A new house being built down the street from me

138 comments

Always amses me to see you guys build your wood houses. This looks so much like a construction game for children, I want to play too!
- I live on a fault line along the pacific ring of fire, and so building with wood was an absolute necessity for us so long, as they were structurally more lenient to the constant earthquakes. Even now I believe our old government building is the largest wooden building in the Southern hemisphere (and it's only 4 stories tall). These days as construction techniques have changed, we've obviously built things with concrete, steel, brick, etc., but the wooden tradition remains strong, with a huge majority of modern houses here still being built like this.
  That aside, wood was also just a much cheaper material to build with, so it was the most economical material to use for a long time for much of the "new world".
  
  Right. Buildings were mostly wood and mud in Europe until the 18th Century. By then, cities became so dense that big fires were extremely deadly. Little by little people started building in stone, then bricks and now reinforced concrete.
- you guys build your wood houses
  What do you normally build houses with?
  
  Here in Europe, we use mostly cinder blocks or bricks. I guess wood is more common in Northern Europe and Switzerland
  
  something like this for example
  
  Or this
  
  In Europe? Bricks and mortar
  
  I understand a lot of homes in Europe are not well insulated, and weren't built with it in mind. Climate change is causing problems with this design deficit.
  
  It's not like it's a "wood house" though just the framing is softwood lumber. The foundation is reinforced poured concrete, there's steel support braces, the ties and hardware are likely zinc coated steel, roof is asphalt shingles or steel, wind bracing is lumber or steel rods depending on code, could even have exterior brick or vinyl siding.
- Wouldn't the inside of your house still have wood framing structure like this though? Looks like this neighbourhood uses vinyl siding, but you could easily have a brick/stone/stucco exterior.
  Isn't it way harder to run plumbing/electric through cinder blocks, let alone hanging drywall? Or do you build a cinderblock box first and then frame the inside with wood?
  This place looks like it doesn't have a basement, which is a must in Canada, and all our basements are generally concrete pour or cinderblocks, but we still have framing on the inside walls, and usually everything above the basement is wood + facade
  
  Portugal here, no wood, just iron, steel and concrete. And bricks, of course.
  
  Where I am in South Carolina very few people have basements as they would be prone to flooding
  
  Typically, yes. In the US at least, cinder block houses are common particularly in Florida and coastal regions. The inside would still likely have a moisture barrier and insulation on modern homes, so you will typically have wood framing for interior walls to allow for wiring, plumbing, and insulation that is then drywalled over.
  
  Isn't it way harder to run plumbing/electric through cinder blocks, let alone hanging drywall? Or do you build a cinderblock box first and then frame the inside with wood?
  At least in South America (where most buildings are made of brick and mortar) there's no drywall. The internal finish is a smooth layer on top of the bricks and that's it. That makes it easier to hang heavy things on the wall but also makes it impossible to run wires of any kind. It also makes repairs more difficult.
  
  Wouldn’t the inside of your house still have wood framing structure like this though? Extremely rare. Most houses built until the 1959s are made of stone and mortar, with walls at least 2 feet wide. In Northern Europe, i.e. UK, Belgium, Netherlands, parts of France and Germany, you would fund brick and mortar walls. Interior walls were built with thin hollow bricks assembled with mortar. These houses are a pain to renovate and most people just put everything agaisntbthe existing walls and then glue their drywalls on top of it with adhesive mortar. Since then, it is mostly cinder blocks or hollow brichs that are then filled with concrete. Modern building regulations impose steel reinforcement in regions prone to earthquakes. Interior walls are built with a framing of steel railings that are very light and flexible when handled but very sturdy when assembled. The drywall is screwed on each side of these rails which gives room for electrical and plumbung.
- I'm genuinely curious. I am in the southern US, Alabama specifically with the heat and humidity that entails. There are cinder block homes here, but they're mostly looked down upon and almost always have mold and mildew problems. How is that handled with brick and mortar or concrete construction?
  
  Double walls, with thermal insulation, external vapor barrier and built in ventilation ducts. Special additives for the mortars prevent moisture from seeping into the walls. Double or even triple pane windows and good quality, properly applied exterior paint reinforces the insulation.
  
  I don't see why brick and mortar houses should be extra susceptible to those problems if build well. But of course Europe didn't use to see the same extremes of heat and humidity as the US does, perhaps it will become a problem in the future.
- Brick manufacturing devastates the environment. We build our houses from sustainable resources.because we're not cavemen.
  
  We build our houses from trees because we have lots of trees.
  
  Meanwhile most of your energy sources are not renewable and per capita the average emissions of the American is double or even triple of the average European.
  
  Why the aggressive tone? Each technique has its advantages. I guess brick and mortar houses would burn less in California, which has the same climate as Italy and Spain
  
  That is not the reasoning at all.
  Places generally build with whatever sensical building material they have most widely available. If there are a ton of forests, they probably build with wood. If there's a ton of stone, they probably build with stone.
  You're wrong, and honestly kind of a dick.

Remember when we had enough room to build a house?
"I want a house."
"We can squeeze one in here."
"Oh..."
"For $800K."
"Ooh...."
"You don't want it? There's a line."
"Okay..." 😔

I don't see floor trusses used too often so it's neat to see them here
- It’s used so the other trades don’t wreck all the TGIs by putting incorrect penetrations. It has all the holes they could possibly need, but sometimes they’ll stick cut a plate….
  
  Holy shit this explains so much!
  Our dishwasher in a 2010s era home finally died, and when we pulled it out to install a new one there were these off center holes behind it!
  Like, wtf? Why did you need three holes for one cord?
  I guess during construction different people thought it wise to drill different holes for different things?
  
  How are floor trusses different from regular floors? What are TGIs and incorrect penetrations?
  Thank you if you have time to answer.
- I'm seeing them more and more, which means OSB is probably too expensive to use for engineered trusses now.
  
  It’s a trade off, more expensive, but you’re not replacing them because some trade made an incorrect penetration.
  Basically you’re paying more to prevent issues later.

Ok… and?
- And I took a picture of it.
  
  I like the picture. I like how the wood pops against the clouds. And the green of the tree. It is perfect for a sub(Lemmy) dedicated to pics, which I believe to be short for pictures, but don't quote me on that.
- This looks like the US. For someone from outside the US, this might be very interesting, because it's very different than what you might see in other countries, especially in Europe, where everything is brick and mortar inside and out.
  
  Hmm, must be different from region to region within Europe. Wood is a popular building material in Finland, at least.
  
  Yep. When I built my house, at this stage there were concrete foundations, a 20cm concrete floor, 37cm thick brick walls and another 18cm of concrete for the first floor... floor. Buildings in the US always look so flimsy.

I'm currently in a neighborhood that was empty farmland as far as they eye could see just 5 years ago. I had never seen a building being built before, but now I drive past 4 complexes being built just on my way to the grocery store. They're also building a closer grocery store.
This area is going to be so nice in like 5 years, but right now it's an absolute mess of construction, road widenings, putting utilities in the ground, etc. We didn't even have cell access here when I moved in 9 months ago.
- I had never seen a building being built before
  Must have been nice

ITT: Bricks good, wood bad. Nobody with a clue about thermal bridging and energy efficiency to be found.
- Or how frames work

This looks like the perfect Lemmy post.
A bunch of people who know fuck-all about the subject matter at hand (in this case construction), and then sprinkle in the usual anti-American bias that flavors a large number of posts on this site. The only thing missing seems to be something dealing with Linux or some pro-commie spin.
- At least they're using an open framework. I hope the plans are GPL compatible.
  
  Those 2x4s don't look open source to me. Must be some proprietary M$ stuff.
- Don't forget all the top comments criticizing other comments!

Everyone in the comments is suddenly a construction and climate expert.
- I just thought it looked cool lol

I always wondered why american houses are destroyed so easily in storms
I now have my answer
- So what would you build a house out that can take 400 kph debris storm
  
  I would leave it to the experts knowledgeable in the field to help engineer and design a house like that and let them manage the building
- Yea it takes a few decades to get this far
- Tell me you know nothing about construction without telling me you know nothing about construction.
  
  The problem is that I've seen videos from after storms from the us and the houses are easily destroyed compared to other countries
  Videos from other countries that I've seen (excluding countries with bad building standards like china) have buildings that have stood up better to or completely survived storms

They're building it right in front of those other people's windows. Fuck these people.
- The people in the old house had windows that had a bonus view for a while. Now the property's being developed and their bonus view just becomes a wall. If they wanted to maintain line of sight they should have purchased this property next to theirs.
  It'd be a crazy world where you can't build on your property because you would block the window of somebody else's property
  
  It looks like it's being built in front of their house, not next to it, but I guess this is a corner lot? If it's next to it then that's normal.
- Do local govts/authorities not block people from blocking others' windows?
  Around here you have to be a certain distance away from other windows, have your roof at a particular angle to make sure sunlight still reaches and a bunch of other stuff prior to approval... and even then neighbors are still free to block construction if it's impacting their light

Oversized garden shed by the looks of it.
- It just looks like a regular house to me. Your garden shed has two floors?
  
  My oversized garden shed has two floors, yes. I have to admit that the other sheds on my premises are a bit smaller.
- And yet, that’s someone’s home that they are proud to have, I’ll bet.
- South Carolina is fucking crowded bruh, this is a nice sized house for what we’re dealing with.
  But hell, at the rate we’re going even this is probably too big to be sustainable.
  Where do you live that everyone’s getting castles or mansions, so I can move there?
  
  Yeah, I'm from Jersey and I'm saying hey, this is a nice home, looks like a nice neighborhood. And a modest yard. I dig it. I think having a small yard is a-ok.
  
  From what I have seen america is designed to be crowded, you have so much land (some of it stolen) yet you choose to crowd yourselves in so tightly

138 comments