WALL MATERIAL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22624, 29 April 1948, Page 4

WALL MATERIAL

ENGLISH “PRE-FABS” COMPRESSED CARDBOARD A good deal has been heard about pre-fabricated houses now being erected in their multitudes in England and many New Zealanders have expressed curiosity about the material of which the outer walls are built. Writing to a friend in Gisborne an Englishman has enclosed in his letter a small portion of the material being used in England’s pre-fabricated houses. It appears to be thin sheets of a fairly light cardboard compressed into a board nearly half an inch thick. The correspondent states: "In England the housing position is very acute, so much so that our authorities are having pre-fabricated houses, as they are called, erected on so-called suitable sites. Some of the ‘pre-fabs’ are made of aluminium, but some of them are not.

“I am enclosing you a small portion of the outer wall of one type of ‘pre-fab’ which when they were originally con tracted for cost £llOO each. The price has since gone up, but I do not know by how much. "If you examin° it you will find it is nract'cally cardboard and our local authority has had some trouble with voung hooliyans kicking in the walls of houses before tenants could get in “The houses, of course, are onlv sinsle-sforey anH to mv mind will be like sleeping in a glorified boot box. High-Class Workmanship

“Of course, the outside is painted, or P woifld not last long in our wet weather The nlurrhing is laid between t.wo walls fan inner and an outer one) on supports from the ground and oonpor nming is largely used now as being l : "hter and more* plentiful than lead, 'Die kitchen arrangements are usually of very high-class workmanship anu material. "Neverihriess, I don’t think I should like to live in one of the ‘cardboard nre-fnbs’ and I should Hunk to keen a punpv in one of these nieces would be to exnect a "ood many draughtv ho’es in ihe walls after its teeth and daws had had a month or so on the material.

“incidentally, I don’t see how anv realiv hnnvv mirror or picture could he hun'' on such walls.”

England’s prefabricated houses were mentioned bv tb n United Kingdom H’"h Commissioner. Sir Patrick Duff, sneaking during his visit to Gisborne this week. Many of these houses had been erected on cleared un bomb sites in Glasgow, said Sir Patrick. They were particularly ucly-looking things from the outside, hut or. examining several he had found them very comfortable and they we-e certainly helping considerably to bonro the many homeless families in p -r!tain.