why do Americans. ..

BrensBenz · 22-05-2013 11:04AM

I thought the main reason for the popularity of wooden homes in the USA and elsewhere had little to do with safety and all to do with the cost of heating / cooling. Where you have extremes of climate, e.g. in the Americas, wooden houses can be heated and cooled much more easily than concrete.

Perhaps the timber-frame model now popular in Ireland could be a safer alternative in known danger-zones but just look at how long it took for that model to gain acceptance in Ireland! It would take just as long for US builders to reconsider their materials!

The_Gatsby · 22-05-2013 11:24AM

gallag wrote: »

Build flimsy wooden houses? We build better quality houses and dont live in a area that gets regular hurricanes & tornadoes. If I was building a house in hurricane valley I would use a double skin of blocks tied together just like we use here, why dont they?

Fiar play to them. I think houses in Ireland look disgusting. Massive estates of house that all look the same. At least in America there's a bit of variation. When I was there I found that their neighbourhoods were generally a lot nicer than over here.

rossie1977 · 22-05-2013 11:41AM

El Guapo! wrote: »

'Cause it's poxy freezin.

stayed in a log cabin a few years ago in finland, night time temperatures got as low as -15c and it was so warm inside the cabin with the stove we had to open the windows, the reaction when the heat met the cold air was something

af_thefragile · 22-05-2013 11:50AM

El Guapo! wrote: »

'Cause it's poxy freezin.

I live in a fairly new concrete and brick house and its so much more warmer than any of the older houses, if fact it gets fairly hot in summer, like these days we need to constantly have all the windows open and the temperature still touches close to 28c indoors...

Mr. CooL ICE · 22-05-2013 11:57AM

If a load of bricks from your house fell on you in a tornado, being sucked out of your timber house doesn't seem much better. They're both gonna be wrecked.

The best solution would be to have a rubber, inflatable house. Not only would it meet the same fate as a brick and timber house, but you'd get to live in a freakin bouncy castle!

Seachmall · 22-05-2013 12:03PM

LordChessington wrote: »

but you'd get to live in a freakin bouncy castle!

How would you eat soup?

Tazio · 22-05-2013 12:08PM

I'm not buying any of the reasons above...

As a kid I read the story of the pigs and the big bad wolf.... who's house remained standing? I rest my case.

endacl · 22-05-2013 12:09PM

Seachmall wrote: »

How would you eat soup?

Carefully.

Ush1 · 22-05-2013 12:11PM

Why don't Irish people build basements?

While building regulations have improved here they still aren't really enforced that I can tell.

af_thefragile · 22-05-2013 12:13PM

LordChessington wrote: »

If a load of bricks from your house fell on you in a tornado, being sucked out of your timber house doesn't seem much better. They're both gonna be wrecked.

The best solution would be to have a rubber, inflatable house. Not only would it meet the same fate as a brick and timber house, but you'd get to live in a freakin bouncy castle!

Wouldn't flying timber be lethal as well?

Rubber house sounds good but that would smell a bit wouldn't it? Especially in the summer....

Rented Mule · 22-05-2013 12:17PM

cardwizzard wrote: »

It has to do with the extremes in the temperatures they get. Up to -40f in the winter months and 100+ in the summertime. Brick will contract and expand in this environment and that is a no no for obvious reasons.

I live in Chicago and own a brick home. We regularly see that sort of weather whereas they don't in Oklahoma.

smcgiff · 22-05-2013 12:18PM

Seachmall wrote: »

How would you eat soup?

You move the spoon away from you while in the bowl.

Andrew_Doran · 22-05-2013 12:46PM

marketty wrote: »

Maybe the question should be why do we build overly engineered double leaf concrete block homes with strong foundations in a country that gets neither earthquakes nor tornadoes?

There are lots of minor earthquakes in Ireland and Britain every year. The last big one was in 1984 and was 5.4 magnitude. It shook the sh1t out of the east coast, don't know about elsewhere. Plenty of timber frame houses in California and they get lots of big earthquakes.

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4 · 22-05-2013 12:54PM

FearDark wrote: »

You should see the houses in New Zealand in an earthquake zone, timber, tin roofs, single glazing, no insulation and their foundations are LITERALLY usa biscuit tins filled with concrete and the house sits on them... and they continue to build them like that.

jamie redknapp??

gobnaitolunacy · 22-05-2013 12:59PM

Ush1 wrote: »

Why don't Irish people build basements?

While building regulations have improved here they still aren't really enforced that I can tell.

Cos, they'd be as damp as fcuk.

Everything smells of damp and mowld here.

sbsquarepants · 22-05-2013 01:01PM

cardwizzard wrote: »

It has to do with the extremes in the temperatures they get. Up to -40f in the winter months and 100+ in the summertime. Brick will contract and expand in this environment and that is a no no for obvious reasons.

hoodwinked wrote: »

thank you!

makes sense....

Doesn't really. Brick would be perfectly suited to those conditions, more so than timber i would imagine.

It's nothing more than tradition really - some nations tend to build from timber while others use concrete/brick. Probably has more to do with transport of raw materials back in the day than it has anything else. Wasn't too easy to get thousands of tons of brick to the middle of oklahoma 200 years ago, much easier to use timber and the method just stuck.

Stovepipe · 22-05-2013 01:08PM

American wooden houses follow the tradition of Swedish/Norwegian/Danish/Finnish and German housing. You can visit these countries and see identical housing, which is familiar to Irish audiences from television. In America, wood is a cheaper building material than bricks. American housing also tends to have basements that we don't.

regards
Stovepipe

southsiderosie · 22-05-2013 03:14PM

The_Gatsby wrote: »

Fiar play to them. I think houses in Ireland look disgusting. Massive estates of house that all look the same. At least in America there's a bit of variation. When I was there I found that their neighbourhoods were generally a lot nicer than over here.

Did you actually go to the suburbs? Because 'massive estates of housing that all look the same' describes 95% of suburban housing estates built in the last 20-30 years.

sbsquarepants wrote: »

Doesn't really. Brick would be perfectly suited to those conditions, more so than timber i would imagine.

It's nothing more than tradition really - some nations tend to build from timber while others use concrete/brick. Probably has more to do with transport of raw materials back in the day than it has anything else. Wasn't too easy to get thousands of tons of brick to the middle of oklahoma 200 years ago, much easier to use timber and the method just stuck.

There is no 'national' pattern of building - it varies by time period and location. In 19th century Chicago, most buildings were made of wood; after the city burned down in 1871, it was rebuilt with brick. Most older cities on the East Coast have a core of brick or limestone townhomes, and then an outer ring of frame homes. It's a mix, and hard to generalize.

CruelCoin · 22-05-2013 03:56PM

gallag wrote: »

Build flimsy wooden houses? We build better quality houses and dont live in a area that gets regular hurricanes & tornadoes. If I was building a house in hurricane valley I would use a double skin of blocks tied together just like we use here, why dont they?

You'll find crappy build quality is a regular theme in American manufacturing/construction.

Just a different mindset i suppose. Quantity over quality.

ScumLord · 22-05-2013 04:02PM

I'm pretty sure you could build a tornado proof house if you sunk it in the ground and shaped it in such a way to redirect the wind. It's going to be expensive though which is the problem.

CruelCoin · 22-05-2013 04:56PM

ScumLord wrote: »

I'm pretty sure you could build a tornado proof house if you sunk it in the ground and shaped it in such a way to redirect the wind. It's going to be expensive though which is the problem.

Is the damage from a tornado caused by lateral winds, or vertical? I think it's both.

Not sure how you could "wind tunnel" your home to prevent damage from both.

southsiderosie · 22-05-2013 04:59PM

CruelCoin wrote: »

You'll find crappy build quality is a regular theme in American manufacturing/construction.

Just a different mindset i suppose. Quantity over quality.

gallag wrote: »

Build flimsy wooden houses? We build better quality houses and dont live in a area that gets regular hurricanes & tornadoes. If I was building a house in hurricane valley I would use a double skin of blocks tied together just like we use here, why dont they?

I grew up in the US, and I am surprised to hear that Irish building is considered 'high quality'? I lived in three different houses in Dublin, and every single one was extremely poorly insulated, both for weather and sound.

Karl Stein · 22-05-2013 05:10PM

southsiderosie wrote: »

I grew up in the US, and I am surprised to hear that Irish building is considered 'high quality'? I lived in three different houses in Dublin, and every single one was extremely poorly insulated, both for weather and sound.

Blockwork caves I've described them. There was little in the way of a culture of good insulation in the building trade up until recently, perhaps partly because of our mostly mild weather.

I get the distinct feeling that people are actually basing their opinions on house building from 'The Three Little Pigs' tale.

Son Of A Vidic · 22-05-2013 05:15PM

gallag wrote: »

We build better quality houses

Ya think? You obviously haven't seen some of the shyte, that was thrown up during the 'Celtic Tiger' years.

But regardless, not much will stand up to 200mph winds, or the 302mph winds that were recorded during the F5 tornado in Bridge Creek, Oklahoma in 1999.

ScumLord · 22-05-2013 05:24PM

CruelCoin wrote: »

Is the damage from a tornado caused by lateral winds, or vertical? I think it's both.

Not sure how you could "wind tunnel" your home to prevent damage from both.

Aerodynamic shapes can be used to redirect wind away from weak points. That sort of thing is already in use with high skyscrapers that have to deal with high winds on a daily basis. Obviously not tornado speeds but still very high speeds.

I assume the likes of power stations or military installations in the area don't just hope to rebuild and build to be resistant. A quick google search shows there's an industry there providing tornado proof structures. At this stage it's pretty safe to assume theres a way and the only reason it's not being used is due to cost restrictions.

crockholm · 22-05-2013 05:29PM

Let me put a pencil over my ear and fold my arms so you think I know what I'm talking about.

solid brick houses would be effective against tornado's as long as they are over 1.5 bricks thick and built english or flemish bond style (that would "lock"the outer and inner layers together so the wind would not dislodge them.

Openings would be a weak point,as would a timber roof(since its onlt bolted onto the roof plate),so tour walls would be standing,but your roof and contents would be missing,so ideally a brick dome or hobbit house would stand up better.

Good luck financing that project if you work at the home depot on the tills.

As to contraction & expansion- expansion joints.

Now, let me just advertise my compa......, what? Nevermind.

Mr. CooL ICE · 22-05-2013 05:50PM

crockholm wrote: »

Let me put a pencil over my ear and fold my arms so you think I know what I'm talking about.

I'm stealing this line the next time I'm claiming to be an expert based on reading a few wikipedia articles

crockholm · 22-05-2013 06:32PM

LordChessington wrote: »

I'm stealing this line the next time I'm claiming to be an expert based on reading a few wikipedia articles

Don't forget the rolled up copy of "The Irish Sun" in the arse pocket,and the remains of a breakfast roll on the shirt.:pac:

Also,as to the folks worrying about flying masonry.......it wouldn't matter a shyte as being caught in a tornado would be like being put in a blender going 200mph,so anything becones lethal at that speed,branches,bits of glass,etc.

MadYaker · 22-05-2013 06:45PM

crockholm wrote: »

Don't forget the rolled up copy of "The Irish Sun" in the arse pocket,and the remains of a breakfast roll on the shirt.:pac:

Also,as to the folks worrying about flying masonry.......it wouldn't matter a shyte as being caught in a tornado would be like being put in a blender going 200mph,so anything becones lethal at that speed,branches,bits of glass,etc.

I have a cousin who used to live in Oklahoma and after the tornado in 1999 that killed a load of people he found a spoon embedded in a brick. He kept it as a sort of souvenir, you can carry the brick around by the handle and it doesn't fall off. His family was lucky though, their house wasn't destroyed.

OneOfThem Stumbled · 22-05-2013 06:57PM

Traditional Japanese houses have had extremely heavy roofs (several layers of terracotta tiles) on quite flimsy support. Absolute death-trap in an earthquake but very secure against hurricanes.

That American school which was destroyed in the torando seems to have been very poorly built. The blackboard in one of the classrooms proved a lot sturdier than the roof.

why do Americans. ..

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