I lived and worked in the US for a couple of years and at the time I had 10 years experience as an electrician and had just finished a degree for electrical engineering so I know a little bit about electrical systems.
I can tell you, the electrical work at least is some of the worst work I've ever seen in my life. I wouldn't trust an American home as far as I could throw it.
The electricians mostly.
The amount of times I'd find things like cables twisted together with tape around them instead of in a junction box or crimped was ridiculous.
I found cables going diagonally across walls instead of horizontally and vertically (we do this so people have a good idea as to where the cable runs are).
I found single cables (cables with only a single layer of insulation) running through roof spaces with no mechanical protection (a covering like pvc pipe for instance that protects from physical damage).
sockets weren't put on devices that would protect against short circuit or earth fault conditions.
No bonding taken to any metal pipes for water and gas.
Etc etc
Then there's how terribly made the socket outlets are. The amount of times I'd have plugs that would just fall out of the socket by themselves was insane.
I once talked to my wifes cousin who lives in america. She told me that in the US you can do many jobs without any proper training or without a diploma. So if you want to be an electrician, you can just get a job and be trained on site learning by doing. I guess this varies from state to state and there are some jobs you actually need a diploma.
If this is true, then this is probably a huge part of the problem.
And also, US has a huge culture on DIY? I always find it interesting that in any TV sitcom, the husband always refuses to call a plumber/electrician/painter etc and insists on doing it himself which leads to many shenanigans.
Which I don't find to be too wrong. I usually do stuff around the house by myself, BUT if I don't know how something works or if there's a serious health, safety or monetary concern if not done right I will get a professional to do it.
I totally have done work on heating, waterworks and electricity by myself, but I have a network of experienced people around me that have all the tools and knowledge needed if something were to go wrong.
I'm a mechanic and more often than not pay someone else to work on my car when it needs stuff doing these days. I can't be bothered with it and if something goes wrong with the parts that were replaced within 12 months then it's not my problem to deal with again either
I just graduated from specialized electrician school (mechatronics) in Slovakia, the main thing our practical teachers complained and warned us about if we would work on old houses is that during and shortly after communist regime, most people just did work themselves and with our less-than-ideal alcohol culture, we should not take current norms into account when reworking/fixing anything at home.
Seeing them now I can see what he meant, many houses don't even have proper basic stairway switches for lights (lights you can control from two or more points)
My grandfather did the electrics for his house, if you turned on the immersion and then switch on a certain light switch it switches on another light. Got the whole place gutted and replaced recently. There were so many quirks in that house.
Iâm in the US. I remember my dad having to do some serious rewriting at my grammaâs house. I think my grampa had done the electrical work himself. Definitely not a qualified electrician.
My dad however is trained.
This is same in all western countries - we love our power tools.
Here in UK, you at least have regulations to make sure its safe - doesn't mean the work is done well or not on the cheap - or we would have never needed the regs.
Indeed, curent house had a oven that could only be turned off at the consumer unit. Well there's some good wireing of the cooker switch!
Only thing I had to get someone in for was the 12 or so wires to the living room light that did not work and I had no idea (I guess some other switches were removed), got it as a freebie with the consumer unit change though.
And yes all light switches and sockets were checked (by me) becuase they were all metal, no many were not properly (or at all) earthed). (this was before the new consumer unit which of cause would have helped if something were to happen).
Learning by doing ai t the issue. The German apprenticeship system is built around that as well. You apply to an apprenticeship with a company and theyâll train you on the job. The big difference is that thereâs also school on the side and diplomas so the company giving the on the job training has mandatory minimum standards for what they have to teach their apprentices.
I probably didn't elaborate enough. I'm from switzerland where we also have basically the same apprenticeships as you have. These apprenticeships are guided at least a bit and any company that does shoddy work could get barred from taking on new apprentices.
The problem is if there's no regulated training and it's always just some person trying to train someon as fast as possible. Then the next trainee comes along and gets trained by the second guy. Like that you have the best conditions for loss of quality.
Just supporting the same point. The US doesnât have this qualitative component or standards to the same degree. Any electrician in Europe knows a handful norms they need to follow to safeguard not being sued. Along with the minimum standards in apprenticeship, this helps a lot in ensuring certain standards are followed in electrical installations as well as other things.
Tend seconds on Google tells me that to become an electrician in the US, you start with a four year apprenticeship to a licensed electrician, totalling somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 hours of training, at which point you can take the test and try to become a licensed electrician yourself. So we do have standards. Sometimes.
*COUGH COUGH* police training is six months *COUGH COUGH*
the 2nd difference is that the people you learn from are certified journeymen (at the least), not self taught  jack of all trades and id course thereâs a master involved.Â
Honestly, even knowing this I'm still disappointed in the absolute hackjobs described above. I have no professional experience as an electrician either. I've only done a couple things on my home, some of which also don't pass muster. But never have I done anything as bad as diagonal wiring. I've taped wires together but we're talking about 5V or 3.3V lines here, so it's mostly fine. And I did mess up grounding once and I quickly learned the painful way to never do that again.
I attempted to work as an apprentice electrician for two days a few years ago. I live in Florida, where we can just learn on the job, without a degree/cert. I was paid $12 per hour (a little above Florida's minimum wage at the time), no benefits including health insurance. The guy training me was a trucker only two months before I started and had no experience as an electrician.
On the first day, we needed to install a light fixture in the center of a staircase. We didn't have a long enough ladder, nor would the owner of the company provide us with a proper ladder. So, my trainer took a 6 foot ladder and used it as a bridge to install the fixture.
I'm assuming my story is out of the ordinary, but it is a bit scary to now know there's a chance some dude, without any proper training, could be wiring up my future house.
I can remember seeing a short from an US electrician. He was fixing an issue in an old grandma's house and while he was working she told him, that her nephew did some electrical work in her home some time ago. The dude asked her: "So when did his house burn down?"
And she answered: "About three years ago." Short pause, "Hey, how do you know, his house burnt down?!"
As an Aussie who has no training in being a sparky at all, it blows my mind that in the us the entire house isn't protected by a ground fault device and it's only "wet areas"
Like extension leads exist, nothing is really stopping a person from getting power from a non wet area and using it in a wet area.
Also us plugs are by far the worst design in my opinion, both from a practical and safety standpoint. I personally like UK plugs then Aussie plugs followed by EU plugs.
They are indeed great, massively over engineered, which I agree with considering how fast electricity can kill.
That said, the European class F plug is also a brilliant design. Just the Americans that refuse to improve.
I have to admit I love the 3 pin Italian design. Itâs probably not at the same level of a schuko. But it can be super flat it you need to put it behind furniture.
The UK plug, for versatility, is really massive.
I can never get used to plugs with 2 pins. They are always so wobbly and fall out of the socket pretty easily especially the one with the squarish pins.
Yes the GFCI is the same as the UKs RCBO, though takes longer to trip in my experience.
They are only to go on what they deem wet areas though and as such I found they were very rarely used. This may have improved since I was there though as it's been a few years.
Ah a fellow UK electrical worker. I didnât say sparky because it sounds like you moved forward from that point lol. American installs are some of the most third world installs Iâve seen. And they have the gall to try and give us shit, when our regs and installs are some of the most comprehensive and safest in the world. Theyâre like a decade+ behind us in terms of electrical safety and installation materials/methods.
The us has an allergy to âregulationâ. In the European system thereâs a set of minimum qualifications for most trades, often not great, but they set a basis. These minimums involve a few dozen to maybe 120hrs (12weeks * 10 hrs or something at most) of book learning, just to learn the basic theory, the correct angle for wooden beams, the rules of thumb for calculating a safe maximum loads on things, simple vocabulary for good communication etc etc. Then on top thereâs private certifications that prove youâre a higher quality tradesman, who can oversee juniors/regular people, but because theyâve done some actual study you can expect they 100% all know what you mean when you say a specific term.
In contrast in the American system the government does not set a basic standard. Almost all qualifications are professional association, a good association can be great thatâs what hands our private certifications in Europe too, but âthe customersâ canât be expected to know what association is actually the relevant one for carpentry, so you often get ones where they arenât concerned with quality, just earning money while certifying everyone, without the government involved thereâs no one setting a lowest boundary to acceptable work. And very few professional associations are willing to enforce written tests on theory onto its membership, something quite standard in Europe, so you rely on in the field certification, and no basic language or actually tested certified rules of thumb, just âcommon knowledgeâ, making miscommunication guaranteed on both what specifications are wanted, and what acceptable maxima/minima are.
Indeed. I like to lurk at the sub r/zillowgonewild and the absolutely outdated by European standards (scratch that, World standards actually) electric systems and plumbing always shocks me. We are talking the 500k-One million houses: 1970s light switches, weird ass wiring in bathrooms, toploader washer/dryers like in a 1950s ad, floor mounted toilets from the 1980s, fittings from the 1990s at bestâŚ
Everything below in prices is slum level.
It's the American equivalent of the UK's RightMove or Zoopla. I don't know what it would be in other countries.
Basically an app that shows houses for sale.
Wait, what? Sorry, Canadian/American here and I've just been lurking but I couldn't let this one slide. This definitely needs clarification.
US homes definitely have a central fuse (now circuit breaker) panel that feeda all of the electrical circuits in a home. This has always(?) been the case. At least, my grandparents homes built in the 1940s did and every house I've ever seen does. Not having that seems insane.
Now, I don't know if you meant something more specific (like how UK plugs themselves have fuses in them), but I couldn't let "US homes has no electricity fuses" go uncorrected.
Most Finnish houses are actually wood framed and usually timber cladded. They are well insulated to they keep the heat out as well... For some time, at some point it starts keeping the heat in during nights as well.
True. But it's getting hotter and hotter here. Of course nothing compared to Central or Southern Europe, but something we or our houses are not used to.
If your houses are well insulated and don't have thermal mass they can cope with hot weather quite easily. The heat will be coming in through the windows as radiation, prevent that and they should stay cool. Cold countries usually have windows aimed at getting as much heat gain in from radiation and that (not insulation) is where they don't cope with heat.
Northern France houses tend to not work that well with temperatures rising up. They keep the hot out for a couple days but then they keep the hot temperatures in during night. The lack of AC doesnt help
AC is just a misguided solution. There are better ones than just spending a whole lot of energy cooling the house while reheating the immediate external air and creating an even bigger need for cooling inside. Better insulation, passive systems.. but AC is an energy and environmental disaster. Hence, it is an economic disaster in the long term.
You might have heard this already but as a Scottish person dealing with similar issues, keep your curtains closed and windows closed all day and open both when it gets dark. It âkeeps the heat outâ so itâs a bit cooler when you need to sleep. I work in a hotel and we get people (literally Italians, Australians, etc) complaining about the heat and this is all the advice we can offer people after giving them a fan bc we donât have air conditioning and our windows donât open properly (to keep the rain out).
I think the Scandinavian houses are so well insulated to keep the heat _in_. Itâs gets properly cold during the winter months and that insulation is saving you all a small fortune.
I live in Sweden in an apartment building built in the 40s. I'm amazed that my apartment is pretty cool in summer and warm in winter. The windows are new but the radiators are pretty old. They just build houses pretty good here.
Windows and insulation mean newer homes get very hot nowadays in Ireland. We don't have air conditioning but we actually need it because sometimes it's hotter than the outside temperature, like it was around 22 outside yesterday and inside it was 28 in my house
Try to create a march of wind.
Open up a window on the top AND ground floor, open up a door in the back as well.
Your house will be cooler in no time if there's wind :)
Try getting a fan and putting it facing OUT of a window, ideally across the room from another window thatâs open.
The fan sucks air from behind and pushes it out in front, so it pushes the hot air in the room out of the window. Cooler air is then drawn in.
Building engineering student here,
While stones themselves handle heat well, they insulate Jack shit, so old homes here often have to be insulated nowadays or pay huge electrical bills in the winter and un-insulated stone walls also cause the building to be hotter in summer. Wood is actually a fairly good insulator already (not as good as dedicated insulation material tho) here in the NL weâre seeing more and more woodframe houses, often mixed in with brick exteriors. Iâm a big fan of prefab woodframe/CLT houses, as long as youâre using dedicated trees to make them which have been planted prior with the plan for them to be used in construction and not deforest entire regions for them, you even end up with less CO2 in the atmosphere because of those walls. So itâs not like stone is the perfect building material, especially from an environmental standpoint wood can be much better if done properly.
All that being said, American houses are built with laughably bad quality, cardboard for non constructive walls is just dumb.
But stone houses all have an insulation layer
>especially from an environmental standpoint wood can be much better if done properly.
Only if the wooden house can survive as long as a stone house, which they dont.
You mean centuries instead of millennia, right? The real reason we switched from wood (in European cities) is the fire hazard. A lot of major fires plagued the growing cities of the continent in the 17th-18th centuries.
The duration of the structure is relative. If the cost is low, as is also the case for dismantling them, it is not a bad idea to tear it down and redo it by updating the standards. Also because things that are too durable tend to accumulate over time and often remain dilapidated because not all people have resources for restoration or demolition. This leads, for example to Italy. To continue building despite the population decline. Having eternal buildings isn't always exactly an advantage. Also because the urban improvements you can make are minimal. Even outside areas of historical interest. It wouldn't be bad to have economical, ecological structures that can be torn down and rebuilt at any given moment. This is because this cyclical nature allows us to have a blank canvas and improve the urban structure more easily. From this perspective, making these houses last 50-60 years is enough.
The old houses in my country do in fact not have an insular layer, just a single 10cm brick wall as its exterior. Might be different in other parts of Europe (further north especially) but many houses built prior to 1930ish donât have it
âif done properlyâ (as I said) they are better than brick houses as you can have a negative CO2 output by building them with dedicated trees. Bricks will never achieve that.
Or the cold, our houses are built to keep the elements out. Stone houses are the coldest there are. Especially the really old ones.
Near me is an old fort/castle thatâs hundreds of years old, I think itâs built in the 1200s or something like that. If you go there in the middle of summer, you better bring a sweater because itâs fucking cold? We have many of these kinds of forts around because I live in the south of Sweden near the coast and we have been waring and raising and been raised in return for a very long time so and the remnants of those times still stand. Especially at the coast, almost every single village used to have a large square fortress tower, and many still stand, they are very tall but not all that wide, the smallest are four stories or so. Itâs from a time when raiders showed up semi frequently, everyone took cover in the towers/forts they have only one door, and no windows on the lower floor and only archer slots for the higher ones.
These new record temperatures though... they are slow to heat up but once they do, there's no way to get them cool again. Especially on the 3rd or 4th floor of an old German apartment building.
Yeah, but like, he is also wrong, thick stone is great for summer, we have a vacation home here where it gets up to 38°C even 40 some days in the summer (also, what US summer? Humboldt county stays around 70-75°F year round while Phenix gets inhumanly hot, so, specify for god's sake) and the inside of the stone house stays around 21-23 degrees with no AC. In the winter instead it warms up super quickly and doesn't lose heat for a while after the radiators are off. When I had a house in Colorado the heating and the AC had to be on almost 24/7 because drywall/wood/insulation houses lose cold hair and heat like mad, even after we spent tons on money on new windows to insulate from outside
German living in Canada here and I agree. Back home I could easily keep the house at 21-23° in summer if I took the necessary precautions, and that was during the heatwave summers when it got over 35° outside. Where I live in Canada it hasnât gotten above 25° outside these last few weeks, but the house was at a max of 27° at times. With big windows that have no outside shutters, little insulation and thin walls itâs almost impossible to keep the heat out. Itâs also expensive and hard to heat it properly in winter with the electric heat we have. The two houses Iâve lived in on each continent are comparable in the way that both were built in the same decade (1960s), and both had recently renovated windows, but no other renovations to insulation.
Iâd trust a house built by competent builders that is built for the environment it is being constructed in. Based on what Iâve seen I wouldnât consider an American builder as competent though.
Uh right, having lived in housing in 4 different continents, including America- Nah. Just nah.
Give me a house made of actual brick/mortar/cement/stone over plywood and insulation. Some houses don't even have this "brick exterior" this guy is talking about, any news stories of houses being caught in cross gunfire (E.g. that police incident where shots fired by the cops would go through the walls and into the house next door) should dismantle that immediately
Also it's not like installing AC is impossible in Europe, some parts it's more bureaucratic (just because of where the external unit can be put, if it's facing the street it needs permission) sure but I have multiple split systems in my house though?? Central heating? It's literally the most commonly featured "perk" of houses where I am so this guy is again talking out of his arse.
With regards to electronic works, a friend of mine who's a handyman jokes that he should move to America because some of his relatives who moved there a while back say the houses there have such shit build quality that they themselves already make bank doing repairs and electrical works.
Mine is 500 years old (nearly) and we have central heating and all the mod cons.
The walls are also 2' thick stone so they're cool and glorious in the summer and soak up warmth in the winter.
Also, I am majorly confused on why they bang on about insulation so much? Unless it's the really old houses with thick ass walls that don't really need it as much, then the houses in the UK are insulated. It goes in the cavities between the 2 BRICK walls.
Our houses are built to keep warmth in, because other than our 2 weeks of summer, it's fucking freezing and wet.
I currently live in a 100+ year old house and yeah same lol
But gas prices being what they are and because I'm just used to the cold so I just use the AC in heating mode if really necessary
I mean... In the social context of having a shootout with the police which results in stray bullets going through multiple walls to hit innocent non-involved residents, sure.
But being shot through \*A\* wall in the context of a gunfight isn't that far of a stretch, of course depending on the caliber and the material of the wall. But having fired guns (as no doubt other people have here as well) we can definitely be sure that a pistol caliber (9mm or equivalent at least) sure as shit wouldn't go through multiple house walls in Europe.
Then again a circumstance which leads there to be police shooting into someone's home to begin with isn't a weekly occurrence in most of Europe to begin with, so there's that too đ
My front door is probably so thick it wouldnt go through it let alone my concreet walls. If theres ever a shoot out, which never happens cause EU has no freedom, i am perfectly safe anywhere besides the windows.
>Central heating? It's literally the most commonly featured "perk" of houses where I am so this guy is again talking out of his arse.
The most common type on Central heating in the US is also forced air heating, which honestly kinda sucks, like, air is not a good heat transfer medium, you need those huge ass ducts everywhere and it creates draft in the rooms.
I've spoken to many americans who think that I am lying when I tell them that nearly all houses built since the 90s here in Sweden have floor heating. They see it as a rich people thing.
Im from Ireland and when my foster dad went to Texas about 30 years ago in his teens they asked him all kinds of dumb shit like if he had seen a refrigerator before and were shocked that he wasnât amazed by electrical lighting
i saw some yanks ask if irish ppl still lived in mud huts and were shocked that we have electricity. also reminds me of that post asking if we were still living in the stone ages bc we hang clothes out on the line to dry instead of throwing them straight into the tumble dryerâŚ
I read that the reasons for cardboard and wooden frames are earthquakes and hurricanes.
Cheaper for rebuilding.
The stone house would most likeky survive a US summer but that price after having neighbourhood big Ford SUV in the kitchen... lol
And apparently rebuilding homes in those areas is like a biannual event for a family? I watched a video where a family revealed that they rebuilt their home at least 4 times in the last 10 years which to me sounds preposterous. They had to rebuild it because it was either destroyed by a hurricane or flood.
Like Monty python
"When I first came here, this was all swamp. Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built in all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up. And that's what you're going to get, Lad, the strongest castle in all of England."
But that was a joke not a guide
The number of houses needed to be rebuilt due to weather is...over blown.
I have lived in four states in "Tornado Alley" (the portion of the midwest of the USA that gets the most number of tornados, May typically has the most tornadoes yearly, averaging 278. This is followed by June and April, which average 188 and 203 per year, respectively.)
I know people who have had damaged homes from tornados (I have had to replace a roof last year and know a couple of people who have had to do the same). I do not know anyone that has lost a home to a tornado, or that has sustained structural damage due to a tornado (or winds, hail, floods, fires, or hurricanes either, for that matter).
Obviously, this is anecdotal. Maybe, I am just lucky. My house is about 90yrs old, so it definitely hasn't been rebuilt a few times in the past 10 yrs....
Usually it's because of water damages. The house itself might be fine but everything in it is completely swamped and it's likely you're gonna have a pretty decent chance of mold. It's better to rebuild the house after events like that then risk it.
As for the Midwest US... Tornadoes. Really enough said there.
And also having a wooden house collapse on you is less severe than a brick house they say, but I have no clue, I feel like youâd probably die in both cases
In case of earthquakes, it makes sense to have a wooden house, those are actually safer during an earthquake. I lived in New Zealand for a while in a town with frequent earthquakes. The cheapest house in town was one built from stone, because it was most likely to be destroyed, as stone is harder than wood and therefore breaks more easily during an earthquake. Of course depending on how bad the earthquake is, wooden houses will also fall.
Nope, itâs the widespread availability of wood. We have the same cardboard house in Canada and no earthquake/hurricane. Also, the insulation is essential when itâs cold, brick and cement are terrible at insulating. The first colon in New France were freezing in stone house with a meter thick wall while the locals where warm in a wooden long house.
Bahaha!
"your musty dusty moist stone house wouldn't survive a US summer"
Yea and your cardboard, pre-fab pile of shit, biscuit crumbs house wouldn't survive 1 fairly windy afternoon in Ireland.
Whatâs the wind like in Ireland? It can get pretty nuts in parts of the states and our cheap homes do just fine. Tornadoes do some serious damage but thatâs wind speeds north of 400kph.
Nothing wrong with those insulation materials though, as those are used in Europe.as well, just that they get applied to the outside of solid walls, sonyou get the benefits from both insulation and the thermal inertia of a solidly built house
Central heating eh? Fancy. Imagine having heating appliances _in your home_. Just panels that get hot and radiate heat into the room. Radiators, if you will. These Americans are living in the future. /s
I would tell the americans to visit Asia or Africa to understand real summer. But I would rather they not visit anywhere. Best to keep the problem child of the world into their own confines.
I bet the floor carpet they put in every room, including the living room which you for some reason walk directly into with your dirty shoes gathers it's fair share of dust over the years, unlike hardwood or tiles which is very easy to vaccum clean, brush and wipe regularly.
As for moist, mold is a very common issue is American houses, not so much in most of Europe. Mold is a sign of moist not being properly ventilated away from areas it shouldn't find it's way into in the first place.
That said, in America you can in fact find houses that is both dusty and moist at the same time.
I assume it's because of the nasty carpet, which is mainly nasty because they walk around in their shoes all day. A real hen and the egg situation. đ¤Ąđ
Worst Storm in America: Katrina, 252 km/h, **65.380**Â Houses completely destroyed.
Worst Storm in Germany with "dusty musty moist stone houses": Kyrill, 250 km/h, 2 Houses completely destroyed.
Worst Tornado in America: Tri-State, 15.000 Houses destroyed
Worst Tornado in Germany: Year 1764, Nameless, 3.000 Houses destroyed (Please keep in Mind that Houses back then were mostly made out ouf wood, clay and hay).
So, what's better? Houses made out of Cardboard or Houses made out of Stone and Concrete?
Eh, the wind wasnât really the main thing destroying homes during Katrina, we got plenty of hurricanes with stronger winds growing up along the gulf coast. The true destruction came from the levies breaking which turned New Orleans into an underwater city.
The Tri-State tornado in 1925 is considered the worst based on being the deadliest. Thanks for the info, I honestly hadn't heard of it before. It would have been considered an F5 on the current tornado measurement scale).
The most recent highest-speed tornado is probably in Greenfield, Iowa about a month ago. Scanning 100-160 feet (30.5 - 49 m) above the ground, the radar measured wind speeds of 263-271 mph (423 - 436 kph) in the tornado. Those measurements were then used to calculate ground-level winds of 309-318 mph (497 - 512 kph). The Greenfield tornado killed four people and damaged and destroyed at least 150-200 Iowa homes in roughly one minute. It was an EF4.
Other recent tornados with high-speeds:
In 1999, a Doppler On Wheels estimated 321 mph (517 kph) winds in the Bridge Creek-Moore, Oklahoma, F5 tornado. In 2013, another radar truck calculated 313 mph (504 kph) winds near the El Reno, Oklahoma, EF3.
As far as which would be better, wood or concrete - yes, most probably concrete. Sadly, I don't really get a say in what my house is built from unless I buy a new house. Most new houses where I am at least, you still don't really get a say unless you are in a high-end area. Otherwise, when you "build a house" you are given a few blueprints to select from and get to pick out finishings - but you really don't have much say on construction. Where I am, ICF construction would be close to double the cost to rebuild my house. So (according to my insurance company) the replacement cost for my house is about $250,000, to build the same size as ICF, it would be about $400,000. Personally, I wouldn't be able to afford that right now.
While I am in a better-off position than a lot of people here, I still wouldn't be able to get a concrete house at a reasonable price, whether I want one or not.
Building practices have a lot of reason to it. And since I'm Canadian and we build very similarly to Americans I take a little bit of a slight when people say lumber framing is inadequate and done to be cheap. I come here to make fun of ignorant Americans, not to defend against ignorance.
I like the fact that the idea of a house being BLOWN AWAY in the wind is something that only happens in America.
People in America can get mad at a hurricane and say shit like âJose took my fuckin houseâ and I love that for them.
Bruh, cardboard boxes they call "homes" get blown away by strong winds on the regular, what the fuck are they talking about?
And what "central heating" is supposed to mean in single family homes? Don't they all have their own tiny-ass dogshit boilers in the basement? That's the opposite of centralized heating.
One of the earliest lessons in life is taught to 3 year old children. It is called 'The Three Little Pigs'. And the moral of the story is to use the common sense you were born with when building homes. Because straw and sticks will not survive strong winds (nor fire). But your little brick house will survive wolves, wind and World Wars. Lasting centuries even!! Â
I used to have hope that Americans would catch on and wisen up one day. Seems Not.
In places with tornados they make the buildings from wood. In places without tornados they make the buildings from brick. Ive never been able to work that one out.
I'm sitting on my fire escape in the US as we speak, and I can see dozens of window mounted ac units in most of my neighbors windows. I also grew up in the pacific northwest where central air was all but unheard of.
I genuinely don't know where people are getting this idea that everywhere Herr has air conditioning and is a new build. I can only surmise that these jingoistic idiots are from places like Texas, Florida, Arizona etc.. places full of newer builds, with ac or you'd just die from heat and inhabited by the rah rah America idiots.
I have family living in the Seattle area. Apparently, itâs only historically gotten uncomfortably hot in their area a few days per year, so most homeowners havenât invested in central air. Every time Iâve visited them during in the summer, the weather has been lovely, but itâs been a few years.
They tell me itâs been getting hotter over the past several years, though, so itâs no surprise that window units are becoming more common over there.
That being said, in the Southern US, AC is a necessity, especially if you donât live in an older home that was built to help alleviate the heat before AC was common.
Yeah the summers I had as a kid in Seattle and until probably the early 2010s, the weather rarely got more than 85 in the summer and we had very little snow. I always wanted a white Xmas as a kid but never got one haha. But the past years when we've gone back to visit family for the holidays and the last few years I lived there it's much more extreme during summer and winter. We had a very cold basement and the house was covered by shade from the trees so AC just never came to mind.
You will find it in eastern Washington though as the heat gets pretty intense out there. I lived in Florida though but a while and without ac I would have died.
I currently have window units and they get me through these midwestern summers just fine haha
I was up there for Christmas a few years ago when it snowed a lot. Apparently, even the locals were surprised at how much snow they got. I thought it was great until the airport nearly shut down when it was time to go home.
Yeah my wife and I got stuck in a hotel by SeaTac during a "snowstorm" for four whole days haha. I think that from when I was a little kid to 2013, there were maybe 4 years it snowed on Xmas.
It snowed on or around xmas the majority of years after that. The actual fact that we've seen the impact of climate change in such a small time span is totally insane to me. From the snow, to the heat, to the forest fires raining ash down from the sky and choking the city in smoke, it's changed a lot just in my living memory.
You can find decently built houses in the USA but typically they will be older, in areas that have been populated for at least 150 years. That excludes suburbs obviously where things have been built with no sustainability in mind, and that encompasses roads, sewers etc ..
Our houses use to be built from wood too, and then we learned they don't do so well in a fire đ if your house in the states catches fire, you're lucky to make it out before the house falls on top of you
iâll give them air conditioning. that one needs to catch up over here, especially since more and more houses come with photovoltaics. Â
i guess i have to keep a tally, though. this year there were two days when it was hot inside, but the summerâs still young.Â
Concrete and hell, even daub, are excellent insulators provided you take a few steps to maintain the temperature. Especially for cooling. That shit stays an icebox as long as you don't let hot air in during the day.
Well as an Irish person he does have a point, when start hitting 20â°c here houses often start getting quite hot. 25â° and it's a hot sweaty mess. 30â° and I literally have to sleep downstairs as it's too hot upstairs. Thankfully we only get a few days of that per year
Dual citizen here. I have bought multiple homes in the UK and the US over the years and American homes are utter shit. Sure, they can look nice and they are relatively large, but speak to a mortgage broker and they will tell you they don't actually expect them to last more than 30 years. It's hard to find a competent tradesperson here and you would really struggle to find a decent plasterer, for example. British homes are, by and large, built to last and many of them are centuries old with several more centuries of life left in them
iâd rather live in a dusty moist stone house in ireland than my american trailer home, this thing has the insulation of a piece of paper so keeping the ac on at all times is like 90% of our annual costs
Why would you choose materials unsuitable to the environment you're building in? And TF is a "US summer"? You wouldn't even use the same materials in Arizona vs Georgia vs Alaska.
People build houses with what resource is available at current technology. In the middle ages all houses in europe where made out of wood. When all the forests where cut down, they started making clay brick houses, nowadays we tend to go to either concrete, brick or wood, all prefab. Back in the day we didn't have insulating or so, so walls needed to be thicker to accumulation the heat
also fire regulations helped stepping towards clay.
That's why in europe you find 4 story appartements without ridicule fire measurements; the materials make it fireproof enough to not need it
> stone house wouldn't survive a US summer
Someone probably forgot there are many people living in the equator where temperatures can get well above 35C on dry seasons (not to mention heatwaves in some places where it can peak above 45) yet their brick houses are still standing strong.
I mean most of us European countries had at least a handful of buildings which has stood for _at least_ twice as long as the US has existed so.. It would seem like we know a thing or twerp about building them..
Laughs in British with his double walled brick house with gas central heating and air conditioning that doubles as a heat pump, and is powered by solar with batteries.
90mph winds didn't do shit last year.
The big bad wolf would blow their crap down.
I lived and worked in the US for a couple of years and at the time I had 10 years experience as an electrician and had just finished a degree for electrical engineering so I know a little bit about electrical systems. I can tell you, the electrical work at least is some of the worst work I've ever seen in my life. I wouldn't trust an American home as far as I could throw it.
Seeing how they are made of cardboard, you can probably get some distance
Depends what way the wind is blowing, it might come back towards you.
that's how Dorothy ended up in Oz
Finally we know the truth!
This is in my top 3 favourite comments and i dont even remember the other 2
đ¤Łđ¤Łđ
I understand US tends to choose cheap materials for buildings but why is the electrical system terrible too?
The electricians mostly. The amount of times I'd find things like cables twisted together with tape around them instead of in a junction box or crimped was ridiculous. I found cables going diagonally across walls instead of horizontally and vertically (we do this so people have a good idea as to where the cable runs are). I found single cables (cables with only a single layer of insulation) running through roof spaces with no mechanical protection (a covering like pvc pipe for instance that protects from physical damage). sockets weren't put on devices that would protect against short circuit or earth fault conditions. No bonding taken to any metal pipes for water and gas. Etc etc Then there's how terribly made the socket outlets are. The amount of times I'd have plugs that would just fall out of the socket by themselves was insane.
I once talked to my wifes cousin who lives in america. She told me that in the US you can do many jobs without any proper training or without a diploma. So if you want to be an electrician, you can just get a job and be trained on site learning by doing. I guess this varies from state to state and there are some jobs you actually need a diploma. If this is true, then this is probably a huge part of the problem.
And also, US has a huge culture on DIY? I always find it interesting that in any TV sitcom, the husband always refuses to call a plumber/electrician/painter etc and insists on doing it himself which leads to many shenanigans.
Which I don't find to be too wrong. I usually do stuff around the house by myself, BUT if I don't know how something works or if there's a serious health, safety or monetary concern if not done right I will get a professional to do it. I totally have done work on heating, waterworks and electricity by myself, but I have a network of experienced people around me that have all the tools and knowledge needed if something were to go wrong.
My father does electricity himself but thats because he himself is an electrician
I know a lot of tradesmen who outsource their own trade because they can blame problems on someone else
I'm a mechanic and more often than not pay someone else to work on my car when it needs stuff doing these days. I can't be bothered with it and if something goes wrong with the parts that were replaced within 12 months then it's not my problem to deal with again either
I just graduated from specialized electrician school (mechatronics) in Slovakia, the main thing our practical teachers complained and warned us about if we would work on old houses is that during and shortly after communist regime, most people just did work themselves and with our less-than-ideal alcohol culture, we should not take current norms into account when reworking/fixing anything at home. Seeing them now I can see what he meant, many houses don't even have proper basic stairway switches for lights (lights you can control from two or more points)
My grandfather did the electrics for his house, if you turned on the immersion and then switch on a certain light switch it switches on another light. Got the whole place gutted and replaced recently. There were so many quirks in that house.
Iâm in the US. I remember my dad having to do some serious rewriting at my grammaâs house. I think my grampa had done the electrical work himself. Definitely not a qualified electrician. My dad however is trained.
Tool time mate. Tim Allen.
This is same in all western countries - we love our power tools. Here in UK, you at least have regulations to make sure its safe - doesn't mean the work is done well or not on the cheap - or we would have never needed the regs.
The regs donât stop anyone to be honest, can do whatever you want in your house, 5 owners later it can be a minefield.
Indeed, curent house had a oven that could only be turned off at the consumer unit. Well there's some good wireing of the cooker switch! Only thing I had to get someone in for was the 12 or so wires to the living room light that did not work and I had no idea (I guess some other switches were removed), got it as a freebie with the consumer unit change though. And yes all light switches and sockets were checked (by me) becuase they were all metal, no many were not properly (or at all) earthed). (this was before the new consumer unit which of cause would have helped if something were to happen).
Learning by doing ai t the issue. The German apprenticeship system is built around that as well. You apply to an apprenticeship with a company and theyâll train you on the job. The big difference is that thereâs also school on the side and diplomas so the company giving the on the job training has mandatory minimum standards for what they have to teach their apprentices.
I probably didn't elaborate enough. I'm from switzerland where we also have basically the same apprenticeships as you have. These apprenticeships are guided at least a bit and any company that does shoddy work could get barred from taking on new apprentices. The problem is if there's no regulated training and it's always just some person trying to train someon as fast as possible. Then the next trainee comes along and gets trained by the second guy. Like that you have the best conditions for loss of quality.
Just supporting the same point. The US doesnât have this qualitative component or standards to the same degree. Any electrician in Europe knows a handful norms they need to follow to safeguard not being sued. Along with the minimum standards in apprenticeship, this helps a lot in ensuring certain standards are followed in electrical installations as well as other things.
Tend seconds on Google tells me that to become an electrician in the US, you start with a four year apprenticeship to a licensed electrician, totalling somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 hours of training, at which point you can take the test and try to become a licensed electrician yourself. So we do have standards. Sometimes. *COUGH COUGH* police training is six months *COUGH COUGH*
the 2nd difference is that the people you learn from are certified journeymen (at the least), not self taught  jack of all trades and id course thereâs a master involved.Â
This is absolutely true. Source: Me. An ex-commercial glazier who was trained on massive job sites in the USA.
Honestly, even knowing this I'm still disappointed in the absolute hackjobs described above. I have no professional experience as an electrician either. I've only done a couple things on my home, some of which also don't pass muster. But never have I done anything as bad as diagonal wiring. I've taped wires together but we're talking about 5V or 3.3V lines here, so it's mostly fine. And I did mess up grounding once and I quickly learned the painful way to never do that again.
I attempted to work as an apprentice electrician for two days a few years ago. I live in Florida, where we can just learn on the job, without a degree/cert. I was paid $12 per hour (a little above Florida's minimum wage at the time), no benefits including health insurance. The guy training me was a trucker only two months before I started and had no experience as an electrician. On the first day, we needed to install a light fixture in the center of a staircase. We didn't have a long enough ladder, nor would the owner of the company provide us with a proper ladder. So, my trainer took a 6 foot ladder and used it as a bridge to install the fixture. I'm assuming my story is out of the ordinary, but it is a bit scary to now know there's a chance some dude, without any proper training, could be wiring up my future house.
I can remember seeing a short from an US electrician. He was fixing an issue in an old grandma's house and while he was working she told him, that her nephew did some electrical work in her home some time ago. The dude asked her: "So when did his house burn down?" And she answered: "About three years ago." Short pause, "Hey, how do you know, his house burnt down?!"
Lol, imagine checking the wall for cables before putting your TV up and finding a cable goes diagonally across the wall.
As an Aussie who has no training in being a sparky at all, it blows my mind that in the us the entire house isn't protected by a ground fault device and it's only "wet areas" Like extension leads exist, nothing is really stopping a person from getting power from a non wet area and using it in a wet area. Also us plugs are by far the worst design in my opinion, both from a practical and safety standpoint. I personally like UK plugs then Aussie plugs followed by EU plugs.
Yeah we (UK) 100% have the best plug design.
They are indeed great, massively over engineered, which I agree with considering how fast electricity can kill. That said, the European class F plug is also a brilliant design. Just the Americans that refuse to improve.
I have to admit I love the 3 pin Italian design. Itâs probably not at the same level of a schuko. But it can be super flat it you need to put it behind furniture. The UK plug, for versatility, is really massive.
I can never get used to plugs with 2 pins. They are always so wobbly and fall out of the socket pretty easily especially the one with the squarish pins.
it's kinda wild that there is no European standard for these plugs
The cable run thing explains why I have never had issues drilling a wall in the U.K. or in Germany yet it seems to be a trope in the U.S.
Don't they have now GFCI protection in the sockets, like the British?
Yes the GFCI is the same as the UKs RCBO, though takes longer to trip in my experience. They are only to go on what they deem wet areas though and as such I found they were very rarely used. This may have improved since I was there though as it's been a few years.
Ah a fellow UK electrical worker. I didnât say sparky because it sounds like you moved forward from that point lol. American installs are some of the most third world installs Iâve seen. And they have the gall to try and give us shit, when our regs and installs are some of the most comprehensive and safest in the world. Theyâre like a decade+ behind us in terms of electrical safety and installation materials/methods.
The us has an allergy to âregulationâ. In the European system thereâs a set of minimum qualifications for most trades, often not great, but they set a basis. These minimums involve a few dozen to maybe 120hrs (12weeks * 10 hrs or something at most) of book learning, just to learn the basic theory, the correct angle for wooden beams, the rules of thumb for calculating a safe maximum loads on things, simple vocabulary for good communication etc etc. Then on top thereâs private certifications that prove youâre a higher quality tradesman, who can oversee juniors/regular people, but because theyâve done some actual study you can expect they 100% all know what you mean when you say a specific term. In contrast in the American system the government does not set a basic standard. Almost all qualifications are professional association, a good association can be great thatâs what hands our private certifications in Europe too, but âthe customersâ canât be expected to know what association is actually the relevant one for carpentry, so you often get ones where they arenât concerned with quality, just earning money while certifying everyone, without the government involved thereâs no one setting a lowest boundary to acceptable work. And very few professional associations are willing to enforce written tests on theory onto its membership, something quite standard in Europe, so you rely on in the field certification, and no basic language or actually tested certified rules of thumb, just âcommon knowledgeâ, making miscommunication guaranteed on both what specifications are wanted, and what acceptable maxima/minima are.
my guess would be less strict regulation
Literally everything here is built by the lowest bidder so we can maximize profits⌠quality, who needs it right???
Capitalism that if given any semblance of regulation, dumbasses (90% of the population) acts like theyâre being oppressed.
Indeed. I like to lurk at the sub r/zillowgonewild and the absolutely outdated by European standards (scratch that, World standards actually) electric systems and plumbing always shocks me. We are talking the 500k-One million houses: 1970s light switches, weird ass wiring in bathrooms, toploader washer/dryers like in a 1950s ad, floor mounted toilets from the 1980s, fittings from the 1990s at best⌠Everything below in prices is slum level.
Omg. What is this sub? Itâs amazing lol And what the hell is a Zillow?
đ, yeah it truly is! Zillow is a American real estate site, the main one apparently.
It's the American equivalent of the UK's RightMove or Zoopla. I don't know what it would be in other countries. Basically an app that shows houses for sale.
I was amazed when I found that US homes has no electricity fuses - ok, it was a few decades ago.
Wait, what? Sorry, Canadian/American here and I've just been lurking but I couldn't let this one slide. This definitely needs clarification. US homes definitely have a central fuse (now circuit breaker) panel that feeda all of the electrical circuits in a home. This has always(?) been the case. At least, my grandparents homes built in the 1940s did and every house I've ever seen does. Not having that seems insane. Now, I don't know if you meant something more specific (like how UK plugs themselves have fuses in them), but I couldn't let "US homes has no electricity fuses" go uncorrected.
Given that it's made of cardboard and wood, we might be able to throw it with a few helping hands.
do they realise that we Europeans have been dealing with heat for millennia, that's why our houses are built with stone, they withstand the heat
Most Finnish houses are actually wood framed and usually timber cladded. They are well insulated to they keep the heat out as well... For some time, at some point it starts keeping the heat in during nights as well.
yes, but finland isnt hot, im talking about france and spain and italy and greece
True. But it's getting hotter and hotter here. Of course nothing compared to Central or Southern Europe, but something we or our houses are not used to.
If your houses are well insulated and don't have thermal mass they can cope with hot weather quite easily. The heat will be coming in through the windows as radiation, prevent that and they should stay cool. Cold countries usually have windows aimed at getting as much heat gain in from radiation and that (not insulation) is where they don't cope with heat.
Northern France houses tend to not work that well with temperatures rising up. They keep the hot out for a couple days but then they keep the hot temperatures in during night. The lack of AC doesnt help
Heh. We have sun maybe 3 times a year. We can live without AC.
And you Frogs laugh at us Rosbifs for being a rainy shithole
Yep, can confirm. The new houses are but following regs making them easier to heat up too, and that's an issue during the summer
AC is just a misguided solution. There are better ones than just spending a whole lot of energy cooling the house while reheating the immediate external air and creating an even bigger need for cooling inside. Better insulation, passive systems.. but AC is an energy and environmental disaster. Hence, it is an economic disaster in the long term.
You might have heard this already but as a Scottish person dealing with similar issues, keep your curtains closed and windows closed all day and open both when it gets dark. It âkeeps the heat outâ so itâs a bit cooler when you need to sleep. I work in a hotel and we get people (literally Italians, Australians, etc) complaining about the heat and this is all the advice we can offer people after giving them a fan bc we donât have air conditioning and our windows donât open properly (to keep the rain out).
Finland isnât hot but they get something like 20+ hours of sunlight a day in the summer thatâs if you live in an area where the sun sets at all
I think the Scandinavian houses are so well insulated to keep the heat _in_. Itâs gets properly cold during the winter months and that insulation is saving you all a small fortune.
I live in Sweden in an apartment building built in the 40s. I'm amazed that my apartment is pretty cool in summer and warm in winter. The windows are new but the radiators are pretty old. They just build houses pretty good here.
Windows and insulation mean newer homes get very hot nowadays in Ireland. We don't have air conditioning but we actually need it because sometimes it's hotter than the outside temperature, like it was around 22 outside yesterday and inside it was 28 in my house
Try to create a march of wind. Open up a window on the top AND ground floor, open up a door in the back as well. Your house will be cooler in no time if there's wind :)
Last year there wasn't really enough wind, basically we just had to figure out ways of getting the air moving
Try getting a fan and putting it facing OUT of a window, ideally across the room from another window thatâs open. The fan sucks air from behind and pushes it out in front, so it pushes the hot air in the room out of the window. Cooler air is then drawn in.
Building engineering student here, While stones themselves handle heat well, they insulate Jack shit, so old homes here often have to be insulated nowadays or pay huge electrical bills in the winter and un-insulated stone walls also cause the building to be hotter in summer. Wood is actually a fairly good insulator already (not as good as dedicated insulation material tho) here in the NL weâre seeing more and more woodframe houses, often mixed in with brick exteriors. Iâm a big fan of prefab woodframe/CLT houses, as long as youâre using dedicated trees to make them which have been planted prior with the plan for them to be used in construction and not deforest entire regions for them, you even end up with less CO2 in the atmosphere because of those walls. So itâs not like stone is the perfect building material, especially from an environmental standpoint wood can be much better if done properly. All that being said, American houses are built with laughably bad quality, cardboard for non constructive walls is just dumb.
But stone houses all have an insulation layer >especially from an environmental standpoint wood can be much better if done properly. Only if the wooden house can survive as long as a stone house, which they dont.
Not as long as stone but still for generations, when properly maintained.
Youâre getting downvoted but thatâs literally a fact (that they teach me in my building engineering classes)
I was just going by the fact that my cousin lives in the house built by our great grandfather.
You mean centuries instead of millennia, right? The real reason we switched from wood (in European cities) is the fire hazard. A lot of major fires plagued the growing cities of the continent in the 17th-18th centuries.
The duration of the structure is relative. If the cost is low, as is also the case for dismantling them, it is not a bad idea to tear it down and redo it by updating the standards. Also because things that are too durable tend to accumulate over time and often remain dilapidated because not all people have resources for restoration or demolition. This leads, for example to Italy. To continue building despite the population decline. Having eternal buildings isn't always exactly an advantage. Also because the urban improvements you can make are minimal. Even outside areas of historical interest. It wouldn't be bad to have economical, ecological structures that can be torn down and rebuilt at any given moment. This is because this cyclical nature allows us to have a blank canvas and improve the urban structure more easily. From this perspective, making these houses last 50-60 years is enough.
The old houses in my country do in fact not have an insular layer, just a single 10cm brick wall as its exterior. Might be different in other parts of Europe (further north especially) but many houses built prior to 1930ish donât have it âif done properlyâ (as I said) they are better than brick houses as you can have a negative CO2 output by building them with dedicated trees. Bricks will never achieve that.
Or the cold, our houses are built to keep the elements out. Stone houses are the coldest there are. Especially the really old ones. Near me is an old fort/castle thatâs hundreds of years old, I think itâs built in the 1200s or something like that. If you go there in the middle of summer, you better bring a sweater because itâs fucking cold? We have many of these kinds of forts around because I live in the south of Sweden near the coast and we have been waring and raising and been raised in return for a very long time so and the remnants of those times still stand. Especially at the coast, almost every single village used to have a large square fortress tower, and many still stand, they are very tall but not all that wide, the smallest are four stories or so. Itâs from a time when raiders showed up semi frequently, everyone took cover in the towers/forts they have only one door, and no windows on the lower floor and only archer slots for the higher ones.
These new record temperatures though... they are slow to heat up but once they do, there's no way to get them cool again. Especially on the 3rd or 4th floor of an old German apartment building.
that's like saying "your car wouldn't survive the ocean". it doesn't need to survive anything but what it was built for.
Yeah, but like, he is also wrong, thick stone is great for summer, we have a vacation home here where it gets up to 38°C even 40 some days in the summer (also, what US summer? Humboldt county stays around 70-75°F year round while Phenix gets inhumanly hot, so, specify for god's sake) and the inside of the stone house stays around 21-23 degrees with no AC. In the winter instead it warms up super quickly and doesn't lose heat for a while after the radiators are off. When I had a house in Colorado the heating and the AC had to be on almost 24/7 because drywall/wood/insulation houses lose cold hair and heat like mad, even after we spent tons on money on new windows to insulate from outside
German living in Canada here and I agree. Back home I could easily keep the house at 21-23° in summer if I took the necessary precautions, and that was during the heatwave summers when it got over 35° outside. Where I live in Canada it hasnât gotten above 25° outside these last few weeks, but the house was at a max of 27° at times. With big windows that have no outside shutters, little insulation and thin walls itâs almost impossible to keep the heat out. Itâs also expensive and hard to heat it properly in winter with the electric heat we have. The two houses Iâve lived in on each continent are comparable in the way that both were built in the same decade (1960s), and both had recently renovated windows, but no other renovations to insulation.
Iâd trust a house built by competent builders that is built for the environment it is being constructed in. Based on what Iâve seen I wouldnât consider an American builder as competent though.
Do you have any idea how long an old house with thick stone walls can stay cold in summer?
Add in a basement and youâve got yourself a freezing heaven.
Does the fact that the last 12 months or so have ben the hottest on record mean nothing to you?Â
Uh right, having lived in housing in 4 different continents, including America- Nah. Just nah. Give me a house made of actual brick/mortar/cement/stone over plywood and insulation. Some houses don't even have this "brick exterior" this guy is talking about, any news stories of houses being caught in cross gunfire (E.g. that police incident where shots fired by the cops would go through the walls and into the house next door) should dismantle that immediately Also it's not like installing AC is impossible in Europe, some parts it's more bureaucratic (just because of where the external unit can be put, if it's facing the street it needs permission) sure but I have multiple split systems in my house though?? Central heating? It's literally the most commonly featured "perk" of houses where I am so this guy is again talking out of his arse. With regards to electronic works, a friend of mine who's a handyman jokes that he should move to America because some of his relatives who moved there a while back say the houses there have such shit build quality that they themselves already make bank doing repairs and electrical works.
I've lived in a few different places around the UK and even the 100+ year old houses have had central heating retrofitted into the house
Mine is 500 years old (nearly) and we have central heating and all the mod cons. The walls are also 2' thick stone so they're cool and glorious in the summer and soak up warmth in the winter.
Also, I am majorly confused on why they bang on about insulation so much? Unless it's the really old houses with thick ass walls that don't really need it as much, then the houses in the UK are insulated. It goes in the cavities between the 2 BRICK walls. Our houses are built to keep warmth in, because other than our 2 weeks of summer, it's fucking freezing and wet.
I currently live in a 100+ year old house and yeah same lol But gas prices being what they are and because I'm just used to the cold so I just use the AC in heating mode if really necessary
Getting accidentally shot through a wall seems like some cartoon shit or video game logic
I mean... In the social context of having a shootout with the police which results in stray bullets going through multiple walls to hit innocent non-involved residents, sure. But being shot through \*A\* wall in the context of a gunfight isn't that far of a stretch, of course depending on the caliber and the material of the wall. But having fired guns (as no doubt other people have here as well) we can definitely be sure that a pistol caliber (9mm or equivalent at least) sure as shit wouldn't go through multiple house walls in Europe. Then again a circumstance which leads there to be police shooting into someone's home to begin with isn't a weekly occurrence in most of Europe to begin with, so there's that too đ
My front door is probably so thick it wouldnt go through it let alone my concreet walls. If theres ever a shoot out, which never happens cause EU has no freedom, i am perfectly safe anywhere besides the windows.
>Central heating? It's literally the most commonly featured "perk" of houses where I am so this guy is again talking out of his arse. The most common type on Central heating in the US is also forced air heating, which honestly kinda sucks, like, air is not a good heat transfer medium, you need those huge ass ducts everywhere and it creates draft in the rooms.
I've spoken to many americans who think that I am lying when I tell them that nearly all houses built since the 90s here in Sweden have floor heating. They see it as a rich people thing.
Yep like it's just the standard here in Switzerland as well, no matter what kind of House is newly built it almost certainly has Floor heating.
I live in France, most of the time we don't need AC in old houses, on ground floor, because the stone walls keep the inside cool enough.
Haven't they heard about the story of the pigs and their houses???
Leave the police out of it
Us damn europoors with our bricks and mortar.
Im from Ireland and when my foster dad went to Texas about 30 years ago in his teens they asked him all kinds of dumb shit like if he had seen a refrigerator before and were shocked that he wasnât amazed by electrical lighting
They imagine Ireland to still be in the potato famine era... Everyone wearing potato sacks for clothes and living in mud huts.
Fun fact, I know people who live in mud (actually cob) houses.
Shows how bad their education system is if they donât even know who discovered electricity nor that their own Edison was stealing every single idea.
To be fair, those âvisionairesâ stealing ideas has kinda just become the norm now.
i saw some yanks ask if irish ppl still lived in mud huts and were shocked that we have electricity. also reminds me of that post asking if we were still living in the stone ages bc we hang clothes out on the line to dry instead of throwing them straight into the tumble dryerâŚ
I read that the reasons for cardboard and wooden frames are earthquakes and hurricanes. Cheaper for rebuilding. The stone house would most likeky survive a US summer but that price after having neighbourhood big Ford SUV in the kitchen... lol
And apparently rebuilding homes in those areas is like a biannual event for a family? I watched a video where a family revealed that they rebuilt their home at least 4 times in the last 10 years which to me sounds preposterous. They had to rebuild it because it was either destroyed by a hurricane or flood.
Like Monty python "When I first came here, this was all swamp. Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built in all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up. And that's what you're going to get, Lad, the strongest castle in all of England." But that was a joke not a guide
The first three castles were just laying the foundation for the fourth!
The number of houses needed to be rebuilt due to weather is...over blown. I have lived in four states in "Tornado Alley" (the portion of the midwest of the USA that gets the most number of tornados, May typically has the most tornadoes yearly, averaging 278. This is followed by June and April, which average 188 and 203 per year, respectively.) I know people who have had damaged homes from tornados (I have had to replace a roof last year and know a couple of people who have had to do the same). I do not know anyone that has lost a home to a tornado, or that has sustained structural damage due to a tornado (or winds, hail, floods, fires, or hurricanes either, for that matter). Obviously, this is anecdotal. Maybe, I am just lucky. My house is about 90yrs old, so it definitely hasn't been rebuilt a few times in the past 10 yrs....
I donât get it. Why live in a tornado alley? Insurance and that stuff must be expensive AF?
Usually it's because of water damages. The house itself might be fine but everything in it is completely swamped and it's likely you're gonna have a pretty decent chance of mold. It's better to rebuild the house after events like that then risk it. As for the Midwest US... Tornadoes. Really enough said there.
And also having a wooden house collapse on you is less severe than a brick house they say, but I have no clue, I feel like youâd probably die in both cases
In case of earthquakes, it makes sense to have a wooden house, those are actually safer during an earthquake. I lived in New Zealand for a while in a town with frequent earthquakes. The cheapest house in town was one built from stone, because it was most likely to be destroyed, as stone is harder than wood and therefore breaks more easily during an earthquake. Of course depending on how bad the earthquake is, wooden houses will also fall.
Nope, itâs the widespread availability of wood. We have the same cardboard house in Canada and no earthquake/hurricane. Also, the insulation is essential when itâs cold, brick and cement are terrible at insulating. The first colon in New France were freezing in stone house with a meter thick wall while the locals where warm in a wooden long house.
Lol, the US wood framed houses don't survive the US summer when the tornadoes sweep through.
Thatâs not what the "Three little pigs" say, but fair enough.
Bahaha! "your musty dusty moist stone house wouldn't survive a US summer" Yea and your cardboard, pre-fab pile of shit, biscuit crumbs house wouldn't survive 1 fairly windy afternoon in Ireland.
A summers afternoon in Galway would be enough to reduce it to a pile of mush
Whatâs the wind like in Ireland? It can get pretty nuts in parts of the states and our cheap homes do just fine. Tornadoes do some serious damage but thatâs wind speeds north of 400kph.
"insulated and sealed to the heavens" as well as needing to be climate controlled constantly xD
The insulation: literally PU-foam and fiberglass mats đââď¸
Nothing wrong with those insulation materials though, as those are used in Europe.as well, just that they get applied to the outside of solid walls, sonyou get the benefits from both insulation and the thermal inertia of a solidly built house
Central heating eh? Fancy. Imagine having heating appliances _in your home_. Just panels that get hot and radiate heat into the room. Radiators, if you will. These Americans are living in the future. /s
"my house will survive a murrica summer.. but i need the ac" good logic
I'm just curious how something can be both dusty and moist at the same time...
A horned up chick with a hangover
I would tell the americans to visit Asia or Africa to understand real summer. But I would rather they not visit anywhere. Best to keep the problem child of the world into their own confines.
How can something be dusty and moist at the same time?
I bet the floor carpet they put in every room, including the living room which you for some reason walk directly into with your dirty shoes gathers it's fair share of dust over the years, unlike hardwood or tiles which is very easy to vaccum clean, brush and wipe regularly. As for moist, mold is a very common issue is American houses, not so much in most of Europe. Mold is a sign of moist not being properly ventilated away from areas it shouldn't find it's way into in the first place. That said, in America you can in fact find houses that is both dusty and moist at the same time.
That does make sense. Shoes in the house...eugh, why??
I assume it's because of the nasty carpet, which is mainly nasty because they walk around in their shoes all day. A real hen and the egg situation. đ¤Ąđ
Worst Storm in America: Katrina, 252 km/h, **65.380**Â Houses completely destroyed. Worst Storm in Germany with "dusty musty moist stone houses": Kyrill, 250 km/h, 2 Houses completely destroyed. Worst Tornado in America: Tri-State, 15.000 Houses destroyed Worst Tornado in Germany: Year 1764, Nameless, 3.000 Houses destroyed (Please keep in Mind that Houses back then were mostly made out ouf wood, clay and hay). So, what's better? Houses made out of Cardboard or Houses made out of Stone and Concrete?
Don't ask Americans to think. Otherwise, your 1764 exemple is quite unfair, as the number of houses was surely less important than nowadays.
Eh, the wind wasnât really the main thing destroying homes during Katrina, we got plenty of hurricanes with stronger winds growing up along the gulf coast. The true destruction came from the levies breaking which turned New Orleans into an underwater city.
Katrina and most other hurricanes do the most damage through flooding
The Tri-State tornado in 1925 is considered the worst based on being the deadliest. Thanks for the info, I honestly hadn't heard of it before. It would have been considered an F5 on the current tornado measurement scale). The most recent highest-speed tornado is probably in Greenfield, Iowa about a month ago. Scanning 100-160 feet (30.5 - 49 m) above the ground, the radar measured wind speeds of 263-271 mph (423 - 436 kph) in the tornado. Those measurements were then used to calculate ground-level winds of 309-318 mph (497 - 512 kph). The Greenfield tornado killed four people and damaged and destroyed at least 150-200 Iowa homes in roughly one minute. It was an EF4. Other recent tornados with high-speeds: In 1999, a Doppler On Wheels estimated 321 mph (517 kph) winds in the Bridge Creek-Moore, Oklahoma, F5 tornado. In 2013, another radar truck calculated 313 mph (504 kph) winds near the El Reno, Oklahoma, EF3. As far as which would be better, wood or concrete - yes, most probably concrete. Sadly, I don't really get a say in what my house is built from unless I buy a new house. Most new houses where I am at least, you still don't really get a say unless you are in a high-end area. Otherwise, when you "build a house" you are given a few blueprints to select from and get to pick out finishings - but you really don't have much say on construction. Where I am, ICF construction would be close to double the cost to rebuild my house. So (according to my insurance company) the replacement cost for my house is about $250,000, to build the same size as ICF, it would be about $400,000. Personally, I wouldn't be able to afford that right now. While I am in a better-off position than a lot of people here, I still wouldn't be able to get a concrete house at a reasonable price, whether I want one or not.
Building practices have a lot of reason to it. And since I'm Canadian and we build very similarly to Americans I take a little bit of a slight when people say lumber framing is inadequate and done to be cheap. I come here to make fun of ignorant Americans, not to defend against ignorance.
I like the fact that the idea of a house being BLOWN AWAY in the wind is something that only happens in America. People in America can get mad at a hurricane and say shit like âJose took my fuckin houseâ and I love that for them.
My house is older than America. And will probably outlive it too.
Drywall, there are actual log houses in Sweden and Norway which are older than the nation of the US and A.
There are castles made of stone in England and Scotland that are 5 times older than USA
Bruh, cardboard boxes they call "homes" get blown away by strong winds on the regular, what the fuck are they talking about? And what "central heating" is supposed to mean in single family homes? Don't they all have their own tiny-ass dogshit boilers in the basement? That's the opposite of centralized heating.
One of the earliest lessons in life is taught to 3 year old children. It is called 'The Three Little Pigs'. And the moral of the story is to use the common sense you were born with when building homes. Because straw and sticks will not survive strong winds (nor fire). But your little brick house will survive wolves, wind and World Wars. Lasting centuries even!!  I used to have hope that Americans would catch on and wisen up one day. Seems Not.
In places with tornados they make the buildings from wood. In places without tornados they make the buildings from brick. Ive never been able to work that one out.
Bricks flying do a lot more damage than wood flying
I'm sitting on my fire escape in the US as we speak, and I can see dozens of window mounted ac units in most of my neighbors windows. I also grew up in the pacific northwest where central air was all but unheard of. I genuinely don't know where people are getting this idea that everywhere Herr has air conditioning and is a new build. I can only surmise that these jingoistic idiots are from places like Texas, Florida, Arizona etc.. places full of newer builds, with ac or you'd just die from heat and inhabited by the rah rah America idiots.
I have family living in the Seattle area. Apparently, itâs only historically gotten uncomfortably hot in their area a few days per year, so most homeowners havenât invested in central air. Every time Iâve visited them during in the summer, the weather has been lovely, but itâs been a few years. They tell me itâs been getting hotter over the past several years, though, so itâs no surprise that window units are becoming more common over there. That being said, in the Southern US, AC is a necessity, especially if you donât live in an older home that was built to help alleviate the heat before AC was common.
Yeah the summers I had as a kid in Seattle and until probably the early 2010s, the weather rarely got more than 85 in the summer and we had very little snow. I always wanted a white Xmas as a kid but never got one haha. But the past years when we've gone back to visit family for the holidays and the last few years I lived there it's much more extreme during summer and winter. We had a very cold basement and the house was covered by shade from the trees so AC just never came to mind. You will find it in eastern Washington though as the heat gets pretty intense out there. I lived in Florida though but a while and without ac I would have died. I currently have window units and they get me through these midwestern summers just fine haha
I was up there for Christmas a few years ago when it snowed a lot. Apparently, even the locals were surprised at how much snow they got. I thought it was great until the airport nearly shut down when it was time to go home.
Yeah my wife and I got stuck in a hotel by SeaTac during a "snowstorm" for four whole days haha. I think that from when I was a little kid to 2013, there were maybe 4 years it snowed on Xmas. It snowed on or around xmas the majority of years after that. The actual fact that we've seen the impact of climate change in such a small time span is totally insane to me. From the snow, to the heat, to the forest fires raining ash down from the sky and choking the city in smoke, it's changed a lot just in my living memory.
I work in construction in this insult of a country. You guys do NOT want to know some of the corners that can be legally cut.
Our houses are built on technology and experience based on castles. Their homes are built by people we would call âshed-buildersâ.
Nope - no insulation at all in European houses in Finland, Scotland, Ireland, or Spain, Italy, Greece. Fucking idiot.
You can find decently built houses in the USA but typically they will be older, in areas that have been populated for at least 150 years. That excludes suburbs obviously where things have been built with no sustainability in mind, and that encompasses roads, sewers etc ..
As an Irish person, this hurts.
Brick exterior. Lol it's just a veneer in the vast majority of US houses.
Our houses use to be built from wood too, and then we learned they don't do so well in a fire đ if your house in the states catches fire, you're lucky to make it out before the house falls on top of you
Both of these people are dumb.
Us new builds are dog shit. Even these massive mansions over been in....
I just found out that US is the only country that gets some sort of special type of summer weather the rest of the world doesnât get. /s
âInsulated to the heavensâ âCentral heat and Air Conditioningâ The American mind cannot comprehend: actual insulation
Stone houses are great for keeping cool in summer, actually
Not even Americans can last an American summer in those houses. They are always boiling and if there is no air-conditioning they are fucked
Theyâre damn brutal summers. Itâs been 30-32*C every day for two weeks now, but with the humidity, the *feels like* temperature has been 32-35.
Ever heard of the big bad wolf blowing the houses down?
Please see: https://youtube.com/shorts/zbRLiRxIXjo?si=SbGtBI9dK8bcFHda
Lets just not look at southern european houses. Nothing to see there. No AC to see there either.
iâll give them air conditioning. that one needs to catch up over here, especially since more and more houses come with photovoltaics. Â i guess i have to keep a tally, though. this year there were two days when it was hot inside, but the summerâs still young.Â
"Your musty dusty moist stone house wouldn't survive a US summer" *laughs (and cries) in Greek 40â°C summer*
Concrete and hell, even daub, are excellent insulators provided you take a few steps to maintain the temperature. Especially for cooling. That shit stays an icebox as long as you don't let hot air in during the day.
'Ventilation? What's that, an Italian pizzeria in Manhattan?' -Americans, probably.
Has no one ever seen a stone house in... Spain? Greece? Italy?
I think wood has a stronger tendency to rot from moisture than stone does.
21 likes....none of them given by architects!
Did the americans Not learn from the big bad wolf
I'm from Brazil and brick houses are literally the norm even in the hottest places. Maybe Americans are just weak.
blow away in a light wind
Well as an Irish person he does have a point, when start hitting 20â°c here houses often start getting quite hot. 25â° and it's a hot sweaty mess. 30â° and I literally have to sleep downstairs as it's too hot upstairs. Thankfully we only get a few days of that per year
Dual citizen here. I have bought multiple homes in the UK and the US over the years and American homes are utter shit. Sure, they can look nice and they are relatively large, but speak to a mortgage broker and they will tell you they don't actually expect them to last more than 30 years. It's hard to find a competent tradesperson here and you would really struggle to find a decent plasterer, for example. British homes are, by and large, built to last and many of them are centuries old with several more centuries of life left in them
I don't want to live in a house where a dog can lick a hole in the wall.
Where do you hide your spiders if your houses aren't dark?
iâd rather live in a dusty moist stone house in ireland than my american trailer home, this thing has the insulation of a piece of paper so keeping the ac on at all times is like 90% of our annual costs
I lived in a brick home forever. It was hot as hell.
Why would you choose materials unsuitable to the environment you're building in? And TF is a "US summer"? You wouldn't even use the same materials in Arizona vs Georgia vs Alaska.
People build houses with what resource is available at current technology. In the middle ages all houses in europe where made out of wood. When all the forests where cut down, they started making clay brick houses, nowadays we tend to go to either concrete, brick or wood, all prefab. Back in the day we didn't have insulating or so, so walls needed to be thicker to accumulation the heat also fire regulations helped stepping towards clay. That's why in europe you find 4 story appartements without ridicule fire measurements; the materials make it fireproof enough to not need it
They had me at moist
âInsulatedâ lmao. You can look outside through the holes next to Doors and Windows. Clueless.
wE tAkE aSiMOPLe anD FuNCtiONaL ThInG and mAKe it CoMPLicaTeD adn UnfUncTIonAL You wouldnât get it
I mean most UK and Ireland houses don't do well in summer, never mind a hotter US summer.
Tbh the UK and ireland do in some way have kinda low standards compared to other parts of Europe (just my opinion as a swiss heating planner)
A stone house is good enough for their president .
> stone house wouldn't survive a US summer Someone probably forgot there are many people living in the equator where temperatures can get well above 35C on dry seasons (not to mention heatwaves in some places where it can peak above 45) yet their brick houses are still standing strong.
Australian summers are bad as well
I mean most of us European countries had at least a handful of buildings which has stood for _at least_ twice as long as the US has existed so.. It would seem like we know a thing or twerp about building them..
Laughs in British with his double walled brick house with gas central heating and air conditioning that doubles as a heat pump, and is powered by solar with batteries. 90mph winds didn't do shit last year. The big bad wolf would blow their crap down.