Home On Huron River Bank Built With Nuts And Bolts
Home On Huron River Bank Built With Nuts And Bolts
Owners, Volunteers Put Up Steel House
About two years ago, motorists traveling the 3500-block of Huron River Dr. viewed an usual home under construction. Noticeably absent were bricks, cement--all the materials common to the construction of dwellings.
There were piles of steel. As the pieces were bolted into place, a skeleton took shape.
What the passersby saw under construction and what they see now completed, is a Unistrut type of construction.
The home, at 3575 E. Huron River Dr., was built by the owners, Prof. and Mrs. C. Theodore Larson, with the help of their two sons and volunteer student labor. Only the floor slab and finish wood construction was built by a professional contractor, Albert Duckek.
The Unistrut dwelling consists standard-sized steel channel members and patented bolt and spring-lock connections. No holes need be drilled.
As Progressive Architecture, a trade publication, sums it up: "A spring-locking nut is simply inserted in a channel member and slipped over the channel to the point where another member is to be joined. A fitting (bracket or otherwise) is then centered above the nut, and a bolt is inserted and tightened, thus attaching the fitting and also holding the nut in position." In other words, it is bolted together much like the parts of a mechano set.
Prof. Larson of the College of Architecture and Design, has worked with the Unistrut system of construction with the manufacturers from Wayne for some years. The latest Unistrut project was the erection of the temporary building in the courtyard of the College of Architecture and Design.
The Larson home is compact and comfortable. It consists of living room, kitchen, study, two bedrooms, a full bathroom and lavatory and a utility room.
The metal spaces, bolted together in four-foot-one-inch square modules or sections, is covered with asbestos cement and painted. The entire back of the dwelling, overlooking the river, is glass. In the front is a carport with a storage room.
As to heating, Larson said that his system utilizes a combination of floor radiation and hot-air convection. "Hot air from the down-feed furnace," he said, "travels through a honeycomb of hollow-tile ducts in the floor slab and emerges into rooms through registers along outer walls at floor level.
"As the air loses some of its heat, it travels through the rooms to the main hall corridor, where a cold-air return grill near the ceiling picks it up and delivers it into the plenum chamber directly above the furnace, where it is mixed with fresh air from outside, again heated and recirculated."
Beauty and comfort is not lost, but rather enhanced, by the new methods of construction.
MODERN AND COMPACT: The front of Prof. and Mrs. C. Theodore Larson's home, 3575 E. Huron River Dr., shows how a home of Unistrut steel construction looks. The carport includes a storage room.
CLOSELY KNIT AREAS: Both the living room and the kitchen are visible here as only a wall divides the two. There are no doors for separation purposes and access is obtained from both ends of the rooms.
SPACIOUS LIVING: The living room of the Larson home is designed and furnished for casual living. The floors throughout the home are of cork. Note the tables in front of the divan. They are of Unistrut construction. The walls and ceiling are of asbestos cement and painted. The room includes an "acorn" fireplace, not visible.
A WINDOW WALL: The rear of Prof. and Mrs. C. Theodore Larson's home at 3575 E. Huron River Dr. is virtually a wall of glass. The living area is left, a study is in the center, while the master bedroom is at the right. From this side, one overlooks the Huron River.