The Ten Books on Architecture, 2.8.20

Vitruvius  translated by Joseph Gwilt

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20As to wattled walls, would they had never been invented, for though convenient and expeditiously made, they are conducive to great calamity from their acting almost like torches in case of fire. It is much better, therefore, in the first instance, to be at the expense of burnt bricks, than from parsimony to be in perpetual risk. Walls moreover, of this sort, that are covered with plaster are always full of cracks, arising from the crossing of the laths; for when the plastering is laid on wet, it swells the wood, which contracts as the work dries, breaking the plastering. But if expedition, or want of funds, drives us to the use of this sort of work, or as an expedient to bring work to a square form, let it be executed as follows. The surface of the foundation whereon it is to stand must be somewhat raised from the ground or pavement. Should it ever be placed below them it will rot, settle, and bend forward, whereby the face of the plastering will be injured. I have already treated on walls, and generally on the mode of preparing and selecting the materials for them. I shall now proceed to the use of timber in framing, and to a description of its several sorts, as also of the mode of fitting timbers together, so that they may be as durable as their nature will permit.

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