HOUSING: New Rule Book

Home builders long have complained that the Federal Housing Administration’s 23 volumes of outmoded and confusing minimum standards have kept them from giving house buyers more quality. Last week, following three years of talking with housewives, manufacturers and engineers, FHA Commissioner Norman Mason came out with his answer: a one-volume rule book that for the first time in FHA’s 24-year history pulls together, updates and clarifies the regulations on which FHA grants mortgage insurance for one-and two-family houses.

As expected (TIME, Sept. 22), the new rules will encourage better housing even though they do not go as far as some critics wanted in costly upgrading. The two-bedroom and separate dining-room house formerly could have as little as 450 sq. ft. exclusive of bath; now it must have 500 sq. ft. Storage space for a two-bedroom unit could total as little as 250 cu. ft., now must total 350 cu. ft. Hallways, once unspecified as to width, now must be at least 3 ft. from wall to wall. Equipment must be better. The hot-water heater that formerly developed chilblains almost as soon as the deed was signed now must have a prorated guarantee for five years.

The flexible new rules also scrap old regulations that tied architects’ hands, kept architectural design from changing to meet new patterns of living. Builders no longer are bound by minimum-lot sizes and rigid house-placement rules, may vary developments as long as light, ventilation and outdoor-activity space are adequate. Once-banned inside kitchens are now allowed, saving the outer or window walls for living and sleeping space. So are new, low-cost bedsitting or kitchen-dining combinations. Also new: architects may choose from a wide variety of products as long as they meet careful performance tests.

Because Mason views the updating of FHA rules as a continuing task, the new minimum standards are published looseleaf, allowing builders to take out pages and insert new quality housing regulations as FHA keeps on keeping housing up-to-date.