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General Considerations.—The remarks in this paragraph will be found applicable to all sorts of floors. The joists should be laid across the narrowest part of the room, and girders and binders should be so arranged as to take a bearing on a solid pier or wall,



and not over door or window openings. In cases where a long distance has to be traversed by a joist, which is supported by one or more girders in the length, it should be made as long as possible. By this means the strength of the joist is greatly increased, as also is its usefulness as a tie to the walls. Flooring-boards should be cut and prepared, and stacked in the open air, with free ventilation all round, with proper protection from wet, for as long a period as possible before they are required for use. Where such an arrangement is possible it is well to have the boards laid face downwards for some months in the position they are to occupy before they are finally nailed.

The floor in a basement storey, or on the ground level where there is no basement, is formed of joists laid on wooden sleepers, themselves bedded on dwarf walls (Figs. 313 and 314). The walls and sleepers are usually 4 ft. or 5 ft. apart, and the joists 4 in. to 6 in. deep. Occasionally the walls and sleepers are further apart, and then joists 6 in. or even 8 in. deep are used. Fig. 68