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At least in the United States the trend post WWII has been to make homes more affordable to bring about "equality". With each passing decade from the 1960's until now home building has become progressively cheaper. This is all very well for developers and those seeking that first home I suppose, but overall the quality stinks.
While in theory it is still possible to have a home built to say pre-1950's standards (hammered nails, lathe and plaster walls, all or mostly brick...all done with quality craftsmanship), but it will cost dear and certainly is out of range for the average American family. Just trying to find enough skilled craftsman to do the plastering would be difficult in many areas of the USA.
Hammering in nails? Forget it. Large numbers of guys on sites today are either illegals or whatever and know only from a nail gun.
It is amazing that you can take a one hundred year old home and even with needing moderate to major work done in the end it will last another one hundred years. Meanwhile stuff put up in the past fifty or so years barely lasts ten before major work is often required.
I had a house designed for me in Baja by Arquimex and, in Mexican style, every inch of that house was to be concrete, even the roof, with metal-framed windows, completely fireproof! Let the raging brush fires come!
While a reinforced concrete structure is resistant to fire compared to a wooden structure, it is not impervious to fire. A modern concrete structure has metal rebar inside - that's the reinforcing. At a couple hundred degrees F, the difference in the coefficient of expansion for concrete and for rebar is significant - and the rebar "tears itself away" from the concrete at the micro level that surrounds it. At that point, the concrete structure loses much of its structural integrity and is subject to catastrophic failure. Do a youtube search & you'll find some examples.
As the fire gets hotter still, the concrete will start to emit "steam." At that point, the whole structure is subject to a catastrophic failure.
What's happening? This:
Ca(OH)2 -> CaO + H2O
The calcium oxide on the right is a powder with no structural integrity.
With each passing decade from the 1960's until now home building has become progressively cheaper.
The first Levittown houses in the late 1940s cost just $7,000. That's very cheap, even with inflation.
The real differences are that people today want far bigger houses with more rooms and that the cost of land within commutable distance to big cities is much higher. Don't forget that it was common in the 1950s to build houses with one bathroom for everybody to share.
The first Levittown houses in the late 1940s cost just $7,000. That's very cheap, even with inflation.
The real differences are that people today want far bigger houses with more rooms and that the cost of land within commutable distance to big cities is much higher. Don't forget that it was common in the 1950s to build houses with one bathroom for everybody to share.
If you look at what goes into the food production of a Big Mac, the analogy of "MacMansion" is actually quite apt.
Sorry, but you seem a little bit ignorant. Americans normally need huge refrigerators, because most Americans do a grocery shopping trip once a week, some people even just biweekly. Europeans normally do grocery shopping much more often, a huge refrigerator would be most of the time almost empty. For most people in Europe a huge refrigerator just doesn't make sense. You can buy huge refrigerators in Europe, but most people just don't want them.
Are you aware that Europe is a continent and not a country? No one concludes from Honduran toilet flushings to the standard in the U.S. I have never encounter toilets that barely flush and hot water is surely not a luxury. At least not in Western Europe. The Swiss company Geberit is probably the leading innovator in toilet flushing.
We have a large refrigerator for the two of us (29 cubic feet...no idea what that is in metric). But we don't waste our time shopping every day or two. We load up on groceries every 30 to 45 days. We also keep a freezer in the garage since the freezer compartment is pretty small. I've been to Germany and I've seen the tiny little refrigerators they have there. They're about the size of college student's dorm refrigerator. And forget about having any frozen goods.
We have a large refrigerator for the two of us (29 cubic feet...no idea what that is in metric). But we don't waste our time shopping every day or two. We load up on groceries every 30 to 45 days. We also keep a freezer in the garage since the freezer compartment is pretty small. I've been to Germany and I've seen the tiny little refrigerators they have there. They're about the size of college student's dorm refrigerator. And forget about having any frozen goods.
It's not a waste of time to shop several times a week. Grocery shopping in most parts of Europe is quite different from the U.S. For me it's a 2 minutes walk to the next grocery store and the shopping is mostly done in less than 5 minutes. I often use the wating time for my tram back home for grocery shopping. No waste of time at all.
You will find all kinds of refrigerators in Germany. Obviously that an elderly women or a student that live in a small apartment don't have a super size refrigerator. The refrigerator in most German kitchens is indeed relatively small. But most families have a second refrigerator and a seperate freezer.
Quote:
And forget about having any frozen goods.
Just plain ridiculous. All households that want to consume frozen goods have of course a decent sized freezer department or a seperated freezer in the basement or in the pantry room. I haven't encounter a family in Germany without a seperated fullsize freezer.
The consumption of frozen goods per capita in Germany is among the highest in the world 43.6kg (94.7lb) per capita, significant higher than in the U.S. Obviously that people have enough space to freeze all these frozen goods.
At least in the United States the trend post WWII has been to make homes more affordable to bring about "equality". With each passing decade from the 1960's until now home building has become progressively cheaper. This is all very well for developers and those seeking that first home I suppose, but overall the quality stinks.
While in theory it is still possible to have a home built to say pre-1950's standards (hammered nails, lathe and plaster walls, all or mostly brick...all done with quality craftsmanship), but it will cost dear and certainly is out of range for the average American family. Just trying to find enough skilled craftsman to do the plastering would be difficult in many areas of the USA.
Hammering in nails? Forget it. Large numbers of guys on sites today are either illegals or whatever and know only from a nail gun.
It is amazing that you can take a one hundred year old home and even with needing moderate to major work done in the end it will last another one hundred years. Meanwhile stuff put up in the past fifty or so years barely lasts ten before major work is often required.
So much hyperbole here.
How are you even defining "major work"? Especially within 10 years?
Modern technology makes ANYTHING rather easy to fix, even a dump which has severe foundation problems and needs to be shored up and corrected.
My grandmother born in Philly 1904, original 4 houses she owned still standing, yes. In fact her father owned the first 3 blocks of Delancy St downtown and each individual row house sells for almost a Million dollars now.
OF COURSE they've had "major work". A roof? Some wall repair?
My condo built 1987 only needed "major work" after two back to back hurricanes in 2005. Because the ROOF. NOW, we have Miami-Dade "hurricane standards" and the roofs in Florida are built in a kit on a factory and delivered and put up by a crane. Then the finishing done by individuals.
You know the preferred construction material in FL now is block, correct? Thanks to AMERICAN INGENUITY at the turn of the century 1800s.
The introduction of Portland cement in US building and trades after 1872 spurred technological advances in masonry greater than any the trade had seen in its millennia of history. That’s not as grand a claim as it might first appear when one considers how relatively similar masonry practices and materials remained up until the nineteenth century. Portland cement allowed for the creation of concrete, cement-based mortars and concrete block; these were masonry’s contributions to building technology as iron and steel allowed structures to grow taller and larger than ever before.
My mother's house built in 1962 $20k, suburban Philly, part of a 4 street development never needed "major work". Still standing fine. It's only had two owners, too.
Her second house built 1975 by a custom builder never needed "major work" and sold for 600K in 2000.
What are you even talking about?
Thanks to AMERICAN INGENUITY we were able to create housing for all the Post WWII military, which allowed them to move to the burbs, own property, get married and have families.
Further changing the face and future of America.
And YES, those Levittown houses are still standing and in fine condition. Jeeze!
One huge threat to plaster is movement in the supporting structure. Seismic activity, subsistence, a weak foundation or framing that is either sagging or warping will cause much more damage to plaster than to drywall, so if these factors are suspected, the case for replacing plaster with drywall is stronger. If the plaster has delaminated slowly over the years, it may still be salvageable; one method of restoring plaster that saves the expense of ripping it out is glue injection: a series of holes are drilled to allow cement in between the existing plaster and the lath; screws or struts are used to squeeze the layers together. But if the damage has been rapid, it's possible that only drywall will make the cracking problems manageable. If the cracking is due to an unstable foundation or structural masonry system, the house may need major repairs to make it safe.
OTOH, my Toll Bros house built in 1987 by a bunch of illegals needed a major PUNCH LIST that took 6 months to be fixed. not because of the construction materials but because of the actual construction of Toll Brothers. And I'm talking about practically every single nail and corner bead popping within a year ON TOP of the original punch list. Because the MORONS studded the house out in March, then it stood during constant rain and snow for two months before they rushed it to completion. I am now a drywall expert LOL.
Sears Catalog kit houses were the homes the upper crust sneered at >100 years ago but TODAY are being fought about as "Original Craftsman Arts and Crafts quality" LOL
Last edited by runswithscissors; 08-28-2016 at 04:50 AM..
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