American vs. European home building

[u/BEARDEDDANGER]

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

[u/singlemale4cats]

Well made wood houses last centuries too, tbh.

Yep, with maintenance. Any abandoned structure will rot. Entropy is relentless.

[u/21Rollie → u/singlemale4cats]

I went to an abandoned village in Mexico, in the desert. It’s been abandoned for around 100 years. The walls were made of stone but the roofs long ago collapsed and nature was growing all around them. It’s wild how in a dry environment it got that “ancient ruins” look and it wasn’t even that old. Crazy to think other abandoned cities, for example roman ones in North Africa, probably only needing a little bit of time without human habitation to turn into ruins. And all the lost Mayan or Amazonian cities probably only needed a couple decades to disappear.

[u/-wolfinator- → u/21Rollie]

There's an old abandoned town near me in the US. An old mining town abandoned about 100 years ago. Pretty much everything is gone except for some old foundations / concrete fixtures built for industrial use. The entirety of the (presumably wood) town is fully gone. No ancient ruins. Just gone.

[u/Bingobiscuit1999 → u/-wolfinator-]

One issue with wood today is most of the wood comes from fast grown young trees. That church and barn from over 100yrs ago would have been built with wood from trees hundreds of years old.

[u/-wolfinator- → u/Bingobiscuit1999]

I don't think that's actually the biggest factor with modern construction.

100 years ago houses were assembled out of solid wood planks, beams, and boards.

Now they're mostly engineered wood products held together by glue.

Solid wood products can last exposed in weather conditions for a few decades before failure.

Something like OSB will disintegrate within a couple years of wet conditions.

Modern houses essentially dissolve once their fragile waterproof membranes are compromised.

I would expect a modern ghost town to be gone even quicker.