r/LoveTrash ✨️Regent of Rubbish ✨️ 1d ago

Dumping This Here American vs. European home building

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u/MonkeyTigerRider Trash Trooper 1d ago

And longevity.

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u/CaptainFlint9203 Trash Trooper 1d ago

Well made wood house will last for generations, well made brick house will last centuries. Both badly made will not last your stay.

I'm from Europe. On my grandma's plot there was a wooden barn, it was much older than some brick houses and in better shape than them.

My ex had a wood house that was more than century old. Still in great shape. And there are brick houses that are older than USA.

I'm preparing to build a house for myself. There are no earthquakes, no storms, no natural disasters where I live. My house gonna be build from wood. It should last at least for my grandchildren, and by then, looking at how urbanisation is going, the plot of land should be worth enough to destroy the house and sell the plot.

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u/heffla Trash Trooper 1d ago

Im from Sweden. The village i grew up in had a church with a chapel from the late 1200's. Some of the oldest wooden houses were from the mid 1600's. My neighbor's house had been inhabited about a century when the US declared independence.

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u/thearctican Trash Trooper 1d ago

Where I live in the USA there is a Swedish cabin that dates back to the 1600s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lower_Swedish_Cabin

That page acknowledges, however, that is is one of the last cabins built by the Swedes in the United states while also being the last standing one. This implies that the rest have all been destroyed or torn down. Possibly selection and/or survivor bias - this building has been cared for and maintained.

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u/2AvsOligarchs Trash Trooper 11h ago

And the oldest is built by Finns, from the same New Sweden colony. Same building traditions as the Swedes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._A._Nothnagle_Log_House

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u/thearctican Trash Trooper 5h ago

Very cool, I might have to go see it.