OCR Text |
Show Brick Foundations Not to Be Painted Do not paint the bricks of the foundations foun-dations of houses. It may add to the appearance to put a coat of red or green on when the rest of the house is being painted, but best painters advise against it, for it means damp cellars. The temperature of a cellar is seldom sel-dom the same as that of the outdoor air. In summer the cellar is cooler, in winter warmer. The difference in temperature on either side of the bricks, added to the fact that the larger part of the cellar wall is beneath be-neath the ground, makes for dampness within the cellar. Except for a beating rainstorm, the outside of the bricks will not be damp, because the constant circulation of air outside drys them. Inside, the air is more stagnant. The dampness gathers on the bricks, and. as bricks lire porous, por-ous, soaks into them. If the bricks are unpainted this dampness is drawn out of the bricks on the outside, and evaporates, with a resulting dry cellar. Paint these bricks an'l the lead in Hie paint will fill the pores of the bricks and prevent the dampness from escaping from the bricks to the outside, and that will mean damp walls in the cellar. It is far better to leave the bricks their natural red and to know the dampness of the cellar has some means of being ahsorbed into the outer air. |