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While always neat to read about, I have no idea how you'd ever build one of these homes where I live. If you look at new construction, the poor quality work usu

While always neat to read about, I have no idea how you'd ever build one of these homes where I live. If you look at new construction, the poor quality work usually means the the home doesn't even meet the existing weatherization standards. Not to mention you'd have to convince an inspector that everything done is to code. While I'm always impressed with such structures, they seem mostly out of reach for someone living in suburban america.

sudden_dystopia 5y ago
I think this dude built it himself. My father in law and my grandpa both built their own homes that they still live in today, neither one had any professional construction experience. Not nearly to this standard, but nobody cared about this sort of thing back the. And they didn’t have YouTube to solve problems.
bluGill 5y ago
> the poor quality work I keep hearing that, but those who are in the trade listen to engineers who have done real analysis. What looks good often is bad, what looks bad is often good.
- sidewndr46 5y ago
  Are you stating that the guy nailing zip sheathing on the side of a house talks to the engineer who designed it?
  - JKCalhoun 5y ago
    My assumption: that the guy is even nailing ZIP sheathing is doing so because some engineer determined it was an improvement over previous construction techniques. (But maybe it is just cheaper.)
    - Inhibit 5y ago
      It saves on labor. ZIP doesn't require an extra layer for impermeability of the OSB; just seal up the joints with acrylic tape and you're done. Better? No idea. Although there might be less to screw up unless someone cost-saves by not installing the spec tape (it really is necessary).
      - bluGill 5y ago
        What does better mean? OSB might test stronger, but the zip is strong enough for anything a house will actually face. Both will fail in a large tornado, both will survive surprisingly high winds (zip is certified for high wind and seismic loads). There is a place in the middle will OSB will do better, but that is a very small place. ZIP will let water vapor out, so your walls won't rot out. So if you want your house to last OSB is actually worse (though OSB houses have lasted a long time with no problems so this is again on the margins).
- nonameiguess 5y ago
  This is amusing to me. My roof was leaking a few years back and I went to check it out and it turns out some of the nails were never covered and they rusted through. The roof tar just didn't extend all the way to the edge (flat roof). My electrical outlets kept going out so I went to replace a few and realized they were installed with the wires connected to the wrong leads. I had some LED lights that are supposed to last a very long time go out within a year of moving in and replaced them and discovered the ground wires just weren't connected to anything. My neighbor had their furnace installed upside down. Damn near literally everything we have checked in these townhouses turns out to have been done incorrectly, shoddily, or just not finished and covered up in such a way that an inspector wouldn't notice if they didn't take it apart. From what I hear, the city inspector at the time was 84 and didn't bother going upstairs, so since we have 4-story houses, things like the roofing and furnaces seem to have just not been inspected at all. It's not like this is some slum. They're 600k townhouses a few blocks from city hall in downtown Dallas. I kind of regret deciding to live in the middle of the city at this point. The builder had to fix our water main for free when it was discovered it had a joint running through where the driveway meets out foundations, causing it to split when the blocks sheered in cold weather. The guy that came out to fix it (the builder's son no less) told me townhouse construction was a joke. It's impossible to find a legit tradesman who will do it. Apparently they all prefer the suburbs. I guess putting up pre-fab houses is faster and more profitable or whatever. So we get the lowest common denominator fraudsters living downtown. I'm kind of amazed some of these guys are still alive. I've been watching a construction project next door for a while. They broke ground three years ago and finally put walls up last month. Instead of a real cherry picker, dude's were using some kind of four-story forklift and had a wood crate on top of it with one wall ripped off and they were using that for work. No safety harnesses. A guy the other day was doing window work on a 60 foot ladder, very top, with one person holding it, and he was reaching a good 4 feet to his left to mess with I think a dryer vent. Again, no safety harness. I'm reasonably sure "poor quality work" is an accurate description of what is happening here.
  - JKCalhoun 5y ago
    I read there is a shortage of construction workers (along with everything else, I guess).

sudden_dystopia 5y ago

I think this dude built it himself. My father in law and my grandpa both built their own homes that they still live in today, neither one had any professional construction experience. Not nearly to this standard, but nobody cared about this sort of thing back the. And they didn’t have YouTube to solve problems.

bluGill 5y ago

> the poor quality work I keep hearing that, but those who are in the trade listen to engineers who have done real analysis. What looks good often is bad, what looks bad is often good.

sidewndr46 5y ago
Are you stating that the guy nailing zip sheathing on the side of a house talks to the engineer who designed it?
- JKCalhoun 5y ago
  My assumption: that the guy is even nailing ZIP sheathing is doing so because some engineer determined it was an improvement over previous construction techniques. (But maybe it is just cheaper.)
  - Inhibit 5y ago
    It saves on labor. ZIP doesn't require an extra layer for impermeability of the OSB; just seal up the joints with acrylic tape and you're done. Better? No idea. Although there might be less to screw up unless someone cost-saves by not installing the spec tape (it really is necessary).
    - bluGill 5y ago
      What does better mean? OSB might test stronger, but the zip is strong enough for anything a house will actually face. Both will fail in a large tornado, both will survive surprisingly high winds (zip is certified for high wind and seismic loads). There is a place in the middle will OSB will do better, but that is a very small place. ZIP will let water vapor out, so your walls won't rot out. So if you want your house to last OSB is actually worse (though OSB houses have lasted a long time with no problems so this is again on the margins).
nonameiguess 5y ago
This is amusing to me. My roof was leaking a few years back and I went to check it out and it turns out some of the nails were never covered and they rusted through. The roof tar just didn't extend all the way to the edge (flat roof). My electrical outlets kept going out so I went to replace a few and realized they were installed with the wires connected to the wrong leads. I had some LED lights that are supposed to last a very long time go out within a year of moving in and replaced them and discovered the ground wires just weren't connected to anything. My neighbor had their furnace installed upside down. Damn near literally everything we have checked in these townhouses turns out to have been done incorrectly, shoddily, or just not finished and covered up in such a way that an inspector wouldn't notice if they didn't take it apart. From what I hear, the city inspector at the time was 84 and didn't bother going upstairs, so since we have 4-story houses, things like the roofing and furnaces seem to have just not been inspected at all. It's not like this is some slum. They're 600k townhouses a few blocks from city hall in downtown Dallas. I kind of regret deciding to live in the middle of the city at this point. The builder had to fix our water main for free when it was discovered it had a joint running through where the driveway meets out foundations, causing it to split when the blocks sheered in cold weather. The guy that came out to fix it (the builder's son no less) told me townhouse construction was a joke. It's impossible to find a legit tradesman who will do it. Apparently they all prefer the suburbs. I guess putting up pre-fab houses is faster and more profitable or whatever. So we get the lowest common denominator fraudsters living downtown. I'm kind of amazed some of these guys are still alive. I've been watching a construction project next door for a while. They broke ground three years ago and finally put walls up last month. Instead of a real cherry picker, dude's were using some kind of four-story forklift and had a wood crate on top of it with one wall ripped off and they were using that for work. No safety harnesses. A guy the other day was doing window work on a 60 foot ladder, very top, with one person holding it, and he was reaching a good 4 feet to his left to mess with I think a dryer vent. Again, no safety harness. I'm reasonably sure "poor quality work" is an accurate description of what is happening here.
- JKCalhoun 5y ago
  I read there is a shortage of construction workers (along with everything else, I guess).