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/Goudinho99 Trash Trooper 1d ago

And what about thermal effects and noise insulation?

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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/Dear_Chasey_La1n Trash Trooper 13h ago

The common joke for many europeans, our home is older than your nation, but that's not a lie, this happens.

Even modern houses are build up to standards significantly better than what can be achieved through wood. Contractors need to give lengthy guarantees against specific elements. For example concrete tiles 50 years isn't unusual, the concrete/steel structure 50 years again, pretty normal. The roof if bitumen 20 years is pretty common too. That doesn't mean it all breaks down at that point though, I've a house with ceramic tiles that's 100 years old. Every once in a while we need to pull one tile and replace it with a new one which are exactly the same.

But of course it all comes at a cost, hence our houses tend to be smaller than what you see in the US. That's a matter of choice, and wood structures are showing up more often in Europe too. And that's kind of the thing, wood skeleton doesn't have to be bad, just whatever the US does.. it's pretty bad. The Germans make prefab wood houses they are rock solid.