CONCRETE HOUSES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 225, 17 June 1919, Page 6

CONCRETE HOUSES

/ Tilly COST OF MATERIALS. A statement made by the Secretary of the Labour Department before the parliamentary Industries Committee that concrete nouses cost about ten per cent, more than wooden bouses to build lias been contradicted in Auckland, where it is staged by '.in architect that the Government could build ramorete houses HO to 50 per cent, cheaper than wooden houses. Tiiera in - great diversity of opinion on the point, but at least one Wellington builder believes that the Government could save money with concrete houses. "The crux of the whole question is tha cost of material," said this builder yesterday. "We have ' got experts contradicting one another about the relative cost of wooden and • concrete houses, for tho simple reason that they are basing their calculations on different figures. Wo. know approximately what timber costs and can work out tho figures accordingly. Wo know what cement costs. But sand and gravel cost just what we have to give for them, and the- figures vary a great deal. If you order a load of sand Wellington to-day, it will cost you from 10s. to 15s. delivered. Shing'.e is similarly expensive. Consequently the concrete is highly expensive. "What I would suggest is that the Government should arrange to build fifty or a hundred concrete houses, ond cut down the cost by making its own arrangements for sand and 1 shingle. The cost to the Government of those materials ought to bo the cost of handling and cartage, and nothing more. With proper appliances and motor-trucks, the charges should be half or a third what they are at tho present time/' '