reaching through both
stories, especially those by the staircase, where the shrinking of the
second-floor timbers will reveal ugly cracks and crooks. That the
greatest strength and economy of material are secured by sawing logs
into thin, wide scantling is also beyond question, but don't try to
save too closely on a bill of timber. A thousand feet added to the
width of the studs and the depth of the joist will make the difference
between a stiff, unterrified frame, and a weak, trembling one.
Neither be sparing of the number of these light sticks. Sixteen inches
between centres is far enough for studs or joists; twelve is better,
though particulars will depend on circumstances. We have no use for
the old-fashioned huge square posts, horizontal girts, and braces
midway the walls of a two-story building, having found that studs two
inches by five will carry all that is required of them as well as if
ten times as large. Let us generously give the light frame the stanch
support of a sound, well-matched, and bountifully nailed covering of
inch boards. There's great virtue in tenpenny nails. Let the building
be well peppered with them. Even after boarding, your walls will have
less than two inches of solid wood. If you wish to make an example of
yourself, lay this boarding diagonally; and, to cap the climax of
scientific thoroughness, having given it a good nailing and a layer
of sheathing-felt, cover the whole with another wooden garment of the
same style as the first, and crossing it at right angles. All of this
before the final overcoat of clapboards, or whatever it may be. A
house built in this way would laugh at earthquakes and tornadoes. It
couldn't fall down, but would blow over and roll down hill without
doing any damage except disarranging the furniture, and, possibly,
shaking off the chimney-tops! It would hardly need any studs except as
furrings for lath and plastering, and would be very warm. You know my
mind about floors. If you can't afford joists stiff enough to hold you
without jarring, even when you chance to cut a caper with the baby,
defer building till you are a little richer. Floors need the
well-nailed linings, too, especially those of the upper stories,
almost as much as the outer walls, and should be deafened with mortar
if you can stand the cost; if not, with felt. The upper floors we will
talk over by and by. Some people have a fancy for filling in between
studs with soft brick, but I don't believe in