Par. 1. - Cellars. - The cellar of every building, where the grade or nature of the ground so requires, shall be sufficiently protected from water and damp by a bed at least two inches thick over the whole, of concrete, cement and gravel, tar and gravel, or asphalt, or by bricks laid in cement. No cellar or basement floor of any building shall be constructed below the grade of twelve feet above mean low water, unless such cellar is made waterproof. All metal foundations and all structural metal work underground shall be protected from dampness by concrete, waterproofed where necessary, or by other material approved by the commissioner.

* Words in parentheses above should be stricken out, being a repetition.

Par. 2. - Rat-proofing. - The cellar of every building hereafter erected within the building limits shall be made rat-proof by the use of masonry or metal. All openings in foundations, cellars and basements in such buildings, except for doors and hatchways, and except also for such windows wholly above ground as may be exempted by the commissioner in his discretion, shall be completely covered with screens of metal having meshes of not more than one half of an inch in least dimension and constructed of rods or wire of not less than twenty gauge. [1918, c. 179, sect. 10, Special Act.]