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Detailed Description of Lustron System
Assembling a Lustron: From Factory Floor to Installing the Trellis by the Front Door
A
The skeleton of the house is made of steel framing, factory-welded into wall sections and roof trusses. Porcelain finish steel panels cover the roof, exterior and interior walls. Interlocking with each other, they are attached to the frame with concealed screws. Compressed between the panels is a permanent plastic sealing strip which forms a gasket and assures an air-tight moisture resistant enclosure. This all steel construction provides great durability and strength.
The straightforward description, however, belies the complexity
behind the manufacture and erection of a Lustron house, which
contains over 3,300 parts. Major components of the Lustron System
include the interior and exteriorpanels, the
The Lustron Factory
The 1 million-square-foot factory (about the size of 22 football
fields) contained about 8 miles of automated conveyors, 163
presses, 11 furnaces and the largest porcelain enameling set-up in
the world. Lustron parts were manufactured on an assembly line-a
process developed by Henry Ford for the Model T, and used for cars
and other products to this day. At the Lustron Factory, huge,
specially designed truck trailers, served as the assembly line
“package.” As the
By the end of 1949, the company operated 800 trailers and 200 tractors which were “brightly colored in blue and yellow to permit ready visibility and an appearance of neatness and cleanliness, which is evident in the house.” If it was necessary to ship a house by train rather than by truck, the trailers were loaded on a specially modified flatbed railcar. The homes were distributed through a network of Lustron builder-dealers franchised to erect houses within a given geographical area. At the end of 1949, Lustron had 234 dealers, located in 35 states. The dealers were responsible for selling and construction, including acquiring the land and preparing the site.
Laying the Foundation
The foundation was to be in place by the time that the Lustron
truck arrived. The local builder/dealer was responsible for getting
a building permit and pouring the foundation, with or without
footings, depending on local conditions. To guide their efforts,
the Lustron Corporation provided a set
of
Some Assembly Required
Once the foundation was in place, the team could get to work assembling the house. To erect the house, “socket and end wrenches, other small hand tools and a rubber mallet are substantially all the tools needed,” a writer for Farm Implement News marveled. The Lustron Corporation asserted that it took 300 to 400 man-hours for carpenters to assemble a house, plus 40 hours for a plumber, 25 hours for an electrician, and 12 to 16 hours for a laborer to lay floor tiles. This did not include other site work-installing utility lines, pouring the concrete foundation, placing sidewalks and driveways, and planting grass and other landscaping. The company estimated that the typical erection took two weeks. This pace, however, assumed an experienced team; the first time through, it often took up to 1,500 hours. Lustron operated an “Erection Training School” at the factory to teach supervisors and foremen how to speed up the process. Lustron engineers hoped, with some modification to the design and an experienced crew, to reduce erection time to 130 to 140 man-hours.
Instructions Included!
In addition to the Master Specifications, the Lustron
Corporation provided several additional documents to help guide the
on-site assembly process. To help contractors keep track of
assembly tasks, The Lustron Corporation provided a “Daily House
Erection Cost and Progress Form,” while
the
Sill Plates and Wall Sections
Components were unloaded from the trailer as needed, beginning with 16-gauge rolled steel sill plates. The interlocking sill plates, resting on 30-pound saturated roofing felt, were anchored to the concrete foundation at 4′ intervals. The 8′ x 8′ wall sections were then bolted to the sill plates.
A typical house had 20 wall sections featuring 11 different
configurations. Connections between the wall sections(EM-02-B-20.11)
Roof Trusses
Next, fourteen-gauge steel truss bearing plates were bolted to
the top plate of the exterior wall sections.
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