Anyone ever heard of Gunnison premanufactured homes of the late 40s into the 50s?
Used ply panels on a cross hatched stud system.
Wondering about renovation techniques since the system is similar to a stress skin concept.
The 1951 catalog illustrates how the buildings were made from 4-by-8-foot panels and thus could be expanded in 4-foot increments. The walls are a mere 2 inches thick, made with 1/4-inch plywood, wood stud framing and rock wool insulation. A resorcinal formaldehyde adhesive was applied to the plywood and the sandwich sent through a hot plate press.
Edited 8/16/2008 1:54 pm ET by rez
Replies
Greetings rez,
This post, in response to your question, will bump the thread through the 'recent discussion' listing again which will increase it's viewing.
Perhaps it will catch someone's attention that can help you with advice.
Cheers
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lol
Have a client who owns one and wants to update the walls from the wood paneling as it appears too dark and she's stared at it all her life.
She has the paperwork from when it was built in 1951. Kind of a forerunner of sips with the light framing and glued quarterinch paneling. Rockwool insul. in that narrow of a thickness can't be too awfully functional.
The paperwork clearly says not to paint the interior as to effecting the stress-skin movement. I'm thinking perhaps framing a thin wall with some board insulation and drywall with no connectors to the original wall.
This may be a first You've asked a question no one can answerlolI'm no help but I have seen some houses here that have pre manufactured componentsThese houses go back to the 1950'sThe interior walls are only about 2 inches thickthey have dark panelingThe door jambs were made of METAL (interior doors)Really unusual housesThe one I was in had two full bathrooms side by side in the hallwayBUT THERE WAS NO MASTER BATHROOM
The original Gunnison's had metal windows and the roof had 4x16 ft panels.
The paperwork mentioned a variance in the panels bending on the walls of up to 3/8ths inch in temperature extremes of winter but guaranteed to return to normal in the spring.
She said she never witnessed that but did notice that areas which had no trim she saw the gaps between the panels widen and shrink.
Cloth.... Large sheets that cover the walls like a too-tight t-shirt. Set up a projector and have popcorn night.A La Carte Government funding... the real democracy.
We were considering fabric.
Get out that old projector for the 16mm rolls aye?
Don't know anything about your house, but I have a Peaseway manufactured house. It was off base office housing in WWII, built 1945. I haven't found out anything on the company, except that it was located in Cincinnati.
The house sections are 1/4" ply inside and out, with let in oak planks. All in all, it was poorly built and spartan. Some of the lumber was low quality, yet some is amazingly high quality old growth. They were very stingy with nails, but the entire neighborhood is still standing and in pretty good shape. Apparently none of the carpenters owned a rule, level, or a square, or even a length of string. Once in a while I think about contacting the history detectives about it, but I'm too lousy of a housekeeper to show the place to anyone.
& rez"Randy Shipp of the Lexington-Fayette (KY)
Urban County Government Historic Preservation Offi ce is considered an expert on
Gunnison Homes research.Randy also has research on National Homes and Peaseway
panelized prefab houses."http://www.state.ky.us/agencies/khc/historic_context_files/prefab_section1.pdf
http://www.state.ky.us/agencies/khc/historic_context_files/prefab_section2.pdf
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
Thanks for the infoI read this part and would like to see what these walls look likeGunnison Homes’ promotional materials emphasized the ease of
cleaning the house’s stressed-skin plywood surfaces. Lustron Homes, made of
porcelain enamel coated steel panels, advertised that their homes could be easily
cleaned with soap and water on the interior and exterior.59
That's the first I'd heard of Sears once providing a concrete block making machine that could be purchased thru their catalogue.
That explains some things I've seen.
Pino has one, or somethign similar..
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
It was interesting to see that 3 ex-Gunnison employees left to form National Homes in 1940.
Gunnison had glued 1/4inch plywood to both sides of a 1 1/2inch frame for a two inch thick panel,
and National went to 3/8ths inch waterproof plywood on a 2x3 inch frame making full room sized units with doors and windows pre-installed.
Maybe they thought Gunnison was too thin or just wanted things beefier for the larger size panels.
I wonder at the actual R value of the rockwool in the Gunnison 1 1/2 inch space after 57 years. Figure the two 1/4inch ply and glue might get close to R1.
I think my ex and sons may be living in a gunnison house. It's got 2x2 studs with ply inside and out. Fiberglass insulation. One floor ranch, very small house. It was a challenge putting in new windows. The old ones were iron framed things with single glazing.
If it's a Gunnison home there will be a metal registration plate on the wall of the utility room or maybe near the top of the stairs going to the basement.
pino- might I ask what type of kit home do you have there?
Bill must have misunderstood a previous post of mine. I do not live in a kit home, but I do live three houses down from a Sears "Eleanor" kit home that dates back to the early 20s.Sorry.
No I said that you had block press, might have been a Sears unit..
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
I see that now; sorry for the confusion. Yes, you are correct in that I do own an antique rock-face CMU machine.
Well duh. Been reading too fast.
Sorry for the confusion.
replacing windows
I would like to know if anyone has replaced the windows in a Gunnison home. Particularly what type of replacement windows were used and what was done about the steel framing to the original windows. Thanks.
How did your window replacement go? I'm looking a Gunnison that needs substantial window repair/replacement.