From OSB and cordless drills to The Home Depot and HGTV, here’s a look at how the past quarter-century has shaped the home-building industry BY MATTHEW TEAGUE Years of 25Milestones APA establishes OSB standards UNLIKE THE WAFERBOARD and Canadian building codes on which it was based, orient- now accept OSB for the same ed strand board (OSB) is made uses as plywood, and at the with long, cross-laminated same thicknesses. strands that provide strength The environmentally minded on a par with plywood. prefer OSB to plywood 1981Although OSB hit the market because it’s made of renew- in 1978, it was not until 1981 able lower-quality timber from REMEMBER WHEN BUILDERS went to the that the American Plywood smaller trees and previously lumberyard and homeowners went to the cor- Association developed per- underused hardwoods. “It’s ner hardware store? The Home Depot’s first formance standards for OSB. kind of like growing corn,” public offering in 1981 marked the end of Immediately, the use of OSB says Robert Falk of the U.S. that era and the beginning of a do-it-yourself began a steady climb: In 2000, Forest Products Laboratory. movement fueled by megastores across the OSB production overtook the “They’re basically just growing country (see “Cross Section,” p. 20). production of plywood. fiber to glue back together.” The Home Depot started 1981 with four Performance improvements stores and 300 associates in the Atlanta area, paved the way for the domi- and ended the year with eight stores and 650 nance of OSB as the universal associates in two states. The stock went public sheathing material. Moisture on September 22 and raised $4.093 million. resistance, dimensional sta- The company’s growth hasn’t stopped since. bility, and (with preserva- In 2004, The Home Depot had $73.1 billion tive treatment) resistance to in sales, with net earnings of $5 billion. In Feb- insects and fungal decay all ruary 2005, Fortune magazine named it the contributed to OSB’s suc- most admired specialty retailer in America. cess. OSB is less expensive Lowe’s is The Home Depot’s only national than plywood and is free of competition. Lowe’s went public earlier, in 1961, voids and knots. And all U.S. The Home Depot goes public but it wasn’t until the chain started serving do-it-yourselfers that its rapid growth began. 78 FINE HOMEBUILDING Photo left: Courtesy of The Home Depot. Chart: Courtesy of APA. ERIC ODOR AT SALA Architects in Minneapolis says Tracy Kidder’s House makes that everything about computer-aided design (CAD) programs has changed in the past 25 years. Prior to the bestseller list the 1980s, only a few architects used the mainframe- based versions of CAD programs, and most design- PRIOR TO TRACY KIDDER’S HOUSE, home building wasn’t a sub- ers still were drafting house plans by hand. In 1982, ject for literary works. But if you’ve built a home—or had one though, AutoCAD released a program designed for built—there’s no doubt you’re familiar with the labor it takes and the PC, and things started to change. the emotional drama that plays out in the process. Over the years, CAD programs have become House chronicles Massachusetts couple Judith and Jonathan more intuitive. The end result has been programs Souweine’s harried1985 dealings with their rookie architect and often that are easier to learn and that are much more abrasive interactions with their builders. Following the couple’s client- and user-friendly. CAD doesn’t improve experience, from early sketches to alarming budget tallies to pos- your sense of design but does make expressing it ing for pictures alongside the finished home, House takes you “to possible for just about anyone. Now a wide range the heart of the American Dream.” of affordable, easy-to-use design software has made Who knew that writing about plumbing or masonry could visual communication profitable and fun for build- be so compelling? As Metropolitan Home said at the time, this CAD leaves the mainframe 1982ers and armchair architects. book should be “required reading for anyone with keys to a front door.” The big surprise, of course, was that people listened, and it “CAD doesn’t improve your sense became a bestseller. of design but does make expressing it possible for just about anyone.” OUR STAFF ALSO RECOMMENDS Renovations by John Marchese The Most Beautiful House in the World by Witold Rybczynski The Walls Around Us by David Owen The Elements of Style edited by Stephen Calloway A Field Guide to American Houses by Virginia and Lee McAlester The Company We Keep by John Abrams Boston in 1976, aired Emmy for that. But what was odd was [the nationally one year way] we were thrown into the entertainment later, and won its first industry. We walked down the red carpet in This Old House wins an Emmy Emmy in 1983 (photo frilled shirts and tuxedos, and people asked left). Morash stepped for our autographs even though they had WHEN RUSSELL MORASH, in the midst of down as the executive producer and director no idea who we were. Our show was done remodeling his farmhouse, conceived of a of This Old House in 2004, but he remains on with no makeup people, no costumes, no television series called This Old House, he had the board. hair, no fireworks. The real testament to the no idea what would become of how-to tele- Morash describes the early success of This program was the competition. We used to go vision and the entire do-it-yourself industry. Old House as surreal: “We knew we had on against The Cosby Show, and we still got The show premiered locally on WGBH in a successful program.1983 We didn’t need an decent numbers.” Top photo: Brian Pontolilo. Bottom photo: Courtesy of This Old House. FEBRUARY/MARCH 2006 79 High-performance windows are clearly explained TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO, windows offered established to give third-party performance little more than a good view. But after the ratings to windows and doors, putting all the energy crisis in the 1970s, the country got a technologies on an even playing field. Now lot more conservation-conscious. We improved you can compare windows no matter the tech- insulation, applied weatherstripping, and nology or the manufacturer. The technology caulked every crack we saw. Likewise, window might be invisible, but the sticker is not. 1988manufacturers responded with a string of breakthrough technologies that significantly improve the energy efficiency of windows. Double Gas Low- glazing filling emittance Modern windows may feature gas fillings coating between panes, double or triple glazings, low-condensation spacers, thermal breaks, and advanced frame technology. The most notable technologies in window performance, however, are the low-emittance Paslode coatings: clear films applied either directly introduces to glass or on a transparent sheet between panes. Low-e coatings can keep radiant heat the Impulse in or out of the house. “Low-emittance coat- ings are one of the most monumental inno- AS BOB BELLOCK, the pres- vations in building in the past 50 years,” says ident of Paslode, remembers R. Christopher Mathis, a building consultant it, “The world wanted a cord- and former board member of the National less nailer.” Paslode delivered Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC). Condensation U-factor in 1986 with the introduction As technologies multiplied, however, com- resistance of the world’s first cordless paring one window to another became dif- framing nailer, the Impulse. ficult. As a result, in 1988, the NFRC was WHAT THE STICKER SAYS Driven by both a cordless bat- tery and a fuel cell, Paslode’s Impulse framing nailer was the first in a line of cordless nailers that now includes finish nailers, a brad nailer, and a stapler. Although Construction Master adds up there are other cordless nail- ers available today, there is BROTHERS KEN AND FRED ALEXANDER started Calculated Industries in the late ’70s with a still, 20 years after the tech- calculator designed to do simple real-estate calculations. Realtors loved it, but a lot of Realtors’ nology was introduced, no husbands, it turned1987 out, were homebuilders who borrowed the calculator for similar budgetary direct competition to Paslode’s calculations. After developing a second calculator designed for steel detailers, the Alexander framing nailer. brothers turned to builders and set out to create a calculator that would meet their needs. Paslode’s original Impulse Their efforts resulted in the first Construction Master, a pocket-size calculator that simpli- cost about $900. New mod- fied common building math like laying out stairs and rafters, figuring board feet, or working els currently sell for less than in fractions. For example, you can enter any two of $400, and they’re lighter, rise, run, or pitch, and the calculator will generate more powerful, and more the unknown measure for roof layout. The Con- compact than the earlier tool. struction Master was unveiled at the National Asso- A single fuel cell drives about ciation of Home Builders’ annual Builders’ Show 1,200 nails, and the battery in 1987, where more than 500 calculators sold for sinks about 4,000 nails on a $89.95. The latest Construction Master Pro sells for single charge. $79.95 and features stair and trigonometric functions “Over the years,” says Bel- unavailable on earlier models. A simplified version, lock, “the cost has decreased the Construction Master V, sells for between $40 and by 60%, and the reliability $50 at home centers. If you need to do only simple and durability have increased foot/inch calculations, the Project Calculator Plus 1986by multitudes.” 1987 2006 sells for around $20.