Thread Number: 88701
/ Tag: Other Home Products or Autos
(Older) prefab homes |
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Post# 1132309 , Reply# 1   10/29/2021 at 22:51 (881 days old) by CircleW (NE Cincinnati OH area)   |   | |
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I bet that the company you're thinking of was Jim Walter Homes, as they were Florida based. I remember seeing them in Mississippi, as they had a location in Hattiesburg. |
Post# 1132314 , Reply# 2   10/30/2021 at 00:44 (881 days old) by Davey7 (Chicago)   |   | |
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There's a Lustron for sale in Beverly Shores, Indiana for nearly a million at the moment! |
Post# 1132347 , Reply# 5   10/30/2021 at 14:36 (880 days old) by wayupnorth (On a lake between Bangor and Bar Harbor, Maine)   |   | |
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Technically, my house is an early pre-fab. It was all pre-cut and labeled for installation and delivered to the site. Then another crew put it all together. It was originally our summer camp but in 1995 I had it put on a new foundation with all new well, septic, electrical plumbing and heating and I have been here year round since. I dont have a pix of the structure but this is what I see that makes it all worthwhile.
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Post# 1132348 , Reply# 6   10/30/2021 at 15:03 (880 days old) by foraloysius (Leeuwarden, Friesland, the Netherlands)   |   | |
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Post# 1132377 , Reply# 7   10/31/2021 at 07:44 (880 days old) by polkanut (Wausau, WI )   |   | |
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Wausau Homes is still in business, and going strong.
Midwest Custom Builders & New Home Construction | Wausau Homes |
Post# 1132404 , Reply# 8   10/31/2021 at 13:32 (879 days old) by pulltostart (Mobile, AL)   |   | |
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I'm looking at a Directory of Prefabricators in the December 1958 House and Home and the only prefabber listed in FL at that time was in St. Petersburg and was named Trendline. I'll check a few other years and see if I find more information.
For the most part, traditionally prefabbers built wall panels in a factory and shipped them to the jobsite for assembly by a local builder. Exceptions did exist, and the degree to which each prefabber built/finished the panels varied a good bit.
By the time the market included homes that were shipped in two sections (like a double wide) and placed on a foundation at the site, these were commonly referred to as manufactured homes. That would include the model you described with the prefinished ceiling panels with decorative rosettes.
lawrence |
Post# 1132531 , Reply# 11   11/2/2021 at 14:33 (877 days old) by pulltostart (Mobile, AL)   |   | |
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Post# 1132565 , Reply# 13   11/2/2021 at 23:59 (877 days old) by SudsMaster (SF Bay Area, California)   |   | |
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If I'm not mistaken, plaster walls went out of style here in the 50's or 60's. Stuff built since then is sheet rock nailed to 2x4 or 2x6 framing. Not sure which is better, although the sheet rock is probably cheaper to install (lower labor costs). It would be difficult to punch through a plaster/lathe wall. Much easier to punch through a sheet rock wall. Don't ask me how I know ;-). The sound problem can be addressed with proper insulation fill between the framing members. Necessary on outer walls, although I suspect a lot of places in California don't even have that, or the insulation has slumped over the years. And so it goes.
My current home was built in 1941 and the original part has plaster/lathe. A master bedroom addition was put on in the 60's, and is sheet rock with fiberglass insulation, along with several other changes to the 1941 part (a bedroom off the kitchen converted into a family room contiguous with the kitchen, the kitchen wall knocked down and a cooktop peninsula put in its place, etc. Also a floor to ceiling brick fireplace was installed into the family room né bedroom, which was probably a major construction event at the time. It works well and I added a blower insert to it about 10 years ago (also added one to the 1941 fireplace in the original living room). Have accumulated a fair amount of firewood and so I'm planning on firing up the fireplace(s) this winter, to help keep gas consumption down. Air quality rules permitting ("Spare The Air Alerts"). Generally OK on rainy and/or windy nights. Generally not OK on calm windless (and cold) days/nights. Have done what I can to insulate the place; maximum fiberglass in the attic (where previously there was none), as well as more insulation under most of the flooring in the crawl space. Also wrapped insulation around the forced air heating ductwork in the crawl space. Did all that about 15 years ago, and cut the winter heating bill at least in half. I guess I'm here for the duration. Put too much work into it. |
Post# 1132583 , Reply# 14   11/3/2021 at 09:45 (876 days old) by pulltostart (Mobile, AL)   |   | |
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Here's an interesting piece of Gunnison information on Ebay. The listing includes this history of the company:
Pre-fabricated housing pioneer, Foster Gunnison, cut his modernist teeth on lighting design. His works illuminated New York’s Empire State Building and Rockefeller Centre. The machine-age aesthetic of these buildings influenced design across the nation. A few years after the Empire State Building opened in 1931, Gunnison turned his estimable talents and machine-age mindset in a new direction. He opened Gunnison Magichomes in 1935 and began the assembly-line production of pre-fabricated houses.
Gunnison began this cutting-edge venture in New Albany, Indiana, an Ohio River town with good transportation networks and a long history of wood product production. His homes were built of 4-foot by 8-foot panels of insulated plywood. They were mass produced and elements were interchangeable in a number of different floor plans and extras. “Forbes” called Gunnison the "Henry Ford of housing." Raw materials arrived at the front door, the walls, ceiling and floors were factory finished, doors were hung and windows installed as the panels moved along the conveyor belts and out the rear door onto trucks headed all across the nation.
A “Time” magazine article in 1944 claimed that Gunnison’s “conveyor-belted production methods” produced all the parts of a house in 25 minutes. It also noted that Gunnison believed that success in the marketplace depended on, among other things, focusing sales in communities of 10,000 to 35,000 where building codes “are less onerous,” and keeping prices low enough for “lower-middle-class” buyers. Gunnison homes could be purchased for $2,800 to $5,000, depending on which options were chosen. Now known as Gunnison Homes, Inc., the firm manufactured thousands of prefabricated homes selling them through dealers and shipping them across the nation. In 1953, Gunnison Homes, Inc. sold out to U.S. Steel, but the firm continued to produce homes at the New Albany factory under the new name, U.S. Steel Homes, until 1974.
Gunnison homes were constructed and still stand around the country, although it’s likely that most have been altered in some way, usually with new siding covering their original insulated-plywood exteriors. Chimneys are often the only remaining telltale exterior signs that the house was a Gunnison. Rectangular metal chimneys pierce the roofs on most models; decorative metal grates may remain beneath the gable as another tell-tale sign of a re-clad Gunnison.
The Gunnison Homes factory in New Albany still looks very much as it did when it was a cutting edge Machine-Age marvel in the 1940s. A careful observer might even notice the expanded Gunnison Home at the rear of the property, plywood walls still intact. The buildings and site are significant contributors to the history of housing in our nation.
lawrence CLICK HERE TO GO TO pulltostart's LINK on eBay
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Post# 1132743 , Reply# 15   11/5/2021 at 09:39 (874 days old) by polkanut (Wausau, WI )   |   | |
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My cousin and her husband purchased a Stratford Home in 1978. In fact, the home was delivered the day of our Uncle Elmer's funeral, Oct. 25, 1978.
The company has been in business since 1973 in Stratford, WI. They also have a satellite factory in Rathdrum, ID.
Stratford Homes - Custom Modular Prefab Manufactured Homes |
Post# 1132822 , Reply# 17   11/6/2021 at 13:48 (873 days old) by sarahperdue (Alabama)   |   | |
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I remember back in the 80s my grandparent's housekeeper and husband, both of whom were second or third generation workers for my family moved off the place and built a Jim Walter home. They had been living in what can loosely be called a house on the family place. My grandmother was insulted and furious that they weren't "grateful" for the house they had.
It's been almost forty years. Sarah and Pig still live in their Jim Walter home which is in immaculate condition and surrounded by a beautiful yard. Sarah and Pig still work for me taking care of my grandmother's house. And yes, Pig. I asked him once what his given name was and if he'd like to be called by it. He said no, everyone calls him Pig. Sarah |