Home build styles from different eras... how they compare? (Richardson: homes, tile)

[Teacher Terry]

My friend lives in a new house with hardly any windows in front. I like older homes and separated rooms. We have had old and new homes and all were decent.

[turf3]

To provide some details:

I would divide housing construction periods in this area into several periods.


Pre-World War I housing is pretty rare in the Dallas area and if that's what you're interested in, you already know more than I do about it. You'd also better bring great sheaves of money.

1920-1930: These fall mostly into two categories: the brick and stone Tudor, as seen in the M Streets neighborhood, and the wood siding one story bungalow with large porches, as seen in the Belmont neighborhood. These are well built houses, but they're pretty small for modern people (tiny closets). Being almost 100 years old, they've all been upgraded through the years (mechanical and electrical systems), which offers a mixed bag depending on how well the work was done. Very many have been added onto, and again the quality of this work varies from good to abysmal. Keep in mind that the central city neighorhoods where these houses were built generally had a long period of neglect and decline before the gentrifiers rediscovered them, so a lot of work done in the 1950s through 1970s will have been done on the cheap. There are a few stately homes built during this period (and before) still surviving (Swiss Ave., Reiger, Highland Park) but you'll spend millions to get into one of these on the rare occasions when they come up for sale.


The subdivision layout is classic "walkable streetcar suburb", with narrow deep lots. The daily use of the car as primary transportation was not considered. Garages are typically detached at the rear of the lot, accessed by long narrow driveways.

There was little building during the worst of the Depression.

There was another little spate of building around 1938-1941, as the worst of the Depression began to ease a bit and the FHA got involved. These houses are generally "Minimal Traditional" in style. They are extremely well built houses but very small, usually 2-1. The area served by Stonewall Jackson Elementary is full of these, UP and eastern Preston Hollow have many of these too. In the latter two areas these houses are rapidly being torn down and replaced with McMansions. Many of the same comments about updating and additions being of wildly variable quality and age apply here as well. Lot size and subdivision layout are transitional between "streetcar suburb" and "ranch house suburb"; i.e., still narrow and deep, but wider and shallower than before. The typical family had one car in those days but the streetcars and trolleys were still considered standard transportation. Garages are still mostly detached at the rear of the lot and with long driveways down the side of the house.


There was little building during the War.

After the war the Minimal Traditional continued, say 1947 to about 1950 or so; after that the houses gradually become more of the classic "Ranch" style, long, low, and bigger. Really, that kind of construction continued clear through the 1960s. By 1950 or so the standard would have been the 3-2 house and 4 bedroom houses were being built. This was a period of great growth in Dallas, as well as the inner suburbs (Irving, Richardson, Garland, Mesquite). (Plano was a small town in the 1960s and someplace like Frisco was a farm to market town of 150.) You can find these classic 50s/60s Dallas "Ranch" style houses all over. Lake Highlands, Preston Hollow, Irving, Richardson, Garland, Mesquite, Carrollton, Farmers Branch. Lot sizes tend to be more wide and shallow. (The streetcars and trolleys were all shut down by 1950, and the subdivisions were all laid out presuming the primary use of cars.) Some were built on rather large lots, and of course there are those big lots to the west of Thackeray Park where McMansionization is happening apace (hardly any original houses remain there and to the north around St. Mark's).

Up to now everything was built on pier-and-beam foundations or variants thereof. For all intents and purposes there are no houses with basements in Dallas except for the very very rare unicorn.

Sometime in the late 60s or early 70s the slab foundation became the most popular method, probably because of cost. There are many factors in the general decline of construction quality in the 70s. For one thing, the desegregation order in about 1972 initiated an explosive growth in the inner suburbs and those parts of Dallas in Richardson school district. The large number of people of modest income flooding into places like Garland, Mesquite, Carrollton, Farmers Branch, and the less-expensive parts of Richardson, supported builders who built vast numbers of very cheap poorly built houses. "Fox and Jacobs" became a shorthand for cheap and cheerful unattractive houses built of the absolute cheapest materials. The foundations are a big source of trouble in these houses - insufficient rebar, thin slabs, too much sand in the concrete, pipes cast into the slabs, piping joints underneath the slab - there are entire neighborhoods where every house has had to have foundation work. For another thing, due to the energy crisis, which hit before modern insulation and double pane windows were widely available at reasonable cost, ceilings are low, windows few and small, and floor plans are not very big. Don't forget aluminum wiring, either, though I would suspect that much of that has been replaced by now. There were also some unsuccessful attempts at plastic piping for plumbing.

In general these houses were built in neighorhoods of modest price, so by and large they're still there; the lot value hasn't increased enough to justify tearing down and McMansionizing.

By about 1984, the post tensioned slab, whether with or without integral beams, had been invented and was being implemented, plus non-post-tensioned slabs were being improved; and building codes had been improved as well, for example requiring that pipes must only pass through sleeves in the slab rather than being cast into the slab, and requiring all joints to be in the walls rather than under the slab.

So I basically consider everything after about 1984 as "modern era". Basically you have brick exteriors (or fake stone, or fake stucco), and as time goes on more and more it becomes more and more of just a facing on the front and the sides and back are fake wood siding. (Be careful because up till a few years ago a lot of this was basically just Masonite, which falls apart if it gts wet. In the last 10 years or so the cement fiber siding ("Hardie") has hith the market and it's a far superior material.) Floor plans get larger, larger, and larger. Kitchens become progressively more "open"; rooflines become ever more complicated. Construction becomes generally cheaper in materials, but at the same time far more energy-efficient. Double pane windows come in around 1980 (in normal priced houses), better insulation, improved energy efficiency in heating and cooling, house wrap, etc. Foundation problems post 1984 are much reduced. Also, for the first time the two story becomes the standard in Dallas; previous generations of housing were almost all single story except for the few stately homes.

This post 1984 period is also when the inner suburbs were largely built out and the major growth shifted to first the outer suburbs (Plano, Coppell, Wylie and so on) and then to the exurbs (Frisco, Anna, Prosper, Lucan/Fairview, even Princeton, which is VERY unlike Princeton, N.J.)

Now in the last few years we see two other styles displacing the classic McMansion - there's the fake "farmhouse" look (stark white batten-on-board siding with black trim; simplified detailing of the interior, but still mostly "open plan") and fake Mid Century Modern piled up into a two story collection of boxes, with greatly simplified detailing of the interior and extremely open floor plans. From the standpoint of construction these are basically the same thing as the late-stage classic McMansion, only cheaper to build because the interior and exterior detailing is simplified.


So that's kind of a summary of what's available in the Dallas area by era of construction.

[colorsofspring]

Turf3- thank you for the thorough description.

Your section about the slab foundations and aluminum wiring in the 70's era homes is valuable rings true- the house we currently own has the same issues.

[WorldKlas]

I’ve owned houses in the DFW metro since 1978. The most problematic places I had were built in the 1950’s and had cast iron pipes between the house and street. Lots of deterioration of the pipes. Foundation issues. One also had ungrounded outlets and an addition built in the 70’s with aluminum wiring which was in fine shape but I had it inspected annually by an electrician. Sold both properties over concerns of long term maintenance.

I own two custom built houses from the 70’s — one in ‘78 and one in ‘74. Have had typical older house issues with both but there were sure were some lovely custom homes built then with beautiful designs and lovely neighborhoods like Prestonwood in N. Arlington.

[Rakin]

Originally Posted by WorldKlas

I own two custom built houses from the 70’s — one in ‘78 and one in ‘74. Have had typical older house issues with both but there were sure were some lovely custom homes built then with beautiful designs and lovely neighborhoods like Prestonwood in N. Arlington.

There were some great custom homes built in the 60's, 70's and 80's. Some of my favorites are the 80's homes in places like Bedford.

What I was referring to and very well described by Turf3 are the thousands and thousands of old Fox and Jacobs homes built cheaply. Of course every decade has had these type of builders and subdivisions such as Choice, Centex, KB and Grand in more recent years. I still today put Grand Homes in this category.

There are others building today that I would 100% stay away from.

[turf3]

Of course in any era there have been high end houses built to the highest standards of quality.


For that matter, building have been built on slabs without problem for at least 100 years.


The issues come in when you're trying to build a lot of houses fast for short money and you're cutting every corner possible.


Thing is, most people who have to work for a living live in average houses, not huge beautiful custom houses built to the highest standards of quality.

[Bamaman1]

I remember waking up one morning and looking out my bedroom window as the 1974 house next door was burning down. It was caused by aluminum wiring.

My biggest concern has not been the quality or styling of the homes since my homes have been modern for when they were purchased--1974, 1987, 1992, 2002, 2017, 2020. It's in the social changes in the neighborhoods that are my biggest concern.

Some of the cities and neighborhoods where we have lived have simply "gone south" socially. Even our swim/tennis community with beautiful homes and landscaping changed suddenly at year 10--with people being transferred out and moving farther from the city center. New neighbors didn't speak English even.

I'm just glad that we were on the front end of when changes started. We sold our last 3 homes to the third person that looked at the houses for list price.

[Sunbather]

great summary by Turf3.

We have a 1949 'minimal traditional' 2:1 that the previous owner and now us have cosmetically renovated to be a bit more modern, which is nice especially because the majority of houses in this neighborhood are more modern 50s-60s ranches. The house is well-built, good foundations in this immediate area. Electrical was almost entirely upgraded over the years (all new panels, new wiring, one room is not properly grounded). Piping above ground upgraded but still cast iron out to the street. It's a nice little house.

[turf3]

Don't forget clay tile sewer pipe. Lots of fun.

[Bamaman1]

We sold one house with polybutyl pipe from the house to the street. Every neighbor had problems with theirs @ $3,500 replacement. The house inspector missed it.