House kit , also known as factory-cutting house , pre-cut house , house ready to cut, mail order house , or catalog house , is a popular type of housing in the United States and Canada and elsewhere in the first half of the 20th century. Manufacturers of home kits sell homes in various plans and styles, from simple bungalows to impressive Colonial, and are supplied at a fixed price all the materials needed for a particular house construction, but usually do not include brick, concrete, or masonry (as required to put foundation, which must be arranged by the customer to be done locally).
Video Kit house
Design
House kits built with balloons and framed balloons were built as permanent structures, not temporary, because the Sears wood department manager, Roebuck explained to the United States Senate committee in 1919:
The ready-to-use house should not be confused with a portable, removable and removable housing. The ready-made houses are permanent homes and the construction methods are no different from those of other skeletons where the wood is framed (or cut to length, grooved, etc.), by hand by the carpenter.
Unlike modular homes, which are built in parts at the factory, at the kit house each separate piece of wood is shipped already numbered and cut to fit a certain place at home, thus eliminating the need to measure and cut, as well as waste of time (especially on a day- days before power tools) and materials. Thus, home kit manufacturers claim to save customers as much as 30 to 40 percent compared to traditional building methods. The explanation by researcher Dale Wolicki about making kit homes by Gordon-Van Tine Company is typical of other home kit company endeavors as well:
All designs are standardized to maximize efficiency and reduce waste in materials and labor. Wood and hardware are purchased in bulk. The factories have skilled employees and special machines for cutting difficult parts such as rafters and ladders. Long trimmed timber, guaranteed to fit, ready to be nailed, and labeled for easy assembly. Floor joists and bridging, sub-flooring, flooring, buttons, rafters, sheaths, clapboard, shingles, plastering, plaster or drywall, columns, fences, doors and windows, hardware, nails, and paints for two outer layers included ordering. Plumbing, electricity and heating systems are available at an additional cost. Although wood and hardware are standardized, the design is not and buyers are encouraged to personalize their orders. Many models have two or three floor plans, while the exterior may be a clapboard, shingles, stucco, or a brick frame. Walls, windows and doors can be moved, added or removed. The veranda, sun room, flower box, trellis, balcony, built-in wardrobe, and various door and sling patterns are available at an additional cost.
Maps Kit house
Shipping and construction
Depending on the size and style of the plan, the materials needed to build a typical house, including perhaps 10,000-30,000 pieces of wood and other building materials, will fill one or two train carriages, which will be loaded at the company's plant and send to the customer's home town , where they will be parked on the edge or on the delivery page for loading and unloading. Once the materials arrive, a customer will arrange for a local carpenter or contractor to assemble the house on a piece of property owned by the customer; or a customer proficient with tools may collect all or part of the house itself in a few weeks or months.
The houses produced can not be distinguished in the quality and appearance of those constructed by traditional methods, if not better, but often less expensive to build due to savings in the wages of carpenters and contractors; and the cost of high quality wood purchased from major home appliance companies is often lower than in local timber yards. In addition, several companies, including Sears, Montgomery Ward, Gordon-Van Tine, and Harris Brothers, offer cash discounts and generous mortgage terms. For most homeowners, the complete cost of building a kit house is about double the price of the catalog, allowing it to build the foundations and labor costs. The price of land or a lot of cities to be built will be another burden.
Customization
In addition to previously cut homes, some companies also only sell house plans (with home buyers buying all materials locally) or non-pre-cut versions of their homes (at a lower price), leave it to buyers to arrange construction and carpentry work. According to Sears Archives, "Sears is actually encouraging Modern Home builders to save money by ordering their timber from a local timber mill." Sears wants Modern Homes to be cost-effective for buyers, which often means buying local materials instead of some Sears and timber mills geographically distant. "
In addition, some companies will provide their upside-down home versions or make other modifications upon request. As an example,
Sears is... a very capable follower of popular home design but with the added advantage of modifying homes and hardware to suit the buyer's taste. Individuals can even design their own homes and submit a blueprint to the Sears, which will then send the appropriate precut material and equipment, placing the homeowner in full creative control.
In addition, with some companies, home buyers can choose quality materials. Gordon-Van Tine offers discounts for customers who opt for siding, roofs, doors, windows, and less quality trim. Sears offers "Honor Bilt" homes, with top-quality materials, as well as a "Standards Built" home that is "best for warm climates, which means they do not retain heat very well," and "Simplex Sectionals," made of prefabricated panels that can be put together , intended to be used as a temporary structure or summer house.
Ads
The built houses are promoted through catalogs available on wood pages and hardware stores, through mail order catalogs issued by major retailers such as Sears and Wards, and through advertisements in magazines and popular newspapers in cities where home producers kit has a local sales office. List of Dale Wolicki Saturday Evening Post , National Geographic and Good Housekeeping as an example of a national magazine where Gordon-VanTine is advertised. Prospective customers can arrange to check the kit houses around them or visit the company's factory for a model house tour.
The ease of construction and cost savings of home appliances attracts many prospective homeowners across the economic spectrum, from blue-collar workers to the rich. For example, in 1928, Walt Disney and his brother Roy built two toy houses made in Pacific Ready Cut Homes in many of the homes they owned in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles.
The popularity of kit homes is proved indirectly in the 1920's one-week silent comedy, starring Buster Keaton, which shows Keaton building a build-it-yourself home that turned out to be all wrong.
Company home kit
A number of companies offer home kits, and sometimes also offer "imperfect" industries and summer cottages that lack bathrooms, as well as garages, duplexes, apartment buildings, barns and other farm buildings, and even outhouses.
Canada
The biggest sellers in Canada are:
- Canadian Aladdin Co. Ltd. - a branch factory, from Michigan-based Aladdin Homes, Canada's largest home seller, its headquarters in Canada is located at the Canadian Pacific Building, in Toronto. They operate throughout Canada, from 1905 to 1952. They are completely trimmed, and need only a little skill to get together. They also feature high quality wood, and the company offers a $ 1 refund for each node found in the device.
- The T. Eaton Co. Ltd. - by far the most important mail-order retailer in Canada in the early 20th century, was also a provider of home supplies from 1910 to 1932. They were only available in Western Canada, not in Ontario or the East. Eaton's sells at least 40 different house plans, but the most common type is 1 1 / 2 - storied, sometimes referred to as semi-bungalows. In the 1919 and 1920 catalogs, all Eaton homes are named from "Ea", thus, Eatoncourt, Eastbourne, Easton, Eager, Earlswood, and Earlscourt. Although Eaton's homes are sold as kits similar to other companies, they were not cut earlier.
- Providers of other small messaging kits include The B.C. Mills Timber and Trading Co., United Grain Growers, University of Saskatchewan, and Manitoba Agricultural College.
United States
More than 100,000 home kits were built in the United States between 1908 and 1940. Companies offering home kits during all or part of their company's existence include:
- Aladdin Homes, Bay City, Michigan - 1906 to 1981
- Bennett House, North Tonawanda, New York - 1902 to 1935 or later
- Cut Fenner Factory House, House Ready Company, North Portland, Oregon - 1912 to 1928
- Gordon-Van Tine Homes, Davenport, Iowa, with additional plant in St. Louis. Louis, Missouri, Chehalis, Washington, and Hattiesburg, Mississippi - 1907 to 1947
- Harris House, Harris Brothers Company, Chicago, Illinois - 1913 to 1960
- The Hewitt-Lea-Funck Company, Seattle, Washington
- Liberty House, Lewis Manufacturing, Bay City, Michigan - 1925 to 1973
- Pacific Slice House, Los Angeles - 1908 to 1940
- Sears Modern House, Sears, Roebuck, Chicago - 1908 to 1940
- Sterling Homes, International Mill and Timber Company, Bay City, Michigan - 1915 to 1971
- Wardway Homes, Montgomery Ward, Chicago, Illinois - 1910 to 1931 (the actual home making subcontracted to Gordon-Van Tine)
The home kit company abandoned the business for various economic reasons before, during, and after the Great Depression; some went bankrupt, while others returned to their initial function as a supplier of building materials. According to Wolicki researchers:
Contrary to popular belief Montgomery-Ward and Sears Roebuck did not stop their pre-cut housing department because of customers who failed in their mortgage. New Deal programs introduced by Roosevelt's government encourage homeowners to refinance existing mortgages at lower rates through programs established by the Federal Housing Administration. Throughout 1934 and 1935 customers settled their mortgage homes with Sears and Montgomery. Without a favorable mortgage program, Montgomery-Ward decided to stop its offerings on homes and pre-cut building materials entirely. Sears Roebuck continued to sell homes that had been cut before but lowered their operations significantly.
Some home-kit companies continued after World War II, but most home buyers flocked to subdivisions of new and inexpensive homes that have sprung up all over the country.
Although no traditional home-based kit company is still in business, a pre-cut home log kit is offered by a number of manufacturers. Lindal Cedar Homes, a home kit company founded in 1945 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington, continues to sell its internationally-pruned exterior material package through an independent distributor network. And starting in 2006, Lowe's for several years provides plans and materials (not pre-cut) to a small house built with a stick called Katrina Cottages, with walls designed to windproof 140 miles per hour, intended to provide temporary housing for Bay. Coastal residents who lost their homes by Hurricane Katrina. Originally offered through Lowe stores in Mississippi and Louisiana, in 2008 Lowe began offering cottages at all of its stores across the country. However, although initially "hailed as the new Sears & Roebuck house," the program faces strong opposition from local authorities in the Gulf Coast region who fear the cottage will degrade property values, and in mid 2011 Lowe has suspended its product line..
Preservation
The Acadia Township District, Alberta, has published a self-driving tour map to the local catalog house.
See also
- House kit in Michigan
- MAN steel house
Bibliography
- Schweitzer, Robert, and W. R. Davis. American Favorite House: Mail-Order Catalog as a Guide to the Popular 20th Century Homes . Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1990. ISBNÃ, 0-8143-2006-6 (Google Books Preview here.)
- Stevenson, Katherine Cole, and H. Ward Jandl. Home by Mail: Homepage for Sears, Roebuck and Company . Washington, D. C: Preservation Press, 1986. ISBNÃ, 0-471-14394-4
- Thornton, Rosemary, and Dale Wolicki. Montgomery Ward Mail-Order House; History and Field Guide to Wardway Homes . Gentle Beam Publications, 2010. ISBNÃ, 0-9715588-6-8
References
External links
- Company archive Aladdin Homes at Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University includes a complete sales catalog from 1908 to 1954
- Building Technology Heritage Library - an online collection of hundreds of catalogs of American and Canadian architectural trade, pre-1964 downloadable, home-scoring books, and technical development guides
- The Bungalow Floor Plan in the About.com home plan by Sears and several other companies, 1908 to 1921
- Eaton Catalog Homes webpage with images from the Eaton 1917 catalog, along with the big Eaton house blueprint actually built at Lone Star Farm near Sperling, Manitoba, and which still exists today
- Eaton Catalog Founding a documentary on Eaton's home featuring Les Henry, author of Home Catalog: Eaton and More The
- Gordon-Van Tine site by Dale Wolicki includes a wealth of company information as well as photos of GVT homes as they appear today
- House Plan from Books and Kits - 1900 to 1960 in Antique Home Style
- Home Kit Information Includes information about green kit home building
- House Kit Information in Community Arts and Crafts
- Kithouse.org Historical information and extensive bibliography in home furnishings by architectural researcher and author Rebecca Hunter
- House Kit Research Guide at the National Trust for Historic Preservation Library Collection, University of Maryland; including bibliography. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
- "Mail-order House," Canadian Mail-order Catalog History - from the History of Canada Museum
- Images of Sears Modern Home at searsarchives.com
- Searshomes.org by Rosemary Thornton, researcher and author of several home kit books
- Sears Homes of Chicagoland features kit houses in the Chicago, Illinois area
- "Continue to Add Demand for Houses Ready to Cut," The American Exporter , Vol. 91, No. 4, October 1922, p. 73-75.
- Vintage House Plans at Antique Homes more than three dozen catalogs of home kits by various manufacturers from 1903 to 1971
- Wardway Homes history of Montgomery Ward's pre-cut house, with some of the latest plans and photos
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments