Ticky tacky is a term used to describe substandard materials used in mass-built housing, often associated with uniformity and lack of quality. It originated from a 1960s American folk song satirizing post-WWII tract housing projects. Despite variations introduced over time, ticky tacky remains a popular term for shoddy workmanship and materials in residential construction.
Ticky tacky refers to the substandard materials often used in mass built housings. It’s probably a rhyming duplication of the word tacky, which refers to anything considered in bad taste. Many sources attribute the term’s first use to a 1960s American folk song, in which it referred to the type of low-cost housing built and purchased by soldiers returning from war in previous decades. In addition to referring to these types of houses, ticky tacky can also refer to the building materials used to build them. Many modern housing estates are referred to as ticky tacky due to an actual or perceived lack of quality and workmanship.
After World War II, the United States experienced an urgent housing need as soldiers returned home and started families. To capitalize on this demand, some developers created large tract housing projects that consisted of similar or identical houses. The uniformity among these homes allowed developers to lower material prices, which resulted in more affordable finished products. The first of these subdivisions opened in the late 1940s and have been popular for some time.
The earliest examples of these housing tracts consisted of houses that had identical floor plans and external appearance. Subsequent developments to the process have introduced variations, including reversed floor plans and exterior touches such as carports. Some housing projects even include a handful of similar houses to break up the uniformity, although the actual changes to building materials and designs may be minimal.
In the 1960s, a song was written to satirize these developments, which were ubiquitous across the country at that time. The song referred to these houses as being made of ticky tacky, which is often referred to as the first appearance of the word. Ticky tacky may have already been slang or vernacular, though it gained widespread use in the 1960s. It has come to refer to the shoddy workmanship and materials that are often associated with accommodations of identical traits. Whether or not a housing project contains high-quality homes, uniformity often results in the term being applied.
Modern housing estates are sometimes referred to as ticky tacky, although the slang may not be as popular in some areas as it was in the 1960s. Residential construction continues to have a bad reputation among many people, due to a perceived lack of quality, individuality or aesthetics. Issues such as suburban sprawl are often associated with these types of housing developments.
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