[Greenbuilding] (1850's Michigan) adobe question

[Chris Green]

Adam wilson wrote:
> Chris,
>
> I agree that time and money are major factors with building in general.
> But as there are plenty of brick houses in the area, one can easily 
> assume that there were people who chose to build with brick.  Remember 
> now, this was (is) a city.
> As I was saying, that was just my opinion on why people chose fired 
> brick vs. adobe.  Not a question of why there weren't more masonry 
> houses.
I was offering a possible explanation as to why there weren't more adobe 
houses built in that area in the 1850's. It takes quite a bit of time 
and suitable weather to make enough adobes to build a house. Burnt 
bricks can be made during most of the season, and would probably be an 
okay job as winter set in since the kilns would give off some heat, so 
bricks could be made and stockpiled for more months of the year. At 
least until the clay pits froze up.
I don't know if that can be said of adobe bricks in that region.

In Perth County, Ontario it is-- or was until recently-- mandatory to 
build with burnt bricks. This was in order to preserve the heritage 
aspect of that county, which was originally settled by masons brought 
over to help build the CPR railway buildings and such.

Another reason for local prevalences of old brick houses could be 
because the authorities mandated the use of bricks or other masonry in 
urban settings.. This would be because of the risk of fires that 
stick-built houses posed, and as shown in The Great Chicago Fire, etc. A 
lot of cities suffered Great Fires over the years. This type of law was 
passed in Quebec city sometime prior to the 18th C, iirc, after fire 
destroyed part of that city.
Also, the balloon-frame wooden houses of that century didn't last all 
that long and were probably replaced over the years. If they didn't burn 
down because someone didn't clean the chimneys properly....
>
> As for back then, I don't think it was as cheap to build stick frame 
> as it is now.  Hand saws were the norm on the worksite back then.
I'm old enough to remember when carpenters like my dad still had a set 
of hand saws in their tool boxes (I still have and use his boxes, which 
I watched him make in 1958). They usually had two, one for 
cross-cutting, another for ripping lengthwise. They often also had 
specialty saws, like a dovetail saw, for certain jobs.
I can remember dad ripping plywood with a handsaw.
Where I lived in the '50's didn't have electricity, so hand tools were 
the more or less only way to get work done.
I still pull a handsaw out now and then since it can be much faster than 
running around the jobsite to find power cords and trying to figure out 
who grabbed the circular saw... :-)

Cheers,

Chris Green.