OCR Text |
Show Foundations Should Be Watched in Home Building There Is no phase of house building where the services of a supervising architect are of greater value than when the foundations are being laid It' is the architect's business to see that the contractor puts the founda- tions and footings in exactly as shown in the drawings. rerhaps the contractor makes an error in his excavations and as a result re-sult wants to make the footings a bit wider or deeper than called for. The architect will know whether this can be done with safety or not. To Increase In-crease the depth or area of the footings foot-ings may often prove as disastrous as to have a skimping contractor decrease de-crease their area of depth. The entire en-tire foundation may be thrown out of balance by such a move, the weight of the house distributed unevenly. A safe general rule to follow Is that the projection from the wall or column col-umn base should be not more than one-half of the depth. If the foundations or footings are unequal In their strength or Improperly Improp-erly placed or designed to carry the load they receive, the house will settle set-tle unevenly, cracks will appear in the walls and ceilings, window and door Jambs will be drawn out of plumb, and cold air, rain, dust, mosquitoes mos-quitoes and trouble may filter in around the window cnslngs. |