Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/136

 112 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. 207 should always require would be perspective views, undisguised by trees, or gaudy colouring, of the edifice to be erected, independently of the necessary geometrical plans, sections, and elevations ; and in works of importance, a model in unpainted wood should always be con- structed, and maturely considered before a Design is determined upon. 234. Specification of Excavator' s, Well-Digger' s, and Bricklayer' s Work. To dig out the earth for the basement story, together with the cesspools and drains, and the several trenches for the foundations of the whole of the building, of the respective depths and widths required ; and to fill in and well ram the earth round the work. The surplus earth arising from these excavations, and from the well, together with the rubbish made in the progress of the work, to be spread round the house so as to form the terrace, shewn in the Designs (if more earth is required for this purpose, it must be brought to the spot at the expense of the employer) ; and the whole to be well rammed and consolidated. — To dig a well four feet clear in diameter, and forty-five deep, and to steen the same in four-inch brick-work, with the top properly domed over in nine-inch brick-work ; leaving a manhole, twenty inches square, covered with a Yorkshire stone, having a strong iron ring on the top. If a greater depth than forty-five feet should be required, the additions must be paid for by the employer as an extra ; and, if a less depth is sufficient, a proportionate deduction must be made. To dig a cesspool four feet clear in diameter, and nine feet deep, and steen it with four-inch brick-work ; leaving a manhole, which is to be closed with a Yorkshire stone, the same as that used to close the well. All the bricks to be used in the building, or brought upon the premises, to be sound and good well burnt grey stocks (bricks made of marley clay ; that is, clay having a certain proportion of marl naturally, or chalk artificially, mixed with it) ; those to be used in the external parts of the building to be carefully picked of an uniform colour ; and the whole laid, and flushed solid (the joints filled up) in mor- tar, of the several heights and thicknesses, with the apertures specified in the draw- ings : none of the bricks to be brought upon the premises to be slack burnt (im- perfectly burned), or overburnt. The mortar to be composed of the best well burnt grey lime (grey lime-stone, not chalk lime-stone), and clean, sharp, pit, or river sand, well tempered together; and to be sifted through a screen, whose wires shall be at equal distances, and not less than thirty in every foot in breadth. — The walls of the foundations and cellars, up to the level of the platform, to be worked in brick-work, and grouted (fluid mortar poured into the middle joints) with hot lime and sand; the rest of the walls above ground to be of brick-work, and the external face to be worked with a neat flat ruled joint (a ruled joint is a joint struck flat with the trowel, with a line drawn in the centre by means of a small iron instru- ment, fig. 207, called a jointer, and an iron straight edge, or flat ruler). The terrace wall to be built battering (sloping inwards), from two feet three inches at bottom, to nine inches thick at top, with a nine-inch upright parapet, coped with bevelled bricks, and fourteen-inch brick piers, as shewn by the drawings ; fourteen common garden pots and pans, twenty inches high, to be provided and fixed thereon. Four- inch brick discharging arches (arches built over hntels to relieve them from part of the super- incumbent weight, fig. 208, in which is shown the discharging arch, a, and the lintel which it is intended to relieve, h), to be turned over all the openings in the interior of the walls ; twelve-inch guaged arches (bricks reduced by rubbing on free-stone laid on a table, called a banker, to the shape of truncated wedges, so as to form arch stones, fitting exactly with each other, according to the curve of the arch ; the faces of these bricks are also rubbed quite smooth), with eight-inch skewbacks (the space between c and d, in the guaged arch, fig. 209, is the skewback of that arch), and four-inch soflits (the under side of the arches) corresponding in width with the reveals (the outside jambs, or rabbets ; see q, in fig. 180), to be put over all the external openings, made of the best grey cutting bncks. 209