Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/143

 COTTAGE DWELLINGS IN VARIOUS STYLES. 119 217 wliole in the best and most workmanlike manner, subject to the general particulars at the end of this specification. •235. Specification of Plasterers U'ork. The cement chimney shafts to be coloured twice over, of a good warm stone tint. To lath, lay, float, set, and white the strings of the principal stairs, and the ceilings of the sitting-rooms, of the passage, and of the chamber floor throughout. The ceilings of the kitchen, wash-house, pantry, store- room, and the whole of the basement story, as well as the pediment in front of the house, to be lath-laid, set, and whited. (To lath, plaster, float, and set, is to give what is called three-coat work ; the first coat, given after nailing on the lath, is called pricking up ; the second, floating; and the third, setting or giving a coat of fine stuff'. The second coat is called floating, from the tool used in the operation, which is denominated a float. There are three sorts of these tools; viz., the hand float, the quirk float, and the Derby or two-handed float. The floated coat is brushed with a birch broom, to roughen the surface before the setting coat is applied. The first coat of two-coat work is called laying, when on lath, and rendering on brick. In three-coat work, the first coat on lath is called pricking up, and upon brick roughing in.) To lime white, twice over, the walls of wash-house, and the basement throughout. To lath, plaster, float, and set, for paper or colouring, the whole of the battening (pieces of wood fixed to the bond timber on the walls at regular distances, on which the lath is to be nailed) of the inside of the external walls, and partitions for lath of the principal and chamber floors (except the wash-house) ; and render-float (roughing in would be the more correct term here, but rendering is generally used, and is understood by the trade), and set, for paper or colouring, all the internal walls, and nogging partitions of both floors. All the external walls, with the exception of the wash-house, will be battened by the carpenter. All the timbers in the partitions, and the bond (the timber built into the walls), to be diagonally lathed. (Lathing diagonally lessens the risk of cracks in the plaster, in case the timber should shrink). The two sitting-rooms and passage to have plaster cornices, as shown in fig. 11, in the plate of details, page 118. The plasterer is to find all materials, tools, tressels (a sort of stool, sometimes five or six feet high, fig. 217, used for supporting scaffolding boards), boards, moulds, rules, car- riage, and workmanship required for the comple- tion of his work ; and to run (a term used by plasterers, meaning to form) such beads, quirks, arrises (projecting angles), &c., as may be neces- sary for the perfect execution of the same ; and to do the whole in the best and most workmanlike manner, subject to the general particular at the end of this specification. 236. Specification of S/aters Work. To cover the whole of the roofing with tlie best countess slates, nailed with stout wrought-copper nails; the eaves to be laid double, and the whole of the slates to have a sufficient overlap, and to be carefully sorted in courses consisting of slates of equal thickness, so as to exclude the weather effectually. The slater is to find all materials, tools, carriage, and workmanship required for the com- pletion of the above ; and to do the same in the best and most workmanlike manner, subject to the general particular at the end of this specification. 237. Specification of Stone-Mason's Work. All the windows to have York quarry stone sills, eight inches wide, beveled, throated (in the section of the stone sills, fig. 218, the throat is represented at e ; yis the bevel of the sill, and g the oak sill of the window frame, resting on the stone sill ; and also throated at/j), and tooled (see § 82). The entrance door to have a landing (a piece of pavement of larger dimensions than ordi- nary) over the area, of Yorkshire stone, four inches thick, rounded at the edges ; the terrace to have Yorkshire pavement laid the width of the stairs at the entrances ; the steps and the coping of the spandril (the space between an arch and the member . over it), together with the coping of the piers (the solid parts between any arches or openings) of the — ^ stairs, and those on the terrace wall, to be of York quarry stone. The coping of the spandrils to be twelve inches wide, and that of the piers seven- teen and a half inches square, properly cramped and nm with lead. Each parlour to have vein marble profile cliimney-pieces, not exceeding seven pounds in value, exclusive of hearths and slabs. (Profile chimney-pieces are such as have projecting jambs, with their sides covered by slips, 218