Ceilings & Upper Floors
Cottage Ceilings
A plain plaster treatment is generally as cheap and as satisfactory as anything for ceilings, and moulded cornices should be avoided, since they form dust traps and are expensive.
The ordinary lath-and-plaster ceiling can often be omitted, leaving the floor joists openly doing their work, instead of being hidden in a casing in which dust and dirt can accumulate. If this simple and charming method of treating the ceiling is adopted, the usual deep, narrow timbers should be made shallower and wider to give an effect of strength when viewed from below ; but special precautions should be taken to prevent the passage of sound from the room above to that below. The picture below illustrates how this may be done ; and also how the total amount of timbering required can be reduced by the use of quite small joists strengthened by beams spanning the width of the room at intervals.
Wider and shallower timbers than usual should be used to construct these floors, in order to give an effect of strength when viewed from below.
Upper Floors
There are many kinds of fire-resisting floors. One of the best, which, however, generally costs rather more than the usual wooden floor, consists of steel joists placed from 2 ft. to 3 ft. apart, and the space between filled up with concrete. These floors are extremely sanitary. The upper surface may be treated similarly to those described under the preceding heading, and the soffit is most often plastered to form a ceiling.
Roofing being cheaper than walling, the upper portion of this cottage is entirely in the roof. A large living room, parlour, scullery, and the usual offices are provided on the ground floor, and upstairs there are two good bedrooms with cupboards. Materials : Brick chimneys, brick and roughcast walls, and a tiled roof.
A plain plaster treatment is generally as cheap and as satisfactory as anything for ceilings, and moulded cornices should be avoided, since they form dust traps and are expensive.
The ordinary lath-and-plaster ceiling can often be omitted, leaving the floor joists openly doing their work, instead of being hidden in a casing in which dust and dirt can accumulate. If this simple and charming method of treating the ceiling is adopted, the usual deep, narrow timbers should be made shallower and wider to give an effect of strength when viewed from below ; but special precautions should be taken to prevent the passage of sound from the room above to that below. The picture below illustrates how this may be done ; and also how the total amount of timbering required can be reduced by the use of quite small joists strengthened by beams spanning the width of the room at intervals.
Wider and shallower timbers than usual should be used to construct these floors, in order to give an effect of strength when viewed from below.
Upper Floors
There are many kinds of fire-resisting floors. One of the best, which, however, generally costs rather more than the usual wooden floor, consists of steel joists placed from 2 ft. to 3 ft. apart, and the space between filled up with concrete. These floors are extremely sanitary. The upper surface may be treated similarly to those described under the preceding heading, and the soffit is most often plastered to form a ceiling.
Roofing being cheaper than walling, the upper portion of this cottage is entirely in the roof. A large living room, parlour, scullery, and the usual offices are provided on the ground floor, and upstairs there are two good bedrooms with cupboards. Materials : Brick chimneys, brick and roughcast walls, and a tiled roof.
<< Cottage Style