Document Ejere941gYn79aY877EooaeR

Lead Products Aid in Pierce Foundation Experimental Home Love Coat House Styled with White Lead and Flashed with Sheet Lead e g a r d l e s s of the style, sue, or R cost of any home or structure, pure white lead and oil paint and sheet lead (lashing are two quality products that meet any building budget. This is true even in the lowest cost house, and is thoroughly demonstrated by construction methods of an experi mental house at Lebanon. N.J.. erected by the John 13. Pierce Foundation. Tliis unusual home cost approximate! y 82,000 but can, it is estimated, he built for SI.750. or less, in quantity, and is designed for large families with weekly incomes of about S20. There are five rooms, with single wull par titions. AH sections were cut to size in a workshop set up on the job and the actual shell of the house assembled by four men in one eight-hour day. Also, almost all of the furniture was built in. For the sleeping quarters, accom modating eight, there are two chil dren's bedrooms, each with two builtin hunks, a master bedroom with a double bed built in, and a studio couch in the living room. In addition, there is a modern bathroom and a spacious kitchen. The entire exterior was of %-ir.. phenol plywood and the interior wall sections and the roof sheathing were of y2-in. and %-in. plywood, respec tively. A specially constructed asbes tos-cement chimney was used. Hard sheet lead was deemed most satisfac tory for the (lashing since its pliability tainted with pure white leud and oil und color styled, this small home is designed to be fntiit fur as little OS J/,750. allowed it to he dressed snugly against the somewhat rough sides of the chim ney. Moreover, speed is a major fac tor in houses of this type and the ease of cutting, shaping and fitting sheet lead is a distinct advantage, and the material cost is also low. All exterior walls and interior walls and ceilings received two coats of pure white lead and oil. mixed on the job and tinted to the desired shades and colors. It was felt that two coats would be sufficient since the phenol treat ment of the plywood panels, applied in the shop, would act as a sealer and priming coat. In painting the interior and exte rior. careful attention was given to the selection of colors and color combina tions to "color-style" the home to its l>est advantage. This treatment of the decorative factor of a low-cost home is one of the basic principles in the Pierce Foundation theory. The mere fact that a house can be built for 81.750 to 82.000 does not, in their opinion, fully solve the low-cost hous ing problem. Such homes may take ill-housed people from slum dwell ings, but this is only one phase of slum clearance housing. The social and morale standpoint is fully as impor tant. People living in the squalor of slums have come to regard their mis erable dwelling in the purely material sense of a place in which to sleep. Just giving them another place to sleep does not alter their mode of living. The new abode must he attractive to create a feeling of pride and a realiza tion of what home really is. Tu u lurge extent, puililing and styl ing with paint are the solution to this problem, even more so as styling dues not udd to the cost. Moreover, paint serves a dual purpose, providing pro- Phenol plywood was used lor interior and exterior walls and root sheathing. Hard sheet lead formed the chim ney flashing. [10] LIA255A7 I ! I Two iieit t o/ the /inn; room showing the attractive and practical layout and design. Color styling with tinted white lead makes the room even more livable and decorative. lection for the structure as well as decoration. By using paint, the ap pearance of the small home may be changed with an apparent effect of in creased height or length. The selection of interior colors is important to ob tain the best dispersion of light, or. as with many dining alcoves, to produce a combination of colors, the effect of two separate rooms where, in actual ity. only one exists. In the Lebanon experimental home, these principles of styling have been skillfully utilized. In the exterior, there are three horizontal panels run ning completely around the building. The bottom and top panels are sepa rated from the middle one which en closes the windows, by horizontal structural members. The effect desired by painting was to increase the appar ent size of the home. The exterior panels, therefore, were painted by us ing two shades of one dominant color. The bottom and the top panels were painted in a medium tan. By using a lighter shade of the same color for the middle panel, the apparent height of the home was increased. Next, bypainting the trim and horizontal mem bers a still lighter shade, the house was apparently increased in length. For the interiors, the same general principles were applied, using a wide variety of colors and shades, selected with careful thought as to the expo sure, size and purpose of the rooms. With all these factors and advan tages in mind, there is still one more important point, and that is the matter of cost. Although it is very necessary to obtain these protective and decora tive advantages of paint, its use must not increase the cost of production be yond a certain point or the homes may no longer be in the low cost group. In this respect, the solution is in the use of pure white lead and oil paint. While lead not only possesses the nec essary qualities of excellent paint pro tection, but is the most economical and facile medium for paint styling. Where while lead is employed, there is no limit to the number and range of shades and colors easily obtained bytinting. No material is wasted since the white lead is tinted only to the quantity needed for each color. More over, as far as the material itself is concerned, pure white lead and oil costs less than any other painting ma terial approaching its combination of advantageous qualities. By building much of the furniture against the wails, space was saved in the bedrooms and additional insulation afforded at the floor level. Various decorative shades and colors were used to paint the walls and ceilings with a wholly modern and artistic effect. j I i [11] l IA25548