657553-1889-Bill-Buildings- — Page 7

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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 2ND FEBRUARY, 1889.

39. Every kitchen or cook-house shall be provided with a properly constructed brick fire-place, and smoke flue. Every fire-place adapted for the use of charcoal, shall be provided with a hood of sheet metal or of lath and plaster of sufficient size connecting with a chimney shaft carried up above the level of the roof. The interior surfaces of every flue shall be smoothly rendered with mortar, and no flue shall have less than one hundred square inches of sectional area.

Chimneys and Fire-places.

40. No kitchen or cook-house shall be constructed in such manner as to allow the smoke to escape through any side opening, window, or hole in the walls or roof, or through any vent other than the smoke flue.

41. The upper surface of any floor under any oven, stove, or fire place shall be of incombustible materials, and such floor shall have hearths of stone, tile or other incom- bustible material laid before every chimney-opening.

42. No pipe or flue for the conveyance of smoke shall be fixed nearer than nine inches to any wood-work or combustible material unless encased in non-conducting and incombustible material to the satisfaction of the Surveyor General.

43. Every chimney-shaft shall be continued up above the roof in brick or cut stone-work of a thickness all round of not less than four inches, to a height of not less than three feet above the highest point in the line of junction with such roof.

44. Chimneys of brick, stone, or other incombustible materials, may be corbelled out in the upper stories of buil- dings, provided that the work so corbelled out does not project from the wall more than the thickness of such wall, but all chimneys built on the ground floors of buildings shall rest upon solid foundations and upon footings similar in every respect to the foundations of the wall against which such chimneys are built.

45. The back of every chimney-opening from the hearth up to the height of four feet above the level of the fire- grate, shall be at least nine inches thick if in a party wall, or at least four and a half inches thick if not in a party wall.

46. The fire-places, kilns, furnaces, chimneys, flues and shafts, of any bakery, vermilion factory, opium boiling house, or manufactory, shall be deemed to be exceptional structures, and shall be subject to the approval of the Surveyor Gene- ral in each particular case.

Windows.

47. Every person who shall erect a new domestic build- ing, shall construct in the wall of each story of such building which shall immediately front or abut on any open space a sufficient number of suitable windows, in such a manner and in such a position, that each of such windows shall afford effectual means of ventilation by direct communica- tion with the external air; the suitability for their object and the sufficiency in number of such windows being in the discretion of the Surveyor General.

48. Every person who shall erect a new domestic build- ing shall construct in every habitable room of such building, one window, at the least, opening directly into the external air, and he shall cause the total area of such window, or, if there be more than one, of the several windows, clear of the frames, to be equal at the least to one tenth of the floor area of such room. Such person shall also construct every sash window so that one half, at the least, may be opened, and so that the opening may extend in every case to the top of the window.

Ventilation under Floors.

49. Every person who shall erect a new domestic build- ing shall construct every room in the lowest floor if provided with a boarded floor, in such manner that there shall be, for the purpose of ventilation, between the underside of every joist on which such floor may be laid, and the upper surface of the asphalte or concrete with which, the ground surface or site of such building may be covered, a clear space of three inches at the least in every part, and he shall cause such space to be ventilated by means of vents, gratings, or air-bricks.