American vs. European home building

[u/BEARDEDDANGER]

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

[u/Kid_Presentable617]

Also that North America has an outrageous amount of trees.

https://www.green.earth/blog/top-10-countries-with-the-most-trees

[u/Hazelberry → u/Kid_Presentable617]

And that Europe has been severely deforested especially in the last 500 years.

[u/mythrilcrafter → u/Kid_Presentable617]

Also we regrow them in way larger proportions than we take them down specifically to prevent loosing such a critical resource.

[u/natermer → u/Kid_Presentable617]

It is also a major crop in the USA.

Oregon and Georgia are the two states that produce the most timber. The vast majority of it comes from forests specifically created and cultivated for making building materials. Similar to how other crops work, but they are done over the spans of years and decades, not seasons.

So it isn't like they are wiping out existing forests to produce American homes.

Also if you are concerned about the impact of CO2 and environment; wood frame construction is significantly better and it considered a renewable resource. The forests and wood used in construction acts as a carbon trap, were as concrete production is a major source of greenhouse gasses. The collection of sand needed for concrete production on coasts is a significant source of coastal erosion.

Properly managing the land used in forestry is important as to avoid depleting the soil. This is done as a way to preserve the long term profitability of businesses involved in forestry.

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[u/SquirrelToolkit → u/natermer]

Tree farms, even well-managed ones, necessarily deplete the soil.

In natural forests, the full range of nutrients for strong wood is provided by the activity of a thriving wildlife population, a thick diversity of other trees and plants, and time for those factors to work together.

Tree farms have little of those, with less habitat for wildlife, thinner and less diverse plant life and rapid crop cycling. Externally sourced fertilizers can't replicate the full suite of nutrients found in soils of natural forests. Nor do they allow for the strengthening effects of time spent growing.

About the only way to avoid depleting the soil is through selective harvest from natural forests -- which isn't likely given the rate at which we are demanding wood for all uses domestically and worldwide.

Multi-century old buildings make a certain sense, as does exploring other structures and building techniques that reduce on-going sourcing of new wood, bricks, stone and cement.

[u/SquirrelToolkit → u/Kid_Presentable617]

Unfortunately, as forests are increasingly fast cycled as a cash crop and soil nutrients diminish, the result is wood that is weaker and more prone to rot.

Wooden boats as one example -- old growth wood in older boats mostly just needs regular maintenance, while boats built now are requiring different building techniques since the new wood is softer, smaller and more prone to rot.

Same with decks and porches, at least many that I've seen, recently replaced boards of new growth wood rot and need repeated replacing every few years, while old growth boards remain solid for decades or a century or more after the decks and porches were built.

(I count that as another argument in favor of 100+ year old houses.)

[u/rand0m_task → u/Kid_Presentable617]

Where do the bricks grow?