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One thing that has always puzzled me is the cheap materials thing. My parent's house, though not a McMansion, is in a neighborhood full of them and made of the

One thing that has always puzzled me is the cheap materials thing. My parent's house, though not a McMansion, is in a neighborhood full of them and made of the same materials. It's held up perfectly for ~10 years and plenty of hurricanes (some that happened while it was in the middle of being built!). What's the problem with the current materials?

mikestew 10y ago
Your mention of hurricanes, and parents who might be safely assumed to be retired, makes me think Florida. With that big bag of assumptions (throw out what follows if those are wrong), I'll remind folks that anything built in the last ten years is going to be very much regulated on how it's built. It'll be made of reinforced concrete block and the roof will be firmly tied to the rest of the house. The builder has no say in this. I'm not saying that given the choice the builder would choose the cheaper route, but a Florida house that laughs at a hurricane is due to government regulation more than the builder's choice of materials. That, and Florida hasn't really had a decent hurricane in the last ten years.
- sotojuan 10y ago
  Not so close but an interesting answer. My parents live in South East Texas (south East of Houston!) and not retired. I'll admit that the last big hurricane we had was that I remember was in 2008~ish.
logfromblammo 10y ago
The problem may be that you think 10 years is a long time for a house. The materials with a MTBF of 10 years and those with a MTBF of 50 years may look about the same to the untrained eye, but a subdivision builder can grab a bit more in profit by choosing to use the former. The homeowner then has to pay elevated maintenance and repair costs after the builder sells their last lot and packs up to go subdivide the next parcel. The houses don't suddenly collapse, per se, they just start to experience annoying problems. Screws pop out of the drywall. Door frames get skewed. AC units freeze over thanks to coolant leaks. Paint peels off of metal flashing. Mold grows on inferior siding, just on the north side of all the houses in the neighborhood. Garage door frames bend away from brick lintels as the electric openers open and close the doors. Cooling costs for the whole neighborhood are through the roof, literally, because the builder used the bare minimum of blow-in insulation. The flush levers on all the toilets break, because they're made of plastic. Buried drainage pipes in the backyard collapse, leaving a potentially leg-breaking hole in the ground. Weeds grow up through the patios that never had proper barriers under their foundations. The materials aren't bad. They just don't last. People end up paying the same price for a house that won't last 25 years as they might for one which would last another 100, because you can't see the difference at the point of sale.

mikestew 10y ago

Your mention of hurricanes, and parents who might be safely assumed to be retired, makes me think Florida. With that big bag of assumptions (throw out what follows if those are wrong), I'll remind folks that anything built in the last ten years is going to be very much regulated on how it's built. It'll be made of reinforced concrete block and the roof will be firmly tied to the rest of the house. The builder has no say in this. I'm not saying that given the choice the builder would choose the cheaper route, but a Florida house that laughs at a hurricane is due to government regulation more than the builder's choice of materials. That, and Florida hasn't really had a decent hurricane in the last ten years.

sotojuan 10y ago
Not so close but an interesting answer. My parents live in South East Texas (south East of Houston!) and not retired. I'll admit that the last big hurricane we had was that I remember was in 2008~ish.

logfromblammo 10y ago

The problem may be that you think 10 years is a long time for a house. The materials with a MTBF of 10 years and those with a MTBF of 50 years may look about the same to the untrained eye, but a subdivision builder can grab a bit more in profit by choosing to use the former. The homeowner then has to pay elevated maintenance and repair costs after the builder sells their last lot and packs up to go subdivide the next parcel. The houses don't suddenly collapse, per se, they just start to experience annoying problems. Screws pop out of the drywall. Door frames get skewed. AC units freeze over thanks to coolant leaks. Paint peels off of metal flashing. Mold grows on inferior siding, just on the north side of all the houses in the neighborhood. Garage door frames bend away from brick lintels as the electric openers open and close the doors. Cooling costs for the whole neighborhood are through the roof, literally, because the builder used the bare minimum of blow-in insulation. The flush levers on all the toilets break, because they're made of plastic. Buried drainage pipes in the backyard collapse, leaving a potentially leg-breaking hole in the ground. Weeds grow up through the patios that never had proper barriers under their foundations. The materials aren't bad. They just don't last. People end up paying the same price for a house that won't last 25 years as they might for one which would last another 100, because you can't see the difference at the point of sale.