Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: resting on the floor, and should be sunk so deep, that the boards, when on them, will be very nearly, but not altogether in contact with the floor -- say one inch above it. This plan saves the cost of removing the floor, as well as that of the masonry usually placed under the joists, and not more than half the quantity of joisting will bo required. It applies, however, only when the floor is quite dry, both in winter and summer: if ever there is the slightest damp, the timber will rot. 3. Ceiling; Windows; Offices. If the house be of only one story, comfort and health both require that the room be ceiled. If the roof be slated or tiled, it is subject to all vicissitudes of temperature in the absence of ceiling; it is miserably cold in winter, and intolerably hot under the sun of summer. A thatched roof overhead presents a very unsightly appearance indeed, and renders the preservation of cleanliness a difficult task; it is just as easy to ceil a. roof of this kind as one that is slated. If the ordinary plaster ceiling be thought either too heavy or too expensive, the room may be covered over very neatly, and without much cost, with a sheeting of thin boards. Any common carpenter can do this. Suppose a small room, 24 x 16 feet, and that the boards are laid longitudinally, and nailed to the rafters and collar-braces; about fifty-four twelve-foot leaves, nine inches broad, will cover the whole roof; and if they be ]-inch thick, they can be all cut from seven three-inch planks, twelve feet long. The boards should be always painted either white or some very light colour. It must be borne in mind, though it is frequently forgotten in practice, that a house is furnished with windows for two purposes -- to give light, and to afford ventilation. For the latter, it is q...