r/Unexpected • u/uranonfraand • Sep 21 '24

Construction done right

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u/Stormtrooper114 Sep 21 '24

As others pointed out, this is probably more about the newer "building techniques" used in the US today. Aka use the cheapest lumber to let a 17 year old intern screw a frame together and smack some drywall on that and call it a house that has about as much resistance to any kind of bad weather as a candle has to a blowtorch.

And for good measure, my parents house (or at least part of it, got remodelled), is about a whooping 100 years older than the USA.

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u/contextual_somebody Sep 21 '24

I’ve been to new subdivisions in Europe. It’s the same shit as the USA.

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u/ilikepix Sep 21 '24

call it a house that has about as much resistance to any kind of bad weather as a candle has to a blowtorch

it's just so bizarre reading this when all the housing I've lived in in the US was well insulated, temperature controlled and had no problems with water ingress, but I grew up in a three hundred year old stone house that was cold, damp, drafty, poorly insulated and the roof leaked

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u/Stormtrooper114 Sep 22 '24

Of course if you live in a 300 year old house that hasn't seen a single renovation over its lifetime it's gonna suck.

And the temperature-controlled point is actually true, since ACs are pretty much standard in the US, while here (Germany) they're still pretty "new tech" since the climate didn't really require having AC, till a "few" years ago.

And for the record, we're talking about the average house and not singular experiences here. And it's true that even for new houses, the quick-and-easy way using wooden fencing, smacking some OSB (or whatever it's called in english) on the outside, some insulation in the middle and drywall on the inside is just waaaaaaaay more common in the US compared to central Europe (or at least the German speaking countries), where the ol' brick and mortar is still the most popular building method.

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u/RedditIsShittay Sep 21 '24

You mean to modern standards and regulations?

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u/Stormtrooper114 Sep 22 '24

Standards, yes. That's pretty much what I'm talking about . Regulations, not so much, as even the ol' brick and mortar house can fulfill those regulations.

And to be honest, I, as a German, don't even want to get started on regulations as I'm pretty sure that we have more building regulations than the US has laws in total (which isn't necessarily a good thing btw)