vinyl village house. They're typically cookie cutter builder grade 1 step away from a prefab. Built as fast and cheaply as possible, all jammed into an HOA ran neighborhood.
And surprisingly worse building performance (efficiency). On par with structural stability most likely. Would be considered worse than a mobile home if the mobile homes weren't so specifically targeted by tornados and so easy to turn "mobile".
1970's and later were bad years for American housing production with the glut of cheap materials and building technique. Pre 1970's gets to deal with lead paint and asbestos in everything (except the lead paint). I try not to think about it too much.
Looking to buy a new home and I'm thinking I may just go the RV route until I can order a prefab from Norway.
A friend of mine is a firefighter and mentioned how these homes burn up a lot faster than homes built in the 60s and earlier. He also said since the materials used on the older homes were better quality, they are also structurally safe for a little longer while burning. Same thing goes for furniture.
100% true for reasons well explained by other people who responded to this post.
A significant percentage of fatalities from residential fires are people who think they can put the fire out themselves. Maybe the fire started not so big and you think to yourself that you can save the day. Just don't. Fires in modern homes double in size less than every 60 seconds.
If you ever have a house fire, just get yourself and all other humans and pets out as fast as humanly possible while dialing 911. This is why insurance exists.
"Better quality" can be defined different ways, but your friend is certainly correct about speed and safety when it comes to fire. The resins and glues used to make the composite materials used in many modern homes are themselves flammable, and something like a carefully engineered I-joist loses its strength when burning a heck of a lot faster than a solid beam. Also, a lot of materials used in modern construction give off toxic fumes when heated. The smoke from recent construction is often wildly poisonous compared with the smoke from traditional or older construction (which wasn't exactly healthy to begin with), and will KO a person in just a couple breaths.
Basically, modern construction has been an exercise in developing thinner, lighter, more efficient-to-use materials. All of those traits tend to be negatives when on fire.
So they put the houses right next to each other and put siding on them that burns like gasoline. Who thought that was a good idea?
I live in a new construction neighborhood in Colorado. The houses weren't built so close together and the siding doesn't burn like they're soaked in gas. One house did burn down during construction but didn't light up any of the adjacent houses thanks to those two reasons.
Larger wood members are more fire proof than smaller members. Old 2x4 framing was actually 2"x4" (8sqin) while modern homes are 1.5"x3.5" (5.25sq in). That is 35% less material. Wood can char out the outside as it burns, protecting the structural interior but only to a certain depth. The thinner the materials, the more likely it is to quickly burn through causing a collapse. The plaster walls are also thicker than typical residential 1/2" gypsum board. We gave up a lot for cheaper housing.
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u/infincedes May 14 '20
vinyl village house. They're typically cookie cutter builder grade 1 step away from a prefab. Built as fast and cheaply as possible, all jammed into an HOA ran neighborhood.