Word: lumber
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...flat acres of potato farmland near Hicksville, Long Island, an army of trucks sped over new-laid roads. Every 100 feet, the trucks stopped and dumped identical bundles of lumber, pipes, bricks, shingles and copper tubing-all as neatly packaged as loaves from a bakery. Near the bundles, giant machines with an endless chain of buckets ate into the earth, taking just 13 minutes to dig a narrow, four-foot trench around a 25-by-32 ft. rectangle. Then came more trucks, loaded with cement, and laid a four-inch foundation for a house in the rectangle...
...solidly based on the fact that he is the most potent single modernizing influence in a largely antiquated industry. Last week he added another cubit to his self-esteem and his builder's stature; in seven days, his salesmen sold another 350 houses in his Levittown "store" (where lumber, piping and other materials used in each house are on display). Said Bill Levitt: "I told them I'd give them an extra week off this summer if they did it. I don't say these things unless I'm sure it can be done." With that...
...Great Change. Yet the demand for low-priced houses is still above the supply, notably in cities like Chicago, hampered by antiquated building codes and tight union restrictions. Furthermore, those who had hoped prices would drop are sadly disappointed. The prices of lumber, plumbing and heating equipment, etc. are all on the rise again. Some builders are also beginning to jack up their prices. When they do, many find that it is just as easy to sell their houses as before...
Shortage into Plenty. Levitt builds them faster by using paint sprayers and many other labor-saving gadgets banned by the building unions. He prefabricates many of his materials. At his central warehouse, all the lumber needed in a house is precut to size, plumbing fixtures are assembled, staircases are prefabricated; thus only 20% of the construction work need be skilled labor...
From the Pacific Coast, Union Pacific Railroad Co.'s Charles A. Keeble reported: lumber, fishing, steel, paper and tourist business were all "at full capacity and expected to remain so for the balance of the year...