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For anyone who lived in Europe is hard to say American Houses are high quality. Even McMansions are built with flimsy materials and require extensive and expens

For anyone who lived in Europe is hard to say American Houses are high quality. Even McMansions are built with flimsy materials and require extensive and expensive maintenance. Every small accident can turn into a nightmarish repair project. If you tear down most homes around 40 years old of course you're going to have housing crisis.

SpicyLemonZest 3y ago
It's not about the quality of construction techniques - plenty of European cities have similar housing crises.
mynameisnoone 3y ago
Commercially-built, American tract homes are built for lowest labor and lowest material costs. They frequently skip every 2nd or even 3rd studs on non-loadbearing walls. The new house my mom bought had endless quality defects (holes) that had to be repaired including cabinets missing shelves, door jam gaps, missing weatherstripping, broken dishwasher, and problems with the garage door. Let me add that most non-custom, commercially-built homes in Texas completely lack any attention to architectural design aesthetics and are just plain ugly. In America, it is rare for homes to be ever torn down unless they're extremely damaged by termites, very old and not up to modern codes and not considered a historical site, or a 1-wall demo "remodel" cannot be accomplished.
- lotsofpulp 3y ago
  > They frequently skip every 2nd or even 3rd studs on non-loadbearing walls. I have never seen this. It seems trivial for an inspector to catch, and 2x4s are cheap. It makes no sense for a tract builder, whose profits are a function of successfully pumping out a new house in 100 days, to take such a low reward high risk action and end up delaying the build time.
- jmye 3y ago
  > Commercially-built, American tract homes are built for lowest labor and lowest material costs. This seems location and builder specific, and not at all generalizable based on a single anecdote. > In America, it is rare for homes to be ever torn down unless they're extremely damaged by termites, very old and not up to modern codes and not considered a historical site, or a 1-wall demo "remodel" cannot be accomplished. This, too, seems location-specific. In Denver, older houses are being torn down constantly to put up new builds. I’m not clear why you’d think it’s universally true.
- turtlebits 3y ago
  New construction has to meet building code/pass inspection and plans have to be engineered and permitted. If an engineer has done calculations and its safe to skip studs, I see nothing wrong with that. Less studs = more insulation. (I prefer to build 24 OC) QC issues are on the buyer, which is why it's standard to have an inspection done.
  - bradknowles 3y ago
    Functionally, this is not true. Many buildings never get inspected at all. Or, if they do get inspected, it's by someone who wants to spend 1% of the time there compared to what they should be spending, so they just don't bother with doing most of their job. Or they're being paid by the builder to look the other way. Building codes are the sort of thing you worry about if you're not an actual home builder, and you think that the inspector is actually going to do their job. Most buildings never come within a mile of an actual engineer. Or architect. Now, if it's a high end home where they really want to make sure that they follow all the laws and regulations, they might actually hire an engineer and be able to figure out that they can safely do 24 OC studs in certain circumstances. But that's not even 1/10th of 1% of homes that are built.
  - ProllyInfamous 3y ago
    >New construction has to meet building code/pass inspection and plans have to be engineered and permitted. First time, huh... [1] I was a residential contractor for enough years to have witnessed several instances of "inspector on-site for just a few minutes, didn't even cross the treshhold" [usually to my benefit]. In my local AHJ, inspectors have just 30 minutes for each permitted project... and majority of <$10k projects "off the books." [1] https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/james-franco-first-time https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/james-franco-first-time
shusaku 3y ago
I don’t want to complain too much since it’s an out of context exert. But this article gets lost in the analogy. Given the source though, I think the “cheap shoe” that they’re longing for is apartment buildings. Houses are considered high end not because the construction is actually good, but the land use.
ProllyInfamous 3y ago
I eventually had to retire from residential electrical contracting, because very few clients can afford to "do things correctly." Of course, the most correct thing would have been to BUILD IT CORRECTLY IN THE FIRST PLACE, but few homebuilders have intelligent-enough clients to make build quality their standard. As the old roofing joke goes: "warranty runs out; water runs in."
- egberts1 3y ago
  Yeah, near victim of residential fire here. 1960s house with aluminum wiring here. Bare minimum you must do when buying such a house is to recheck every wirenut in every box. Replace all wirenuts with zinc-based lugnut if any copper wire touches aluminum wire. The Bare minimum effort. No time? Invest in cheap ($60) 32x32 pixel infrared sensor and look for a heat producing wiring box. This one caught one that completely melted the wiring conductors.

SpicyLemonZest 3y ago

It's not about the quality of construction techniques - plenty of European cities have similar housing crises.

mynameisnoone 3y ago

Commercially-built, American tract homes are built for lowest labor and lowest material costs. They frequently skip every 2nd or even 3rd studs on non-loadbearing walls. The new house my mom bought had endless quality defects (holes) that had to be repaired including cabinets missing shelves, door jam gaps, missing weatherstripping, broken dishwasher, and problems with the garage door. Let me add that most non-custom, commercially-built homes in Texas completely lack any attention to architectural design aesthetics and are just plain ugly. In America, it is rare for homes to be ever torn down unless they're extremely damaged by termites, very old and not up to modern codes and not considered a historical site, or a 1-wall demo "remodel" cannot be accomplished.

lotsofpulp 3y ago
> They frequently skip every 2nd or even 3rd studs on non-loadbearing walls. I have never seen this. It seems trivial for an inspector to catch, and 2x4s are cheap. It makes no sense for a tract builder, whose profits are a function of successfully pumping out a new house in 100 days, to take such a low reward high risk action and end up delaying the build time.
jmye 3y ago
> Commercially-built, American tract homes are built for lowest labor and lowest material costs. This seems location and builder specific, and not at all generalizable based on a single anecdote. > In America, it is rare for homes to be ever torn down unless they're extremely damaged by termites, very old and not up to modern codes and not considered a historical site, or a 1-wall demo "remodel" cannot be accomplished. This, too, seems location-specific. In Denver, older houses are being torn down constantly to put up new builds. I’m not clear why you’d think it’s universally true.
turtlebits 3y ago
New construction has to meet building code/pass inspection and plans have to be engineered and permitted. If an engineer has done calculations and its safe to skip studs, I see nothing wrong with that. Less studs = more insulation. (I prefer to build 24 OC) QC issues are on the buyer, which is why it's standard to have an inspection done.
- bradknowles 3y ago
  Functionally, this is not true. Many buildings never get inspected at all. Or, if they do get inspected, it's by someone who wants to spend 1% of the time there compared to what they should be spending, so they just don't bother with doing most of their job. Or they're being paid by the builder to look the other way. Building codes are the sort of thing you worry about if you're not an actual home builder, and you think that the inspector is actually going to do their job. Most buildings never come within a mile of an actual engineer. Or architect. Now, if it's a high end home where they really want to make sure that they follow all the laws and regulations, they might actually hire an engineer and be able to figure out that they can safely do 24 OC studs in certain circumstances. But that's not even 1/10th of 1% of homes that are built.
- ProllyInfamous 3y ago
  >New construction has to meet building code/pass inspection and plans have to be engineered and permitted. First time, huh... [1] I was a residential contractor for enough years to have witnessed several instances of "inspector on-site for just a few minutes, didn't even cross the treshhold" [usually to my benefit]. In my local AHJ, inspectors have just 30 minutes for each permitted project... and majority of <$10k projects "off the books." [1] https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/james-franco-first-time https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/james-franco-first-time

shusaku 3y ago

I don’t want to complain too much since it’s an out of context exert. But this article gets lost in the analogy. Given the source though, I think the “cheap shoe” that they’re longing for is apartment buildings. Houses are considered high end not because the construction is actually good, but the land use.

ProllyInfamous 3y ago

I eventually had to retire from residential electrical contracting, because very few clients can afford to "do things correctly." Of course, the most correct thing would have been to BUILD IT CORRECTLY IN THE FIRST PLACE, but few homebuilders have intelligent-enough clients to make build quality their standard. As the old roofing joke goes: "warranty runs out; water runs in."

egberts1 3y ago
Yeah, near victim of residential fire here. 1960s house with aluminum wiring here. Bare minimum you must do when buying such a house is to recheck every wirenut in every box. Replace all wirenuts with zinc-based lugnut if any copper wire touches aluminum wire. The Bare minimum effort. No time? Invest in cheap ($60) 32x32 pixel infrared sensor and look for a heat producing wiring box. This one caught one that completely melted the wiring conductors.