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If a construction technique is unusual in a particular area, it's usually unusual for a good reason - cost or impracticality or both. For example, in Minneapoli
by beat 8y ago
If a construction technique is unusual in a particular area, it's usually unusual for a good reason - cost or impracticality or both. For example, in Minneapolis where I live, every house has a basement; they're required by code. The reason is deep frost cycles in the winter. But in Houston, nobody has a basement. It'd just be flooded all the time, and there's no freeze cycle to worry about.
Standard house construction in any given area is a product of what works well and what is reasonably inexpensive. You can see this by era, too. Like my neighborhood is almost all 100 year old bungalows on basically the same floor plan. They were state of the art in 1913, dependent on the new technology of manufactured nails for their cheap 2x4 balloon frames, and stucco for the sturdy weatherproof exteriors. But they're also designed for hand tools and, um, inaccurate measurements. No reason to build that way in an era of power tools and prefab.
- phil21 8y agoI agree, but what if you don't care about inexpensive? Seems pretty much everything available newish construction has been cost-optimized to absurd levels. What if I want to build a European-style concrete or stone building, that will still be standing in 300 years? Not a throwaway structure that has a 50 year designed lifespan? I was looking at new construction (or a full gut rehab of an older 1800's building) and it's just real hard to find any contractors even interested in the "quality" angle.
- gwbas1c 8y ago> If a construction technique is unusual in a particular area, it's usually unusual for a good reason - cost or impracticality or both Or it's new technology. Concrete has a lot of heat mass, which means that it can be a way to build a lower-energy home. In my case, heat pumps are new technology where I live. Also, some contractors just don't get it when you ask them to put a switch somewhere or an outlet at a particular location.
- mmsimanga 8y agoBack home I noticed contractors continue to only one or two electric plug sockets per room. This may have been fine 20 years ago but the number of electrical devices people have has really gone up. A plug socket only adds a couple of dollars to the cost but adds so much convenience in the long run. Its the sort of thing you have to engage you contrator on.
- gwbas1c 8y agoNo... It's just what happens when the contractor refuses to write things down and you need the house. I couldn't raise a stink about details that I normally raise when I can slow something down until it's done correctly. Or, to put it mildly, in this part of the world, people just refuse to pay their contractor until little details are fixed.