Sanitary by-laws / by Francis Vacher.

  • Vacher, Francis.
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sanitary by-laws / by Francis Vacher. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    should not omit to mention that we have a by-law requiring a damp course in all walls three inches above the footings. It is very important that every house should be roofed with incombustible material. This is secured in Birkenhead by the Act just referred to, which provides that ‘ every outer part of every flat gutter, roof, turret, dormer, and lantern light, or other similar erection, in or on any building,’ shall he covered with incombustible material. A by-law also directs that every external, party, or division-wall of a new building shall be carried up close to the underside of the roof covering, in every part, and that the laths and outside covering of slates shall bo securely bedded in mortar thereon. These regulations appear to me to be fairly efficient; but it would be well to require that roofing material should be impervious to water as well as incombustible. I have heard it suggested that all party-walls should be taken through the roof. This would afford some additional security against the spread of fire from house to house, but every wall so carried up through the roof would be almost certainly damp. As regards chimneys and fire-places, the chief desiderata are that all wood- work shall be kept a reasonable distance from them, and that they have sufficiently thick backs to he safe. To this end we require that no flue or fire- place shall be nearer than 4£ inches to the centre of the thickness of any wall (giving a hack of 9 inches) and that no timber he laid in a wall nearer than 6 inches to any chimney-opening, hack or flue, and that no timber be laid underneath the jambs or openings in any chimney-board, and that every chimney-opening shall have before it a slab of incombustible material, one foot larger than the opening when finished. It is also required that the inside of every chimney-opening and flue to he built shall he pargeted throughout with mortar properly prepared for such purpose. But a rule or by-Law to this effect should define what is meant by 1 properly prepared,' as in the absence of such definition, ordinary mortar is used, which does not stand the heat and cracks off. Probably mortar, however made, is unsuitable for the purpose. The special regulations requisite in respect of ovens, furnaces, etc., is too large a subject for me even to refer to here, but I do think that as one of tho principal objects sought in constructing factory chimneys is that they shall not causo a nuisance, this matter snould not be lost sight of in dealing with regulations for domestic chimneys. It has occurred to me that all house chimneys should bo required to be built to a definite scale of capacity. Half the smoky chimneys which are a cause of so much loss and annoyance, owe their bad habits simply to their being too small. 8. With Respect to the Sufficiency of the Space about Buildings to Secure a Free Circulation of Air, and with Respect to the Ventilation of Buildings.— The regulations as to the minimum width of streets provide for a sufficiency of spaco in front of buildings ; but under this hoading there romains to bo considered what yard space it is desirablo to insist on. This is a very vexed
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