Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/556

494 BUILDING JOINERY. pieces may be made to fit neatly and firmly together ; and all but the lowest piece must of necessity be brought to a width, as well as tried up in other particulars. A skirting iu a single width is called by that term ; but when it is made up of more than one part it is designated a base ; the lowest board is then called the skirting board, and the upper the base moulding or mouldings (Plate XXVI. figs. 1 and 5). The skirting board is not brought to a width because the labour would be lost according to the ordinary mode of fixing it. The board is applied to its place with its lower edge touching the floor ; but as the most perfectly wrought floors are found to have some slight unevenness of surface so close to the wall, a straight edge would not fit closely down to it in every part. The board is therefore propped up at one end or the other until the upper or faced edge is perfectly parallel with the average line of the floor, or rather so as to be perfectly level. A pair of strong compasses, such as are used by the carpenter, is taken, and opened to the greatest distance the lower edge of the skirting board is from the floor throughout its length ; the outer edge near the point of one leg of the compasses is then drawn along the floor, whilst the point of the other, being kept vertically above it, is pressed against the face of the board, on which it marks a line exactly parallel to the surface of the floor, indicating, of course, every, even the slightest, irregularity there may be in it. If the floor be not a very uneven one, the excluded part may be ripped off with the hand or the panel saw, which may generally be made to follow the traced or inscribed line exactly ; if, however, the line be a very irregular one, having quick turns in it, the Scribing, hatchet must be used. This operation is called scribing, and the result of it is evidently to make the skirting fit down on the floor with the utmost precision. Care must be taken in performing the operation that the upper edges of the skirtings be not only level, but that all which are in immediate connection be scribed to the same height, that their upper edges may exactly correspond. Fixing In the principal rooms of a house, the skirting C (fig. 91) skirting. j g usua lly grooved into the floor D, and fixed only to the narrow piece d, called a ground. (See also Plate XXVI. fig. 5.) By fixing in this manner, the skirting covers the joint, which would otherwise soon be open by the shrinking of the back, and from the skirting being groovod into the floor, but not fastened to it, there cannot be an open joint between the skirting and floor. When it is considered that an open joint in such a situation must become a receptacle for dust and a harbour for insects, the importance of adopt ing this method of fixing a skirting will be apparent. As grooving a floor is attended with considerable labour, and as the boards will sometimes twist, it is more common now to nail a small fillet to the floor, against which the back of the skirting rests, and, of course, has full room for expansion. Before skirtings are fixed, vertical blocks are put at short intervals, extending from the floor to the narrow grounds, and made exactly flush with and true to the latter, and are firmly nailed. These form a sound back ing, to which the skirtings may be bradded or nailed, and so prevented from warping or bending in any manner. If, however, the skirting be not very wide, and be sufficiently stout to stand without a backing, a fillet only is nailed along the floor as a stop for its lower edge ; but this is rendered unnecessary if the skirting be tongued into the floor, as the tongue will answer every purpose of a stop (fig. 5, Plate XXVI.) The ends of skirtings should be tongued into each other when it is necessary to piece them in length ; and on returns or angles the end of one should be tongued into the returned face of the other in the square parts, and mitred in the oblique-angled or moulded parts. Dado. The dado of a room should be fixed in the same manner as explained above for window backs (fig. 91). When a chair-rail or surbase is required, grounds similar to those for the base are fixed to range like them with the face of the plastering ; the surbase itself must be wide enough to cover the grounds and the joints formed by them and the plastering completely ; it is in effect a cornice to the stereo- bate (or pedestal, as the three parts may be termed of base, dado, and surbase), and the space or dado between it and the base is generally understood to be wainscoted, though it is more frequently plastered. In fixing any board above 5 or 6 inches wide, similar Fixing precautions are necessary as those detailed in fig. 91, other- ^ ar s e wise it is certain to split when the house becomes inhabited. oarcl31 We may, in general, either fix one edge and groove the other, so as to leave it at liberty, or fix it in the middle and leave both edges at liberty. Sometimes a wide board, or a piece consisting of several boards, may be fixed by means of buttons screwed to the back, which turn into grooves in the framing, bearers, or joists, to which it is to be fixed. If any shrinking takes place the buttons slide in the grooves. In this manner the landings of stairs are fixed, and it is much the best mode of fixing the top of a table to its frame. The parts of the outside frame of a sash are distin- Sashes, guished by the terms applied to the similar parts of common framing. The upright sides are styles, and the transverse or horizontal ones, which are tenoned into the ends of the styles, are rails ; but the inner framework or divisions for the panes are called merely upright and cross bars ( these bars, according to the way they are moulded, are called lamb s tongue, ovolo, beaded, &c.), the upright being the mortised, and the cross bars the tenoned, as with the outer framework (Plate XXVI. fig. 1). Sashes are got out like common framing ; the parts are tried up, set out, and mor tised and tenoned, exactly in the same manner, allowance being made in the length of the rails and all tenoned pieces in the setting out, as in common framing also, for the portions of the mortised styles and upright bars which are worked away in forming the moulding and rebate. The meeting rails of sashes which are in pairs, to be hung with lines, are made thicker than the other parts by the thickness of the parting bead, and they are bevelled or splayed off, the one from above and the other from below, that they may meet and fit closely. When the framework is completed, although it cannot be put together because of what has just been referred to, the rebate is formed by the sash fillister on the further part of the face edge, and the moulding struck on its hither angle. These things being done, the moulded edges are either mitred or scribed at the shoulders and haunches, and the sash may be put together. If sash bars are mitred at the joints, they require dowels in the cross bars to act as tenons ; but if they can be scribed, dowelling is not necessary. Sashes are either hung upon hinges or hung with lines, pulleys, and weights. Fixed sashes are put into frames, of which every part may be solid but the stop, which must be put in behind the sash to detain it. Sashes hung with hinges are usually called casements, and require solid rebated frames ; but there can be no stops to them, except their own movable fastenings, and the outer stop, which of course the rebate furnishes. These are usually known as French casements, or sash doors, Frenc as they are called when they open down to the ground or caseir floor ; they have now taken the place of sash windows, where they may lead from the room to garden paving, or to a balcony, or may be used for similar purposes. The ordin ary arrangement for an aperture is that of two leaves work ing on hinges at the sides inwards or outwards, meeting in the centre of the opening. With the former, which is the usual mode, one leaf is secured to the head and sill by bolts either round or sunk in ; the other leaf, when closed, is secured to the first by a handle fixed on the second and

turning over a staple fixed on the first. If the casement