PREFABRICATED HOUSES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25565, 19 June 1944, Page 4

PREFABRICATED HOUSES

EVIDENCE OF COST Evidence regarding the cost of an experimental prefabricated house in Panmure Highway, Ellerslie, was given before the Auckland Urban Land Sales Committee. An application was heal’d for consent to the sale of the house and section of 37.9 perches ior £1750. The dwelling was described as a new wooden building, of prefabricated stressed skin construction, with livingroom, two bedrooms, kitchenette, sun porch, and tiled roof, with a floor area of 810 square feet. Figures provided by G. C. Goode and Co., Ltd., showed the cost of the section as £205 and that of the house as £1778, this being approximately £2 4s a square foot. An architect of the Housing Department gave evidence as to special features incorporated in the building, and said the plywood used in the outside walls gave greater durability than weatherboard.

When Mr J. E. Aubin, the Crown representative, said the wages shown in the cost sheet, £740, seemed much higher than under general methods of construction, and that they were equal to the wages of three carpenters for 34 weeks at 3s 3d an hour, witness said the method of construction was only in the experimental stage, and, as it proceeded, wages and other costs would come down.

The chairman, Mr W. R. Tuck, said the committee would adjourn the case until valuations were obtained, as the costs given were no indication of the market value of the property. ,