Housing can last if homeowners are vigilant
By CHRIS SUNDHEIM
News-Gazette Staff Writer

   Champaign-Urbana can thank returning GIs for much of the postwar housing that accounted for growth in the 1940s and '50s.
   But the question likely to be on the minds of homeowners and developers in the next century is, will it last?
   By the 2040s, much of the housing in the twin cities will be 100 years old or older. Many of the houses built after World War II are now more than 50 years old  and beginning to show their years.
   When World War II ended, the population of Champaign County exploded, growing from 70,578 in the 1940 census to 106,100 in 1950. That's a 50 percent increase in population in 10 years. And those people needed homes.
   Could Champaign and Urbana be faced with rebuilding entire neighborhoods when the existing homes simply wear out?
   "Occasionally it's going to happen," said Hank Spies, a residential construction consultant. "But it doesn't have to."
   The housing stock in Champaign County is not unlike that in many Illinois cities that sprang up from the prairie: A smattering of grand old Victorian homes dating from the mid-19th century; a somewhat larger number of dwellings built around the turn of the century through the 1920s; and many hundreds more that began dotting the landscape after the war.
   Were those homes, thrown up to house throngs of former soldiers, built to endure the 21st century?
   It's doubtful that builders of postwar subdivisions were thinking 100 years ahead when they nailed together our modern neighborhoods. But experts say those houses can endure, if homeowners and the cities stay vigilant.
   "How long will a building last? Generally . . . it's economics rather than building methods or materials," said Bill Rose, research architect for the University of Illinois Building Research Council.
   "It's changes in neighborhoods and neighborhood use in particular that bring buildings down," Rose said.
   Spies recalls when an area along Urbana's Fairlawn Drive was being developed with affordable housing. There were protests from some that the developers of the subdivision were building "the slums of tomorrow."
   But, years later, the area is a quiet, well-maintained family neighborhood. More expensive, more ambitious housing projects from the same era have already been bulldozed, he said.
   Whether other homes can survive through the 21st century will depend mostly on who cares for them.
   "It was the people that lived there. The construction out in Fairlawn wasn't as good," but the residents didn't let it deteriorate.
   "That's the key," said Spies, who spent 30 years on the staff of the Building Research Council.
   Preserving housing in the 21st century will require special attention to key parts that some builders have neglected: foundations and waterproofing.
   If aging postwar homes are hiding any surprise problems, they are most likely to be in the walls of the foundation  whether a crawl space or a basement, Rose said.
   "The homes that were built before World War II generally had solid basements . . . and the buildings were built high up out of the ground," Rose said.
   After the war, builders "started skimping on materials and pushing houses closer down into the ground." They also began creating more crawl spaces, which were inferior to the solid basements of the past.
   Water is a foundation's enemy and time one of its weapons. Keep a solid foundation dry and it can last for generations. Allow it to stay wet, and the life span of the entire structure could be cut short, Rose said.
   "If the foundation goes bad, how much faith can you have in the home itself?" he said.
   Rose recommends checking a crawl space regularly to see that it is dry and free of pests.
   "It is a room in the house and it cannot go uninspected," he said.
   Poor sheathing can be another weak point.
   Sheathing is the inner covering of boards or waterproof material on the roof or outside wall of a frame house. It protects the frame of the house from damage by years of rain, ice and snow.
   Many builders have cut corners by not providing enough weather protection in sheathing. Where they used to construct two or three layers of protection, many homes now have only one.
   "So I expect that 20 years from now, we're going to have quite a bit of rotten sheathing. That's the ticking time bomb I see," Rose said.
   John Kenny,   owner of John Kenny Homes, said he knows American developers don't operate with the same standards as European builders. But improved materials have made modern homes more durable and easier to care for.
   "I try to keep up with the new stuff. What I built 30 years ago, I wouldn't build now," added Kenny, whose company put up Champaign's Timberline subdivision, Parkland Ridge and other developments.
   Advancements such as vinyl siding are still too new to know how they will endure, Kenny said.
   "What I've been building over the last few years is, we've tried to get as maintenance-free as possible," he said. "I don't know how many years it will last."
   Many of the homes Kenny put up in the 1960s are still in fine shape, if they have been well-maintained.
   "I drive past them every day," he said. "People take care of them and they're still good houses."
   Rose is also concerned about wind resistance. A serious windstorm or tornadoes could deal a devastating blow.
   Rose was in France recently when straight-line winds raked the countryside for days. One storm, he said, lasted for 45 minutes with gusts up to 120 mph.
   In the aftermath, the most widespread damage was from the 270 million trees that were blown over  not from the winds itself, he said.
   Had the housing in Champaign-Urbana been subject to the same winds, the twin cities "would have looked like a trash heap," Rose said.
   That contrast points up another issue: American builders simply don't construct homes to last the way their European counterparts do.
   "By European standards, they (American homes) are awfully flimsy and won't last nearly as long. It's awfully wasteful of materials," Rose said.
   In the United States, economic factors and constant changes in land use have historically meant many buildings are simply not designed to be permanent. Cheap structures can be replaced more easily when they outlive their usefulness.
   "When they (Europeans) build a neighborhood, they don't anticipate economic changes in 100 years.
   So as long as we're wasteful of building materials, if the homes do only last 20 years, 50 years, maybe that's really what we want."
   Americans may eventually learn to build for greater permanence, Rose said, but "that choice has to dovetail with social, cultural and economic permanence, and we may not be ready for that yet."

   The News-Gazette welcomes comments from readers on the issues raised in this article. Please send your comments to: Editor, The News-Gazette, 15 Main St., P.O. Box 677, Champaign, IL 61824-0677. Send comments by e-mail to news@news-gazette.com.