SECTION VI.

ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF PARTITIONS.

204. —Partitions, in carpentry, are frames of timber for dividing the internal parts ofa house into rooms: they are usually lathed and plastered, and sometimes the spacesbetween the timbers are filled with brick-work.

In modern carpentry there is no part of a budding so much neglected as the partitions.A square of partitioning is of considerable weight, seldom less than half a ton, and oftenmuch more ; therefore a partition should have an adequate support: instead of which it isoften suffered to rest on the floor, which of course settles under a weight it was never in-tended to bear, and the partition breaks from the ceiling above.

If it be necessary to support a partition by means of the floors or roof, it should ratherbe strapped to the floor or roof above it, than be suffered to bear upon the floor below;because in that case the cracks along the cornice would be avoided; and in such casesthe timbers of the floor or roof must be made stronger. A partition ought, however, to becapable of supporting its own weight; for even when doorways are so placed that a trusscannot be got the whole depth, it is almost always possible to truss over the heads of thedoors.

202.—Partitions that have a solid bearing throughout their length do not require anybraces, indeed they are better without them, as it is easy to stiffen them by means of strutsbetween the uprights, and thus the shrinking and cross strains occasioned by braces areavoided. When braces are introduced in a partition, they should be disposed so as tothrow the weight upon points which are sufficiently supported below, otherwise they domore harm than good.

But though it be often practicable to give a partition a solid bearing throughout, it isbetter not to do so, because all walls settle; therefore the partition should always besupported only by the walls it is connected with, in order that it may settle with them. Ifthe partition have a solid bearing, and the Avails settle, fractures must necessarily takeplace.

Also, when a partition is supported at one end by the wall of a high part of the building,and by the wall of a lower part at the other end, it will always crack, either close by theAvails, or diagonally across.