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Houses in the U.S. are largely built by profit maximizing developers who know that the typical American homebuyer cares more about total square footage than ess
by mandelbrotwurst 7y ago
Houses in the U.S. are largely built by profit maximizing developers who know that the typical American homebuyer cares more about total square footage than essentially anything else about the house. Is it big? Does it have a nice facade? I'll take it! Houses are typically built exactly "to code", rarely above it.
- vvanders 7y agoIsn't that kinda the point of a uniform code of building? At least here the county code requires larger studs and windload due to the weather we get.
- aidenn0 7y agoThere's an argument to be made that if nearly all building just barely meet the legal requirements, then the legal requirements are too steep because we haven't found the bottom. Compare with NHTSA car safety ratings. Many cars get 4 or 5 stars, but you can still build/buy a car that would be less safe.
- vvanders 7y agoYeah but you also can't build a car without seatbelts/airbags/backup cameras.
- kevin_thibedeau 7y agoI've worked on homes built in the 90's with stupid stuff like flashing missing around the doors and windows. The ensuing water damage is not pretty. Pretty easy to sneak that past an inspector.