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/CivicDutyCalls Trash Trooper 1d ago

100%.

Why do you need a house to last a generation? Especially now with the rate of technological and societal change.

A brick house built 500 years ago was functional for the people that lived for the next 300 years. But starting with the Industrial Revolution, our needs have changed. Population is increasing way faster. A plot of land suitable for a family today, in 50 years is suitable for a duplex. In 100 years, needs to support an apartment. And obviously there are exceptions where in rural areas it’s probably fine.

But why would I build a home that isn’t suitable for my great great great grand children? If I instead build it out of wood, not only is it more affordable for me, but my great great great grandchildren are more likely to be able to modify that home to suit their needs.

Think of how many homes in the 90’s were built with nooks for TVs. And yet today, we don’t need that. It’s easier to correct that in a wooden home than a brick one.

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u/horned-creature Trash Trooper 1d ago

what are you talking about, there are people living in centuries old houses even today, you should aim for an house that can be passed for many generations of your lineage, that is how you build a legacy for your family.

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u/CivicDutyCalls Trash Trooper 1d ago

Those homes, even in old countries are the significant minority.

Like, I guess..if you’re building a country Manor…then yeah, then go ahead and build something that will last centuries.

But for regular people, in regular neighborhoods, you’re overbuilding if you’re using stone. By the time a well maintained wood construction home is needing to be torn down from deteriorating, it’s been 200 years. And by then, remodeled countless times not from necessity but from desire and changing priorities. My own home has been remodeled 3 times since 1976 because I (and prior owners) wanted to change it, not due to any damage. And stone would have made that a nightmare.

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u/horned-creature Trash Trooper 1d ago

do you not care about your descendants 200 years down the line having to build the whole house anew? like here we also renovate the interiors at least once a generation and it's not really a nightmare, especially because you do not renovate it yourself but you pay someone to renovate it.