap affair; no plate glass, the cheapest kind of roof is used, and the floor is of single thickness, and of soft boards. When the owner decides to erect a brick building he thinks that such a building will cost him a great deal of money and he does not feel like saving on little things such as joists, floors, glass and basement; he wants a cement floor in his cellar and it must be drained. It is these seemingly little things that make his building so much more expensive rather than the brick construction.
The brick walls of a two-story brick building, 25x70 ft. (say on an average 26 ft. high), with walls 14 in. thick, figuring brick at a cost of $7.50 per M. [1,000], sand costing 75 cents per yd., and lime 85 cents per bbl. [barrel], all laid up with good mortar, will cost not more than $1,450. This includes all labor and material, and also a pressed-brick front. Now how can you save much at the present price of lumber if you want to build these walls of lumber in a first-class manner, lath them inside and paint them with three coats of paint on the outside?
The writer has rebuilt a western town in Yellow Medicine County, Minn., which was almost totally destroyed by fire in the year 1893. The following year, 1894, he built 24 solid brick stores and a year later 4 or 5 more stores and a large school building, all of solid brick. When the writer arrived in the town the business men had practically made up their minds to rebuild of lumber and cover with galvanized iron. But the writer proved to them that brick was cheaper, although lumber cost 50 per cent less than now and brick cost $9.10 per M. at the building. The insurance before the fire was from 5 to 7 per cent and after the fire it was a fraction of a cent on buildings and stock. Supposing a merchant had a building worth $4000 and stock costing $10,000 and had it insured; he would save at least from $600 to $700 a year on insurance; besides this he could carry part of the risk, when he has a fireproof building, and at the same time be relieved of the worry incident to doing business in a fire trap.
Is a Brick Building Warm and Dry?
There have been some just complaints about brick buildings as to their not being dry or warm. Now if a brick mason knows his business there is no reason why a brick building should not be as dry and warmer than a frame one. If a brick wall is laid up with a 2 or 3-in. air-space so that this air-space runs from top to bottom without any obstruction; if this wall is tied together with wire instead of brick, and is plastered air-tight from top to bottom so that it forms a dead-air-space, so the air can not leak out or circulate; and if the brickwork is well laid, the building will be as dry and warmer in winter and cooler in summer than any frame building.
Of recent years the brick manufacturers have made rapid strides toward making perfect ware for the construction of dry and warm buildings. A great improvement over the solid brick is the using of hollow brick and block in walls of residences and smaller buildings. Where hollow block are used should be back-plastered before the block backing is laid up against the outside facing. If a 2-in. air-space can be left between the outside facing and the 8-in. block backing, both sides of this air-space should be back-plastered, but ordinarily a 12-in. wall without air-space will do when block are used for lining, but the air-space is a great improvement even when hollow block are used. In order to get the best results with hollow brick or block, they should be very porous, with 20 to 25 per cent voids. A porous block is a non-conductor of heat and cold, whereas a dense block, like iron or granite, being a good conductor of heat and cold, will make a cold and damp building. A dense block will also crack like crockery in contact with fire and water, whereas a porous block will not.
If you want a warm, dry and fireproof wall, use hard brick for the outside tier and porous blocks for the inside lining. If an air-space is built, tie the walls with wire ties and not with brick. Be sure to have all the joints well filled. If this is followed a warm and dry wall is certain.
The writer has served his apprenticeship as a bricklayer, and has built brick buildings exclusively from his 14th year until he was 45 years of age, and during all that time not a single building built by him has failed to keep dry. Three or four years ago he visited Canada and found that in Toronto, Montreal and Quebec three-fourths of the residences for all classes of people are of brick. Two years ago he visited in Cuba, and failed to see any frame buildings in Havana.
The price of lumber has so steadily increased, that thoughtful people have looked around for a substitute, and the conse-
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quence is that various kinds of building material have been put upon the market. There are blocks made of different kinds of material with two to two and one-half-in. walls, and the rest is air-space. If you wish that kind of a wall, why not buy the cheapest kind of brick? Lay up two 4-in. walls with a 4-in. air-space and back-plaster them, and tie them together with wire wall-ties. This gives you a very warm wall 12 in. thick and stronger and cheaper than a cement-block wall. If you want cement finish, then you can plaster the outside of the wall with a thin coat of cement, and quarter it off so it looks like sandstone. This cement mortar can be made rich and applied in a plastic state, which will make your wall perfectly water-tight; whereas the material for cement blocks must be rammed into the forms in a semi-dry state whereby it becomes like a sponge. It will not crystallize and harden like the top coat of a cement sidewalk, which for the above reason is applied in a very soft state.
There is no doubt that it was a blessing to the brickmakers that other fireproof material was invented. This effort has had the effect of waking up the manufacturers of brick to the signs of the times. How could they expect to burn good brick in an open kiln with a 4-in. wall placed around the green brick, and plastered with mud? Naturally with such primitive methods of burning, some of the brick were overburned, some not burned enough, some just right, and some not at all. But all of them found the way to the market, and as many of the bricklayers have only “picked up” the trade, and know not an unburned brick from a burnt one, the result was that many of the half-burned brick were used for outside facing, and have disintegrated in the walls. Bu the brickmakers have opened their eyes, and the progressive ones have built up-to-date kilns, so that all their ware is well-burned. Well-burned brick will last almost indefinitely in any climate and will harden with age.
History shows that clay brick is the most durable of all building material. Tablets which were made of burned clay thousands of years ago, are excavated daily in all climates, and are found to be in a good state of preservation. Can this be said of any other building material? Burned clay does not contract or expand, like some other materials in our changeable climate. How long do you think that a wall will last, in a climate like ours where the temperature changes 75 deg. over night, built out of material that expands and contracts to a considerable extent? Such material may be all right in Jerusalem or Rome, but not in our climate.
Source:
Brick
Volume XXVI, Number 5, May 1907
Kenfield Publishing Co., Chicago, IL