why are most suburban houses in the US built with wood, instead of bricks and mortar?
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When building a fresh town into a city from the ground up, you are going to rebuild it a few times. Europe has been around a long time. Things are literally set in stone. We knew building North American cities that we would be going through several rebirths to get to a more final form.
That’s where wood comes in. It’s cheap, plentiful, quiet, fast to build big homes with, cheap, energy efficient when insulated properly, any halfwit handyman can knock a wall down and put it somewhere else in a weekend. Did I mention it’s cheap?
We reconsruct wood houses all the time. Jack it and add a new story. Tear it down to the studs and modernize it. Add a new bedroom. Change the floor plan to open concept. And we fell in love with this concept. Houses are meant to be made to suit you. In Europe people tend to conform to their dwellings. Because it is older than they are and a PITA to modify. And it will be around for a century. But you are kinda stuck with what ya got or it is expensive to change it. That wood house will be fucked in 50 years. But that’s fine. Because society changed in 50 years. How we live and spend our time changed.
We don’t give 2 shits about that 1970’s bungalo. Knock it down and put up a story of concrete parking /retail shops and 5 stories of wood frame condos on top. We make cities that can easily change, evolve and grow.
Also, we live on the ring of fire. Wood structures perform great in earthquakes. They really absorb well and the mass is very low. Concrete and block cracks. Even with the new earthquake codes, it won’t fall down. But it IS condemned from all the cracks.
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