BUILT IN 10 DAYS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 8 February 1944, Page 3

BUILT IN 10 DAYS

PRE FABRICATED HOUSE

FOUR ROOMS COSTING £675

Auckland, Feb. 7

Commenting on the recent statement by the Minister of Works, the Hon. R. Semple, that no details are yet available of*the cost of building State prefabricated houses in Auckland, a Hamilton correspondent mentions in a lettc • to the “Herald” that a house of this type was built in December last for £675. The house, which was constructed by private enterprise, was completed in ten days, states the writer, and this performance may assist the Minister in the rehabilitation of the home-

inquiries substantiate the - writer’s statement in regard to the cost and time of erecting the house. It is a fourroomed cottage equipped with a coal cooking range, hot and cold water, porcelain bath and basin, copper and tubs, and is connected* with the town sewerage.

The building was pre-fabricated in a Hamilton firm’s factory and assembled on the site. The outer walls are of rusticated weatherboards of a type highly suitable for pre-fabrication, casement windows are used, and the doors are of the latest standardised Government model. The roofing is corrugated fibrolite, and the interior linings are chiefly wallboard and plywood of New Zealand manufacture. The understructure is of hard timber, and the weatherboards and flooring are kiln-dried ordinary building timber.

The total floor area, including porches, is 724 square feet, and on the contract price of £675 it work. 4 out at approximately 18s 8d a foot. This footage rate is of special interest, in view of recent estimates of present-day building costs given by valuers appearing before Land Sales committees in Auckland. They have been given estimates varying from 25s to 30s a foot as current costs.

The cottage is described as being neat and comfortable, and in keeping with other houses or cottages in the same street built by other methods. While it is said to be not comparable with the State houses in design, material or price, this type of residence is claimed to be admirably suited for small families.

An official of the firm which constructed the house stated that his company had been building cottages of this type for over ten years, and has erected as many as 50 in one year all over the Waikato. The firm proposes to build a factory at Claudelands and erect 20 or more of these dwellings for its employees, who will be assisted to buy them through the State Advances Corporation. The Hamilton Borough Council decided last week to build three cottages of the type.