3 ms·

"other construction material more fire resistant than plywood box held together by spit and prayer" How interesting. In all seriousness you could make a home

"other construction material more fire resistant than plywood box held together by spit and prayer" How interesting. In all seriousness you could make a home from almost anything else and it would end up being more fire resistant. The flammability of your average US suburb has to rank somewhere near 1944 Tokyo.

epistasis 2y ago
We have two different building codes in the US, one for single family buildings and one for multi-unit buildings. The single family code is optimized for cost, cheapness, ease, and speed. The multi-unit code is optimized for expense, difficulty, and making sure as little gets built as possible. That means that even though the US suffers far more deaths from structure fires than the rest of the world, common-sense multi-unit designs like single-staircase that are present in safer countries are illegal in nearly all of the US.
- MichaelZuo 2y ago
  How do you know it’s optimized either way? It could be semi-random, based on a lot of events, motivations, etc., that occurred or didn’t occur by chance.
  - epistasis 2y ago
    The earliest authors of the codes were very clear about these motivations, in books from the time, which I do not have handy. So, take that as you will from a random internet commenter. But I think that even without the motivations being written out, it's pretty clear in the nature of their differences.
Swizec 2y ago
> The flammability of your average US suburb has to rank somewhere near 1944 Tokyo. Funfact: in large parts of Central Europe (ex austrohungary), wooden homes were banned after a series of large fires in the 1800’s. Brick was considered to give people a better chance. Although it turns out that’s really bad for earthquakes …
- pkaye 2y ago
  You can use reinforced masonry in earthquake areas. Unreinforced masonry is prohibited in California building codes. Probably can't retrofit that though.
realusername 2y ago
Seen from western europe, that kind of cheap house construction looks absolutely insane. I've seen videos of houses being built in the US and I'm not sure my local construction workers would believe it if I show it to them.
- ygra 2y ago
  Wooden building construction for single-family homes is not unusual here (Germany) either, especially for prefabricated buildings. It's cheaper than bricks or premade concrete elements and easier to insulate. From the outside you usually won't see a difference.
  - realusername 2y ago
    I've never seen that on my side in France, the only way you would get a wooden house is some cottage in the middle of the mountains and even that, they are usually only coated wood and are actually made of concrete or rocks behind. The old houses are made with rocks and the new ones with concrete. The wood is usually just a decoration on top.
    - ygra 2y ago
      Considering that cladding/siding is independent of the construction method, it may not even be visible. Even prefabricated buildings made from wood might have plaster outside, just as concrete buildings could be clad with wood.
      - realusername 2y ago
        Yes that's possible, however the usual fashion is to have the top of the house plastered wood and the bottom left in concrete or rock so you can guess how it's made.

epistasis 2y ago

We have two different building codes in the US, one for single family buildings and one for multi-unit buildings. The single family code is optimized for cost, cheapness, ease, and speed. The multi-unit code is optimized for expense, difficulty, and making sure as little gets built as possible. That means that even though the US suffers far more deaths from structure fires than the rest of the world, common-sense multi-unit designs like single-staircase that are present in safer countries are illegal in nearly all of the US.

MichaelZuo 2y ago
How do you know it’s optimized either way? It could be semi-random, based on a lot of events, motivations, etc., that occurred or didn’t occur by chance.
- epistasis 2y ago
  The earliest authors of the codes were very clear about these motivations, in books from the time, which I do not have handy. So, take that as you will from a random internet commenter. But I think that even without the motivations being written out, it's pretty clear in the nature of their differences.

Swizec 2y ago

> The flammability of your average US suburb has to rank somewhere near 1944 Tokyo. Funfact: in large parts of Central Europe (ex austrohungary), wooden homes were banned after a series of large fires in the 1800’s. Brick was considered to give people a better chance. Although it turns out that’s really bad for earthquakes …

pkaye 2y ago
You can use reinforced masonry in earthquake areas. Unreinforced masonry is prohibited in California building codes. Probably can't retrofit that though.

realusername 2y ago

Seen from western europe, that kind of cheap house construction looks absolutely insane. I've seen videos of houses being built in the US and I'm not sure my local construction workers would believe it if I show it to them.

ygra 2y ago
Wooden building construction for single-family homes is not unusual here (Germany) either, especially for prefabricated buildings. It's cheaper than bricks or premade concrete elements and easier to insulate. From the outside you usually won't see a difference.
- realusername 2y ago
  I've never seen that on my side in France, the only way you would get a wooden house is some cottage in the middle of the mountains and even that, they are usually only coated wood and are actually made of concrete or rocks behind. The old houses are made with rocks and the new ones with concrete. The wood is usually just a decoration on top.
  - ygra 2y ago
    Considering that cladding/siding is independent of the construction method, it may not even be visible. Even prefabricated buildings made from wood might have plaster outside, just as concrete buildings could be clad with wood.
    - realusername 2y ago
      Yes that's possible, however the usual fashion is to have the top of the house plastered wood and the bottom left in concrete or rock so you can guess how it's made.