ELI5, why are wooden houses so prevalent in the US vs UK?

280 views

My wife is from upstate New York and every home is made from wood, I don’t think I’ve seen a wooden house in the UK. Maybe one or two grade 1 listed pubs.

I get the proximity to cheaper materials, the availability of brick, local resources etc.. But I also see it reflected in the price £400k, for a 4 bed in East Greenbush (outside Albany), vs £700k for a 4-bedroom brick house outside Chester (I thought roughly equivalent, if not weighted in favor of NY).

Surely there’s a market for cheaper wooden houses in the UK? What’s the deal?

In: 15

19 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

I cannot speak for the rest of the continental US, but brick buildings in California have long gone out of style because they are generally unreinforced. Basically, the only thing holding a brick building up is the masonry (“glue”) between the bricks, compared with a wood building that has all sorts of connections that keeps it intact. An unreinforced masonry building will basically crumble in the face of rapid, violent shaking.

You are viewing 1 out of 19 answers, click here to view all answers.