I live in one of the first Levittown, NY homes built in 1947. My father worked to build them and I bought one in 1971. It’s a sturdy home but I removed the asbestos shingles many years ago. Levitt provided a lot of shopping malls, great well water, schools, swimming pools, a library and other important items to complete a wonderful neighborhood. It’s hard to believe that my 74 year old home built for veterans of World War Two is still great.
@@kenchambers7137 - The original cape cod has two bedrooms, one about 12 x 12 and the other is smaller. Our two sons slept in bunk beds. But I don’t think there are any with only two bedrooms anymore.
If we tried to do this today? People would scream "socialism!." It gave people a chance of home ownership in a small starter home to build equity and build their lives. We need to do this again today.
In September 1974 when I was seven years old, I did met William Levitt in person at school, he was a super great man and a genius, plus, I live in Levittown Long Island from January 3, 1974 thru July 3 1984, it was the greatest place to live and I had a super upbringing, this is a super awesome documentary about Levittown!!
+metalmoto I can imagine the sheer financial pain. Yes.. here the homeowner associations and social housing boards are checking homes for it now (and they have been doing so since the 1980s) and they rip it out if they find it.
+pmerk36 Exactly, if you leave these materials undisturbed they do NOT pose a health hazard. I'd leave the material as it is unless absolutely necessary to remove it.
The entire basement had asbestos tiles. The problem was that many were broken, cracked and coming up off the floor. That's when it's a problem, and they must be removed. If they are still intact, then you can just cover them with modern vinyl tiles. It wasn't too bad, as the remaining tiles, came off the floor, in one piece. But disposing of them properly is very expensive! Radon gas is even worse... as you can never get rid of that! As a friend of mine discovered, after buying a very old house. They installed some sort of positive ventilation system to ventilate the air, beneath the slab floor, to the outside. I wouldn't want to live there! Oh, you can only guess what the former owner died of. Lung cancer. And he didn't even smoke.
The video has to be viewed within the context of the times. Asbestos wasn't recognized as a health problem then. I regularly see asbestos siding and asbestos tape on metal duct work on older homes built during this same time period.. Undisturbed, it is not normally a problem.
That is what is fucking up our country. They make a Federal case about everything. Back then, people were focused on life, success and enjoyed life. Today with the green movement, it's like a "social jail" we're locked in. Can't wait until all this shit crashes and we go back to the way it mother fucking was.
I kept a pair of my dad's old barbecue oven mitts that are made of asbestos. Nothing can go through these suckers. You can put your hands in an inferno and not feel a thing. Nothing wrong with asbestos as long as it stays intact.
" ... Asbestos wasn't recognized as a health problem then ... " Well actually we don't know that. John Mansville may very well have known about the dangers of asbestos fiber. After all it had been in use for almost a 75 years by this time. Like Big Tobacco, big Industry was hiding anything that didn't jive with their sales projections. John Mansville had to be dragged into court to force them to accept responsibility for the asbestos in their vermiculite product. Joseph. I think you grant them too much leeway.
The second part of this compilation is another "commercial" film- this one, circa 1949, for the "Asbestos-Cement Products Association" (produced by Jam Handy, the nation's leading producer of commercial and industrial films). The narrator is none other than the late Fred Foy, who was working for WXYZ radio in Detroit {where Jam Handy's headquarters happen to be} at the time this was produced- and was famous for being the announcer on "THE LONE RANGER".
Gotta admit, that asbestos sidewall (shingles) does last forever, only it did need repainting after the first 30 years. The shit can still be found on Long Island homes today in 2012, just not the factory workers that made the shingles, they all died long ago from asbestosis.
@@kbanghartBack circa 1960 when I was a little boy in NYC, I threw a punch to a Buick Roadmaster to the front fender min order to find out how hard the metal was. It was the first and last time I ever did it. My first hurt real bad. It was made of steel and from the front it looked like a monster with Big teeth and 2 big eyes for the headlights. Nowadays if a little boy did what I did, it would have severe body damage costing at least 1, 000 dollars! 😊
The correct spelling is "Levittown", and the first one was created and developed in 1947 by William J. Levitt (of Levitt & Sons), in what used to be a Long Island potato field, with an entire community of homes ready to be bought and occupied by March 1949 [another "Levittown" was created in Pennsylvania]. This commercial film, prepared for the "Stran-Steel" division of Great Lakes Steel Corporation, touches upon how their steel was a major part of the construction of the first "Levittown".
Very durable houses as we celebrate Levittown's 60th anniversary this weekend! and look they all stood the test of time. some people dont know a good thing. Thanks Levittown. we love you. Happy Birthday!!!
They didn't know this shit was causing cancer back then. But as long as you don't disturb the material, it's harmless. The best thing is to get rid of it when you're remodeling the place.
I live in a Levitt home in Bowie Md. I had an article that said coloreds are not preferred”. My hoise was built in 1969. Fast forward to 2015, a young black woman has one of the biggest homes in the block! An addition was built in the 90s and they got rid of the asbestos shingles!! There are quite a few around that still have them. You can easily pick them out!
+Frank L Yes, the Levittown home my grandparents lived in on L.I. in NY had those water fed radiant heating pipes in the floor, and they did provide great heat, much better than forced air in my view.
One today could take the Long Island Railroad to Pennsylvania station in NYC and take N.J. Transit train to Trnton and change at Trenton for the SEPTA local commuter train to Levittown , Pennsylvania from Levittown, Nassau County, N.Y. that is east of my home borough of Queens, NYC. 😊
Sunset Cliff no way they give off that much rf radiation.... do you not own a cellphone or have WiFi in the house ?or go out in public at all..??? Or do you live in a faraday cage
any one notice the in ground fuel tank being pushed in the hole with the tractor they,v been banned for 30 years now another very expensive thing to get rid of specially if it leaked oil in to the ground
The tanks were for oil, most of the homes built in the east coast burned oil for heating and cooking. Where on the west coast gas heating was most common.
Notice that there wasn't a single black person who lived there at the time, because William Levitt didn't allow them to live in these homes as equals. That's the reason why he built Levittown, to keep blacks and whites segregated as far away as possible.
Kenneth Boddie I now find myself in that situation. Not a lot of black people where I live and boy were the neighbors staring when we moved in. My child's school is %6 black. Came out to be we make more than our neighbors lol and we are thinking about moving into a nicer area 😂
Ignore these people.. I have a very mixed neighborhood, we all look out for each other, black, white, brown, asian. We are all Americans and I think that is what matters. The only colors I believe in are the Red, white and Blue of Old Glory.
kerryincolumbus, spoken like a true dumbfuck trump supporter. What made america great had nothing to do with you racist views of the world. Too bad you will always be a stupid fuck and the reason Murica will never be great again. hahahahahahahahaha
I worked with these shingles back in the late 50s and the 60s. Also did brake jobs back then, the shoes were made of asbestos. Some times they would have to be shaped to fit the drum. I did it on a bench grinder. Never wore a mask or goggles them days. How many years do I have left? I'll be 87 in January.
probably the same reason some people can smoke their entire life and live to 90. It's not normal, but some people just have great genetics. Cancer causes are mix of genetics and environmental factors. It's how someone who lives a 100% healthy lifestyle can still develop cancer if their genetics are against them.
Abestos used on Navy ships killed so many due to abestos. My mom's husband died at age 59 and he was awarded 10,000 for the trouble the Navy caused. 10 grand
unfortunately in the 50s a lot of homefiancing such as mortgage companies or banks would not finance minorities at that time and a lot of homeowners had to sign a covenant stating they would not sell their homes to minorities
I watched a Documentary of people telling about when they first bought a house during the 1950s. One old man said he picked the house he was in because it come with a built in tv. It was a 1980s documentary before they had flat pannal TVs so a TV built into the wall was still a big space saver in the 1980s lol.
🎶🎶🎶Lit-tle box-es on the hill-side! Lit-tle box-es made of tic-ky ta-cky (namely asbestos) Lit-tle box-es on the hill-side, Lit-tle box-es all the same! There’s a pink one and a green one and a blue one and a yel-low one and they’re all made out of tic-ky tac-ky (namely asbestos) and they all look just the same!🎶🎶🎶Oh, and by the way, on the inside they’re all white!
Hi We had prefabs in the UK too. Prefabricated houses built from steel and fitted out with cheap materials such as asbestos. Most of them have been cleared away now because of the danger. Why does America still have them? Should have been demolished years ago. Nic UK
Nic Jervis they have been, however there may still be some older homes with asbestos in them in some form. As long as it remains up disturbed they say it's safe. However if improvements or work is to be done a specialty company will come in to remover it. Very expensive.
Asbestos was only used on outside siding....and wrapping for water tanks. The homes are not pre-fab. They are mass-built. The walls aren't made somewhere else and shipped in-THAT would be pre-fab.
michael b Hi Yes we had houses like Levitation and prefabs. I agree with your comment The housing in UK back in the late 1940's was terrible. No bathroom no hot water and no sanitation. 25 or 30 people living in a house designed for a large family. I well remember it.
These are some of the asbestos items used before the 70's. As you see it went way beyond just exterior or water tanks. General Products Asbestos Gaskets Asbestos Sheets Cigarette Filters Electrical Cloth & Electrical Panel Partition Fire Proofing & Prevention Materials Fume Hoods & Laboratory Hoods Plastics Vinyl Products Textile Cloths & Textile Garments Construction Products Adhesives and Gold Bond Adhesives Construction Mastics & Gunning Mix Ductwork Connectors & Flexible Duct Connectors Floor Backing & Drywall Taping Compounds
9/3/17: Not much have really changed. We are a country still infested with judging a person by the color of their skin. No one filled out an application before birth. GOD made all these races. Well, HE is going to have the LAST say so when we all INDIVIDUALLY come before HIM. HE will definitely judge us on our attitude TOWARD our fellow man. My question is WHERE were the PASTORS with all this going on? I guess the pastors ( church/"Christians") were prejudice-- GOD and HIS judgement was NOT on the minds of the ppl. Interesting indeed.
Watching films like these I can't help but wonder what black Americans would have become had they the same opportunities as white Americans. And to think the U.S. government supported the racism. Truly amazing!!
Well.....theres affirmative action and too many welfare programs to count . The blacks are worse today than the beginning of the civil rights movement. Im calling out complacency. Call it what it is already!!!
" landscaqped lots" nope sorry not in 1945, not in1953 but it did start in 1964. What WE GOT in Levittown and Hicksville for that matter (LVT & HIX) was Dwarf pine trees near front door, frontal scapes 4 per house! Later in 1968, one of the developers asked us WHY we pulled out our 4 dwarf pines and put in TALL pine trees? WE clained we did not! Grandma used eggs sheells and coffee ground as fertilizer THEY get 8 feet tall naturally! Life did go on.
What's most important is making sure every goddamn mother fucking uneducated comment gets their little funny negative comment in about the past being bad. Hah, fucking idiots. I waste my days and nights educating these people on the truth of this era, I will never stop because we are forgetting the unracist, unsexist, normal and smart country we used to live in. Forget the south, the south was a failed region since 1861-65. It isn't widely regarded as the mainstake of America.
Can you imagine all the asbestos that gave people cancer and had to be replaced? Not more than 6 kids I hope, omg, what is she, a baby making machine? 😂
