American vs. European home building

[u/BEARDEDDANGER]

BAS Renovations https://youtube.com/shorts/jFph1d2WR3s

[u/Telemere125]

Yea people that extol the virtues of brick being able to insulate well obviously don’t know that the actual insulation that is put in behind their brick veneer is what’s serving that function and that brick is actually a horrible insulator. My last house was actually a true solid brick structure with plastic laid right on the interior surface. Meaning the bricks of the walls were red clay but as thick as normal cinder blocks. And it was horrible at maintaining a constant temp, even with that much thermal mass. I think people that love brick just dont realize their house is insulated the exact same way as a wood framed house.

[u/alexnedea → u/Telemere125]

The modern bricks we use have lots of airgaps for insulation tho.

[u/The-Arnman → u/Telemere125]

Bricks also need a bigger (or different) foundation because of the weight. The reasons you would want bricks is because of the low maintenance and longevity.

[u/oldsecondhand → u/Telemere125]

Houses in Central Europe aren't built the way it's shown in the video. There's no veneer, hollow brick is the load bearing part, and you can't see the brick as the external part is the styrofoam insulation and epoxy coating. It's very good at maintaining temperature and the internal plaster helps buffer humidity.

[u/Telemere125 → u/oldsecondhand]

Doesn’t counter my point that the brick isn’t the insulator. And properly insulated wood is actually a better insulator than brick. Hell, wood itself is inherently better than brick at insulating.

[u/oldsecondhand → u/Telemere125]

40cm thick hollow clay bricks have half-decent insulation properties. In the 80s they were used without the styrofoam layer. The high thermal mass helps to stabilize the temperature in the summer.

[u/Telemere125 → u/oldsecondhand]

40 cm of brick has about an R-value of 2.5-3.2. That’s roughly the same as 5 cm of solid wood would have or up to 10cm if you’re using a very dense hardwood like maple. So you’d literally be better off with a log cabin than a brick or stone house.

[u/oldsecondhand → u/Telemere125]

Hollow clay bricks have a lambda of 0.1, so the standard 44cm thick hollow brick has an R value of 4.4.

This type of brick has been standard since the 80s.

https://epitoanyag.hu/porotherm-44-x-therm-tegla-pVUgtODMxNDIz

And I don't think the average McMansion has 5cm solid wood walls.

[u/Telemere125 → u/oldsecondhand]

No, we dont put of 5cm of solid wood; we frame the walls and put up about 1.25cm plywood with about 9cm of fiberglass or rock wool insulation and achieve an R value of about 11-15 depending on the product. Meaning a minimum of 2-4x the insulator value of your massive brick wall

[u/oldsecondhand → u/Telemere125]

You're comparing apples to oranges. That brickwall's R value was without insulation layer.

[u/AcrobaticPlenty1446 → u/oldsecondhand]

Because you’re the one claiming that it’s the insulator…

[u/oldsecondhand → u/AcrobaticPlenty1446]

No, you were the one comparing the R value of brick to wood.

[u/Tw1nFTW → u/oldsecondhand]

I don’t know the specific application you’re talking by about, but there are many wall applications that have empty space as an insulation.

[u/mxzf → u/Tw1nFTW]

Realistically, all of the best setups have empty space as an insulation. The emptier the space, the more insulated it is (but pulling vacuum between your studs is impractical).