Evening star., 1947-10-08

th a continued high level Of home
, for place to live. Technical progress
d to lower housing -costs-the most
lsystems is the development of sand
Wich" type materials for the panels,
providing protection from water
cenetration and thermal insulation
n single thickness. Such materials
were used during the war and are
daily becoming more important.
Metal Framing Developed.
Notable efforts have been made
to substitute metal framing for the
traditional wood frame. The most
recent are load-bearing frames of
various metals with conventional
framing and special methods OF
applying materials.
Both steel and aluminium are being
increasingly used in panels, siding,
roofing and other seovering elements,
and in components such as windows
and doors.
| In development, and showing con-
siderable promise, are panels con-
structed with aluminium facing sheets
bonded with phenolic resin glue to
in-impregnated sheets of kraft
paper cut into strips and expanded
like the d-fashioned valentines and
paper Christmas bells.
The honeycomb-core panels are
light in weight, load-bearing. and
can be made in extra large sizes.
Concrete has been used more
extensively for residential construc-
ton in Europe than in the United
States. However, there has been
significant progress, during the last
few years, in extending the use of
concrete for housing in this country
Improvements in the use of con-
crete for house construction have
included precast blocks, wall tile and
floor slabs; and special forms for
pouring entire walls, in place, sys-
TENS of tilting-up complete wall
sections that have been cast on the
site, and methods for speeding up
the curing of concrete.
Those developments have been
aided by the use of lightweight
aggregates, resulting in reduction in
weight and easier handling of panels
and slabs.
More recently the use of "foaming
agents" in cement to produce a
porous cellular concrete has been
receiving increasing attention.
Equipment.
One of the outstanding develop
ments in the field of equipment is
the assembled mechanical core or
utility unit. Within a welded chan
mel steel frame is assembled the
heating plant, water heater, sewer,
water and gas rough piping, and
electrical controls.
To this core are attached, at the
job, the bathroom fixtures on one
side and the kitchen equipment, in
Guiding sink, range, refrigerator and
cabinets on the other. Such develop
ments can save time and money
spent in buying each item separately,
contribute to fleXibility in design,
and help to simplify and speed up
the process of field installation.
Other notifications of the COM
plete core idea include preassembled
basic piping in a wall thickness
panel for installation as a single
unit for back-to-back kitchen and
bath. sy~
Heating Methods Changing.
Heating methods are undergoing
an almost revolutionary change.
There is an increasing trend toward
the use of panel radiant heating,
using steam, hot water or warm air
in floors, walls or ceiling.
This heating method, combined
with greater knowledge of ir1sulat-
ing materials and their proper use,
together with the use of prefitted
windows that are carefully weather.
stripped in the factory, has resulted
IN the production of small, compact
heater units requiring a minimum Of
space.
In some areas of the country elec-
tricity is being used for heating on
the panel radiant principle, in one
case using rubber sheets with carbon
particles between, which can be ap-
piled to the walls or ceiling much
like wall paper.
In another case, wire coils are at
tached to a. building board, which
is applied in the same manner as
ordinary building board.
Numerous advances also have been
made in laundering equipment, in
Guiding automatic washers, dryers
and ironers.
Changes in Traditional Methods.
Advances have been made and are
being applied in both site and fac
tory prefabrication of house ele-,
ments using conventional materials
as well as new materials, for ready
assembly into~the finished product.
In addition to doors, windows and
cabinets-which have been fabri-
Gated for many years-panels for
wall, floor and roof are now being
produced in quantity.
Such panels, ready for assembly,
make possible the speeding-up of
site erection and help in overcoming
delays due to weather conditions.
Increased use of power tools in site
preparation and erection operations
has resulted in savings in time and
work. Though the full advantages
of such mechanization has been OBJ
tained, for the most part, on large
scale projects, the techniques can be
applied to advantage also by smaller
builders.
Improvements have been made in
standardizing dimensions of building
products so that various materials
and equipment can be used together