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A.-No, the better way to make a good floor is to, one might say, tickle it down. You take the rake of the banker. You take that rake and you gently pat it all down. You dont work it. You do not try to dress up soft portions, and when you have got that all done until the stone is almost invisible, that is to say, the matrix is nearly covering them, you leave off for 24 hours, and ram it next day. You get a good floor. I dont approve of ramming it at once.
Q.-Now what do you say to this authority? Here is a quotation from Hurst's Handbook, page 309: Concrete, if it has not commenced to set, should be rammed until the lime or cement flushes up to the surface".
A.-I think one is liable to put a wrong construction on the word "ram". It generally means violence.
Q.-I take it to mean an iron ptuner at home,-pretty heavy.
A. As a rule, they ram it very hard. It is a very hydraulic lime, and it must be thrown in every case from a height of six feet, but that does not pay with cement concrete, and I dont believe in ramining cement concrete, excepting to expel air. If you expel the air, that would be quite enough. You dont want to get all the stone at the bottoin, and all the lime at the top.
Q.-Well, if it was rammed as you say, and I dont think it inconsistent with what I have just quoted,-wouldn't that preclude the chance of rat runs carrying underneath, which do occur here very often?
A. Yes, because the rats would not get a chance to start it.
Q.-And now wouldn't you say that it is a thing that is very seldom done in laying these floors, this ramming
A.-In our work,-I dont know if we pay more attention than other Architects to it,-it is a thing I am very particular about myself, and I always have floors rammed 24 hours after they are laid. I neve let them ram it at once. I let them put it down with the shovel, and next day I insist on it being rammed. If it is too wet that day, I ram it
on mats.
Q.-That applies to cement also?
A.-No, we never touch cement. It is put in, and we never ram it.
The Chairman.--You only smooth it with a shovel?
A. Yes.
Mr. Shelton Hooper.--Now, I am to ask you as a professional man, to define as generally as you can the term of "making good ", and to shew you what I mean, I will just quote the Ordinance.
A. You confine me on the subject of concrete to the question of floors only?
Q.--No, I am going to—
A. Because I have been answering entirely for floors, not for foundations.
Q-No, not foundations. These are floors, pure and simple.
A. Yes, as long as it is understood. It is a very different matter.
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