Show The selection of material for the construction con-struction of n dwelling house depends primarily The pri-marily upon the amount one is willing to pay In spite of all statements regarding Truth tho advanced coat of lumber the least expensive ex-pensive satisfactory dwelling house today About is that built of wood Tho inflammability Cement and high cost of maintenance are its chief objections Wooden houses are quickly built are warm and dry By M CTUTTLE The concrete block walls are inexpensive Concrete Expert Boilon inexpen-sive and fireproof Well built they are impervious to moisture and can be made attractive in appearance Care must be < exercised to avoid porous and soft blocks with which the market is flooded flood-ed These cause a damp house There is small latitude in the design of a concrete block building on which the cost is to be kept down Only under exceptionally favorable conditions can a block wall compete in price with wood Dwellings built with wooden frame with wire lath stretched over the outside studding to take plaster are lower in cost than those with brick walls and if the plastering is done properly and the metal lath thoroughly covered with the mortaron the back it is probable that they are reasonably permanent Carefully handled this material offers an attractive wall ford for-d house The house built entirely of concrete walls floors stairs and roof is specially prominent through Mr Edisons announcement that he has devised de-vised ft method of building these for less than the price of wood We nits not in position to criticise Mr Edisonsmethods but can speak regarding the cost of small concrete buildings constructed according to methods employed em-ployed hero in Boston Many excellencies of the allconcrete building cannot be questioned It is warm indestructible fireproof sanitary The cost however of the average dwelling house constructed of this material proves higher than that of any of the other materials named Ten years experience in estimating concrete structures of all sorts has convinced me that only under exceptional conditions can a small concrete con-crete dwelling house be built at as low a price as one of any of the other materials That is instead of making a saving it is probable that the prospective builder will find that he can build nt lower first cost of concrete con-crete blocks of brick of plaster or of wood than he can of solid concrete This of course compares the price of the fireproof concrete house with that of an inflammable one It is safe however to emphasize to anyone interested in the building of small houses that they cannot save money on first cost by buying a concrete house with concrete floors and roof if it is properly constructed It is to be said with equal emphasis that it would be difficult buy a better house than one of concrete throughout and with proper design it is difficult to get a 1 better looking one The feature of cheapness has been over advertised and the question of excellence emphasized too little For fireproof office buildings factories warehouses and for large country houses remote from the fire apparatus it is safe to say that a more economical eco-nomical type of fireproof construction J I cannot be found nor one susceptible S If of butter architectural treatment l > > fl C > CKtQ |