Hints and suggestions on school architecture and hygiene : with plans and illustrations for the use of school trustees in Ontario / by J. George Hodgins.
- J. George Hodgins
- Date:
- 1886
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Hints and suggestions on school architecture and hygiene : with plans and illustrations for the use of school trustees in Ontario / by J. George Hodgins. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![especially to see that it is thoroughly drained. Even if posts alone be used to support a frame structure, the same care as to drainage is neces¬ sary, so as to prevent dampness and its consequent evils. 98. In this connection, and in regard to the preliminary mechanical details, I give the following valuable suggestions, based upon the ex¬ perience and judgment of the skilled architect who has prepared the United States work on School Architecture. He thus points out what should be done so as to secure a good foundation, and also how the work itself should be performed : (a) “ The site having been carefully selected and drained as before described, the cellar may be excavated to a uniform depth of about 3 feet below the original surface of the ground. The sod, if good, should be stripped off and utilized at once in improving the remoter portions of the lot. The loam should be piled separately, to be put sub¬ sequently on top of the grading. The gravel or earth will be disposed of as the nature of the ground may require, but on a reasonably level spot all the excavated material will generally be used in raising the ground to a gentle slope around the building ; not a steep bank, but a grade of one in ten or so. The trenches for the foundation walls should be dug 2 feet below the cellar bottom and 18 inches of dry stone filled in and rammed down before starting the walls ; the excavation should be made 8 inches larger than the wall, as before described, and the wall carried up with smooth outside face to the height set for the under side of the first floor. This will vary according to circumstances. If the building is to be warmed by a furnace, the height of the base¬ ment should be about 8 feet. Not only is anything less than this insufficient to give head room under the hot-air pipes, but the heating is much more certain where the basement is high enough to allow a good pitch to the hot-air pipes. If there is no fur¬ nace, 6| feet clear will give sufficient head room. . . . The thickness of the founda¬ tion depends upon the material and upon the thickness of the wall above. Where it can be procured, rubble stone, of granite, slate, greenstone, trap, or any of the harder rocks, makes a perfectly satisfactory foundation for a building of the kind proposed, being comparatively imper vious, and therefore little liable to soak up ground moisture, to give it out again from the inner surface ; while, for the same reason, the ground does not freeze to the outside in winter, gradually tearing to pieces a wall built of them, as it does a brick or soft stone foundation in cold climates. If the wall above is of rubble it will be usually 16 inches thick, and the foundation must be from 20 to 24 inches thick, according to the character of the stone, rounded bowlders demanding greater thickness than the flat pieces of slate. A hollow brick wall above will be from 12 to 16 inches thick, and a 20-inch rubble or 16-inch brick foundation will suffice. A frame building, if there is a cellar under it, should have a rubble wall 18 to 20 inches thick, according to the character of the stone, or a 12-inch brick wall will do if it is protected against the pressure of earth from outside and from the disintegrating action of frost in clayey and clinging soils by a good thick envelope of clean gravel. A solid 8-inch brick wall above will need a similar foundation. If no cellar is required, the trench wall for the foundation should still be 18 inches thick, if of stone, or 12 inches, if of brick. Nothing less than these will long withstand the winter frosts. (b) [As] “ frame buildings [which have no cellars for hot-air furnaces] are very gene¬ rally built on piers or posts. . . . With strong sills and good piers this is a durable and economical construction. [In this case the sills should be raised] well above the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30480449_0055.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
