Lustron Mania

The post-WWII housing crisis was the impetus for much change in the character of American communities and inspiration for a vast menagerie of alternative housing technologies intended to exploit wartime manufacturing capability to meet the extreme housing demand. One of the most unusual was the brainchild of one Carl Strandlund, an Ohio manufacturer of porcelain coated steel panels used, at the time, chiefly for facades of gas stations and fast food restaurants like the famous White Castle chain. Considering the inherent modularity of these panel parts and their use of a manufacturing product akin to the pressed/stamped metal fabrication of auto bodies and aircraft components, Strandlund hit upon the idea of an entire home built -inside and out- these prefabricated porcelain coated steel panels and thus the concept of the Lustron Home was born. Devising a series of simple designs based on the classic suburban American bungalow style and in a range of sizes hovering around a bsic 1000 square feet, Strandlund presented his concept to the government and in 1947 was given start-up financing and use of a decommissioned aircraft factory which he promised would some day produce 100 Lustron houses per day. But soon the Lustron Homes company found itself embroiled in political scandal. The political tide had turned away from the idea of direct government intervention in the post-war housing crisis and Strandlund's company was accused of benefiting from political favoritism. But perhaps the biggest problem was a simple lack of performance coupled with the pressured of vested interests which favored tract housing development over prefabricated housing. At its peak the Lustron plant managed 25 units per day and needed to produce 50 a day just to break even. That was far below the performance Strandlund had promised. And there was backlash in some communities where people had built these homes. Home owner committees sued some Lustron owners over the supposedly unusual appearance of the houses, forcing them to disguise their tile-like exteriors with brick or clap-board facades. By 1950, after producing only 2500 homes, the Lustron plant was closed and this unique housing technology faded into history.

basic Lustron floor plan

Recently, a friend of mine in the Arizona EI community told me about a group that was working on acquiring Lustron homes for relocation to that state. I was familiar with the history of the Lustron but I did not know many -if any- of them still existed, since so few were made to begin with and never had a lot of respect from the communities that were host to them. Contemporary era architectural oddities tend not to survive in America. To my surprise, a little Internet research turned up evidence of quite a lot of them, mostly in the midwestern states and one particularly large group of 60 which had been built on a military base in Quantico Virginia and which were recently slated for demolition. This was apparently the source of the Lustrons the EI group in Arizona was seeking.

It's easy to see why this unusual form of housing would be of interest to EIs. The basic material they are made with is utterly non-toxic and the modular construction makes them readily demountable and transportable. All one needs is a new concrete slab. Despite their history of persecution for their supposedly odd appearance, their classic bungalow styling can be of some comfort to EIs who want their lives to seem as normal as possible despite the non-toxic lifestyle. And for those EIs who suffer from sensitivities to electromagnetic fields, what better than a house which is effectively a big Faraday Cage? Their performance as homes was, historically, quite acceptable and Lustron Homes made quite good on its claim of providing a highly durable and maintenance free home. About the only things that have been able to destroy them is deliberate demolition and incompetent attempts to modify them.

But there are complications with the idea of reusing the Lustron as non-toxic housing. First, the typical Lustron was composed of about 3000 components, making disassembly and reassembly a fairly complex task. And there is no source of new replacement parts. Durable as they are, time would have taken its toll and a certain percentage of parts cab be expected to be damaged by wear or makeshift adaptation. Replacement parts can only be obtained by salvage from other Lustron homes. The Lustron had only three notable design flaws. The most critical of these was the peculiar heating system. They featured a novel new high-tech (at the time...) heating system whereby hollow steel ceiling panels were used as radiators for heat pumped into them by a compact furnace. This, of course, defies physics and never worked very well, consuming a lot of energy. This system needs replacement with a more practical hydronic heating in the new floor slab, the hollow ceiling panels cleaned and filled with insulating foam. Though not itself a design flaw since the technology wasn't readily available at the time, there was no air conditioning included with the Lustron and the unique windows used and small room compartmentalization make conventional in-window air conditioners unusable. Likewise, through-wall air conditioners won't work unless they are smaller than the dimensions of the square outside wall panels which they would have to fit inside to avoid disrupting the structural integrity of the panel system. This points to the use of ductless or mini-split AC systems which have very small registers linked to external heat pumps units by fluid lines. This is something that can be easily accommodated through the floor slab with registers retrofit to wall surfaces. The other design flaw was a lack of ventilator fan in the bathroom which, combined with the impermeability of the wall panels, left humidity to permeate the house. This resulted in a chronic mustiness as mildew infiltrated the early type of fiberglass insulation used in the house. To solve this problem a fan similar to that used in the kitchen must be added to the bathroom. Finally, the original Lustrons had only two-wire un-grounded electrical wiring. This produced the peculiar effect that some appliances would actually arc-over whenever brought near the walls! Replacement by modern wiring is critical but would probably be necessary in any case.

In addition to fixing these flaws, all the original insulation in the homes must be removed and replaced -most likely with polyurethane or mineral foam insulation. These are sprayed-in-place products and, in the case of the polyurethane, needs to freely outgas for a period to become safe. That may be a problem with this impermeable wall material. It is unclear if the wall panels offer a path of foam flow between them so the process of installing this kind of insulation remains to be determined. Obviously, drilling injection holes as with sheetrock walls is not practical with these steel plates. Styrofoam is another possibility but this would have to be pre-fabricated pieces cut to match the shapes of the panels. Changing the decor of the Lustron is generally not possible by any conventional means because the porcelain coating will take no paint or glues and the steel panels are permanently marred by cutting them. Attempts to modify the homes in any way often produced disastrous results. However, magnets are a perfectly practical way to put anything on the walls and the potential of this was apparently never fully explored by Lustron owners.

Altogether the conversion process would be straightforward but fairly expensive. This could be affordable to me but only where the Lustron home itself cost next to nothing. This seems to be the goal of the group trying to acquire the Lustrons in Quantico. However, there is a serious threat to that plan. Recently the Lustron has gained status as a cultural icon and universities and museums around the world are lining up to buy these to turn into exhibits. This new status as a collectors item could so ridiculously inflate the value of the remaining homes that they become unattainable to the EIs who could most benefit from them.

At the moment this idea of reusing Lustrons seems promising but remains in limbo. I have contacted the group looking to acquire the Quantico Lustrons but I've heard nothing in reply. Finding a couple of these from other sources (two needed so that one can be salvaged for replacement parts) seems a matter of providence and luck has not been with me. The homes are usually destroyed more often then they are sold, their oddness making them difficult to sell. Real estate agents and land developers are typically ignorant of their history or collectors value -though that may be changing rapidly.