Fight for the Home

The U.S. home has become a battle ground -- long before husband and wife move in. Americans bought 1,600,000 new homes in 1963, paying an average of $14,000 each. By 1970, 2,000,000 new homes a year are expected to be sold, at an average cost of $16,800. Result: producers of everything from the lowly pine two-by-four to the finest-quality ceramic tile are involved in a fierce fight to win a bigger part of this growing market. The battle was evident last week at the opening of the New York World's Fair, where dozens of building-materials makers have set up displays to woo the public, from a house of Formica inside and out to one that is practically all glass.

Quite a Lot of Gas. At one time, the public did not need to be wooed. The materials that went into a house were dictated mostly by what was most readily available, whether it was lumber, brick or stone; without question, the plumbing was galvanized pipe, the floors wood, the foundation concrete. But the technological advances of recent years have produced such an array of new building materials that both home buyer and home builder are often confused in making a choice. "There is more competition in the building industry than ever before," says Earl W. Hadland, merchandising manager of Chicago's Masonite Corp. "In outside siding, for example, it's wood v. aluminum v. hardboard v. plywood v. steel."

Most big companies are busy courting architects, wooing builders and using massive advertising campaigns to persuade the home buyers to insist on their products. Makers of aluminum, the fastest-rising among the new sidings, privately ask how long steel clapboard can resist rust. The steel-clapboard men, joined by the makers of a plywood coated with plastic, imply that aluminum snaps, crackles and pops during sharp temperature changes, and that a baseball or a hailstone can leave a permanent dent. The hottest war of all is the advertising battle between the gas and electrical utility companies for the right to provide the heat, do the cooking and run the appliances.

A Hodgepodge. The confrontations among other materials are just as sharp and furious. Long-lasting and easy-to-install copper tubing had just won a victory over galvanized pipe for plumbing when along came cheaper plastic piping. Steel has joined battle with wood over the load-bearing structural parts of the home. Wood and aluminum are wrestling for the right to be in window frames; steel and aluminum are fighting over outside door frames and sills. Gypsum board for interior walls has proved cheaper and faster to install than wet plaster, but it now has challengers in plywood finished by a photo process to look like expensive paneling and Masonite precoated with wallpaper or imitation wood grain.

Some architects argue that such variety among building materials may blight the U.S. with a hodgepodge of ugly, unrelated homes. "We have too much choice without enough discipline," says a West Coast designer. But in an expanding market, the variety will only become greater. Steel, determined to push its use in homes from 1.5 tons to five tons in ten years, is experimenting with entire roofs, floors and foundations of steel. Aluminum producers are trying to make an attractive aluminum roof, have introduced an all-aluminum vacation cottage. Happily, this gives the all-human occupant that much more to choose from.

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