An increasing number of renters are worried they will never be able to buy a home, with many pointing to the lack of affordability as the main culprit, according to a survey released Friday by Redf…
Not the person you’re asking this from but as a Finn who watches a lot of construction related videos on YouTube I too get the feeling that houses in the US are built to a lower standard than here. It’s not so much that the materials are worse quality but more that the building code is much stricter here.
I’m a plumber by trade so my area of expertise is quite narrow but couple things that come to mind is how copper pipes are often soldered in the US where as here they’re always brazed which is a much stronger joint. We also don’t allow any connections to be made inside walls but in the US they’re common. Toilets there also tend to clog up quite often because of the way they operate which almost never happens here. Another thing I’ve noticed is that in the US they use a lot of wood and plywood even on bigger structures which poses a fire hazard as well as there doesn’t seem to be as much thought put into the insulation and vapor barriers.
in the US they use a lot of wood and plywood even on bigger structures which poses a fire hazard
they are a HUGE fire hazard and are nominally illegal except for a convenient loophole, as long as you claim you’ll be adding automatic sprinklers, you can sidestep a lot of the fire safety permitting – now they just burn down during construction before the fire systems have been installed …
Basically that many houses in USA are made of wood, we can’t do that here, because the climate is too wet. So wood doesn’t last very long. That means we need to make brick houses. Brick houses are way more expensive to build than wood.
Also many places in USA don’t require the same level of isolation.
In large parts of Sweden they can make wood houses too, and their house prices are way lower than here.
I’m not saying American houses are bad, but the climate in large parts of USA allows for more and cheaper options.
Can you expand on the superior Danish building materials? Genuinely curious.
Not the person you’re asking this from but as a Finn who watches a lot of construction related videos on YouTube I too get the feeling that houses in the US are built to a lower standard than here. It’s not so much that the materials are worse quality but more that the building code is much stricter here.
I’m a plumber by trade so my area of expertise is quite narrow but couple things that come to mind is how copper pipes are often soldered in the US where as here they’re always brazed which is a much stronger joint. We also don’t allow any connections to be made inside walls but in the US they’re common. Toilets there also tend to clog up quite often because of the way they operate which almost never happens here. Another thing I’ve noticed is that in the US they use a lot of wood and plywood even on bigger structures which poses a fire hazard as well as there doesn’t seem to be as much thought put into the insulation and vapor barriers.
they are a HUGE fire hazard and are nominally illegal except for a convenient loophole, as long as you claim you’ll be adding automatic sprinklers, you can sidestep a lot of the fire safety permitting – now they just burn down during construction before the fire systems have been installed …
Basically that many houses in USA are made of wood, we can’t do that here, because the climate is too wet. So wood doesn’t last very long. That means we need to make brick houses. Brick houses are way more expensive to build than wood.
Also many places in USA don’t require the same level of isolation.
In large parts of Sweden they can make wood houses too, and their house prices are way lower than here.
I’m not saying American houses are bad, but the climate in large parts of USA allows for more and cheaper options.
not op but i find it weird how you guys build houses mostly out of wood instead of brick and mortar. why is that?