Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





YoL. xxn.





NEW YORK, SATÜEDAY, OCTOBER 26,1878.





No. 554











!





Published Weekly by

TERMS.
ONE YKAR, in advance....SlO.OO.
Communications should be addressed to

C.  \V.  SWEKT,

Nos. 345 AND 347 Broadway





THE ETHICS OF BUILDING.

At the risk of being cousidered the common
scold of the buildiug trade, we will venture to
advert to a topic Avhich it behooves all rep¬
utable and conseientious members of the craft
to consider well —the moral obligatious of
builders to the public. When n suit of clothes
is ordered of Rock, Laws, Bell or any other
reputable establishment, no misgivings as to the
quality of goods or the style of garments are
likely to be indulged; when a carte blanche is
left w-ith Herter, Marcott or Pottier, or with
similar establishments, for the furnishing and
decoration of a house, or for the production of a
special piece of furniture, no doubt is harbored
that the goods, when supplied, will be any other
than of the first quality and of superior work¬
manship. The purchaser at Tiffany's or Black's,
of expensive jewelry, or diamond setting, or
Chronometer time piece, invests his money under
the assurance of an iroplicit and immovable con¬
fidence in the integrity of the flrm, and, forth-
with, dispels from his mind any suspicion as to
the genuineness and merit of the goods pur¬
chased.

Of how many buildings in this city can it be
Said that the builder's name is a trade mark and
suflicieut guarantee of the quality and character
of tho structure ? How many builders are there
who habitually attend with conseientious and in¬
telligent devotion to the details of construction,
BO as to be able to furnish at the sale of their pro¬
ductions a positive or implied warranty of the
honesty and integrity of their  workmanhip?

There are legitimate builders who devote them¬
selves exclusively to the execution of order work.
whose word is as good as another's bond, who can
be and are constantly entrusted with the ex¬
ecution of expensive and responsible work, and
have never been known to disappoiut or over-
reach their patrons, whose reputation utterly
precludes any such suggestions. When these
men are employed to build by private owners,
under the direction of experienced architects, the
resulting products are apt to conform to the
highest Staudard of excellence. But this method
of building, though emiuently satisfactory and
safe, is frightfuUy expensive, and practically out
of the reach of a large majority of house-want-
ers. The ordinary wants of average house-buy-
ers can best be supplied b\- the industry and
enterprise of speculative builders. In cater¬
ing for those wants, speculative builders find
their chief employment, aud should find, under
favorable couditious, reasonable compensation
and commendation. After we have Hamed a
score of acMve, speculative builders, we have
well nigh exhausted the listof those whose namei





aloue furnish au ample guarantee for the invest¬
ment of the snug sum usually involved iu the
purchase of a home in this city.

Dismissing from view for tho present the pro¬
ductions of the most meritorious speculative
builders, we will venture the remark that all
other houses, speculatively erected, may bo pro¬
perly divided into two classes; First, those that
are positively unhabitable, and, second, those that
may be made habitable by the outlay of mouey.

We have before now drawn the distinction be¬
tween a good and a bad building, aud shall have
no occasion to file auy fresh specifications here.
Tue charact«ristics of uuhabitable buildings may
be briefly told. They are those whose founda¬
tions are laid without suflicieut, or even without
any proper preparation, and carried up so loosely
as to be unable to bear tho superimposed pres¬
sure. If buildings happen to stand on a custard
or swampy bottom, without proper treatment,
they are sure to undergo prolonged settlement,
which will fracture angles, dislocato joints. dis-
order Windows aud doors and staircises, uusettle
floors and throw down plaster ceilings. Likewise
when brickwork is poorly done, that is wheu laid
up with cheap, perishable brick and loamy mor¬
tar, füll of gapiug interstices, not onlj' can sounds
of the human voice be distiuctly heard through
such porous partitions, to the great annoyance of
house occupants, bat there is imminent danger of
fire being communicated through them from
chimney flues to adjoining w-ood work. Where
the roof is covered with paper-like metal, whose
joints are innocent of solder, being only tempor-
arily secured w-ith white lead, one severe storm is
usually sufilcient to unseal all such joints, and
leave the roof itself in the coudition of an op?n
sieve. If front facings are constructed of in¬
ferior grades of stone, a brief exposure to atmos-
pheric infiuences will disintegrate them into im-
palpable dust, causing incurable blemishes and
unsightly scales and spawls.

The misery o£ occupying a poorly-built habita¬
tion embitters life, destroys its zest, and forbids
ordinary comfort. Fortunately, grossly inferior
and unhabitable houses are for the most part the
productions of notorious and disreputable build¬
ers. A strict enforcemeut of, the present build¬
ing laws would spare our city the infiiction of
such disgraceful structures, and our Citizens the
unfortunate experience of living in them.

The existence of such buüdings is not altogether
chargeable to the greed and rapacity of the
builder. Generally he knows, or thinks he knows,
a class of buyers for whom his trashy productions
are fitly suited. He seeks for, and is apt to secure
his customers among those who are either unable
or unwilling to pay the prico of a meritorious
building, or among bargaiuj hunters, who are
never contented tobuy except at a ruinous reduc¬
tiou from the price asked, or even from the actual
cost. In these cases diamond cuts diamond, and
the legend is repeated of " the biter bit." Many
an innocent and unsophisticated person, however,
has been tempted into investing his money in
these flimsy aud forlom buildings, only to find to
his soiTow that the purchase price was only the
beginniug of a loug train of expense from which
he had uo escape except through utter sacrifice
of the property. There are buildings existing
in this city, not by the score bat by the himdred,





of which it may safely be said that they degrade
and encumber the ground ou which they stand.
It will be a fortunate day for the improvements
of the city w-hen a strict and vigorously enforced
building law not only prevents the erection of
such buildings, but coudemns^to demolition those
already existing.

Under our second head we approach the consid¬
eration of avery large class of respectable-looking
buildings. These houses are apt ^o be furnished
with a profusion of costly woods, richly veneered
and highly polished, set off witb a startling array
of mirrors aud all the other api)oiutmeuts of first-
class propertj-. Through ignorance, neglect or
downright dishonestj-, faults of w-orkmanship are
allow-ed to creep into the construction of such
houses, for which all their beautif ul appointments
afford no compensation, but merelj- furnish a
gaudj- cloak. Üf what satisfaction can it be for a
man to be surrouuded with costlj- woods and bril¬
liant mirroi-s, wheu at everj- opening of his Croton
fixtures, a stream of vile aud poisouous gas is
being belched forth? Of what advautage to him
to boast of motleru improvements when the fur-
nace in his cellar is searcely adeciuate for heating
a Single room, and when in use supplies only viti¬
ated and gas-laden air? Why encoui-age a confid¬
ing Citizen to embellish and decorate his house,
when, perhaps, upou the flrst trial of it, he finds
his ceilings deluged from leaks in the plumbing,
and from the absence of proper protecting safes?
Why attempt to regale him with a gorgeous flre-
l)!ace, done up in all the brilliancy of nickel plat-
ing, and tiled witb the rarest patterns of antique
pottery, when the fiue above the fireplace is utterly
choked and incapable of service, the remedy of
which perhaps involves the kuocking out of hugh
masses of brickw-ork to the demoralization of the
whole household?

We are well aware of tho almost iusuperable dif¬
ficulties which block the v/ay of a conscientiousand
paiustaking builder in the execution of his work.
We have no disposition to hold the craft to any
higher accountability than is commonly recog¬
nized among all legitimate manufacturei-s. We
do Claim, however, that for the liberal outlay
which the purchase ofa home in this city involves,
whether a large or small establishment is in view,
the purchaser is entitled to an assurance amount¬
ing to a wan-anty that the house which be buys is
in good, tenantable working order; and when
found to be faulty or deficieut in any essential
respect, such fault or deficiencj' should be rem-
edied and supplied by the builder promptlj- and
at his own expense. The consciousness that such
a warranty is expected and will be exacted from
him would stimulate a builder who works for rep¬
utation to bestow scrupidous cai-e und systematic
effort to ensui-e the perfection of his buildings.

There are many speculative builders, we know,
tc whom these words of expostidation need not be
addressed—whose Systems of workmankship al-
i-eady inelude those precautions which command
success in all the minor appointments and details
of building and whose names alone are accepted
as sufilcient voachers for the excellence and sub-
stantiality of their workmanship. There is a dis¬
position prevalent, however, eveu among reputa¬
ble builders, to hun-y their work along at tho
expense of its quality, to finish up and try to effect
a sale, and after a sale is made to shake off respon-