Price ceiling

“ The cost of reinforced-concrete buildings varies with the market price of cement and the steel bars or metal used for reinforcing. At present, reinforced-concrete buildings of the factory type constructed of common, hard, stretcher-brick walls and reinforced-concrete floors, roof, and columns with foundations may be built for from $1.35 to $1.65 per square foot of floor area. Usually, the height of ceilings in factory buildings is about 14 feet from floor to floor, thus making the cost of this type of building approximately from 10 to 12 cents per cubic foot. ”

“ Moreover, as in the interior of the house the light is much less bright than outside, the cornice should be so profiled that the juncture of the mouldings shall form not right angles, but acute angles, with spaces between the mouldings serving to detach the latter still more clearly from each other."
The choice of the substance out of which a ceiling is to be made depends somewhat upon the dimensions of the room, the height of the stud and the decoration of the walls. A heavily panelled wooden ceiling resting upon walls either frescoed or hung with stuff is likely to seem oppressive ”

“ This striking and significant feature runs through all the structures, in these areas, of which ground-plans have been obtained. The triangular ceiling, in effect, is an attempt to extend the lintel in sections across the vault of a chamber in the place of joists, and, so far as the writer is aware, the only attempt ever made by any barbarous people to form a ceiling of stone over ordinary residence rooms. In a wall and ceiling formed in this manner, and carried up several feet above the apex of the triangular arch, there would be no lateral thrust outward of the masonry. ”

“ In moderate-sized rooms which are to be decorated in a simple and inexpensive manner, a plain plaster ceiling with well-designed 99 cornice is preferable to any device for producing showy effects at small cost. It may be laid down as a general rule in house-decoration that what must be done cheaply should be done simply. It is better to pay for the best plastering than to use a cheaper quality and then to cover the cracks with lincrusta or ceiling-paper. This is true of all such expedients: let the fundamental work be good in design and quality and the want of ornament will not be felt. ”

“ In plan 6517 a large amount of space is provided at low-cost by using the cheapest type of construction and omitting the interior finish at the time of building, for when a large family must be housed and funds are limited space is often more desirable than good finish and ease of heating. The exterior walls are of vertical boards and battens, and the roof is of galvanized corrugated metal. The house may be improved at any time by lining the walls and ceiling. ”

“ Floors formed in the simple manner described are excellent in a sanitary point of view. They are clean, non-absorbent, and are non-conductors of sound and heat. These qualities particularly recommend them for adoption in hospitals, unions, barracks, and other large buildings; while for houses of the artisan class, especially in crowded districts, no other method of construction presents so many advantages.
If a flat ceiling is required, ceiling-joists are fixed to the lower flanges of the iron girders, and lathed and plastered in the ordinary manner (diagram D) . ”

“ The expense of putting in a false ceiling at a lower level is not as great since we have been able to build with steel and wire netting, as it used to be in the days when wooden beams or expensive stonework had to be used.
The problem of raising the ceiling in a room which is too low is much more difficult. Much can be done by the interior decorator to improve the looks of the room that is too low, but there have been certain unfortunate mistakes in some of our well-known museums where there was no remedy except to raise the roof. ”

“ A characteristic example of their work is that from a house in Mansfield Street, London (Fig. 208) . In a great number of houses, especially the ordinary unimportant house, the ceilings throughout the eighteenth century were quite plain. The rooms depended for their interest upon the panelling, the chimney-piece, and the well-moulded cornice, which not infrequently was carried along the ceiling beams, introduced in order to lessen the depth of the floor joists by shortening their bearings to 7 or 8 ft. ”

“ The Area walls should be made of hard brick, with stone coping and steps, laid in cement mortar. All chimneys should be started and laid up with the foundation, and the materials interlaced to bind them together; this will insure additional strength to both foundation and chimney. We recommend plastering, or “laying off” the ceiling of the cellar, with one coat of brown mortar, at a cost of $25, which would be a permanent [190] benefit to the whole house, in preventing the damp cellar air from rising up through the floors and frame-work of the house. ”

“ If the lines and space divisions of a room be not good, the decoration must be planned with a view to giving the needed harmony of proportions, or at least the appearance of it. If the ceiling be too high, it may be made to "look" lower by carrying the ceiling paper or tinting one or two feet down the walls of the room to meet the picture moulding. The effect of reduced height is accentuated by a high base board or by wainscoting. If the ceiling be too low, the depressing effect may be largely overcome by extending the picture moulding along the top of the wall spaces close to the ceiling. ”

“ This, however, is only a makeshift when compared with a solid floor of concrete.
When the hot rooms are in a basement in the open, they may be top-lighted, and the ceiling above need not be a heavy fire-proof construction. A sufficient air space, however, must be provided between the ceiling and roof, to prevent irradiation of heat—a remark that applies also to anything in the shape of a window in the sudatorium. It must be double, or look into an area covered with pavement lights. In the case of a top-lighted room there must be a ceiling-light and a skylight. ”

“ There are three large doorways through the eastern wall, about eight feet square, giving entrance into a series of apartments, the largest of which is sixty feet long and twenty-seven deep, divided into two rooms by a thick wall. The ceiling of each room is a triangular arch (such as is figured a little farther on) , capped by flat blocks at a height of twenty-three feet above the floor. The latter, like the walls and the jambs of the doorways, is of smooth, faced stones, that may once have been covered with cement. ”

“ But the longer you look, the less you will understand why I tell you to look. It is nothing but a whitewashed ceiling: vaulted indeed,—but so is many a tailor's garret window, for that matter. Indeed, now that you have looked steadily for a minute or so, and are used to the form of the arch, it seems to become so small that you can almost fancy it the ceiling of a good-sized lumber-room in an attic.
Having attained to this modest conception of it, carry your eyes back to the similar vault of the second compartment, nearer you. ”

“ I know these contractors and decorators. The more you pay them, the more abominable will they make the ceiling. Leave it to me. I, Aristide, will guarantee you a ceiling like that of the Sistine Chapel for two thousand francs. ”

“ Two things impress one on entering a Hopi home for the first time—the small size of the rooms, with their low ceilings, and the cleanness of the floors. Both floors and walls are kept fresh and bright by oft-renewed coats of thin plaster, which is always done by the woman, for she owns the house and all within it; she builds it and keeps it in repair. The ceiling is of thatch held up by poles, which in turn rest on larger rafters. ”

“ Ceilings should always be calcimined by working away from the light. Two men are required to do a good-sized ceiling-flat; they should start at the window end, and, keeping their work in one general line, spread the distemper from the end as far towards the center as they can both conveniently reach. ”

“ Ceilings, such as we conceive the word, were not known in mediæval work, at any rate not until late in the fifteenth century. The ceiling was, in fact, the underside of the floor above, and its ornamental character was obtained by a regular disposition of the constructional timbers, and by working mouldings on the latter. The effect was massive and handsome, the ceiling (for want of a better word) being divided into large deeply recessed squares or oblongs by heavily moulded beams. Crowhurst Place in Surrey has a good example of this treatment (Fig. 87) . ”

“ In France and England it was natural that timber-construction should long continue to regulate the design of the ceiling. The Roman vault lined with stone caissons, or with a delicate tracery of stucco-work, was not an ever-present precedent in northern 92 Europe. Tradition pointed to the open-timbered roof; and as Italy furnished numerous and brilliant examples of decorative treatment adapted to this form of ceiling, it was to be expected that both in France and England the national form should be preserved long after Italian influences had established themselves in both countries. ”

“ Moreover, any designs, when raised to the ceiling, require to be larger than similar ones on the floor or line of the eye, in order that they may be at all similar in effect. The plan of covering or coloring the ceiling has a good foundation in the fact that a mere white wall overhead conveys the sorry impression that the house is left naked in every corner and spot not likely to be gazed at. The ceiling in Mr. Smalley’s drawing-room exemplifies, however, one important fact: although a mere color placed on a ceiling depresses it, a good pattern has just the contrary effect. ”

“ The ceiling, with its two beams [Pg 250] and joists, painted in light tones, set off by black and white lines, seemed to enlarge the apartment, and gave it a warm and habitable appearance, presenting on hot days lights and shades of an amber tint. The wall between the ceiling and the wainscot was hung with painted canvas. The chimney-piece stood out in bold relief on this back-ground. The entrance end of the drawing-room would have been rather sombre if the wide opening into the billiard-room had not flooded it with light, softened by the verdure of the plants within the little conservatory. ”

“ I went to my bewitched mason and said to him, 'Thomas, I wish you would help me. I am very anxious to have a first-class decorated ceiling to that ball-room, and you know what these Londoners be: they do all by machinery, and you buy a ceiling by the yard—nasty, vulgar stuff I would be ashamed to have seen here. I'll tell you what it is, Thomas, those Londoners come out of town and sail about the country in the holiday time picking up ideas. I think we must show them how a thing in ceilings ought to be done, and let them understand that we are not such fools as they take us to be. ”

“ In figure 63 parts of the great frame of a wooden house project unashamedly through the smooth plaster walls and ceiling. Running across the middle of the ceiling is the large center beam of the house. A similar member along the outside edge of the ceiling might be expected to continue all the way around the room as a cornice, but it does not. At the floor line, however, a base board does continue around the room, but it is heavier under the window wall. ”

“ The walls, up to a certain height, are mosaic, and above are divided into very neat compartments of stucco, all of one design, which is also followed in many of the adjacent halls and galleries. The ceiling is a fretted cove. To preserve this vaulted roof, as well as some of the other principal cupolas, the outward walls of the towers are raised ten feet above the top of the dome, and support another roof over all, by which means no damage can ever be caused by wet weather, or excessive heat and cold. ”

“ By the employment of vast pendants, which at the sides take the form of overlapping capitals to the small shafts already mentioned, the ceiling appears to be supported by a system of segmental arches effecting a threefold longitudinal division of the roof, and crossed by a similar range springing from the walls. Of course these arches in reality support nothing, but are in fact borne up by what appears to rest on them. ”

“ The walls should be free from pattern and light in color, since dark walls necessitate much artificial light, and have the disadvantage of making a room look small.
The ceiling, if not plain, must be ornamented with the lightest tracery, and supported by a cornice correspondingly simple in design. Heavy ceiling-mouldings are obviously out of place in a small room, and a plain expanse of plaster is always preferable to misapplied ornament. ”

“ Every one knows the spirit of sickening desolation pervading rooms which have been shut up for an indefinite length of time from air and sunshine.
The elegance of the heavily stuccoed ceiling, admitted to be one of the finest specimens of its kind in Washington, as well as the richness of the carvings ornamenting the mantel of Italian marble rising above the accursed hearthstone, only served to make more evident the extreme neglect into which the rest of the room had sunk. ”