New Britain herald., 1927-11-19

the city at heart: inasmuch as 1t is their policy to build just as cheaph a.s the ordinance will permit anu turn same over to owners at a price which would be the equivalent to properly constructed building.
 Tn the first place, a great many of these small buildings are built or what is known as construction loans They purchase a lot on which they intend to construct a house, thtE procure a loan on the lot for th, equivalent of what might be a first mortgage and pay the money out t. the builder as the building progreS Ses. The cost of these construction loans will run from twenty to thirty per cent for the actual money used during the life of construction and then the building produced and sold in the market at competition with well-huilt houses on par price with a well-built house. Naturally the amount Of commission for the procuring of loans would have to be absorbed in the cheaper construc- ted buildings in order to be able 10 sell for the same price as the man who constructs a Well-bullt home and has the capital to finance same through his own resources.
 Generally the parts of building that need the most attention get sighted as to quality. Houses that are built for speculative purposes and without any architects plans or supervisor suffer the most. This gives the builder an opportunity to emhodv any material in the con- struction of a building whether it is desired or not and is adaptable 10 the construction.
 Tn reference 10 inspection of houses of this calihre and watching builders of this character the build ing department is considerably hampered because they are not al- lowed enough men to inspect these buildings in the proper manner. ] lelieve that with the amount of building that is under way in our city at the present time there should be four inspectors instead of two and I doubt then If they would be able to reach all the defective work which is being embodied in these houses.
 There is a matter which I believe should be looked into and whether the City of New Britain has author ity on this point or not remains to be seen. l think that builders should be licensed the same as plumbers, heaters or electricians. It seems very odd to the writer that any individual whether efficient or otherwise, can come into the city and erect build ings haphazardly with inefficient workmanship and unadaptable ma terial without a license while the sub- contractors go into this same build ing to do the plumbing, heating and electrical work and are forced by the city and state to be licensed to do their part. l believe that If every builder who ' is doing construction work in our city was brought before a building board and was forced to stand an examination as to his abll- itv to produce homes for the public, who are not sufficiently wise to know the difference between a we'll built house and a poorly constructed one, that within a very few years the home conditions in the City of New Britain would be exceedingly changed.
 Tt does not seem fair for houses poorly constructed to be passed along to home owners who are not wise to the matter and methods of how they are constructed and I be- licve that a condition of licensing the builders would make a general good mprovement.
 Tn my opinion, the building board is considerably hampercd in the activities which they have and I doubt not that they would be great deal more efficient if their board was larger and more inspec- tors than under the present condi- tion This inspection would not be necessary if every builder had the proper ability to construct these homes.
 "I would like to hear comments from different citizens of the city in reference to this condition.'