Evening star., 1932-11-20

from here on the WofK Is not ID yee sioasA1
differently from that of ordinary house
construction The insulating material has 70
be put on the outside and inside much as it Is
put on high-class houses of today. 1t then has
to be plastered inside in the regular way.
Clark has some plans for finishing the IN
terror and exterior of later houses much more
rapidly, by the use of materials which do not
take weeks to dry, but the development OF
these has had to wait for later houses. The
steel floor is covered with a heavy mastic. ana
the flooring laid on top of that In the lnltial
house this floor Is wood.
The paramount idea in the steel house, SO
far, is to take as much as possible OF the
house into the factory About half the cost
of the ordinary house Is in labor on the loca-
tion and the other half is the materials. THESE
proportions depend, of course, upon what kind
of house you build, but the average VIII run
something like this.
The new Clark frameless steel house is ex-
pected to leave only about 80 per cent OF the
cost for labor on the site, and take about 10
Der cent of the cost into the factory.
A new kind of factory would spring up the
house factory. Workmen in the house factories
would not be interrupted by weather as BUILDING
workmen are.
Houses would probably continue to be erected
by the present tailor-made methods for the
present market for very long time to come,
but the house factory would make it possible
for people to buy houses who cannot now afford
to live in anything new. It would provide the
market a new kind of house, more or less
mass production house, not standardized In
appearance, but standard In construction
method and price.
The cost of the two steel houses in Cleveland
has not yet been worked out, but II it we're
possible to separate the development costs from
the actual construction costs, the Clark group
believes the house would not stand them any
more than an ordinary house.
Furthermore, they believe the next houses
will be cheaper still, and their hope is that by
the time they get to building houses by the
scores and the hundreds the cost can be
brought to about two-thirds that of a frame
house. The steel company is not going to
build houses itself but will contract territory to
construction companies.
If the house industry grew to be anything
like the automobile industry 1t would employ
millions of workmen. Nobody now in the house
building industry would lose his job, even II he
did not care to adapt himself to the methooS
Of the metal house.
He would continue to build the present type
Of tailor made house for people who could
afford that kind Of house, for which there
would be new demand brought on by the
prosperity that so vast an industry would create.
Meanwhile millions of workmen who could
never before afford a new house would be able
THE American Rolling Mill Of Middletown
and the Ferro Enamel Co. Of Cleveland
are not the only large manufacturing interests
= which are working to bring about a factory
fabricated house. number Of others have been
engaged on the fascinating problem, some Of
them longer than either Of these.
The Carnegie Steel Co., subsidiary Of the
United States Steel Corp has been doing
some engineering work on the steel frame house,
as the result Of which Cleveland already has
one welded steel frame house and another -
under construction. In this second welded
house, the steel frame is being assembled in q
factory and hauled to the job In sections. q
whole room wall at time, with the window
frames IN place.
A number of other big corporations are
closely following the development Of the fac
tory house. corporation known as General
Houses, Inc, was formed recently in New
York to market steel house of standard parts.
The companies participating in this new ven-
ture are Pullman, General Electric, American
Radiator, Pittsburgh Plate Glass, Concrete
Engineering, Container Corporation and Thomas
A Edison, Inc.