Floor Grilles in a Usonian House

pharding · Post by **pharding** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 8:16 am

Does anyone here have examples of original floor grilles in a Usonian House?

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 9:40 am

Wouldn't such a grille -- presumably for air-handling -- be an anomaly in the standard Usonian ?

There's a photo of an Erdman Prefab with a broad grille in the riser of a (carpeted) step . . .

DRN · Post by **DRN** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 10:34 am

A raised Usonian with wood floor framing, like Lloyd Lewis, on which Paul is currently working, would be an opportunity for grille usage.
Pew, Lewis, Suntop, Sturges, Gordon, Bachman Wilson, Schwartz, Rebhuhn, Jacobs II, Boulter, Meyer, and Penfield are candidates I can think of.

KevinW · Post by **KevinW** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 11:52 am

Weren't most just your standard aluminum or painted metal drop-in floor grilles? I think that is what was at Fawcett, which has under-slab ducting.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 1:20 pm

Mr Wright seemed always to specify the simplest, plainest hardware -- in keeping with his own detailing, leaving the eye free to take in what he considered more important ?

The photograph above seems to exemplify that tendency.

SDR

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 4:09 pm

The photograph above also shows wall-to-wall carpet. Is there any indication that the Erdman houses were supposed to be carpeted? Seems anti-Wright to me.

peterm · Post by **peterm** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 4:22 pm

If door hardware and hinges are brass, I would choose something like this:

http://www.houseofantiquehardware.com/r ... DQod4VsDjg

Paul Ringstrom · Post by **Paul Ringstrom** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 5:17 pm

Olfeldt has under floor ducted heating by Airfloor, Inc. http://www.airfloor.com

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 6:51 pm

Taking up DRN's suggestions, I find slatted or narrow-board floors at Pew and at Lewis -- though, like others on the list, carpets cover major portions of the floors. Schwartz second level similarly carpeted. Sturges has linoleum or vinyl tile squares. No registers visible in photos I have seen so far, mostly from the 'eighties.

SDR

jmcnally · Post by **jmcnally** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 8:56 pm

I thought they just slotted the wood, but I can't remember where I would have seen this

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 9:20 pm

Well, we have this photo taken at the Carleton Wall residence, showing a hassock that's been pierced, seemingly for an audio speaker:

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 9:57 pm

So we have the question of how two-story and elevated Usonians, those with framed rather than poured floors, were heated. We've seen drawings showing piping in the floors of, for instance, the Pew residence. We haven't seen radiators; those were left behind by the late thirties, for the most part (though I believe the Willey residence may have them ?)

Were any pre-war Usonians heated with hot air ?

SDR

Paul Ringstrom · Post by **Paul Ringstrom** » Fri Mar 17, 2017 12:40 pm

The Lewis House has radiant heat under a slat wood floor on the living level of the house (2nd floor). These boards are separated by about a Â¼ of an inch, so if you dropped a small object it would basically be gone forever.

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Fri Mar 17, 2017 1:13 pm

I wonder if women wearing stiletto heels have problems in those houses?
"Mind the gap!"

KevinW · Post by **KevinW** » Fri Mar 17, 2017 1:50 pm

https://www.flickr.com/photos/75562383@ ... 3036109827
First photo in the set shows how done at Fawcett