WOODEN HOUSES.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SEECTATOR."] Sin,—Allow me to protest against the makeshift and dangerous ways of building described in the Spectator of March 9th, and to show the way to something better. Mr. Buolianan's boast of a building lasting twenty-five years must amuse anybody who thinks of what a true building is in endurance. A cottage or an outhouse built of wood is a fire ready laid. Wooden structures are a need in a new wooded country, but a danger in an old one, and should be forbidden by law. All this wooden material is imported stuff, for which we have to pay the full value plus the carriage. Our cottages and outhouses should be built of native materials, which are also the beat. In new building we should take advantage of modern know- ledge as to fireproof materials and reinforced concrete, which last would enable us to build sound walls much less ponderous than of old.
But even old ways are better than tarred boards. In this place the Moat Cottage has sheltered men for hundreds of years, and it is built of wattle and dab braced in stout old oak beams, and it is quite pleasant and sound to live in now. The wattle and dab is covered with some kind ofniortar, which makes it more fireproof than the ugly and dangerous tarred timbers. I believe the system is still used in Bedfordshire and other parts of the country. A few years ago, in Burgundy, I saw buildings made of clay or heavy loam with a thin band of cement every yard or so as the wall is raised. Where the ground is of this earth it is convenient for the purpose and
also is fireproof and weatherproof, besides being warm in winter and cool in summer.
As to the outhouses of the future, the true way is to make them non-combustible. The idea of hell-fire is leaving us, but still our builders keep on roasting people alive, as in the Clapham fire and that at Hanwell, and such fires are recorded in the papers every week. I should not build a stable for a horse to be burnt in, lot alone a man. The beautiful creatures that labour for us in the fields are sometimes burnt, and often many at a time, in these combustible farm buildings.
As to the cottages of the future, where several are required a new departure should be made in their construction. The great enemy is the sloping roof with the vast quantity of timber it entails. A better way would be to build the cottages two storeys high, with fireproof floors and a flat roof, with a very gentle rise in the middle to throw the water off, and a low parapet all round, and each upper cottage with a separate entrance in the Italian way by means of an outside staircase. In this way we should secure in a not expensive way cottages fireproof, vermin-proof, rot-proof, and sanitary.
The sloping roof of tiles and slates, unless done in the best way, which a cottage cannot afford, is a continual cause of trouble and expense. The architects have a stock saying that there is no such thing as a fireproof building, but the study of Italian and American fireproof and other ways of build- ing would enable us to secure that. Our flimsy ways of building enable the insurance companies to fatten upon us. I build and never insure in town or country.—I am, Sir, &c., [We aro profoundly in disagreement with Mr. Robinson. Surrey, Kent, and Essex are full of weatherboard cottages, tarred or painted, that have stood for a hundred years and more. They burn no more easily if isolated than do houses 'of brick.—En. Spectator.]
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