Typical Example of Specifications

brickwork throughout in dicated on plans is to be built of the very best quality hard-burnt bricks, laid in Rosendale ce ment mortar, except that below the basement floor, which is to be laid in Portland cement mor tar. All to be laid solid with the joints well filled; to be laid perfectly plumb and to a line; soft and pale bricks are not to be used. Every sixth course is to be a heading course; face bricks are to be clipped, and the headers built in diagonally.

"All bricks are to be thoroughly wet when being laid.

"All the present brickwork of the adjoining buildings, where cut or disturbed, is to be re paired and rebuilt in the very best manner; old chases, beam holes, flues, and channels are to be bricked up. The flues in the adjoining party walls must not be disturbed, and must be re paired, cleaned out, and delivered in good condition.

"The joints of all exposed brickwork not spe cified to be plastered, are to be neatly struck.

"At all the floors, the channels and chases must be filled in solid at the floors, as required by the Building Code.

"The vault arches of the sidewalks are to be built 8 inches thick, the Contractor furnishing the necessary centers.

"Window-frames must be built in solid and pointed up, before the plastering is started; if not properly built in or pointed, they will be calked with oakum at the Contractor's expense.

"All wooden beams, steel beams, and girders are to be well bedded, and are to be built in solid.

"Offsets on walls are to be made on top of the beams.

"The metal cornice of the front is to be backed up as shown; the brickwork is to be car ried up to the top of the cornice.

"Build in all anchors, bolts, tie-bars, eyes, clamps, etc., and all pipes, ducts, etc., furnished under other contracts.

"All furred walls are to have on each story corbeled offsets, as required by the Building Code.

"Dwarf walls, pit walls, retaining walls, base ment walls at boiler, elevators, manholes for un derground traps and valves, and all other brick work not specially mentioned, are to be built as directed by the Architect." The plans should show distinctly, and spe cifications should mention, all walls coming under this specification. As it now stands, it leaves entirely too much that should come under the head of "extra work" which the architect may order the contractor to do.

"All other brickwork not specially mentioned is to be built as directed." Here, again, more specific information should be given in plans and specifications.

"Fire Bricks—The boiler flue chimney is to be lined with first-quality fire bricks, all laid in fire clay from the bottom to 25 feet above the boiler flue connection.

"Face Brickwork—The fronts above the sidewalk as indicated on the plans, and the re turns on the gable walls at and are to be faced with light grey Powhatan' bricks or other best-quality pressed bricks, selected by the Architect, samples to be submitted for approval. The returns on the gable walls are to be 3 feet wide." This is a specification that may work con siderable hardship to the contractor. The different kinds of pressed brick vary a good deal in their color and the consequent archi tectural effect; and it may easily be that, in order to get the exact color satisfactory to the architect, the contractor will have to buy a more expensive brick than the one which he has figured on in making up his bid. On the other hand, an unscrupulous contractor could submit for approval a brick that he knows is not satisfactory, and then claim an extra price for furnishing a satisfactory one. It is best, whenever possible, for the architect to have on exhibition a sample of what will be satisfactory. As the specification reads, a Powhatan brick will pass, and any other brick of exactly the same color and other physical characteristics will pass; but it is evident that numbers of other bricks will also pass; and just how much variation from the Powhatan size, quality, or color will be per mitted, does not appear. If the architect has in his office numbered samples of, say, six bricks, all of which or any of which he will pass, and refers to them, allowing the con tractor to see them before closing the con tract, all uncertainty and ambiguity will vanish.

"The back of pier and the wall of the entrance back of this pier to the vestibule door, are to be faced with same bricks; see thawing No. 10. . . .

"All pressed bricks are to be of the very best quality; the Contractor must guarantee their not changing color." To guarantee that a brick will not change color is a hard matter. In cities where soft coal is burned, the bricks of a building ap parently change color, those near the side walk generally more than those in the upper stories. Moreover, a few years after erec tion, unless very careful and special scien tific records were kept, it would be exceed ingly difficult to prove whether certain bricks had changed color or not.