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Our current home is brick. I like it because it seems to me considerably quieter than other homes we’ve had and because there is no maintenance with the brick, just trim painting now and then.
The place where I intend to buy my home is not in an earthquake zone, and Earthquakes are very rare. Major earthquakes are unheard of, so the Earthquake risk factor people keep mentioning is largely irrelevant here.
Living in a hurricane prone area, we rarely see a wood frame house here. Most of the houses here are what they call "CBS" construction: Concrete, Block & Stucco. That being said, after Hurricane Irma came through in August of 2017, there was no damage on the houses that I knew to be wood frame, even ones that people thought would come down in a hurricane. I think Florida has strict building codes since Hurricane Andrew hit the Miami area in the 90's.
I'm planning to buy a home around 5 years from now, and I intend for it to be the first and last home I'll ever buy. Are brick homes (structural brick homes, not wood-framed homes with a brick veneer) far superior to wood framed homes in terms of durability and longevity, all else being roughly equal?
Brick houses always have a frame of wood or steel.
No, there is hardly any. Maybe a bit more in Sweden and Finland. But the rest not. I am from Holland and there are just no wooden houses. Some vacation houses but that is not a home. Neither in southern Europe.
In Italy there are villa's 2000 years old stil standing. Made of brick.
Another thing. Brick homes hardly never catch on fire.
Sweden, Finland, and Norway are mostly wooden architecture except in the densest urban areas and modern apartment blocks. Also much of European Russia, parts of Poland, and Alpine and forest areas in Switzerland, Germany, and Italy all have examples of wooden architecture which was a traditional building material for centuries.
It may not be the norm, but to be so dismissive is naive. Obviously most of continental Europe, especially new construction, leans on masonry and concrete, but to be so dismissive of thousands of years of traditional wooden architecture, much of which is a living tradition from the north to the south, just because it does not exist in your pocket of Holland, is very provincial and myopic.
Last edited by ABQConvict; 11-10-2019 at 01:37 PM..
Brick houses always have a frame of wood or steel.
Quote:
Originally Posted by K'ledgeBldr
I love the Sunday morning funnies!
To clarify, if a house has a frame of wood, it is by definition a wood-frame house. While it would then be possible to build a brick structural wall on the outside of that, it would be incredibly weird and cost prohibitive, as you would be building a house within a house. There is no reason to have two structural walls, wood-frame and brick, immediately adjacent to one another.
The way houses are actually built, a wood-frame house uses wood as the vertical structural support. The walls and roof trusses are attached to one another in such a way as to resist vertical and horizontal loads. If brick is used as a facade, the wood frame holds up the brick, which is only one brick (aka wythe as another poster noted) wide. Although a house of this type might be referred to as a brick house, that is not what the OP is looking for. This type of house is essentially a wood house, because if the wood frame fails, the brick will collapse. Only the facade is brick.
Another option is to make the structural walls out of brick, stone, block or concrete. The walls are mostly self supporting, with the roof trusses resting on the thicker masonry construction. If one furs the inside, you are creating a wood structure for insulation and utilities, but that wood structure is held up by the masonry. The wood could fail, and the masonry walls would be fine.
This is vastly oversimplified, but hopefully clarifies the difference. OP is looking for a type of structural engineering, not cosmetic facade.
Living in a hurricane prone area, we rarely see a wood frame house here. Most of the houses here are what they call "CBS" construction: Concrete, Block & Stucco. That being said, after Hurricane Irma came through in August of 2017, there was no damage on the houses that I knew to be wood frame, even ones that people thought would come down in a hurricane. I think Florida has strict building codes since Hurricane Andrew hit the Miami area in the 90's.
If brick is used as a facade, the wood frame holds up the brick, which is only one brick (aka wythe as another poster noted) wide...This is vastly oversimplified...
A brick veneer is "self-supporting"- the framing of a residential wood structure does not "hold up the brick". The brick sits on a "brick ledge". Lentils bridge openings within the wall- the lentils are supported by the brick on each end; and secondary supporting is by the framing structure.
A brick veneer is "self-supporting"- the framing of a residential wood structure does not "hold up the brick". The brick sits on a "brick ledge". Lentils bridge openings within the wall- the lentils are supported by the brick on each end; and secondary supporting is by the framing structure.
"Oversimplifying" misinformation is simply wrong.
I will agree that I oversold it. A brick facade is self supporting, but will not carry significant load and has little resistance to lateral forces. The facade relies on the structural frame for that lateral stability, and is tied to the frame to that end. Essentially, the wood frame could survive without the brick facade, the reverse is not true.
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