In fact, no woodwork should be permitted to come in contact with any part of the chimney. Wooden beams and joists should be kept at least 2 inches from the chimney and at least 4 inches from the back of any fireplace. This space, as was previously stated, should be filled in with fire-stopping material. Where a chimney is on the line with a wooden stud partition, it is better to plaster directly over the brickwork of the chimney than to carry studs over it on which lath and plaster is constructed. By using metal lath over the brickwork the danger of cracks can be eliminated. Where a base-board must be carried along this wall in which such a chimney occurs, the plaster should be carried down behind it and then asbestos board should be placed behind the base-board to prevent too much heat coming in contact with it. If these precautions are taken in the construction of the chimney and the correct methods of fire-stopping employed, the house of wood can be made less of a fire-trap than it is to-day. None of these devices require much additional expense, and should, on this basis, have a broad appeal. VII POOR METHODS OF CONSTRUCTION EMPLOYED BY UNSCRUPULOUS BUILDERS It would be an endless task to list and describe all of the possible faults of construction which an unscrupulous builder might use in the erection of a small house, and, indeed, it would result largely in rehearsing all of the details of good construction, and then reversing them, showing that instead of doing the correct thing it was done quite the opposite way. But there are certain obvious and glaring faults of construction which are employed by speculative builders with one purpose in mind, namely, to reduce the cost but maintain a good appearance. An intentional and clever disguise of poor construction is, at heart, the dishonest thing against which this is written. The defects of construction which are either the result of ignorance or unskilled labor, while they are bad enough, are not malicious, but those defects which are intentionally planned are simply systems of stealing, and they are usually found in the so-called speculative house, which the unwary public buys in preference to securing an honest house, designed by an architect. And it is this system of dishonest construction that makes the speculative house seem, on the face, cheaper than the honest house. Indeed, it is the whole intention of such dishonest methods of building to make the house seem, on the face of it, substantial, good-looking, and honest, but to hide, beneath the glamour of its exterior, weaknesses of structure which will cause all kinds of failures after a few years of standing. So long as the house stands together until the builder has sold it to some unsuspecting buyer, that is all that interests him.