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Gee, that's news to folks in New England, many of whom live in houses at least 100 years old, and some 200 years old. And a friend of mine in Marseille, France lives in a building that is 1,000 years old.
If 40-year-old houses in North Carolina are falling apart, it's due to cheap and shoddy construction.
Gee, that's news to folks in New England, many of whom live in houses at least 100 years old, and some 200 years old. And a friend of mine in Marseille, France lives in a building that is 1,000 years old.
If 40-year-old houses in North Carolina are falling apart, it's due to cheap and shoddy construction.
Right. They are crap.
There were 3 old homes at the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Old Wake Forest RD.
Totally ignored for years then torn down.
The wood had no rot despite no paint. The windows were still good.
The old roofs looked decent though ignored for years.
Building materials and components like electrical and plumbing are many times imported Asian garbage with short life spans.
Many famous companies that guaranteed plumbing fixtures for life now give you one year. Same for refrigerators.
Part of the issue is both whether, and how, today's homeowner chooses to maintain their place. I see so many homeowners opting for the lowest priced option when maintenance is needed -- cheap vinyl windows that will barely last 10 years (there are different grades of vinyl and some will last longer, but most homeowners see vinyl as vinyl and thus go with the lowest estimate). And the vinyl is usually just thrown on top of rotten window framing that should have been evaluated for replacement anyway.
And then there's the siding issue. Instead of just replacing one side of their house at a time (which can usually be done for a reasonable cost), so many people try to replace small sections. Whatever caused those original boards to rot or get eaten by insects or woodpeckers or whatever is likely going to hit more nearby boards very soon. Lots of small repair jobs add up to a much higher total cost of replacement, and that replacement cost outruns many homeowners (they just give up and sell).
So many weekend handymen try to pull off DIY jobs in areas that they have no experience with, repairs or upgrades that should have been left to a professional. This ends up in crappy work that's going to cost a lot more to do properly in the future than if just done right to begin with.
Allowing mold to accumulate on the home, not keeping gutters clean, not paying attention to drainage, etc... it goes on and on.
So yeah, it all adds up to a shorter life span for the home if viewed from that angle. You could also look at it as a habit toward "deferred proper maintenance" that can lead to future repair costs so great, it makes more sense just to knock the piece of crap down and start over.
It's a shame that so few homeowners care about quality and maintaining their home to a high standard.
Most people boohooing about new construction here did not read the mayor's blog.
He related something that was mentioned, not his own opinion.
Folks, no one is building 100 year old houses any more. It is sort of impossible to do that.
And most of the 100 year old garbage built with garbage materials and garbage workmanship has already collapsed, burnt down, or been scraped. We conveniently ignore that bums have been building junk since construction was invented. We have always had junk, but never has all new construction been junk.
"Never" includes 2017.
40 yrs means that almost all of the usually replaced aspects of the home have already been replaced or re-done at least once. Roof, appliances, landscaping, flooring, tile, counters, etc. Just imagine a home 40 yrs old where nothing had ever been replaced. You would usually need a new roof, appliances, shrubs, refinished or replaced flooring, new counter tops, paint, etc. Makes sense to me.
Good thought exercise. This makes sense to me. If severely neglected, a new house, built in most any decade, might not even last 40 years... and it could literally be starting to "fall down" -even with the much vaulted Hardieplank. Heck, after just 10 years, if left totally neglected (think vacant-like) a new house might start to look like it's ready to fall over. Mother Nature can be brutal and time waits for no one. Houses are almost like living things that need to be tended to.
So, I now feel confident that under "normal conditions", given reasonable people making rationale decisions, a sfh owner occupied house stands a very good chance of having a useful life of well over 40+ years.
Also, we don't know the where what or when of that 40yr average expected home life. What geographic area? Are rentals included or just owner occupied? Single family homes? During what time period? On top of this, it is an average meaning some houses will be much more than 40yrs and others much less. Averages can be easily skewed and I much prefer medians for most things like this. What is the distribution? I wonder what the median expected "life" of a single family owner occupied home, built between 1970-1990, in Cary is? So many variables (builder, year, owner/s, local environmental conditions -down to the lot) .... is it even possible or and/or useful?
This is a very interesting thread. Having lived in a SFH that was built in 70s i can vouch for the maintenance that needs to be done to keep the house in good shape.
When we bought our house, we were first time home buyers, and did not realize the magnitude of the maintenance. The previous owner had kept the house in good condition. Even then we had to replace roof, windows, flooring, kitchen, bath, doors, HVAC. It was not a pleasant experience. We sold the house when we relocated here to NC but i am glad the new owners will have a nicely updated house for quite some time.
What about Chapel Hill houses? We are looking to buy a sfh in chapel hill/carrboro area. All i can find in 300k price range are houses built in 60s/70s in CH area.I don't want to go through our previous experience.
Most people boohooing about new construction here did not read the mayor's blog.
He related something that was mentioned, not his own opinion.
Folks, no one is building 100 year old houses any more. It is sort of impossible to do that.
And most of the 100 year old garbage built with garbage materials and garbage workmanship has already collapsed, burnt down, or been scraped. We conveniently ignore that bums have been building junk since construction was invented. We have always had junk, but never has all new construction been junk.
"Never" includes 2017.
Yes, there was shoddy construction 100 years ago, but nothing compared to the shoddiness of the past few decades. And all new construction can absolutely be "junk." A few years ago, our contractor was adding a new deck to our house and I wondered if new houses had the same problem as old houses. He stopped what he was doing, looked at me, and said that old houses, by and large, were much better built, that he had just had to replace the exterior wall of an expensive 5-year-old house: underneath the siding, the wall was covered with mold and rot. He himself had bought a century-year-old home and said he would never buy new construction.
Yes, there was shoddy construction 100 years ago, but nothing compared to the shoddiness of the past few decades. And all new construction can absolutely be "junk." A few years ago, our contractor was adding a new deck to our house and I wondered if new houses had the same problem as old houses. He stopped what he was doing, looked at me, and said that old houses, by and large, were much better built, that he had just had to replace the exterior wall of an expensive 5-year-old house: underneath the siding, the wall was covered with mold and rot. He himself had bought a century-year-old home and said he would never buy new construction.
How is all new construction absolutely junk, based on one story and one guy?
I have been walking through a new townhome over the last couple of weeks, and I have to say, IMO, the framing materials and techniques are just excellent.
I have been walking through a new townhome over the last couple of weeks, and I have to say, IMO, the framing materials and techniques are just excellent.
Every year the Home Builders Association of Raleigh - Wake County stages a wonderful open-house exhibition of the best their builders have to offer. I've gone to a few Parade houses each year for the past 30+ years, and make it a point to visit the most expensive examples.
Many times I've seen cuts where rafters meet the ridge pole so badly done that your fingers could fit in the crevices. I've seen collar beams which had separated from the rafters so much your fingers could fit in the crevices. These travesties were seen in new homes priced in the $1M range. Such work could be rated "D."
I've also seen Parade houses where the framing could be rated "A-minus" but never seen one which deserved an "A-plus."
Should the building inspectors have flagged egregious workmanship? I think so, but that could be debated at length. There is a distinction between "good workmanship" and "meets code."
Framing warrants scrutiny because it is the "skeleton" of the structure. As time passed the sloppily-built frame will twist and sag more than a tight one. Roof lines become sway-backed, sheetrock walls develop cracks, doors and windows bind, floors squeak.
Builders are reluctant to put money into parts of the house which are not seen. A builder may spend lavishly on crown moldings and cut corners on the unseen plumbing and electrical devices. The executive-level house which boasts an impressive front door may have thin OSB instead of thick plywood sheathing.
Regardless of the materials chosen, sloppy installation compromises the finished product in ways which become apparent not on Day One, but 3, 5, 7 years later. Some houses last 40 years, some for 200. Framing is a key element in durability. {Roofing is too, but that's a story to be told another time.}
This post is intended to be instructive, not a rant. Hope you take it in that spirit.
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