Prefabrication With Plywood Answers Ne* Needs of Farmer

Prefabrication, the biggest development in the housing field in 1941, right now is hitting its stride along a new avenue-the sho,p-construction of small plywood farm buildings.

Lumber dealers, both big and little, serving farmers throughout the nation today are building or setting up simple jigs to start forming pre-fitted sections that will go to-

Carefully Prepared Plans

These plans, four for each of the different-use buildings, are adopted from specifications prepared at Michigan State College, Purdue IJniversity, Kansas State College and IJniversity of Wisconsin. The plans, printed in the form of separate construction bulletins for hog structures and poultry houses, are distributed free by Douglas Fir Plywood Association.

Issuance of the bulletins represents the first direct effort of the plywood manufacturers to tell farmers about uses of the big panels which have defi,nite structural advantages. The move is the result of careful studies of farmer's needs for the past 18 months by J. D. Long, Agricultural representative of the Association and former professor of agricultural engineer at IJniversity of California at Davis.

The plans are for these eight structures: an arch-roof hog cot with a floor 8-feet square; a slant-roof hog house 6 by B feet; a peak-roof individual hog house 6 by 7l feet: a slant-roof hog sleeping shed 10 by 12 feet.

A combined brooder house and range shelter with screened ends and l2-foot square; a shed-roof brooder house 10 by l4-feet; a peak-roof brooder house lO to 12 feet and a laying house 4-feet square.

gether on the farm with record speed to provide needed hog cots, brooder houses and similar farm buildings.

This newest ramification of prefabrication-now recognized as the fastest way to build-serves a double purpose:

First, it presents the easiest, fastest way to bolster productive capacities of farms right when our government demands abrupt increases in certain crops in order to "win the war and write the p.eace." The system promises to provide at once the shelter for herds and flocks just as the mass-production of homes has, and is, licking the problem of housing workers concentrated at war industries.

Second, shop-construction of these small, portable buildings which are in big demand offers the lumber dealer opportunity for new business with a fast-selling article to offset any other building curtailment due to the war. The little dealer as well as the line yard can-and is-getting into the field because only limited plant facilities are required for volume production of the small units.

Actually, shop-building of farm structures or parts of them has long been practiced by some aggressive lumber dealers in farm communities. However, the sharrp swing by lumber dealers to this new merchandising plan has developed with the issuance of complete plans for erecting eight different plywood hog and poultry structures.

All specifications were drawn for efificient utilization of the four by eight foot fir plywood panels. Greatest single merit of plywood is strength, and these plans utilize this rigidity thus permitting simple framework. Shop construction will be with panels glued to framework, the system followed by most house pre-fabricators today. This means tight joints, maximum strength, fewer nails, less hardware.

Exterior Panels Used

Walls and roofs are of '/a and, /g-inch Exterior type ply- wood, the panels which are bonded with synthetic resin adhesives completely waterproof. (Only the Exterior type plywood should be used wherever exposed to weather or water). The exact grade of this Exterior type is dependent upon the appearance desired; usually the panels sound one side with a utility back are chosen. The laying house is the only one with double-wall construction; on inside walls, of course, the interior or moisture-resistant plywood is used.