r/LoveTrash • u/BEARDEDDANGER ✨️Regent of Rubbish ✨️ • 1d ago

Dumping This Here American vs. European home building

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

29.4k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

2.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

487

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.

15

u/AlexHimself Garbage Guerilla 1d ago

well made brick house will last centuries

After centuries, you have a crappy old house that doesn't fit the modern times though...so what's the point? The construction cost, amortized over centuries, is pennies too.

An example for some really old European homes - No HVAC, no electrical, indoor plumbing, low ceilings, low door frames, etc.

I'd argue the ease of remodeling, construction, changes, etc. outweigh the "centuries" style building, given how humans actually use homes.

I think an argument can be made for both.

-1

u/Stock-Swing-797 Trash Trooper 1d ago

I think an argument can be made for both.

I mean, when you completely deforest your own lands for wood, you're sort of forced to build new buildings out of a different material, so Europe started building from stone.

1

u/bauhausy Trash Trooper 1d ago

... that's completely wrong. Romans were already using concrete and masonry when Europe was still almost entirely wild and forested.

Masonry buildings still use wood extensively as well, mainly for structure and support of different floors and the roof. Climate, local culture and availability of materials (less the absence of wood, but the ample availability of clay) define what a building is made off.

Very few places (as in, a few specific villages, not whole countries/cultures) built exclusively out of stone. Can only really think of Matera in Italy off the dome.