One Carpenter’sStill driving nails at 75, a veteran framer recalls the postwar housing boom of the 1950s and how it changed the way we build By Larry haun 96 FINE HOMEBUILDING and the next year. I worked on my first house. we had summer days. A neighbor had ordered a two-bedroom house from a catalog. Tools were as much a part of my life as food. an isolated prairie where the only constant was the Wyoming wind. As he puts it. and you were freezing. “We had 345 square miles of valley floor on which to build and 25 years of stored-up energy from the Depression and the big war to get on with the job. that was the temperature in our bedrooms. when Larry Haun first moved there and started building houses. The chill never left.” february/march 2006 97 . A master carPhoto above: Dean Della Ventura Today. Whatever the temperature was outside. Three feet from the kitchen stove.Life I was born in 1931 on the high plains of western Nebraska. and I learned how to use them before I knew how to read. We lived in an uninsulated farmhouse with no central heat. so when something broke. even when mother warmed the sheets with her flat iron. the San Fernando Valley looks a lot different than it did in 1950. Sure. When I turned 16. we fixed it. I would huddle on the lee side of the house and try to warm my deepest parts. Our nearest hardware store was 30 miles away. All of the bundled pieces were shipped in by rail and then brought to the building site by a team of horses and a wagon. and we cobbled together forts from wood scraps and nails salvaged from a barn that had burned to the ground. My siblings and I made our toys from apple and orange crates. I went to work driving spikes into railroad ties. My strongest memory of that time is that I was always cold. and we became a union shop. the house still wasn’t finished. another 450. At the time. needed a place to live. To meet the unprecedented demand for housing. When I started out as a carpenter. In the five years after World War II.000 new residents flocked to Los Angeles in search of warm weather and good jobs. Jim and I found a builder in the valley who was willing to let us do his framing for a flat. version went for $120. I was expected to I didn’t realize at the time that one of the greatest revolutions in construction was about to break wide open. but a lot more efficiently. With the median house price around $9. The only power tool on the job was a tablesaw. you had to specialize.000. 1950. In 1950. To compete. We became house framers. Jim. and block to block. I was a journeyman carpenter in the union. We were specialists. I moved to Los Angeles. you had to change blades.-ft. As specialists. and a gable roof. which included taxes and insurance. masses of ordinary workers could afford to buy their own homes. we became one of the biggest framing subcontractors in southern california. thousands upon thousands of returning veterans. and in time. which included setting door jambs and window frames. We needed to find ways to build 500 houses at once. Finishing high school in 1949 freed me to head south.We weren’t building California Photo not authorized for reproduction Southern California. street to street. it was the American dream fulfilled. penter and I unwrapped the bundles and nailed all of the pieces together. Henry Ford had proved you could make Model Ts very quickly on a production line. What I didn’t realize at the time was that one of the greatest revolutions in construction our country has ever seen was about to break wide open.000 people had arrived. It had two bedrooms.000 new residents had moved into the San Fernando Valley. Vets created a huge demand for new housing With the end of the war. when I turned 20. We were going to take the production line to the home-building industry. What they found was good weather. By 1951. A three-bedroom. My younger brother. We didn’t have time to build one house at a time. was able to use the GI Bill to move into a new three-bedroom house in 1951 for $400 down. his monthly payment was $65.000 sawblades every week for resharpening. I found work building houses and began my studies at UcLA. we would frame a 900-sq. Given the size of the job that had to be done.-ft. we hired pieceworkers who had subspecialties like roof-cutting or joisting. In 1953. Instead of the work moving on conveyor belts. (If you hit an old-growth knot in a piece of Douglas fir. Jim got a contractor’s license. I went to work for a contractor in Albuquerque building houses. Every cut on every piece of sheathing was made with a handsaw. I was in paradise. both men and women. For the first time in our nation’s history. joined us. we were sending out 1. and a housing crisis. and soon the three of us were framing one of these houses every day. nearly 250. Joe. per-house fee. What we had was 345 square miles of valley floor on which to build and 25 years of stored-up energy from the Depression and the big war to help us get on with the job. houses were built by general contractors who might finish only five or six homes a year. where I had heard the sun shone most every day. I never once wore a coat to work. and in busy times. In the first year.) We weren’t alone in taking this path. and it would require us to learn to work differently—not necessarily faster. Floors were sheathed diagonally with 1x6 boards. for 87¢ an hour. . putting siding on the front. foundation through cabinets. nearly doubling our wages. Between 1945 and 1950. and making it ready for stucco on the outside and plaster on the inside. We changed the way we worked My wages as a journeyman carpenter in the early ’50s were less than $2 an hour. lots of jobs. For $90. we got pretty fast—and so did everybody else. But the demand for new houses was so enormous that it required revolutionary thinking about how to build them. My older brother. By 1960. Six months later. 250. builders took a cue from assembly lines in Detroit and started specializing in everything from floor-nailing to roof-cutting to door-hanging. the workers arrived in pickup trucks and station wagons and rolled from house to house. house on a slab. suburban Los Angeles. we couldn’t afford to work that way. one bathroom. carpenters used hand tools to cut dimensional lumber and hammers to nail everything together. 98 FINE HOMEBUILDING Photo facing page: courtesy of Larry Haun. At one point. 1100-sq. Step on a big knot. Today. But to produce houses at that rate. for instance. 101). my friends Al and royal Schieffer could hang nearly that many in an hour. and roofs. marked the length and bird’s-mouth cut. one pass on each chalkline (photo p. in favor of jeans and a cloth apron. I snapped three chalklines on the stock to mark the ridge cut. I still have visible scars on my lower legs from leaving behind some skin and blood after I broke through a knotty board. With a helper and the advantage of production tools. Getting the rafters in place took longer than marking and cutting them to length. We used to get 2x4 studs on which you could count 100 growth rings. he would buy his first leather nail bags from a local shoe-repair shop. we had to look hard at every step of the process. We were building solid tract houses that working-class families could afford to buy. by two or three carpenters in a day or so. and the bird’s-mouth cut. When I first began framing. Single houses now could be framed. we adopted it. I laid the pattern on one 2x at a time. though not always for the better. we used 1x6 sheathing to cover floors. I was cutting the same roofs in an hour or two. the tail cut. Several years later. By 1951. our fir framing lumber often has no more than three or four growth rings per inch. Building materials changed. So I was happy when plywood arrived on the job site in the late 1950s. ready for drywall inside and stucco outside. but it was somewhat dangerous. Before plywood came along. then made the cuts with a handsaw. The sharp edges of a broken knot could rake holes in your body. Every time we found a way to save a few steps or a few minutes. too Materials changed. long sawhorses on which I could rack up hundreds of common rafters upside down and on edge. maybe more. which meant that it could have large knots. Most of this material was utility grade. It is such beautiful wood. Walking across a newly laid subfloor was like walking through a minefield. Then I used this rafter as a pattern for the rest of the rafters. I made low. I miss working with old-growth Douglas fir. Then I could make the cuts with special tools. It’s little wonder we use manufactured wood. especially if you had a load of studs on your shoulder. Calif. They hung doors on valley jobs for 30 years. Now we could cover the floor with big Pacific Palisades. like those worn by his brother Jim (right). In the next few years. Fifty years later.bungalows. I laid out a common rafter with a framing square and made the plumb cuts at each end and the bird’s-mouth cut at the plate line. Larry Haun (left) had given up the Sears bib overalls. walls. hang eight doors a day. which allowed more freedom of movement. FEBrUAry/MArcH 2006 99 . and down you went. Try a Plumb rigging hatchet (photo facing page). it was much quicker to build on a concrete slab. and perfect balance. After filling the hopper with up to 500 nails. These first nail bags were made at a local shoe-repair shop. The sharp blade was handy for chopping out 1x6 flooring around plumbing pipes. and it would require us to learn to work differently.We were going to take the production line to the home-building industry. It also didn’t work well when you needed to pull a nail. but I couldn’t get my big hand in the nail pockets without having to straighten up every time I wanted to grab a handful of nails. I made a nail buggy. In time. In 1951. head. regular handheld nail guns were not available until the early 1960s. walking along. The straight-claw. I had an old Estwing hammer that FINE HOMEBUILDING supplied the claws. fired nails as he went. square piece of plywood with small wheels mounted on the bottom. ft. a scary-looking sidewinder with no lower guard. I added suspenders to take some weight off my waist. The art of driving nails Most of our nailing was done by hand. flat 18-in. In 1954. Although my hammer was a rough-looking tool. but it wasn’t what I needed. Soil permitting. then dropped down a tube. and drive nails through the 1xs or plywood and into the joists. Larry got his first power saw. a grooved face. handle. 100 Although I missed wearing the white carpenter’s overalls I used to buy at Sears. But the whole idea of floors sheathed in wood didn’t last long. Sitting on this buggy. Backyard welding creates the first California framing hammers State-of-the-art nailing in 1959. The curved-claw 16-oz. and I could drive framing nails easily with one lick. ft. Then I noticed that some of the pieceworkers were wearing leather belts with a hammer loop and two easy-to-reach leather bags worn on the back. like dancing. made by Sioux Tools. That same year. which became standard equipment for California tract builders. I could drive nails almost as fast as today’s nail guns. that saw became an extension of my arm. But by 1951. This tool allowed you to walk along. long-handle california framer was born. a long. I had bought my first power saw (photo below). it was now safer to use. I saw a joister (a pieceworker putting floor joists on framed walls) using a remodeled Plumb hatchet that had claws welded to the hammer part. along with most framers. drive. It had a 28-oz. When I started out as an apprentice carpenter. To avoid nailing floors on my knees. I was wearing this uniform. The first pneumatic nailer was the “walking nailer” made by Nu-Matic Nailer. Photo right: Larry Haun . Eventually. If the slab was poured in the morning. I took the pieces to a friend who had an electric arc welder in his garage. ft. I could grab a handful of nails. I took my Plumb tool home and cut off the hatchet blade with a hacksaw. set it. in a day and. I had several sharp handsaws that I carried in my toolbox. Four hundred or 500 regular 8d nails straight out of the box were put in a tray. to 8000 sq. sheets and not be fearful of injury from poor-quality sheathing. common rafter-cutting projects that took days now could be done in an hour or so. which is as much art as skill. he switched to a Skil Model 77 worm drive. one by one. they were one of the first things that had to go. hammer has a long history. to a driving pin. the operator slipped his foot into the loop and. They had a dozen pockets and offered some protection from both the weather and from job-site scrapes and abrasions. operated by a person standing upright while nailing off floors and low-pitched roofs. I got my hands on a circular saw with a 16-in. of floor or roof in a day. The first air gun I had was actually a stapler Better than a handsaw. a 16-in. Before long. Finger out a nail. so I became a master nailer. But then one day I cut my forehead with the hatchet and left some blood on the job site. On one side. The good and the bad part about this tool was its hatchet blade. push myself backward on a sheathed floor. A skilled operator could nail off 7000 sq. A good operator could easily nail off 7000 sq. It was a pretty dangerous-looking tool with a guard over the top of the blade but none on the bottom. What they didn’t offer was the freedom of movement I got with a pair of jeans and a cloth nail apron. By 1955. The first pneumatic nailer on our job sites in the early ’50s was a “walking nailer” by Nu-Matic Nailer of Los Angeles. and he put the parts together. driving nails through the floor into the joists. I fixed a small bread tray to hold nails. I wore the cloth apron for a few months. Within a year. blade that could make the ridge and tail cuts on rafters. I bought a used worm-drive Skilsaw 77 for $85. I understand that it got its name from being used to set up rigs that were drilling for oil. In the early 1960s. It was a production tool. according to the brochure. could work on roof pitches up to 6-in-12. Here was the tool I needed. Just feel it. At the bottom of the tube was a loop through which you slipped your foot. I could snap chalklines in the afternoon and start framing walls the next morning. I have torn down and remodeled enough old houses to know that structurally. Before any of these developments had taken place. and shake the nails around in the box. the houses that we built were generally better than the ones built before the war. Later. bucket of gasoline and set it in the sun. So once they arrived at the shop.. So what was lost in this massive building boom was not quality. After the wax melted. “We don’t build houses like we used to. Wall bracing was often nonexistent. they were delivered in 100-lb. al and royal Schieffer could hang nearly that many in an hour. The solution would cover the nails with a thin coat of wax. What was left behind was all the handcrafted details that take time to create. he can outwork anybody on the Fine Homebuilding staff. I remember a union business agent visiting our job site in 1954. Cutting multiples was a common theme. We weren’t building california bungalows or Victorian gingerbread houses. I was expected to hang eight doors a day. kegs shaped like small barrels. He asked to see my long-handle hammer. The demand for housing was so great in the 1950s that tract builders used every trick they could to build faster and more efficiently. And you know what? More than 50 years later. Beyond that. those houses are still there. I used to hear folks say. The industry responded later with green sinkers. boxes. The Stallion. and a 16d was home. Ore. I went home that evening and put on an even longer handle. unfortunately. We actually built them better. When I started out as a carpenter. rigging hatchet. used to nail floor and roof sheathing. once the nail was driven. 8d and 16d nails coated with a thin layer of vinyl. During those days. Other people used dishwashing soap. and Larry is cutting the bird’s mouths using a worm-drive saw with a swing table. some carpenters started framing with Plumb’s long-handle 28-oz. In the old houses. that observation was true. carpenters got local welders to cut off the blade and attach a pair of straight claws. When they tired of the occasional bloody forehead. Here. was cumbersome and jammed frequently. I took a 5-gal. I would open a box of nails. we used ordinary bright nails. Photos left: Scott Phillips. The group feared that change would mean less work for its members. at age 75. the carpenters’ union. the wax would dry and give the nail holding power much like a regular nail. It wasn’t until about 1962 that Paslode came out with a good 8d nail gun called the “gun nailer.Evolution of the framing hammer. despite frequent earthquakes. There’s an old saying. One at a time takes too long. Hundreds of thousands of them. these changes didn’t arrive without some resistance. We were building solid tract houses that working-class families could afford to buy.” Their 16d nail gun. and even today. Larry Haun lives in Coos Bay. Although these nails hold well. they’re hard to drive with one lick. Some changes came hard As you can imagine. hammer wasn’t adequate. One of the biggest defenders of the status quo was. He walked to a saw and cut off several inches of the handle so that it would comply with union rules. floor and ceiling joists frequently spanned distances that were too great. an entire roof’s worth of rafters has been ganged up. We bought them by the truckload. Building inspectors wondered whether gas-waxed nails had the holding power of unwaxed nails. I had to explain to them that most nails in a framed wall hold in shear and not in tension. These nails went into wood like a hot knife through butter.” We couldn’t meet the housing crisis using the old rules. I would treat them with a gas-wax process. Once the gas was warm. FEBrUAry/MArcH 2006 101 . they started coming in 50-lb. I dropped in a bar of paraffin. “you can cut the flowers. Photo right: robert Wedemeyer. when better 16d guns were available. The design lives on in hammers such as Vaughan’s new Blue Max. So we continued to nail walls together by hand until around 1970. and the gas would evaporate. Because the traditional 16-oz. but you can’t hold back the spring. In the early days. One lick. change was inevitable. Door headers could be as simple as a 2x4 run in flat. pour in a bit of the gas wax.” Well.