> No contractor I've spoken to thinks the homes being built today will last half a century or longer. Contractors adhere to code largely as far as they can be

> No contractor I've spoken to thinks the homes being built today will last half a century or longer. Contractors adhere to code largely as far as they can be forced to and work on a "we've always done it that way" basis. On the other hand, architects and engineers are pretty sanguine about modern softwood, and for good reason. You start seeing "modern" SPF in broad use starting in the mid-seventies and construction from that era is by-and-large fine. Remember that the houses that sucked--and there were a lot of them in the 1900s and earlier--simply no longer exist. Survivorship bias is real.