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| Guidelines for Restorers and Renovators | Restoration Tips |
| A Renegade Retools Retail | New Math for Summer -- The Cost To Chill |
| Computers Are Helping Home Builders Build Homes Better, Faster, For Less | |
Guidelines For Restorers And Renovators Comments, suggestions, questions? Email! © Ian Stapleton 1. Retain the original character of the house. This means preserving its original appearance and interior features. 2. Don't 'over-restore'. Make sure the house still looks like an old building after you've finished the job. Some restored houses look like new buildings. 3. For major external and internal work stick to materials that were used when your house was built. This rules out modern building materials such as concrete blocks, metal-framed windows and so on. Some unobtrusive use of modern materials, such as laminates in the kitchen, is often necessary. 4. Details are important. This includes the type of decorative glass, mouldings on doors, hardware, light fittings and so forth. To explain the reference to glass, you don't introduce leadlight into a building which has never been fitted with it. 5. Understand and respect as far as possible the original uses of rooms. Sometimes changes are necessary but try not to alter the interior so completely that all trace of the original interior plan is lost. 6. Some houses were never meant to have en-suite bathrooms. Introducing an en-suite to a small house or cottage may cause serious damage to the original character of the building. 7. Old houses really come to life when painted in fashionable colours of the period and in the manner of the period. Stick to colours and colour schemes that are known to have been used on houses of your period. 8. Floors are best finished in the manner of the period in which your house was built. Avoid too much use of the floor-sander, perhaps limiting it to kitchens and lesser rooms. Modern polyurethane finishes should be avoided. Use finishes such as japan and tung-oil. 9. Fences are very important in enhancing the overall appearance of your property. Look at genuine old fences, observe the way they are designed and constructed and give your contractor detailed, preferably written and/or drawn, instructions on your requirements. 10. Garden design and plantings, especially in the front garden, will best complement your work on the building if you keep it in period with the house. Use plants and garden layouts of the time. Look at original gardens to understand the type of surface used on paths and driveways. 11. Additions and alterations should be in the manner and materials of the period in which your house was built. Extra living space is often best obtained by rear extensions. Hilly terrain often makes it possible to fit new rooms underneath, at the rear of the house, by excavating. Avoid jacking-up timber cottages on level blocks because the result is often most unfortunate. 12. Remember that it's a house, not a museum. You and your family are just as much a part of the history of your house as anyone else. Live in it and enjoy it and, at the right time, pass it on to someone else. Hopefully, it will be in better shape after you have lived there than it was when you arrived. |
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Restoration Tips Comments, suggestions, questions? Email! © Ian Stapleton Respect local traditions Be aware that many details and aspects of design on old houses vary from place to place. A detail that's commonly found in your area is perhaps the legacy of an architect or builder who had a particular way of doing things. These details may relate to fences, exterior timber decoration, gables or other features. Look out for these quirks and ensure that they are respected and preserved in any work you do on the building. Importing ideas from somewhere else or ready-made joinery items from distant workshops should be avoided if their use will replace original features on your house. Good screws hard to find? Choosing the right screws for your house is an important detail. In most cases, you'll need steel countersunk screws, the old-fashioned kind with a single slot across the head. Don't use Phillips head or pozi-drive screws on houses that were built before these gadgets were invented. It's a rule that you might break in the case of an obviously modern addition to an old building. And be aware that the hardware industry is phasing out old-fashioned screws - particularly those made of steel. If you're going to be working on old houses for a while, put away a stock of good old-time screws in various gauges and lengths. And discard modern screws which often come with so-called reproduction locks and other hardware. Looking for tradespeople? Need someone to paint your house or build a new garage? Instead of ringing up companies or tradespeople and asking them to come and quote for the work put your own advertisement in the newspaper which has the best classified advertisements in your area. This puts you in charge: people will be coming to you for work. You do have to check any unknown tradesperson or company very carefully but this is a technique that can work very well. Use it to find good tradespeople who are in between major jobs and perhaps have time to fit yours in. Searching for original finishes in your old house? There are various techniques you can use to find out how your old house was originally painted and decorated. On the outside, do paintscrapes and look in sheltered areas - for example, underneath windowsills or behind meter boxes or anything that might have been added some time after the house was built. Inside, original finishes on doors can sometimes be found underneath door hardware such as fingerplates or rimlocks. Sometimes houses were wallpapered before the architraves were put on. Use an oblique light (from a powerful torch or lamp) to search for stencils, dadoes and friezes. Decorate your old house with a pencil Here's a trick well-known to old-time painters. The stucco coating on the exterior wall surfaces of nineteenth-century masonry houses was marked out to look like blocks of stone. Narrow horizontal and vertical grooves were impressed into the surface of the stucco coating to give the walls the appearance of the regular blocks of stone known as ashlar. After repainting the outside of your house run a carpenter's pencil along the grooves. This sharpens up the appearance of the building and reinforces the impression of 'stone' blocks. The impression works best if the paint chosen is in a stone colour. Cleaning badly tarnished brass Major brass cleaning tasks are best sent out to professionals but if you have a few pieces that need cleaning it's satisfying to do it yourself. Badly tarnished brass can be soaked in lemon juice and salt overnight. Start off next day with another lot of lemon juice and salt, rubbed on briskly with a soft cloth, and then use the brass polish. Keeping the shine on polished brass Polishing small pieces of old brassware once can be a pleasant pastime. But few people want to spend their time polishing it again and again. Some brass polishing tasks are so complex and large that professional help is required. A brass gaslight is something that should be polished once and then forgotten. The best way to keep polished brass looking good is to have it clear powdercoated. The cost is small and the results are well worth it. Brass which has been clear powdercoated will retain its appearance for many years. Check before painting a metal roof Most people know about galvanic action, the corrosive effect that occurs when incompatible metals come into contact. But few people are aware of the damage to galvanised iron gutters and downpipes that can occur when an old roof is replaced with Zincalume, glazed tiles or painted metal sheeting. These materials, unlike roofing of galvanised steel, unglazed tiles or fibro, do not deposit metal salts and minerals as a protective coating on the inside of the gutter. Pure rainwater flowing from a chemically-inert roof may wash away the protective film on the inside of the galvanised guttering, causing rapid early gutter failure. Rejuvenating decorative tiles Scratched and worn decorative tiles can be made to look as fresh and bright as the day they were made. The tiles are placed in a kiln and refired at about 1120 degrees C, so that the glaze melts slightly. Superficial scratches on the glaze are dissolved and the glaze creeps back over areas where it has been chipped off. The glaze will also cover badly worn high spots on embossed tiles. You will have to decide whether a century of wear and tear on a tile forms a pleasing patina which should be retained or whether it is unsightly blemish which can be cheerfully removed. Refiring burns out organic impurities such as charcoal. The result of fires long ago, this is often deeply embedded in cracks and crazes and cannot be removed by bleaching or scrubbing. Refiring also incinerates any cement or mortar attached to the tile. It can be rubbed off with the fingertips after firing. |
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| Remodeling
Your Master Bedroom Suite
By Dana Dratch, Bankrate.com Costs: On average, $69,173, according to 2002 figures from Remodeling magazine, an industry publication. Value added: 75 percent of the remodeling dollar comes back at resale, according to Remodeling. Popularity as a remodel target: When asked what they'd remodel if money was no object, 7 percent of homeowners wanted to remodel or enlarge a bedroom, according to a survey by the National Association of Home Builders. New trends: Rooms have a lot more space, with sitting areas and big closets, dressing areas and even snack areas. "This is not your grandparents' bedroom anymore," says Rich Trethewey, plumbing expert for the PBS series "This Old House." Homeowners are knocking out walls to an adjoining bedroom to create a larger suite, add a closet or enlarge the bathroom. In the main area, look for: recessed lighting, Internet access, entertainment systems and remote control ceiling fans and lighting. In the master bath, hot items include: a giant tub or shower with multiple spray features, extra vanities, extra outlets, heated towel racks and heated flooring. Also, countertops in solid surface materials and granite. Features to consider: "If you're going to renovate, how do you get the most bang for the buck," says Tom Silva, general contractor for "This Old House." If two people are sharing a master suite, consider putting closets and bath on one side of the suite, in close proximity so that one partner can dress without disturbing the other, says M M "Mike" Weiss, certified graduate remodeler and chairman of the Remodelors Council of the National Association of Home Builders. Also, if you or your partner is on the tall side, think about raising some or all of the counters. Remodeling suggestions and helpful hints: "Start early in the process picking, or looking at, fixtures and things you want," says Don Sever, certified remodeler, and marketing committee chairman for the National Association of the Remodeling Industry. Too many times, homeowners wait until the design is complete, then decide they don't want a standard-size tub or shower. "And the price goes up because they are paying for the design twice." The moral: Have a good idea early on of what you want. And don't neglect the closets, says Julius Lowenberg, president of NARI. Often, homeowners craving a large suite will sacrifice the closet -- or the area simply becomes an afterthought. Instead, "plan your closet carefully for your style of living," he says. Consider: his-and-hers closets, shoe racks, pullout drawers and shelving. New products: Mini-meal stations that include built-in cabinets, coffee makers, toasters and even small dishwashers. Also convenience lighting, stereo systems and televisions or fireplaces in the bathroom. Special problems: What's the average number of bedrooms in
your neighborhood? And how will it affect your home value if you suddenly go from a
three-bedroom house to a two-bedroom? Biggest mistake: Enlarging the suite without enlarging the closet. "[And] a lot of times they just don't put in enough light [in the main area]," says Lowenberg. Also, not thinking things through before you buy, says Brick. Too many times, homeowners in search of a "good deal" end up with something they can't use. Professional or DIY: "To tackle a master suite or a master bathroom, or any major project, you don't have the expertise to do it," says Lowenberg. Plus, do you really have the spare time? Deciding to act as your own contractor can present a whole new set of problems. "I think the biggest disappointment the do-it-yourselfer will run into is trying to get [a subcontractor] on a timely basis," says Darius Baker, certified remodeler and a committee vice chairman for the National Association of the Remodeling Industry. "A homeowner will not get the attention, time-wise, [from subcontractors] that a contractor will" because the homeowner is a one-time job, while a contractor provides work regularly. |
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| Remodeling
Your Spare Bedroom
By Dana Dratch, Bankrate.com Costs: "A bedroom is basically the cheapest space you can renovate," says Tom Silva, general contractor with PBS's "This Old House." Most of what people do to a spare bedroom "is basically cosmetic." Popularity as remodel target: "Multipurpose rooms are very popular right now," says Dan Tratensek, analyst with the National Retail Hardware Association and Home Center Institute. New trends: Spare bedrooms are doing double-duty as combination guest room, hobby room, workout room, home office or playroom. And closet organizers are a hot item in spare bedrooms, says Shawn Gannon, assistant manager with The Home Depot in Pasadena, Md. Also, many homeowners need more sophisticated electrical wiring in spare rooms. "Whether it's a study, office or game room, we're seeing some pretty elaborate electronic installations," says M M "Mike" Weiss, certified graduate remodeler, chairman of the Remodelors Council of the National Association of Home Builders. Features to consider: Homeowners are looking for ways to cram the most uses into the smallest amount of square footage. If that sounds like you, focus on organization, storage and furniture that does double-duty. Remodeling suggestions and helpful hints: To make a small room look bigger, hang mirrored closet doors, says Darius Baker, certified remodeler, president of D&J Kitchens & Baths Inc., Sacramento, Calif. To increase space, add closet organizers. For a different look, try plantation shutters instead of curtains, says Weiss. And look at sliding or folding doors to increase the usable space. New products: Homeowners are relying on some old-fashioned ideas to create more room. "Everything old is new again," says Lou Manfredini, author of Mr. Fix-It Introduces You to Your Home and home improvement expert for Ace Hardware Corp. Day beds, trundle beds and high-end pull-down beds are all making a comeback. In a dual-purpose bedroom, "daybeds really give you the best of both worlds," he says. Special problems: If you get the itch to move a wall, make sure it's not holding up the house. "Anytime a wall is load bearing, [changes] should only be done by professionals," says Rich Trethewey, a master plumber for "This Old House." Biggest mistake: Trying to overstuff the room or make it do too much. Decide on one or two uses and do it up right. And make sure there is plenty of light. Professional or DIY: There are a lot of things do-it-yourselfers can do to put a personal stamp on their homes, says Silva, including a variety of painting techniques and new flooring or carpets, and even painting the ceiling. |
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| A
Renegade Retools Retail
New York Times, By Jenny Hontz
Evan Cole has 50 stalls and showrooms in his 100,000-square-foot marketplace. One Stop, Many Shops "Everything's going," said Mr. Cole, 44, the former C.E.O. and co-founder of the home division of ABC Carpet & Home, waving his arm around the 1960's ranch house perched on a hill in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles. Last month was the grand opening of his new venture: H. D. Buttercup, housed in the Art Deco Helms Bakery building in Culver City. Along with a partner, Mr. Cole said, he is investing $10 million (not to mention his reputation) on a retail experiment, a 100,000-square-foot home furnishings mart housing 50 high-end manufacturers selling directly to consumers, a sort of farmers' market of furniture and home accessories. Mr. Cole, along with his former wife and business partner, Paulette Cole, is known for changing the way New Yorkers shopped for furnishings by creating a downtown alternative to traditional department stores at their flagship furniture emporium on lower Broadway. Ms. Cole's family opened ABC in 1897 as a carpet store. The couple reinvented it in 1985 as ABC Carpet & Home, a stylized flea market stuffed with merchandise old and new, and the business shot from $5 million in annual sales in the early 1980's to $200 million today. "Evan is kind of a visionary," said Ray Allegrezza, editor in chief of Furniture Today, a trade magazine. "When he coupled with Paulette, they became the darlings of retail, the retail renegades. I don't want to compare him in print to Bart Simpson, but in a sea of school principals, he was in your face. They've been out ahead of everyone." When his 18-year marriage to Ms. Cole ended two years ago, Mr. Cole sold his shares in ABC to her and moved west. H. D. Buttercup vendors, which Mr. Cole has dubbed "manutailers" (a blending of manufacturer and retailer) sell everything from midcentury modern sofas to Asian antiques. Instead of rent, the vendors pay him 30 to 50 percent of their sales, depending on whether they use their own sales staff or his. Mr. Cole pays the building lease, tracks inventory and handles store operations, including cash registers and a concierge. Mr. Cole's venture is based on eliminating the middleman, so manufacturers can earn more than they make selling to chains like Pottery Barn, while consumers get a price just above wholesale. In some cases, they are vendors who could not otherwise afford to have their own stores. "It can be a very big failure or a very big success," said Davide Berruto, the C.E.O. of Environment Furniture Inc., which sells furniture made from reclaimed Brazilian hardwood and linen light fixtures at H. D. Buttercup under the brand Era. Part of the appeal is meant to be the setting. Mr. Cole and his partner, Wally Marks, renovated the 1930's Helms Bakery building, restoring the original hardwood floors and sawtooth roof. With a variety of styles available in everything from furniture to bedding and accessories, shoppers can make one stop and avoid driving all over Los Angeles. Joanne Medeiros, who is renovating her Hancock Park villa, recently purchased three Afghan rugs from Khyber Pass, a Buttercup vendor, for $12,000, a price she had expected to pay elsewhere for one rug. "Rugs are usually so expensive," she said. "They've got to do a lot of volume because those prices are good. You don't feel like you're in a back alley getting fleeced." In his notoriously flamboyant manner, Mr. Cole is depicting the store as nothing less than the reinvention of retail. Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, a retail consulting group in New Canaan, Conn., said that is a stretch. Mr. Cole's concept is "about 2,000 years old," he said. "It goes back to the old Middle Eastern bazaar." ABC did something similar on a smaller scale with its Brooklyn store in a renovated brewery, Mr. Allegrezza said, but no one has ever launched an entire home furnishings mart made up exclusively of manufacturers and direct importers selling high-end goods to consumers. Mr. Johnson said that it would take a year to determine if Buttercup joins the list of innovative California retailers that includes Williams-Sonoma and Restoration Hardware. "They've got to get traffic," he said. "They've got to build up an ongoing clientele or they will be folding up their tent." One Stop, Many Shops Early reaction from shoppers has been mixed. "There was some unusual, really cool furniture," said Jan Oxenberg, a television writer who browsed the emporium over Memorial Day weekend. But, she added, "I found it confusing. I didn't know what the concept of store was when I went in, and I still didn't understand it after I left." Mr. Cole first moved to Los Angeles in 1979 to work in the mailroom of a talent agency, but soon he returned to New York, married Ms. Cole (with whom he has a 10-year-old daughter, Lena) and reinvented ABC. "He built an empire for himself at ABC," said Tony Abrahim, founder of Khyber Pass, one of the vendors to have worked with Mr. Cole in both locations. "He did such a good job, we all followed him. He can be a little brutal on the business dealings, but that's what makes him good." Khyber Pass has sold more than $300,000 worth of his vegetable dye rugs since Buttercup's soft opening in March. "We're doing very well," Mr. Abrahim said. Sales at Era have also been strong, but some vendors report a slower start . "Obviously it's a startup. It takes time," says Matthew Lenoci, the founder of Teo, a line of bedding and bedroom furniture. "It will take us awhile to get the sales up to where they are at ABC. It's a brand new brand. We still have to work out the details." Those who work with Mr. Cole say he is more in love with ideas than minutiae. "He's a charming and funny neurotic New Yorker," said Kimberly Ventre, the president of H. D. Buttercup and a former marketing executive at the Gap. "He gets so excited, like a kid, but Evan doesn't ever get bogged down in details." In fact, spending a day with Mr. Cole is like being swept up in live improv. Infused with energy, he seems to follow his own stream of thoughts, jumping from tangent to tangent, fusing work and play into one grand adventure. "I take A.D.D. to a new level," he said. "I get inspired and change everything really quickly." Arriving earlier this month at the Brentwood home of his girlfriend, Rachel Ashwell, the founder of the brand Shabby Chic, Mr. Cole suddenly realized he had forgotten a vase she needed for a magazine photo shoot. He jumped back into his black Corvette and returned home. "Rule No. 362 of a new relationship: never forget what you're supposed to bring," he said. Retracing his steps, Mr. Cole walked through Ms. Ashwell's door with vase in hand, and started joking about her signature white and pink décor: "This is like taking laughing gas," he said. "My mission is to get Rachel a line of paint at Home Depot: Shabby Chic white and the right pink." Ms. Ashwell is helping Mr. Cole redecorate his home and has already contributed some white slipcovers. "She's white-ifying me," he said. After some lunch, Mr. Cole swung by a new gallery near H. D. Buttercup called QED, which is outfitting his Brentwood home with art. He sees the emerging local arts scene as validation of the store's location, and he's convinced his new business will drive a Culver City revival. "This is going to be SoHo," he said. "It's going to happen because of Buttercup. The trick is to see what could be, not what is." The key, he said, are the artisans and architects who have popped up along Washington Boulevard near the 10 freeway. "See! Gallery, gallery - it's starting," he said. "I've studied this diligently. This is the spot. I'd bet my last dollar on it." Of course, he's hoping he won't have to. |
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| New
Math for Summer -- The Cost To Chill
By MATTHEW L. WALD With the dog days of summer just around the corner, homeowners who need a new central air-conditioner face the usual tough choice: buy a cheap but inefficient system that racks up high utility bills, or splurge on a more efficient but more expensive model that costs less to run. That equation changes in January, when new national efficiency standards take effect that will eliminate the least efficient models. The new regulations will make the machines on the market more expensive and physically larger, a problem in some houses. Further, some consumers may be confused by the products offered. Emerson, which supplies components to air-conditioner manufacturers, commissioned a survey that found that hardly any consumers understood how efficiency is measured. Environmentalists predict, though, that consumers will quickly embrace the more efficient models, and that people who choose air-conditioners for others - primarily landlords and home builders - will be forced to buy units that make better financial sense for the residents. Not everyone makes the same calculation about the cost of keeping cool. For example, Jan and Alan Kaplan, of Potomac, Md., found their 20-year-old air-conditioner conked out a few days ago, and they decided to replace it with a basic model for $2,450, not a more efficient one that would have cost $1,100 more. "The price differential was so much, and it was one of those expenditures I wasn't counting on anyway," Mr. Kaplan said. "I didn't want to make it any higher than it needed to be." The efficiency of central air-conditioners is measured by an obscure yardstick called Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio, known as SEER, which is a way of measuring how much electricity is consumed for each unit of heat removed from the house. The current minimum is SEER 10, and the new rule will make the minimum 13, which means the machines will do 30 percent more work with the same amount of energy. Models up to SEER 19 are already on the market; those below 13 are being phased out. For environmentalists, the new standard means saving energy when demand for power is the highest, so that fewer power plants will be needed overall. "You can be comfortable knowing you're going to get air-conditioning in a way that's not going to burden the electric grid, and will help clean the air while keeping you cool," said Kit Kennedy, a lawyer at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Yet environmentalists and manufacturers disagree about how to accurately calculate the cost differential between a SEER 10 and a SEER 13. The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy puts the figure at $171, but an industry group, the Air-conditioning and Refrigeration Institute, says it's $763. The Energy Department weighs in at $341, saying the price is justified by the cost of the electricity saved. The new standard was adopted after an epic legal battle. The Clinton administration produced a flurry of appliance standards in its last days, including one for central air-conditioners. But when the Bush administration took office, it blocked many of these rules and proposed a standard of 12 instead, which would have meant an energy savings of 20 percent. Environmentalists sued. The air-conditioning industry was divided over which standard to adopt; finally, opponents of the more lax standard gave up after an appeals court ruled in favor of the 13 standard. New standards for window air-conditioners, water heaters, dishwashers, washers and dryers are also taking hold. A standard for home furnaces, also big energy users, was expected in 1994, but the effort to find a standard has stalled. Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, a nonprofit group in Boston, said that most of the new standards benefit society because the cumulative savings are large, even if the savings to an individual are small. A new refrigerator with the Environmental Protection Agency's "energy star" rating for efficiency, for example, might reduce electric consumption by 10 to 15 percent. Total consumption, however, is modest, about 550 kilowatt-hours a year, so the savings is only about 50 kilowatt-hours a year, Mr. deLaski said. "If you're paying a dime, that's five bucks over the course of a year," he said. "It's not enough to help you make the mortgage payment." But central air-conditioners can use hundreds of dollars of electricity a month in summer, and many of those sold next year will use half the electricity of the models that were sold 20 years ago. This means that overall savings could be substantial for homeowners, as well as for the country as a whole. At Emerson, Tom Bettcher, executive vice president, said that many of the models being replaced are from many years ago, and well below the SEER 10 rating. Thus, he said, "a lot of people will see a nice step-up when they make this change." But contractors who sell equipment may not push the most efficient - and most expensive - models, he said, because they do not want to seem overpriced. |
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| Computers
Are Helping Home Builders Build Homes Better, Faster, For Less Factory-Built Components Save Time & Money By Katherine Salant
Every home builder in the country knows there is a shortage of skilled tradesmen that will only grow more acute in the future. But very few have the vision, money and wherewithal to pursue a large-scale solution and implement it. One of them is Bill Pulte, founder and chairman of the board of Pulte Homes, the second-largest home builder in America with revenues last year of $11.7 billion. Seven years ago, Pulte started grappling with the labor issue. When he built his first house more than a half-century ago, he said in a recent interview, the primary source for skilled labor in the home-building business was the families that had been practicing the trades for generations. But in recent decades, the families that once raised their children to be carpenters and masons began to encourage their offspring to become doctors and lawyers. Pulte decided that a long-term solution to the shortage was to use computer-instructed machines that could be operated by less-skilled workers and adapt them to home building. Once Pulte made the leap to computer-driven solutions, he and his team began to rethink the entire home-building process from the foundation right up to the ridge vent at the peak of the roof. Machines could substitute for skilled framers, but what else could they do? For example, how could machines improve quality? What combination of machines and materials would make a house more energy-efficient? Would the houses look any different? Buyers in every market have consistently shown that they favor a very traditional look. The houses could be built differently, but they would have to look the same as those built the old way. After five years of trial and error, designing and redesigning the machines and the process and building entire houses or parts of them in the Detroit area where Pulte Homes is headquartered, the company was ready to go. Pulte built its first plant in Manassas, Va., a suburb of Washington, D.C., and started moving "product" out the door in December 2003. It looks as if Pulte may have precipitated a sea change in the home-building business -- the company has shown how computers enable a builder to construct a better house in less time. At the Manassas facility, Pulte is producing tract-built, energy-efficient houses with quality that is normally associated with custom-built homes. Visitors to the Pulte plant will not see the exotic hardwood floors and tumbled marbles that say "custom" to most home buyers. But they will see the bells and whistles that say "custom" to a home builder. Among them: machinery that produces straight and true walls, which means that the framing pieces will fit together easily. Also seen: extremely stiff floor systems that don't squeak and that eliminate those phone calls from buyers complaining that when they use their treadmill the whole house shakes. Pulte also is producing an energy-efficient building envelope that will produce an unusually comfortable house with rooms that are not drafty, an inside temperature that won't vary from room to room and floor to floor, and a residence that costs far less to heat and cool. At Pulte's Manassas operation, the company fabricates the parts related to the building envelope and the structural framework. Pulte's desire for a better-built house with walls that are straight and true led to some surprising choices. Not only does the company build all the relatively lightweight walls that are easily transported to a building site, it also builds the extremely heavy concrete foundation walls that form the basement and that are harder to move around. Chuck Chippero, head of Pulte Home Sciences (PHS), the division that designed and operates the plant, said that building the concrete foundation there contributes to the ability to assemble the houses quickly. That way it is easier to have the walls match the foundation. In making its own concrete, Pulte can control the mix and the strength, Chippero said. Compared to conventional foundation walls, Pulte's are two to three times stronger. Pulte's exterior walls are structural insulated panels, commonly called SIPS. Though a rarity in Virginia, these are readily available in many areas with cold climates. A SIPS panel is made by sandwiching polystyrene foam between extremely large sheets of oriented strand board. Compared to the conventional exterior walls made with wood studs that most builders use, SIPS walls are more energy efficient, and they can be made much faster. Chippero said that in about 10 minutes, 12 people working with computerized machines can make an 8-by-24-foot long SIPS wall that combines structural framing with exterior sheathing and insulation; cut the holes for the windows and doors; attach house wrap (a material to keep any rain that gets under the siding from getting into the walls); install the windows and door frames; and load it on a skid to be taken to the job site. With conventional construction, the same job would require
four separate trades; carpenters to frame the walls and add the sheathing, a crew to
install the insulation, a crew to attach the house wrap, and a crew to install the
windows. For a 3,500-square-foot house, it would take five or six workers eight days to
frame both the exterior and interior walls using panelized stud walls that were previously
assembled in a factory. (If the crew started from scratch and "stick-framed" the
house it would take an additional day.) When asked exactly how much it all did cost, Pulte demurred.
But with the resources available to him -- Pulte Homes' net income in 2004 according to
its annual report was $986.5 million -- he could afford to spend a bundle. |
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