Excerpt from Housebuilding in Transition The purpose of this book is explained in chapter 1. As the reader progresses, it will be clear that in order to describe the housebuilding industry to economists and other interested observers, such as materials suppliers, lenders, government personnel, and legislators, I have included descriptions of technical processes which may be basically familiar to builders. I felt it necessary to furnish sufficient technical facts so that students and other readers can understand why certain procedures are employed. At the same time, I felt that these descriptions are also important to builders. An orderly presentation of the actual steps in constructing a house will enable them to reexamine their own operations with a view to improving their methods, by offering an insight into the logic of many procedures that are frequently taken for granted. Even an abbreviated list of acknowledgments must be long. The basic research for this book was performed under contract (No. O-E-50) with the Administrator, Housing and Home Finance Agency, results of which were submitted in a report dated August 31, 1951. I am particularly indebted to that agency and to the University of California Bureau of Business and Economic Research, which was a joint sponsor of that project. Their staffs, under the direction of Dr. Richard Ratcliff and Dr. Frank Kidner, respectively, aided greatly in the furtherance of this study. Mr. Jack Rogers, my associate in the above project, gave valuable assistance throughout, particularly in connection with the Statistical Appendixes, many of which stand in the approximate form in which he developed them. Mrs. Betty Ballantine Hogan assisted in the writing of the results. Mr. George Pucci, Robert Williams, Wells Keddie, Fred Maisel, Willard Wall, and many others shared in gathering the basic data. Mrs. Jerry Honeywell Hobbs and Mrs. LaVerne Rollin performed the initial editorial and secretarial work. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.