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I don't live in USA, and we don't build our houses from lumber and cardboard... but(!), there were shotages of materials here too. Why? Lockdowns! Suddenly peo

I don't live in USA, and we don't build our houses from lumber and cardboard... but(!), there were shotages of materials here too. Why? Lockdowns! Suddenly people had a lot more time on their hands, a lot less places available to spend their money and everyone around me decided on some kind of a construction/renovation/... project. This made people buy more construction materials (cement, tiles, lumber too) and combined with some supply chain issues, prices skyrocketed. A friend of mine was building an "open garage" (slab of cement, four poles, roof, and an overhang to put a "picnic table" there too), and had to buy cement four times during a month-long diy project, and each time, the price was higher (all in the same month).

wtf_is_up 4y ago
What do you build your houses from?
- ManuelKiessling 4y ago
  In Germany, it’s mostly stonework or concrete. Wooden houses are a thing, but still quite exotic. Wood is used for the roof, though.
- danpalmer 4y ago
  Probably brick and/or concrete. In the UK and much of Europe houses are mostly made from brick. I believe the same is true in large parts of South America, Asia, Africa.
  - prepend 4y ago
    There’s no drywall inside the house? That’s interesting. What’s on the inside of the brick?
    - ssl232 4y ago
      There is. In the UK it's typically called plasterboard. I think the original commenter was trying to make the point that bricks are almost exclusively used for the outside, whereas in the US it seems to depend on the location. I've seen lots of brick houses on the East Coast but in the Midwest it seems a lot of houses are wooden on the outside.
      - krallja 4y ago
        Even brick houses in the US are decorative brick veneer - the actual frame is almost always wood or metal.
    - vanviegen 4y ago
      Outer walls generally consist of a layer of cheap bricks or concrete on the inside (made flat with stucco), nice looking bricks on the outside, with isolation foam in the middle. Load bearing inner walls consist of cheap bricks or concrete. Other inner walls are usually gypsum.
      - KptMarchewa 4y ago
        Not only load bearing walls, but also walls between apartments.
    - jimbojambo123 4y ago
      Standard is plaster applied directly to bricks / blocks for external walls and then plasterboard used for internal walls. Increasingly plasterboard is used for all walls.
    - jjav 4y ago
      No drywall anywhere. I'd never seen drywall before being in the US. The inside wall is concrete, same as outside.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - scotuswroteus 4y ago
    So you'd be living in stoves if wildfires hit you like they're gonna hit here over the next fifty years
- ajsnigrutin 4y ago
  Bricks, concrete, depends on the era when the building was built (i'm talking about single houses). For apartment buildings, most built during the socialist era, reinforced concrete was used everywhere, even for internal walls, so drilling between rooms to pull an ethernet cable through was a pain in the ass.
frosted-flakes 4y ago
Americans don't build their houses out of cardboard either. Usually it's concrete, wood, brick, vinyl (siding), and gypsum.
- danuker 4y ago
  I think the parent comment meant drywall, which is made of gypsum and paper/cardboard among others.
  - frosted-flakes 4y ago
    Gypsum board does use paper backing, but that doesn't mean the house is made of cardboard. Gypsum board is not a bad thing or inferior product. In any case, gypsum board is largely standard around the world these days, even in places where plastering walls is common.
    - troon-lover 4y ago
    - toss1 4y ago
      Just because it (drywall/gypsum board, in this case) is relatively standard, does not mean that it doesn't suck. Awful stuff that I'll work hard to avoid in any future building
      - frosted-flakes 4y ago
        Why do you think it's awful? It's far better than the alternative (lath).
        mindslight 4y ago
        The criticism really isn't about the gypsum board per se. It's the difference between using a hard veneer plaster over the whole wall, or only patching the seams and leaving most of the wall a soft thin sheet that dents/breaks easily and carries sound right through. You can of course get veneer plaster done in the US, you'll just be paying through the nose as it's not standard for residential. Similar to every other "builder quality" cheap out.
jmyeet 4y ago
If you look at any specific shortage, you'll find different underlying reasons. You'll find different dependencies and vulnerabilities. Here we're talking about lumber and the supply chain is fairly straihtforward. Trees are felled somewhere. They could be planted for that purpose (fun fact: almost all paper comes from trees grown for that purpose, which complicates the story of recycling) or they could be in the wild. These places are typically remote. Trucks then take these trees to sawmills to be processed. That could be nearby or it could be far. The products from those sawmills then typically go to lumber yards. The sawmill itself might operate a lumber yard. Or you might have intermediate distributors. In the US a lot of lumber goes through Atlanta for various reasons. It then gets shipped again to retailers (eg Home Depot) and to builders, pretty much all by truck. So this supply chain is relatively simple. YOu need labour at several points (eg lumberjacks, sawmill operators, truck drivers), trucks to drive material around, gas for the trucks and land to store products. So if a handful of players own the sawmills and/or lumberyards when demand upticks you can create a supply issue simply by withholding supply at one of these steps. Maybe you don't open a sawmill or two. Maybe you don't employ people to move lumber from the sawmill to lumberyards. You just stockpile it while the price goes up. If you look into lumber specifically it's fairly clear that "hoarding" is what was happening. Other shortages may or may not be similar.
- SilasX 4y ago
  >Trees are felled somewhere. They could be planted for that purpose (fun fact: almost all paper comes from trees grown for that purpose, which complicates the story of recycling) or they could be in the wild. These places are typically remote. Tangent: That just blows my mind how that can be a thing. The trees take like, 20 years to be harvestable? And lumber at the source isn't that expensive? So, how can it be profitable to buy land and guard/maintain the trees for 20 years before you get any profit?
  - frosted-flakes 4y ago
    In the case of Canada, most timber lots are owned by the government (Crown land), and the right to harvest* it is awarded by auction (I think). Harvesters must also plant new trees. How is it profitable? There is a lot of land. You can drive for many hours down well-maintained logging roads through the BC interior and never see a building anywhere, or even come across any other cars. * This is a point of contention for the US government because they feel that the Canadian lumber industry is government-subsidized and unfairly competes with US lumber producers. As a result, the US applies import taxes on Canadian lumber.

wtf_is_up 4y ago

What do you build your houses from?

ManuelKiessling 4y ago
In Germany, it’s mostly stonework or concrete. Wooden houses are a thing, but still quite exotic. Wood is used for the roof, though.
danpalmer 4y ago
Probably brick and/or concrete. In the UK and much of Europe houses are mostly made from brick. I believe the same is true in large parts of South America, Asia, Africa.
- prepend 4y ago
  There’s no drywall inside the house? That’s interesting. What’s on the inside of the brick?
  - ssl232 4y ago
    There is. In the UK it's typically called plasterboard. I think the original commenter was trying to make the point that bricks are almost exclusively used for the outside, whereas in the US it seems to depend on the location. I've seen lots of brick houses on the East Coast but in the Midwest it seems a lot of houses are wooden on the outside.
    - krallja 4y ago
      Even brick houses in the US are decorative brick veneer - the actual frame is almost always wood or metal.
  - vanviegen 4y ago
    Outer walls generally consist of a layer of cheap bricks or concrete on the inside (made flat with stucco), nice looking bricks on the outside, with isolation foam in the middle. Load bearing inner walls consist of cheap bricks or concrete. Other inner walls are usually gypsum.
    - KptMarchewa 4y ago
      Not only load bearing walls, but also walls between apartments.
  - jimbojambo123 4y ago
    Standard is plaster applied directly to bricks / blocks for external walls and then plasterboard used for internal walls. Increasingly plasterboard is used for all walls.
  - jjav 4y ago
    No drywall anywhere. I'd never seen drywall before being in the US. The inside wall is concrete, same as outside.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- scotuswroteus 4y ago
  So you'd be living in stoves if wildfires hit you like they're gonna hit here over the next fifty years
ajsnigrutin 4y ago
Bricks, concrete, depends on the era when the building was built (i'm talking about single houses). For apartment buildings, most built during the socialist era, reinforced concrete was used everywhere, even for internal walls, so drilling between rooms to pull an ethernet cable through was a pain in the ass.

frosted-flakes 4y ago

Americans don't build their houses out of cardboard either. Usually it's concrete, wood, brick, vinyl (siding), and gypsum.

danuker 4y ago
I think the parent comment meant drywall, which is made of gypsum and paper/cardboard among others.
- frosted-flakes 4y ago
  Gypsum board does use paper backing, but that doesn't mean the house is made of cardboard. Gypsum board is not a bad thing or inferior product. In any case, gypsum board is largely standard around the world these days, even in places where plastering walls is common.
  - troon-lover 4y ago
  - toss1 4y ago
    Just because it (drywall/gypsum board, in this case) is relatively standard, does not mean that it doesn't suck. Awful stuff that I'll work hard to avoid in any future building
    - frosted-flakes 4y ago
      Why do you think it's awful? It's far better than the alternative (lath).
      - mindslight 4y ago
        The criticism really isn't about the gypsum board per se. It's the difference between using a hard veneer plaster over the whole wall, or only patching the seams and leaving most of the wall a soft thin sheet that dents/breaks easily and carries sound right through. You can of course get veneer plaster done in the US, you'll just be paying through the nose as it's not standard for residential. Similar to every other "builder quality" cheap out.

jmyeet 4y ago

If you look at any specific shortage, you'll find different underlying reasons. You'll find different dependencies and vulnerabilities. Here we're talking about lumber and the supply chain is fairly straihtforward. Trees are felled somewhere. They could be planted for that purpose (fun fact: almost all paper comes from trees grown for that purpose, which complicates the story of recycling) or they could be in the wild. These places are typically remote. Trucks then take these trees to sawmills to be processed. That could be nearby or it could be far. The products from those sawmills then typically go to lumber yards. The sawmill itself might operate a lumber yard. Or you might have intermediate distributors. In the US a lot of lumber goes through Atlanta for various reasons. It then gets shipped again to retailers (eg Home Depot) and to builders, pretty much all by truck. So this supply chain is relatively simple. YOu need labour at several points (eg lumberjacks, sawmill operators, truck drivers), trucks to drive material around, gas for the trucks and land to store products. So if a handful of players own the sawmills and/or lumberyards when demand upticks you can create a supply issue simply by withholding supply at one of these steps. Maybe you don't open a sawmill or two. Maybe you don't employ people to move lumber from the sawmill to lumberyards. You just stockpile it while the price goes up. If you look into lumber specifically it's fairly clear that "hoarding" is what was happening. Other shortages may or may not be similar.

SilasX 4y ago
>Trees are felled somewhere. They could be planted for that purpose (fun fact: almost all paper comes from trees grown for that purpose, which complicates the story of recycling) or they could be in the wild. These places are typically remote. Tangent: That just blows my mind how that can be a thing. The trees take like, 20 years to be harvestable? And lumber at the source isn't that expensive? So, how can it be profitable to buy land and guard/maintain the trees for 20 years before you get any profit?
- frosted-flakes 4y ago
  In the case of Canada, most timber lots are owned by the government (Crown land), and the right to harvest* it is awarded by auction (I think). Harvesters must also plant new trees. How is it profitable? There is a lot of land. You can drive for many hours down well-maintained logging roads through the BC interior and never see a building anywhere, or even come across any other cars. * This is a point of contention for the US government because they feel that the Canadian lumber industry is government-subsidized and unfairly competes with US lumber producers. As a result, the US applies import taxes on Canadian lumber.