Home › Miscellaneous › Facts for Builders
Facts for Builders
One man can lift with both hands 236 lbs.
One man can support on his shoulders 330 lbs.
A single load of sand, earth, rubbish, or a measure or hundred of lime = 1 cubic yard.
A single load of square or hewn timber, deals, etc., = 50 cubic feet. A 66 unhewn timber = 40 cubic feet.
A " " bricks = 500 bricks.
A " " tiles = 1,000 tiles.
I 15½ cub_c feet of chalk weighs I ton. 18 " " clay " " 21 " " earth " " 19 " " " 21 " gravel sand " " " " A bricklayer can lay about 1,500 or 1,600 bricks in a day of 10 hours, where the joints are left rough; about 1,000 per day when both faces have to be worked fair, and not more than 500 a day when carefully jointed, and faced with picked bricks of a uniform color.
A cubic yard of rubble masonry will, as a rule, require cubic yard of mortar, and cubic yard of stone in heap.
According to experiments made by Tredgold, the adhesive force of fresh made glue, cementing together two pieces of dry ash, after being left for twenty-four hours, was found to be 715 pounds to the square inch.
Ordinary London bricks are called 9" × 4½" × 2½", though as rule they only run 83/4″×44×2½".
It requires 1 cubic yard of clay to make 469 bricks. 1,000 stock bricks stacked = 56 cubic feet. 1,000 old bricks cleaned and stacked = 70 cubic feet. 306 cubic feet, or 11 yards 9 feet = 1 rod of brickwork. 272 feet superficial = 1 rod of brickwork in walls 1½ brick thick. 408 feet superficial = 1 rod of brickwork in walls I brick thick, called in London the standard thickness, to which all brickwork, of whatever thickness, is reduced. 4,350 stock bricks to one rod reduced, 4 courses one foot high. A rod of brickwork requires 11/½ cubic yard of chalk lime, and 3 single loads or yards of road drift or sand, or I cubic yard of stone lime, and 3½ yards of sand; or 36 bushels of cement, and 36 bushels of sharp sand.
A rod of brickwork containing 235 cubic feet of brick, with 71 cubic feet of mortar, will, upon an average, weigh 15 tons. 16 bricks to I foot of reduced brickwork. 7 bricks to one foot of superficial facing.
Plain Tiles. A square of 100 feet superficial will require, if laid to an 8-inch gauge, 600 plain tiles, I bundle of laths, 1 lb. of 4d. nails, I peck of tile pins, and 3 hods of lime and hair mortar. 4,300 stocks, or 4,500 place bricks, are sufficient for a rod of reduced brickwork, which will require about 180 hods of mortar. sand.
A load of mortar = 27 cubic feet, and requires 9 bushels of lime and I yard of A bricklayer's hod will hold 20 bricks; the ordinary load, however, is 16 walling, or 12 facing bricks, or nearly 1½ bushel of mortar. One square yard of paving requires 32 paving bricks laid flat; each brick 9 × 42 × 134 will weigh 4 lbs. each; or 84 paving bricks laid on edge. Planks are 11 inches wide, deals 9 inches, and battens 7 inches. 100 feet superficial is 1 square. 12-12 feet boards, 9 inches wide, laid rough = 1 square. 16-12 feet battens, 7 inches wide, laid rough = 1 square. A cubic foot of slate weighs 180 lbs., 12/½ cubic feet = 1 ton. 79 empress, 99 princess, 115 duchess, 127 marchioness, 170 countess (18″ X 10"), 289 doubles (13" x 10"), or 400 smalls (12" x 8"), are required for a square of slating, allowing three inches for lap.
Steel wire rope is at least twice as strong and a little heavier than iron rope. The strength of chain varies, as the square of the diameter of the iron in the link. Hempen ropes deteriorate after a few months' wear, though apparently good on careful examination by the eye. With the best ropes not more than six months in use, the loss was equal to 25 per cent.