STEEL HOUSES.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20126, 23 February 1937, Page 4

STEEL HOUSES.

A NEW INDUSTRY. GREAT POSSIBILITIES. MUCH VARIETY IN DESIGN. Several score men and women recently filed slowly through a twostorev, all-steel house on exhibition in New York city (writes Robert Bingham in tiie Christian Science Monitor). They admired the spaciousness of the rooms, and marvelled at the evident lack of restriction under which the designer worked. They were just a few more’ than 7p.000 who since July have seen with their own eyes the versatility of steel and are in some small measure beginning to realise' how excellent a building material steel is, and what great possibilities it holds for the building industry. That Industry to-day is facing a crisis—the public is becoming more and more insistent in its demand for better building materials. It wants strength and permanence In its homes —it asks for security against fire, termites and wind-storms —it wants the very best that is available, but — it doesn’t want to pay more! Steelmakers are not interested in steel houses as individual units. An industry which to-day is producing over 155,000 tons of steel daily cannot be expected to concern itself greatly over a few houses that may require eight tons of steel each. In the early years of the century they were not interested in the automobile either, yet to-day the motor-car industry is the largest consumer of steel.* It uses several million tons annually. The steel-house business will never require that much steel, because replacements due to changing of models and styles and wear and tear will not be necessary so often as is the case with motors cars. Slow Changes. Styles of houses change very slowly so" slowly. In fact, that the modern appearance of many of the steel houses so far constructed has shocked the’ more conservative among us —and a steel house will withstand storm and wind and sun a long time before it needs to be rebuilt. But if the steel industry thought that 100.000 steel houses, each requiring about eight tons of ste’el, were to he built in the next year, it would become definitely interested. In view ol' the interest being currently shown in steel houses, that possibility is not far in the future. Today a steel house may cost a lit lie more than an ordinary residence, but to-morrow it may conceivably cost less. The more steel of the same size you make, the cheaper it becomes. Once a rolling mill is adjusted for ti certain width and gauge sheet—and most steel houses are made of sheets, principally—the first few tons are run through ill tiie highest cost, which then decreases quickly and the rest of the order can be rolled for very little. For this reason steel prices arc urnduated In quantities so that larger purchases pay less than do the small buyers. From this it Is easily seen that once the materials necessary to , build a steel house are produced in quantity, the price' of t lie finished house will decrease, proportionately. If is toward this goal that the hous- . ing industry is definitely and surely i headed If, as all signs now indicate, it remains interested in steel. Gonseque’ntlv, steel-house building concerns are busy to-day lining up dealers ami distributors through whom they soon hope to he able to distribute the pro-fabricated steel panels, shapes, beams, etc., necessary for construction. The wisdom of these companies is seen in their arranging for distribution through local dealers and, In most cases, Hie supply or plumbing and electrical equipment by local firms. The problem of pacifying local contractors and building-supply

dealers is serious, because they naturally oppose the importation, so to speak, of foreign building materials from outside their town, which may deprive them of a sale and an opportunity to work. An attempt is made, therefore, to appease this disgrunllement on the part of local labour and dealers by employing them for the actual construction and for the necessary material which need not be fabricated. Dealers in a great many localities have already added steel for housebuilding purposes to their regular stocks of building materials, and as soon as the demand increases, more will be forced to follow suit. Sales Force. It Is obtaining popular acceptance by the dealers that is all-important, because sectional disputes will be eliminated and the beginnings of an effective, interested sales force and group of distributors then will have been made. When one turns for a look at the houses themselves and sees what ste’el really has to offer a buyer for his money, lie is amazed at the variety of designs and styles which is available in a prefabricated house. Most people think of prefabricated houses as all alike—row after row of identical roofs, identical interiors and identical exteriors. But this conception is greatly in error. One of the [greatest advantages of steel is that. | with all ils strength and permanence, it can he designed with absolute freejdom on the part of Hie architect. Some may say that steel houses are ugly. This' is not true. Those who say it are merely not accustomed to fiat roofs, perhaps, or to a building constructed entirely from one material. Any Style. A steel house may he built in practically any style Hint is desired. Tiie architectural tricks which embeladditlonal expense, and al tlie moment wc are concerned with low-cost housing, which asks comfort and security, primarily, and fancy work afterward. A steel house need not have a fiat roof and it need not b<‘ all one colour. Most of the steel houses so far built have been designed as examples of the modern trend in housing, and that trend apparently is in (he direction of fiat roofs. A steel house may d’splay a variclv of colours just as any other home’, hut most of those who have built them to-day evidently prefer hut one colour. Some houses are completely prefabricated and cut rely of steel: yet the same as any other house. One such house uses about 15 tons of