A handbook of house sanitation : for the use of all persons seeking a healthy home ; a reprint of those portions of Mr. Bailey-Denton's lectures on sanitary engineering given before the school of military engineering, Chatham, which related to the "dwelling."

  • John Bailey Denton
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A handbook of house sanitation : for the use of all persons seeking a healthy home ; a reprint of those portions of Mr. Bailey-Denton's lectures on sanitary engineering given before the school of military engineering, Chatham, which related to the "dwelling.". Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    LEEDS Jcwr^T-niniMC CONTENTS OF CHAPTER III. ESSENTIAL CONSIDERATIONS TO EE OBSERVED IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF DWELLINGS. Section XIX, Concrete Floors. XX. Damp Course. ,, XXI. Dripping Roofs and Dry Rot. XXII. Hollow Walls. „ XXIII. Basement Floors under the Level of Surrounding Ground to have Areas. XXIV. No Cellar or Basement to exist in Dwellings Built on Clay Soils. XXV. Ventilating Shafts in connection with Chimneys. ,, XXVI. As to the situation of Kitchen and Cooking Departments and the avoidance of Smells therefrom. XXVIL Precautionaiy Measures necessary to Prevent Explosions of Boilers. CHAPTER III. [Having in the last chapter—which was devoted to the Site of the Dwelling —dealt with its drainage in its true meaning, and proposing in the next to treat of its sewerage, it is now intended to specify certain considerations to which attention should in all cases be paid in the construction of the fabric itself.] XIX. Concrete Floors. —After the water-level in the ground forming the site has been lowered by drainage (see ante, p. 17), every care should be taken to prevent dampness rising from that water-level into the basement floors, or up the walls through the foundations. To protect the basement floors from this evil it is desirable to cover the ground forming the base of the dwelling with a bed of concrete extending from outside wall to outside wall. This will not only prevent dampness and ground air rising from the underlying soil into the inhabited apartments, but it will also prevent any liquid refuse from sinking into the ground beneath to aggra- vate the pernicious character of the air which would otherwise rise from it. Such a covering of concrete is especially useful in preventing the rising of effluvia from any sewer that might be laid under the basement floor. Though contrary to the primary rules of sanitation, it is not always possible, especially in closely inhabited towns, to avoid laying sewers under the basement floors of houses ; and where this is done special care should be taken to envelop them with concrete, so as to prevent any foul air that might escape from the joints of the pipes from being drawn mto tlie house by the higher temperature of the rooms above. Under