HARDWARE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 759, 4 September 1929, Page 14

HARDWARE

| Making Use of Brass And Bronze HOME DECORATION In order to get the utmost satisfaction out of one's home, it is of vital importance to consider carefully each of the many features which go into the malting of the finished product. And because the problem of expense is usually among: the foremost questions for deliberation, it is equally necessary ; to study these features from the standpoint of durability and the enduring i wear which they can be made to yield. | Many times, to his subsequent ani uoyance, a home owner pays no attention to the hardware fixtures which are installed in his house. His mind I is too occupied with questions which ! seem superficially to be of greater im- ! portance. ! And yet for the amount of money i expended there is no other product of the small home’s construction which produces more in the way of usefulness and good looks than these pieces I of hardware, each one of which, in

I some fashion or other, plays its small part in the daily domestic routine. I The experienced home owner knows I without being told the difficulties that j follow in the wake of too cheap liard- ; ware fixtures. Rusty hinges which j can discolour the carefully painted i front door, and hinges which squeak ‘ irritatingly; lighting fixtures which I too soon become transformed into ; ugly, disfigured things: window fast- | eners which show a lamentable rei luctance to perform their appointed ! duties, and locks which do everything but lock in the way that they should. These are but a few of the disturbing results which follow in the wake of illchosen inferior quality hardware. Naturally, in considering the small home, it is not advised to install the costliest and most elaborate hardware purchasable. But it is possible to buy hardware at the present time which is manufactured and sold by reliable concerns; which is moderate in cost and which will look just as well at the end of 10 years or 20 years as at the end of one year. Tn most of the domestic hardware fixtures are made j of brass and bronze, cast iron and steel. Brass and bronze are alloys of I copper, and the brass fixtures come in j a lemon 3*ellow shade, while the I bronze ones come in orange yellow tones.

Brass and bronze hardware is not subject to rust, and if a home owner decides to install brass and bronze products in his house, he must be ! sure that it is not iron and steel, 1 plated to resemble real brass and j bronze. This is sometimes done. So | the value of a reputable dealer is ob- | vious in buying domestic hardware.

Plumbing and bathroom equipment play an important part in the resale value of a house. Keeping this in mind, the home builder chooses fixtures carefully and studies in detail what sort of plumbing job is specified in his plans. He knows for a fact that only durable materials and fixtures are installed at the time of building.

Aucklanders, who feel an urge with the coming of spring to spend weekends out in the bush or on the Waitakere Ranges, should be interested in the log-cabin homes which are an important part of a new Sydney scheme. Sydney people are said to be showing an increased tendency to spend week-ends in the country, and an Australian firm of real estate agents estimates that these attractive cabins can be built for £llO each