Building material

[Mars.inDiapers]

Okay, so, I've recently finished building a garage, and I've become more interested in building materials used around the world (more than I have been before anyway). 

I'd be interested, if someone, maybe a contractor, or a businessperson in this area, or a DIY house builder, or anyone else could please explain to me what's the logic, that the most common building material for homes in America appears to be wood framing, wooden boards and asphalt roof shingles. Why? I mean honestly, that stuff straight up sucks.

Wildfire comes? Catches fire like a dry haystack, proceeds to burn to a crisp. Actually adds fuel to the fire, spreading it further on. Same goes for accidentally set fires or arson. Once it lights up, unless it's put out immediately, the whole place goes up in flames.

Hurricane comes? Crumbles like a house of cards.

Flood comes? Soaks the water in, cue in moisture, mold, rot, etc.

Termites (or other xylophagous insects) come? They chew right through it. 

Stray bullet flyes by? Penetrates it like paper.

Reckless driver in a stupidly heavy pickup truck hits it? Say hello to your new unwelcome guest in the middle of your living room.

Burglar comes? One or two good kicks and the door gives way. And if it's an unusually sturdy door and jamb, well, there's an easy way of bypassing that, with a thing called cordless drill and hacksaw combo, available for about two hundred dollars at your local home improvement store, that will enable you to quickly improve someone's home by ridding it of unnecessary valuables.

Add to that poor heat and sound insulation, having to repaint once the old paint stars to flake, squeaking floors, creaking stairs, and other host of problems.

Only advantage I see is that it's somewhat earthquake resistant, but earthquakes are mostly limited to areas around the San Andreas fault, so...

I heard that it's because there's plenty of forests in America, so timber is readily available, but I don't buy that- there's actually more forests per square km in Europe, yet we don't use it except for roof support structure (or log cabins, which is an entirely different category), where it's the sort of traditional material, but steel roof supports are not so rare anymore.

There is an abundance building materials that resist these disasters (except the earthquakes I guess) much better - good old red brick, aerated concrete blocks, ceramic blocks - most of which are widely used in Europe, which, ironically, has a lot lower incidence of things liable to cause damage to a house or something in it (at least if there isn't any war going on at the time). Especially the ceramic blocks have become very popular here lately, and for good reason - I've built my garage with them. It's a fantastic material. It's basically a fired red brick, but larger, with a honey comb internal structure for reduced weight, and ground to precise height, so they can be laid almost without mortar - instead, they're joined with a polyurethane foam adhesive. The walls can be built in few days, in sub freezing temperatures to boot. Does anyone build with this in USA? Is it even available there? I couldn't find anything about this being a thing there.

 

 

 

[Crinklz Kat]

Why wood?  Cost ... wood is cheap.  There's certainly other products, but not everything is available in every part of the country, and frequently they're mostly used on high end construction.  

[ValentinesStuff]

Wood is cheap, abundant, and easy to work with. 

 

Do you have a link to what you used?

[Mars.inDiapers]

^This exactly.

Wood is cheap, sure, but so are ceramic or concrete blocks. Maybe not as cheap, but considering how big of a portion of the total cost is comprised of stuff other than walls, it's not significantly more expensive than timber framing would be.

And wood sure is abundant, as trees grow all over the place, but so is clay. It's earth! You're literally standing on it!(probably)

Professional labor cost can increase the total cost quite significantly, since finding a skilled artisans these days is hard (not many people are interested in doing manual labor), and with this, you can build practically 80% of the main structure yourself. We're not, by Western standards, exactly a rich country, yet the average income family can reach a mortgage to pay for a 3 or 4 bedroom house built with this stuff. All costs included (land, foundation, building, facades, roof, doors and windows, plumbing, wiring, hvac, fixed kitchen and bathroom furniture associated bureaucracy, ...), not including other furniture like beds and wardrobes, an average home like that will set you back about 150k to 250k € (whatever that's in USD).. unless it's in a very expensive urban area or something, obviously.

How much does an average home, in an averagely expensive suburb, built with wooden framing, cost in USA? And how much more will you spend over time on maintenance of the wood, HVAC, insurance if you're in a natural hazard area, and having to rebuild if you lose everything to said hazard, compared to what would it cost if it were a masonry building?

 

 

[Alex Bridges]

I don’t know anyone who has had to do any maintenance on the framing of their home. Not saying it doesn’t happen because obviously it does, but perhaps not as much as you imagine.

As for natural disasters, there’s no materials that will stand up to a major disaster. Tornadoes can knock down a concrete building, floods will destroy the interior (carpet, subfloor, drywall, electric, etc.), wildfires will destroy the roof, melt metal and glass, and cause the interior to combust even if the exterior is just scorched, and a material that has been exposed to high heat can’t always just be reused because of chemicals like creosote. 
 

The framing is altogether a minor cost compared to everything inside the framing. If you have to replace everything inside the framing, you’re not going to be reusing the framing.

[ValentinesStuff]

I've done reframing on my home. I was remodeling and putting in new windows. Wood was easy, as a simple saw cut the holes to shape, and reframing the new hole for the new windows worked simply. I can't see that happening with those brick things. 

Also those things look hugely wide. 

[Mars.inDiapers]

19 hours ago, Alex Bridges said:

there’s no materials that will stand up to a major disaster. Tornadoes can knock down a concrete building, floods will destroy the interior (carpet, subfloor, drywall, electric, etc.), wildfires will destroy the roof, melt metal and glass, and cause the interior to combust even if the exterior is just scorched, and a material that has been exposed to high heat can’t always just be reused because of chemicals like creosote. 

 

Well, yes, with a force of nature powerful enough, anything can be destroyed. I'm talking about what kind of natural force can be reasonably expected to occur, how often it occurs, and what's reasonable to do to prevent major damage or destruction of a building. 

Now, I realize that not anyone can afford to build this to withstand category 5 hurricane, but damages by a hurricane aren't just buildings getting knocked over. It's also loose debris flying right through flimsy walls, causing further damage to property, or worse, injuries and deaths. How much is your life worth?

And in wildfires, how many homes burn down because they're right next to the forest or other combustible vegetation, and caught fire from that? And in comparison to that, how many homes burn down because they caught fire from an adjacent home that caught fire from another adjacent home that caught fire from another adjacent home... you get my point. If you build a residental area with wooden homes, in vicinity of a wildfire prone land, all it takes is for one home to catch fire, and the whole suburb will go with it.

And also worth thinking about is, how easily can a house catch fire? If it's a wooden framing, wooden boards, wooden roof covered with asphalt shingles, than all it takes is few sparks on the roof. 

The idea is, minimalizing the risk. Ceramics (bricks, roof tiles) aren't combustible. Aerated autoclaved concrete blocks aren't combustible. There would still be things on such a house that are combustible and could ignite (plastic or wooden window frames, doors, wooden roof support structure), if they were to catch fire, such fire can be isolated and put out a lot more easily than when the whole building is made out of fuel and is set ablaze in a matter of minutes.

 

It's cheaper, yeah. Wood I mean.
It's also cheaper to eat ramen everyday, than to eat proper meals. That doesn't mean it's a good idea. It doesn't mean it's the best option - unless it's the only option.
Which leads me to ask, is it because the US market is too closed off for systems like Porotherm or Hebel to break through? I've looked at Wienerberger website, and I've found that they have production facilities in the US, but I couldn't find any notion that they manufacture or sell anything like Porotherm in the US.
Is it because there's a whole industry built around this, counting on the fact that homes built recently won't last long and they'll have to build new ones soon, at a rapid pace, keeping them in business?
Is it because to Americans, the very abodes in which they (I assume) spend the better part of their lives, are not an exception to the throw-away culture?  

Let's say I went to the USA right now to start a business building homes out of porotherm (or something similar), while making sure of all the compliances with code and all that bureaucracy, getting the necessary advertising, pointing out all the benefits, and offering them at a price that would be (necessarily), probably higher than wooden framed homes, but still within reach of an average income family, because lower expenses on insurance, maintenance and energy, would enable them to allocate more money towards the mortgage, with the possiblity this being cheaper in the long run?

Would I even stand a chance? Would the customers accept something like that? Would the market competitors allow it?

[Crinklz Kat]

Part of the issue may be breaking down the "this is the way I've always done it" attitudes with builders.  There's also building codes that have to be addressed and likely some companies may not want to go through the hurdles to get their product certified as meeting those codes.   But I don't really know the real answer, so just throwing out some guesses here.

[DenisBradford]

Materials like red brick and aerated concrete blocks, which are common in Europe, offer better resistance to the various issues you mentioned. Ceramic blocks, as you described, are gaining popularity for their practicality and efficiency. As for their availability in the U.S., it can vary by region. Some builders do use alternative materials, but wood remains a standard due to tradition and ease of use. If you're interested in building tips, I found some handy info about stable manufacturers, which often share insights that apply to various types of buildings. Check out https://www.scottsofthrapston.co.uk/equestrian-buildings-accessories/ for some useful tips.

[Joey_AB_DL]

Our first home was a stick (wood) built home w/ vinyl siding and asphalt shingles in an area prone to hurricanes (Savannah GA).    This form of construction was inexpensive at the time and if we had opted for a block home or other we could not afford a home, plain and simple.  
 

Our recent build in FL is a concrete block home with metal roof and we love it.   It is solid as they come and the roof should last a lot longer as well as endure storms.   It was 5x the construction price of our stick built home (20 yrs prior).   
 

There are better materials out there, even better than block.   But a home still has to be affordable.  It’s basic economics.  
 

Joey.  

[feralfreak]

the best of anything is useless if you cant afford it to start with, if you have all the money in the world go ahead and build with more expensive stuff, but a person has to be able to afford to work with materials or there is nothing to insure, so no insurance to save on for going with the best of anything. its like a ramp i just built for mom, id have loved to go with better, and have someone do it for me, i had to do it on a budget, and try to make it strong(and i pray that it stays up, ive never done one before and i dont think of myself as a good carpenter, i used deck screws instead of nails, no way i could have done it with nails), and i couldnt afford the concrete, or to have someone do it all for me.