"In Europe, wooden houses are usually limited to vacation homes or remote cabins in the forest."
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Robert Perschel 10 hours ago
Building trends are tough to change it is true. But the trend is away from concrete and steel building because of the enormous carbon emissions. Europe builds 20% timber frame and wants to bump that to 80% by 2050. The globe will be building more with wood, not less. In fire prone regions like SCal they are in a bind. The 2007 fire codes help and wood buildings can be designed more fire resistant. But the cost and climate problems with concrete need to be overcome for it to be a solution that will outcompete wood frame.
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Sevan 1 day ago
Price....
Building with concrete and or masonry of some sort presently would cost a small fortune.
The idea is sound, but financially, it is not at present.-
Pedro Campos 1 day ago
not true... is cheaper to build with concrete blocks (sort of concrete...)... and even more over time if you consider the wood maintenance... otherwise why would european countries with significant less income build with concrete ?!? On top of this a lot of these houses burned down are not exactly poor people houses... neither is a cheap location, so price is not the justification... true that some wood houses are cheaper that some concrete houses, but not these specific houses that burned down... these were high price, from high income people.
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Eric S. Johansson 9 hours ago
Cement, Stone, and cinderblock are more expensive in the Northeastern United States. Industrial buildings usually use steel and drywall which is even cheaper than wood,
As a homeowner, I can repair wood and drywall problems myself. I can run wiring through a wall's interior without bringing in an electrician or carpenter. I just had a door installed in a wooden wall. Making the door opening and inserting it took a day. I've installed shelves with a consumer-grade drill and bits. I don't need a heavy-duty driver with cement drill bits to put in an anchor.
Putting a door in cement walls would have been much more expensive, harder to install, and longer to make functional because of the need to fill in holes in the cement walls left by the construction.
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Unknown 1 day ago
I guess materials cost more when nobody is buying? How much is a clay block like this one we use here in Europe (it's aroud 0.7€ here in Croatia): https://profibaucentar.hr/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/103081.jpg
Is it even available in USA?-
CJ 1 day ago
Yeah we don't have those in the USA. You can get ICFs and AACs though. People here also build houses with CMUs but it's usually more expensive than wood and requires skilled masons which can be hard to find. It would be great here in Montana for the fire resistance but I think I have seen one, maybe two, such houses in the 20 years I've been here. I think the aesthetic really throws people off too, we really like the look of wood houses.
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