1920's house tour in Detroit and an IMPOSSIBLE roof.

A few months ago I was in Detroit and fell in love with Indian Village. It is an early 1900's development where great houses were built. I got a tour from Shane of Artisan Contracting and he showed me around. It is a long form video and you get to tag along with our tour and discussion. I love good 1920s architecture and this housing stock was better than we see in Fort Worth. I geek out a little bit but I also found a roof that I don't know if many contractors could build today. Check it out.
Here are a collection of books used in this talk in my Kit.Co library: kit.co/brenthu...
Here are more great books to check out on my Amazon associates page:
Design book for houses 1920- Architect Small House plan book: amzn.to/37XWaUI
500 Small houses of the 20's- Good designs for period revival homes: amzn.to/3DiH3kh
Samuel Chamberlain's drawings of Rural France: amzn.to/3utg15G
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[@shane5657]

Glad you got to visit Detroit, there truly are some magnificent homes here, not only in Indian Village but in many neighborhoods throughout the city. I always tell people that I would love to go back in time to see Detroit in the 1920's, it was one of the wealthiest cities in the world after the auto boom and the houses that we have here really show that. I'm a carpenter who lives and works here and I've had the privilege to work on many amazing homes around the city, and like you both mentioned, the details on these houses are just incredible. I've been restoring an old 1918 craftsman home for the past few years and I've learned a lot from you and your channel. As a young craftsman who is trying to learn and grow in this trade I just want to say thanks for what you do.

[@BrentHull]

Awesome, your lucky to work there. An amazing collection of houses. Good luck.

[@marklange1032]

Thank you so much for your time in making these videos. I am eating it up!

[@BrentHull]

You are so welcome! Thanks for watching.

[@tynesidesteelerectors994]

The staggered slate roof is typical of a Welsh slate roof. Most old slate roofs in the UK are done this way. The slate also becomes thinner the closer you get to the ridge. When stripping and re-slating a roof the original slates were checked for cracking and graded and stacked ready for reinstallation.Great video and beautiful houses.

[@BrentHull]

Awesome, thanks for sharing. Good stuff.

[@t.e.1189]

Thank you so much for this video. I live about 40 minutes from there evidently and I've never heard of Indian village. I don't visit Detroit much, but will be planning a drive up there to see the homes soon.

[@BrentHull]

Nice, I hear grosse point is even better. Have fun.

[@t.e.1189]

@@BrentHull Ann Arbor too has some beautiful homes and years ago I use to work out there and had the privilege to work on a few over the years.

[@arleightrainor5051]

I own a Tudor revival with its original steamed cedar shake roof, built in 1921, repaired last in 2015 due to hail by a company out of Florida. Love the roof and the house.

[@BrentHull]

Wow! That's great. Congrats.

[@iandanforth]

Great tour, thanks for bringing us along!

[@BrentHull]

Glad you enjoyed

[@Mike-dy8bq]

Next time you are in town Brent, you need to go and tour the David Whitney mansion built in 1894 at a cost of $400k. It's now a very nice restaurant and they also do tours. I think you would be impressed.

[@BrentHull]

Thanks, will do.

[@ThePolypam]

400K in 1894 would be 14.7 m today, so it must be a showstopper! And with old growth timber and trim.

[@ThePolypam]

Just checked it out. Breathtaking.

[@sparksmcgee6641]

The pattern in that slate roof was great also

[@BrentHull]

Agreed!

[@woodlandwonders6887]

Detroit was really something back in the day.

[@BrentHull]

That's what I discovered.

[@risalangdon9883]

Just wonderful!

[@BrentHull]

Many thanks!

[@thetubekid]

This is the way it should be walking down all streets in America. Sure, sometimes homes might need to vary in size to meet different budgets, but we should be striving for beautiful homes! It creates a depth to our experience being able to walk around beautiful things. Nature itself is grand and wonderful to look at. We should expect the same from our architecture. It's wonderful to see this but unfortunately it's the exception for many neighborhoods in America. Thanks for showing us this, Brent!

[@theofarmmanager267]

Speaking about the situation in the UK, I can tell you about a couple of factors that limit the style quality of new houses being built. I suppose that, before that, I should say that almost all houses of some age are surrounded by either/both high fences and hedges. You would not find houses of the quality shown in this video being so open to people walking or driving by. Going back to limitations of the individuality of new houses. The first one, and biggest by far, is economics. Land that is available build on here is very limited. We have what is called the “green belt”; that is essentially all the countryside outside towns and cities. To build in the Green Belt is extremely difficult - effectively I,possible without central Government getting involved. So, limited land and a growing number of people wanting homes, is a great equation for high density, low quality houses. The second factor is the local planning authorities. In my experience of just one such authority, it is a wonderful mix of incompetence and stupidity. The LPA has to kow-tow to big developers because those big developers will fight and fight with unlimited resources whilst the LPA has little money. However, to small developers or individuals, the LPA feels able to throw their limited wisdom and unlimited incompetence and stop anything that they happen to dislike - certainly anything different “it’s different from other houses in the locality”. So, overwhelmingly, you get small and large estates of new homes crammed into “brownfield” ( meaning previously industrial) sites and limited agricultural land within the boundaries of the towns. Planning seems very different in all aspects over here. You have limited development possible (Permitted Development Act) without having to go through the whole formal planning system; however, our LPA has a great record of giving planning permission accompanies by the withdrawal of planning permission. They did that for our house; so, to build a canopy over our front door, which cannot be seen from any other house, we have to pay up and apply for formal permission. Actually, the theory of our planning control is correct; if there were no control ( as was the case earlier in the 20th century) people will build what they like, where they like. The reason our planning system doesn’t work is widely agreed by planning professionals, expert solicitors and barristers, is that the Laws are always badly written plus the lack of competence within the LPAs.

[@BrentHull]

I totally agree! Thanks for watching.

[@sparksmcgee6641]

Box gutters are easier than copper if you walk it. Those new extruded aluminum box gutters are great.

[@BrentHull]

Thanks for sharing.

[@sparksmcgee6641]

Hit those shingles with a penophilic oil. Anyone know if a penetrating oil like that has any negative effects on roof shingles. It does amazing things for hardwood decks.

[@BrentHull]

Good question. IDK

[@Mudmanmike92]

I’ve seen roofs like this in Redlands CA

[@BrentHull]

They're amazing.

[@bestpilot98]

Amazing homes! Unfortunately, many of them have horrible replacement windows. BOOOOOOOO!

[@BrentHull]

True. Thx.

[@patrickniedermeyer2112]

Darn, Brett. If your going all that way, get a better camera.

[@BrentHull]

LOL, wasn't my regular crew but still wanted to share the info. Noted.