Strength of houses in the past has been made adequate by patterning them after those which have withstood the test of service conditions. Architects and builders of small structures have followed closely traditional methods handed down from the craftsmen of medieval England. From these traditions, cities have crystallized building codes now enforced under the police power of the community.

The trend for the immediate future seems to indicate houses so constructed as to contribute in greater measure to the welfare of the occupants by bringing more of the out-of-doors into the house. Wider windows to give more sunlight and allow stimulating vistas of garden, trees, and flowing water; larger rooms and movable partitions; and walls, floors, and roofs fabricated from plastics and from aluminum and magnesium alloys are some of the improvements anticipated.

Library research failed to disclose rational methods for determining the strength of present-day houses and little in that respect that could be applied to house design for the future. This report is an attempt to apply engineering methods to the design of houses for strength. Fundamental data for wind, snow, and floor loads have been reviewed and convenient methods developed for computing applied loads.

The engineering approach to strength of houses described in this report will open the way for designers to introduce unconventional materials and unusual methods of fabrication by determining in the laboratory whether constructions have the necessary strengths, thus greatly shortening the time required to develop and obtain acceptance of new constructions for houses.

Some approach along rational lines is necessary if houses are to benefit from the fund of technical information now available on materials and methods of manufacture being utilized for other commodities.

It is time that the strength of houses be given careful engineering scrutiny --not because houses need to be stronger, for a few fail-- but to judge how much material is superfluous. Material is costly as is the labor required to shape and fit it into place.