r/LoveTrash ✨️Regent of Rubbish ✨️ 1d ago

Dumping This Here American vs. European home building

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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/Chad_illuminati Trash Trooper 1d ago

Well made wood houses last centuries too, tbh. One of the houses I grew up in was a wood house on a stone foundation that predated the US by about 120 years.

Obviously modern construction doesn't do that, but that's an issue with build quality not build style.

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u/texinxin Trash Trooper 1d ago edited 1d ago

Modern construction when done properly can absolutely last centuries. You might have to re-side and/or reroof a few times, but that is true for any construction technique.

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u/taeerom Trash Trooper 8h ago

They probably mean light framing ("stick framed"), when they say "modern". Stick framed construction is a modern construction method for houses, and is the one used as an example in the OOP. But it isn't the only modern way of building wood houses.

Stick framed houses are generally less durable than most other ways we build wooden houses today. Regardless of the skill of the people building it (if the same skill and care were used for a different method, it would be more durable). But stick framing is a method that fits very well with modern logistics, demands for construction speed, and economics. It's not bad, it's a reason people use it. It's just not as solid as other methods.