House Framing

If a contractor has the cutting to do for steam or hot-water heating, he finds that there is no great amount of difference between cutting for steam or hot-water heating and in cutting for the furnace, if some care is taken in setting joists and partitions.

Fig. 12 shows how studding and joists should be laid out on sills and girders where they lap by one another, to keep them in line across the building. The studding on one sill are set the thickness of the studding to one side of the studding on the opposite sill. Then, when the joists are placed, they can be lapped on the girder in the center, and each tier of joists will line up square across the building. How often we see joists put in lapped on a girder or parti tion, and scarcely a joist in the entire floor is square with the building. This frequently makes it bad in setting partitions that run paral lel with the joists, and sometimes makes extra cutting necessary.

It pays to be a little particular and exact in laying out work. The little extra time it takes is a mere nothing, while its advantages are very great, and are apparent everywhere about a building laid out by a competent man who looks ahead a little in his work. The old saying, "Never cross a bridge till you come to it," may be handy for people to say at times, but be sure the bridge is there when you want it; it saves trouble.

Wall Framing.

Fig. 13 may be taken as a typical exterior wall section, sill to plate, in the ordinary cottage or small house. Studs 2 by 4, set about 16 inches on centers, are stood on the wall-plate, to which they are toe-nailed. They are also securely spiked to the floor-joists.

At the ceiling line, a ribbon or ledger board, usually 1 by 5, is notched into the studding and nailed, to support the ceiling joist. At the top a 2 by 4 plate is applied, which supports the roof rafters through the bearing known as the seat cut.

For cottages, the ceiling joists frequently project out and meet the rafter ends, thus mak ing an easily constructed box cornice.

Sheathing.

We often hear it said that to sheath a house horizontally makes a poor job, while to put the same lumber on diagonally makes a first-class job. Now, we do not con demn diagonal sheathing, for if it's well done it makes a good job, and in some respects is much better than it would have been if put on horizontally.

Some put it on diagonally at each corner until they come to an opening, and then put the rest on horizontally. Some claim that makes a

good job, while others claim it makes a very poor one. Now, if bracing the house is what is wanted, this arrangement does it, to some extent at least, though unless the joint is reinforced with a 2 by 4—which is not often done— it makes a weak and had job where the diagonal and horizontal work come together.

A good way is to make both corners braced, and then come together in the middle the best you can.

Ordinarily the sheathing is applied to the outside of the studding; then comes the build ing paper, and then the finish siding. From time to time discussions occur, looking to the reversal of this order, or, in other words, put ting the sheathing on the inside of the stud ding. Among the arguments for this is that the sheathing would then furnish a sound and positive backing for the plaster walls. Another argument is that when the sheathing is put on the outside and then the weatherboard, there is some tendency for the moisture to get in between the two and cause. decay; so it was thought better to have the sheathing inside, and the weatherboarding simply as an outside pro tection on the outside of the studding.

Sound-Proof Walls. Every builder is at some time or other interested more or less in what might be termed noise-proof or sound proof walls and floors. It is always desirable to have floors and partition walls as non-pro ductive and as non-conductive of sound as practicable; and there are several different kinds of composition and methods of construc tion resorted to for this purpose. It is, however, a bigger task than one might think to make an absolutely noise-proof wall. It is said that what is indorsed by Prof. S. I. Franz as the one noise proof room is a room about 8 feet square and high, on the top floor of the University of Utrecht. Its walls are about 11 inches thick. From the inside, these are made up of successive layers of horse-hair felt, porous stone, dead air, wood partition, ground cork composition, and a plastered surface. The ceiling, though some what simpler made, has similar layers. The boards of the floor were sawed, and the joints filled with lead to stop vibration; a layer of lead was then covered over all, to the thickness of more than an inch; and over this, in turn, is used carpet nearly half an inch in thick ness.