Treated Wood in Building Construction

Continued from Page 11) wall? I believe it can be done, although I may be wrong, for all the metal house Architects and Engineers are talking about metal exterior surfaces with permanent ( ?) heat deflecting paint. These wall surfaces are to be carried on steel studs.

My old friend, John Kreer of the American Lumber and Treating Corporation, tells me that a nail will last and hold forever in Wolman Salt treated wood. It is much easier to fasten wood sheathing to wood studs than to weld steel to steel studs. Is it not possible to use treated wood for all these outside walls-and if it can be used on a cottage, why not on a skyscraper?

How would you like to see carpenters on a scafiold hailing O. G. siding to cover the exterior of a 100-story building? That sounds rather absurd at first thought, but it is not. Treated wood, which must be the salvation of the lumber industry, must qualify for just such uses.

The inside partitions add more dead weight to the building, and instead of 4 or 5 or 6 inches of heavy tile and plaster, why not have the old-fashioned wood stud, lath and plaster partitions using treated wood-bubstituting the modern treated wood wall board for plaster.

Now figure weight reductions in walls, exterior and interior partitions, floors, and then in the steel frame itself ; in the latter, all connections will be welded, not riveted. Eventually all ivets and the cost of punching and rivets will be eliminated in buildings.

The reduction of weight of the building results, of course, in a corresponding reduction in size and cost of foundations.

Treated piles will in many instances take the place of concrete piles or concrete footings. This economy is even today generally recognized and should be recognized universally as the economical method of foundation design in many situations. Engineers now working on the new Chicago Building Code have a duty in the consideration of treated wood piles.

There are many uses for treated wood in connection with this new type of building-always bearing in mind the necessity for fire resistant treatment. Please understand that I advocate, and always have advocbted, construction which is the most nearly first resistant that can be secured under any given set of conditions.

I can remember "way back when" wood was the only material used for fle615-n6q7 wood flooring is the exception rather than the rule. Treated wood will change this. I have inspected and reported on laminated wood floor failures. The wood was considered at fault.It was because it was not treated, although we did not then know all the facts. Treated laminated wood flooring used in conjunction with treated timbers may bring back what is now an obsolete construction. In fact, treated laminated flooring has a bigger field than the old untreated laminatetl flooring ever had.

Two million feet of maple wood floor tiles have been laid in the new Chicago Postoffice-but it is untreated. An untreated floor always has and always will invite trouble.

I have used steel sash of many types but I know of no sash that gives such universal satisfaction as the old-fashioned double hung wood sash. Now this sash can be made of treated wood and is proving satisfactory even in railroad roundhouses. The entire market for windows opens again for a treated wood sash.

Doors must or should in many locations be fire retardant. The failure to provide such doors of treated wood has led to the development of the metal door with metal trim. Every wood sash and door mill in the country should be turning out a treated product exclusively.

The framing for all types of buildings within the limits of capacity of commercial sizes can well be made of treated ltimber and timbers.

The development of plywood has opened new fields or markets for this product, dependent largely on its being treated. Concrete form sheathing is one example. This new type, design and construction increases very appreciably the useful floor area and decreases the space used by columns, walls, etc. The net head room or vertical clearances remain the same while the gross or over all is decreased. More savings per dollar of investment. To offset this in some instances will be ventilating ducts, which can well be built of plywood-rather a large market. Cellars were originally storage places for vegetables, later for coal and 2 fuln2ss-and have become basements. We no longer store vegetables and the furnace or boiler can be tucked away in a corner of the garage (in either a factory or cottage) with the fuel in a tank beneath the ground. The laundry can g'o into the attic. Eliminate a useless basement and its concrete walls and build to a point below frost, a treated timber bearing wall. This is another use for treated lumber with savings affected. Scaffolding used during building construction, including all concrete form lumber, should be of treated wood. This need was proven again by the I. C. C. building fire on January 6, when large damage was done to steel by the burning of the scaffolding.

Treated wood has special advantages in all places within buildings where there is excessive moisture or humidity. Paper and pulp mills, icing plants (which I mention advisedly), some chemical plants, laundries, plating rooms, etc., are some examples of an ideal condition for treated wood.

In industrial plants there are millions of feet of roof area in which untreated wood, with or without sprinkler system, has been supplanted by gypsum or tile roofing. Treated wood could have been used advantageously, as it would have been cheaper and better. fn foundries and industrial plants, moisture, condensation and resultant damage are of much more common occurrence than generally realized. This wide use of wood can be regained when properly treated wood is properly sold.

Destruction due to termite is estimated at 45 millions per year. The annual losses due to termite, fungi and similar agencies equals one-fifth of the value of the annual timber cut of the country. That wood, untreated, is now being used in dwellings, ranging from the workingman's cottage to the millionaire's palace, is an evidence of the ignorance of the Engineei and Architect and of the lack of intelligent initiative and resourcefulness on the part of the lumber industry to realize the need of educating both the professional man and layman.

I have described so briefly that I may have failed to visualize for you the trend in building design which is leading to an entirely new type of building construction.

I hope you realize, however, something of what is taking place and what it'means to the lumber industry. This is the most critical moment which the industry has ever faced, because it will either find its rightful place in a tremendously enlarged market for a new product, treated wood, or itwill drop entirely out of the picture in the building industry.

This is no exaggeration. Millions of dollars are now being spent to develop houses of all sizes, of steel, tile, composition, patented brick, concrete slabs and a score of other materials, all to replace wood. Considerable progress has been made and definitely satisfactory results are shown. Wood permits of flexibility of design because of. its workabi,lity. Steel is inflerible and lends itself to standardization, but that is one thing which is not wanted. I quote the following from the current bulletin of the Illinois Society of Architects:

"A trade research by the United States Steel Corporation for use within the Corporation on the 'IJse of Steel in Residence Construction,' dated June, 1932, studies fifty-six specific systems. It finds 'the American owner insists on individuality in arrangement and appearance.' And again: 'No proprietary system of steel panel units so far presented, either for framing or filling, contains features of outstanding merit.'

"The survey shows that the American public does not want standardized houses,. and save where employers build for their workmen, the field for these houses is restricted; that two concerns with standard designs in conventional construction and liberal financing plans, have discontinued their housing' business."

If standardized houses of steel are not wanted the swer, I think, is to be found in individually designed treated wood buildings.

Years of research, investigation, testing and observation have well been spent by the lumber industry in the direction of a perfect treated wood. To this wise efiort there must be a culmination in putting on the market, on all markets, wholesale and retail, treated woods suitable for every possible use in a building. Old uses may be reestablished and ne.w uses will be found.

A clear and forward-looking vision of modern constructi,on must be had and with knowledge and with appreciation and sympathetic understanding of the immensity of the problem and of the immensity of the opportunity, a new era in the lumber industry can and will begin.

The industry must first sell itself on treated lumber just as it eventually sold itself on branded graded lumber. Then, when it has done that, the facts regarding the trends and opportunities of the new construction and consequent new market can be ascertained. Simultaneously, treated woods will be perfected-Methods of manufacture and of distribution will be developed. This means, of course, treatment at the mill of all kinds and sizes of lumber and. complete distribution, wholesale and retail, from mills and yards. Such mill treatment is, I know, even now in operation, as is also limited retail distribution and certainly is a vitally important first step. The successive steps will be taken, I know.

The Engineer, Architect and Contractor in the building industry are not going to concern themselves with the uses of treated woods, even though it is available in every lumber yard in this country. They have been relieved of the necessity of thinking for themselves by manufacturers in all lines of building materials, except lumber. A new product is developed, its uses determined and the manner of its use set forth so that all the Architect has to do is to make his selections from Sweet's Catalog and his samples or by personally.conducted tours of inspection, and the manufacttirer does the rest. This is the kind of competition which the lumber industry is up against.

The development of our product, treated wood, and its uses and applications and the education of the professional man-and of the layman-must go on simultaneously. This situation is a challenge to the lumber industry. It will not go unanswered.

An Unusual Visitor

He dropped into my office with a grin upon his face, He talked about the weather and the college football race,

He asked about the family and he told the latest joke, But he never mentioned anyone who's suddenly gone broke.

He talked of books and pictures and the play he'd been to see,

A clever quip his boy had made he passed along to me. He praised the suit of clothes I wore, and asked me what it cost,

But never said a word about the money he had lost. He was with me twenty rninutes, chuckling gaily while he stayed,

O'er the memory of some silly little blunder he had made.

He reminded me that tulips must be planted in the fall, But calamity and tragedy he mentioned not at all.

I thought it rather curious, when he had come and gone, He must have had some tales of woe, but did not pass them on,

For nowadays it seems to me that every man I meet IIas something new in misery and moaning to repeat. And so I wrote these lines for him. who had his share of woe

But still could talk of other things, and let his troubles go;

I was happier for his visit-in a world that's sick with doubt,

.'Twas good to meet a man who wasn't spreading gloom about'

-Author unknown.

HE \vAS SOME WAITER

"f regret sir," said the pedagogic waiter; "that I cannot supply you with the desired information. I am supposed only to serve the soup, not to explain its ingredients."

"But a dead fly, man," persisted the customer; "a dead fly. How did it happen?"

"I am sorry to say, sir, that I have no idea how the poor insect met its fate. Possibly it had not taken food for a long time, and fluttering near the soup, found the aroma particularly appetizing, and eating too heartily, contracted appendicitis, or gastritis, or some similar digestive malady, which, in the absence of an opportunity for the application of X-Rays and appropriate medical and surgical treatment, caused its untimely end."

An All Around Man

An advertiser in, a western village paper sets out the following enticements:

"Know all men by these presents that I, Shadrack H. Arrnstrong, have gasoline for sale at 15 cents a gal. Some say it ain't good gas, but I say it is.

"I will also tie your broom corn, one-half for the other. I crush corn every Thursday.

"Turkeys picked very promptly every day in the week.

"Horseshoeing a specialty at 6 bits a round.

"Watch and pistol repairing guaranteed.

"Shoes half-soled while you wait.

"IJmbrellas fixed, and ax-handles made for 15 cents.

"Will teach southern harmony and the fiddle combine for $3 a mo.

"Pictures enlarged by a new process and my hot tamale and hair-oil recipe goes 330 days for 25 cents per head.

"A good stripper cow for sale.

"Also agent for agricultural implements and newspapers."

Immediate Help Wanted

The little school boy was saying his prayers before going to bed, and his mother, who was listening in, heard him say aloud:

"And please, God, make Boston the capitol of Vermont."

"Why, Bobby," said the mother, "why on earth did you ask that?"

"Because," said Bobby, "f made it that way today in my examination paper, and I want it to be right."

She Taught Him

Christopher Morley, in his translations from the Chinese, tells this one:

The learned behaviorist

Who had lectured for twenty years

At the Imperial University

On Analytical Gynosophy

And predicated Stimulus and Response in Woman

Met a young wench at the Feast of Lanterns

Who proved him cockeyed in thirty minutes.

Delightful

And then there was the truck driver who said that he liked his job because it enabled him to run into so rnany interesting people.