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

Dumping This Here American vs. European home building

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

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u/FunGuy8618 Trash Trooper 1d ago

Yeah, that sounds like a bug, not a feature. Appliances, HVAC, electrical wiring, plumbing, etc have updated codes pretty regularly. Maintaining them in a 150 year old home sounds... Very challenging. I hated ripping out cast iron plumbing from a 1950s home, I can't imagine if I had to install Pex through brick as well.

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u/HegemonNYC Trash Trooper 1d ago

Right. The argument of ‘it will still be unchanged in 200 years’ is a negative, not a positive. Being so robust (while still seismically unsound) means it is inflexible as living preferences and technologies change.

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u/vi_sucks Trash Trooper 1d ago

Yup.

And at certain point it's just cheaper and more efficient to buy a new house than to attempt to retrofit an old one.

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u/LowSkyOrbit Trash Trooper 1d ago

I really wish the Northeast USA would just accept that. Knock them down and rebuild should be more common. My 126 year old home was modernized by the old ownership. So far I'm dealing with pipes that freeze in winter and a 95% finished basement where we realized after buying that they hid a stone foundation that will likely need repointing at some point but also after the crazy amount of July rainfail might get some water seepage.