5 ms·

It absolutely amazes me how all houses in US seem to be build with 100% wood, especially in areas with termites, dryness or possibilities of hurricanes! It is

by dcc1 13y ago

It absolutely amazes me how all houses in US seem to be build with 100% wood, especially in areas with termites, dryness or possibilities of hurricanes! It is not that much more expensive to build a solid concrete block home, insulate and airtight it well I realise wood is more plentiful in US than here in Europe, but imho i wouldnt feel safe living in a wooden home.

dm2 13y ago
Traditionally concrete really wasn't that much stronger without rebar and is much more dangerous if something does collapse. Wood use to be much cheaper because it requires special knowledge to create strong concrete. The wooden walls also allow for pipes and utilities to be easily ran. How do you run utilities into concrete homes? The ones I've seen are either exposed or behind a wooden wall. The US has a large amount of brick homes, but it's usually wooden walls on the insides so it ends up costing more. It's also more difficult to make a concrete block home look good, and since there aren't too many major storms in many parts of the US, cheap wooden homes work fine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_London http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_London might also be a reason why Europe prefers concrete to wood.
- bananas 13y ago
  Actually I think our weather and ground is favorable as well as clay being abundant. I imagine wood is more abundant in the US seeing as we either protected or chopped down our forests.
- chiph 13y ago
  A building material that is in common use in Europe, but hasn't really caught on here is foamed concrete (Autoclaved Aerated Concrete, technically). They're large blocks that can be mortared together and can be worked with powered woodworking tools (drills, circular saws, etc) to make cavities/channels for utilities. They need some additional reinforced concrete to make them hurricane proof, but they're very fire resistant, are quiet, and go up relatively quickly. It's more expensive but lasts longer than wood framing. The brick and stone homes here are actually masonry facade over wood frame. You need to have an air gap and flashing between the brick/stone and the wood, as water will seep through the mortar via capillary action fairly quickly, and stay there to rot the wood. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1m5VShzxYs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1m5VShzxYs
  - tesseractive 13y ago
    What does it mean to say that it lasts longer than wood framing? There are wood framed houses that are well over a century old, right? So is this being measured in centuries, or am I missing something important?
    - tanzam75 13y ago
      > There are wood framed houses that are well over a century old, right? Yes, but that doesn't mean a wood-framed house built today wild last 100 years. First, there's a survivor effect. Only the best wood-framed houses from 100 years ago are still around today. The rest have been pulled down over the course of that century. The lumber used 100 years ago was true-sized -- a 2x4 was actually 2 inches by 4 inches. Today, the lumber is dimensional -- a 2x4 is actually 1.5 inches by 3.5 inches. Houses were often overbuilt 100 years ago, because they weren't as confident in the engineering. Today, we're becoming more comfortable going to the engineering minimums. Thus, there's a lack of redundancy in the structure -- redundancy that may compensate for some construction shortfalls.
      - chiph 13y ago
        A condo under construction succumbed to high winds in Raleigh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSjrOiGIxh4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSjrOiGIxh4
        dm2 13y ago
        http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/01/13/3530080/raleigh-condo-building-that-collapsed.html http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/01/13/3530080/raleigh-condo... http://www.wral.com/rebuilding-begins-at-brier-creek/13313511/ http://www.wral.com/rebuilding-begins-at-brier-creek/1331351... The building had not yet been properly attached to the foundation and the wind was record breaking (80+ mph). The wind likely went up under the structure and lifted it enough to push it off of it's foundation. NC is known to have regular hurricanes and tornadoes. Concrete buildings collapse too, often times with much more devastating results: https://www.google.com/search?q=concrete+building+collapse&source=lnms&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=concrete+building+collapse&s...
- dcc1 13y ago
  Electricity, water, telecoms, sewage comes in underground (and I instructed builder few years back to bury them deep against cold) My house was all build using concrete block with only the roof and interior flooring made of wood, This winter we had some crazy gales here with gusts up to 100 miles+/hour no issues :) I would not feel comfortable with too much wood in homes around here due to the extremely wet and damp climate on the west side of Ireland, house is airtight and well insulated with heat recovery system and solar water heaters
  - maxerickson 13y ago
    If the structure is airtight the damp won't really be getting at the wood. There's people talking about "the best wood houses lasting 100 years" somewhere in this thread, but I've seen lots of 50 year old wooden houses where the structure hasn't really started to age (but I've not spent much time in termite country). Even the cheap fast growing pine used for dimensional lumber these days is a pretty impressive material.
dmm 13y ago
A wooden framed house can be strong and hurricane resistant. The strength of a building has as much to do with the design characteristics as the material of construction.

by dcc1 13y ago

dm2 13y ago

Traditionally concrete really wasn't that much stronger without rebar and is much more dangerous if something does collapse. Wood use to be much cheaper because it requires special knowledge to create strong concrete. The wooden walls also allow for pipes and utilities to be easily ran. How do you run utilities into concrete homes? The ones I've seen are either exposed or behind a wooden wall. The US has a large amount of brick homes, but it's usually wooden walls on the insides so it ends up costing more. It's also more difficult to make a concrete block home look good, and since there aren't too many major storms in many parts of the US, cheap wooden homes work fine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_London http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_London might also be a reason why Europe prefers concrete to wood.

bananas 13y ago
Actually I think our weather and ground is favorable as well as clay being abundant. I imagine wood is more abundant in the US seeing as we either protected or chopped down our forests.
chiph 13y ago
A building material that is in common use in Europe, but hasn't really caught on here is foamed concrete (Autoclaved Aerated Concrete, technically). They're large blocks that can be mortared together and can be worked with powered woodworking tools (drills, circular saws, etc) to make cavities/channels for utilities. They need some additional reinforced concrete to make them hurricane proof, but they're very fire resistant, are quiet, and go up relatively quickly. It's more expensive but lasts longer than wood framing. The brick and stone homes here are actually masonry facade over wood frame. You need to have an air gap and flashing between the brick/stone and the wood, as water will seep through the mortar via capillary action fairly quickly, and stay there to rot the wood. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1m5VShzxYs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1m5VShzxYs
- tesseractive 13y ago
  What does it mean to say that it lasts longer than wood framing? There are wood framed houses that are well over a century old, right? So is this being measured in centuries, or am I missing something important?
  - tanzam75 13y ago
    > There are wood framed houses that are well over a century old, right? Yes, but that doesn't mean a wood-framed house built today wild last 100 years. First, there's a survivor effect. Only the best wood-framed houses from 100 years ago are still around today. The rest have been pulled down over the course of that century. The lumber used 100 years ago was true-sized -- a 2x4 was actually 2 inches by 4 inches. Today, the lumber is dimensional -- a 2x4 is actually 1.5 inches by 3.5 inches. Houses were often overbuilt 100 years ago, because they weren't as confident in the engineering. Today, we're becoming more comfortable going to the engineering minimums. Thus, there's a lack of redundancy in the structure -- redundancy that may compensate for some construction shortfalls.
    - chiph 13y ago
      A condo under construction succumbed to high winds in Raleigh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSjrOiGIxh4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSjrOiGIxh4
      - dm2 13y ago
        http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/01/13/3530080/raleigh-condo-building-that-collapsed.html http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/01/13/3530080/raleigh-condo... http://www.wral.com/rebuilding-begins-at-brier-creek/13313511/ http://www.wral.com/rebuilding-begins-at-brier-creek/1331351... The building had not yet been properly attached to the foundation and the wind was record breaking (80+ mph). The wind likely went up under the structure and lifted it enough to push it off of it's foundation. NC is known to have regular hurricanes and tornadoes. Concrete buildings collapse too, often times with much more devastating results: https://www.google.com/search?q=concrete+building+collapse&source=lnms&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=concrete+building+collapse&s...
dcc1 13y ago
Electricity, water, telecoms, sewage comes in underground (and I instructed builder few years back to bury them deep against cold) My house was all build using concrete block with only the roof and interior flooring made of wood, This winter we had some crazy gales here with gusts up to 100 miles+/hour no issues :) I would not feel comfortable with too much wood in homes around here due to the extremely wet and damp climate on the west side of Ireland, house is airtight and well insulated with heat recovery system and solar water heaters
- maxerickson 13y ago
  If the structure is airtight the damp won't really be getting at the wood. There's people talking about "the best wood houses lasting 100 years" somewhere in this thread, but I've seen lots of 50 year old wooden houses where the structure hasn't really started to age (but I've not spent much time in termite country). Even the cheap fast growing pine used for dimensional lumber these days is a pretty impressive material.

dmm 13y ago

A wooden framed house can be strong and hurricane resistant. The strength of a building has as much to do with the design characteristics as the material of construction.