- May 13, 2003
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Originally posted by: Perknose
Originally posted by: Cdubneeddeal
Have none of you pups ever heard the expression, "built like a brick ****house"?
My parents house was build ~1870-1880, and it's built like a brick shit house despite being build out of wood. The stuff is so heat treated at this point, some of it is closer to petrified wood. Replacing the electrical wiring there sucked.
So that would show a very good reason for using wood over using brick in construction then... score 1 for wood, bricks 0 lol
There are tons of brick houses in Michigan and tons of wood houses with a lot being a mix of the two. However, there isn't much brick available in some parts of the country so it usually comes down to cost and appearance. Some people don't like brick.
Throckmorton
Lifer
- Aug 23, 2007
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If you think a tree farm is environmentally friendly, you are sorely mistaken.
And of course a lot of wood comes from national forests, at very low royalty costs to the lumber companies. You can go 5 miles from Yellowstone, and in the Beartooths, one of the most beautiful places I have seen, there is logging.
Earthquake prone areas aside, I've also wondered for a while why everything is made of such flimsy easy-to-go-up-in-flames-shredded-by-a-tornado-wood instead of more durable and sturdy concrete or brick.
Where I grew up (outside the US) all houses were made from cement/concrete/bricks. I much prefer a real cement/brick wall to the flimsy drywall over wood beams, but I simply could not affort to build my house that way here.
I guess that's the reason, it's much more expensive here to build brick/concrete than it is to build using cheap wood.
Where I grew up (outside the US) all houses were made from cement/concrete/bricks. I much prefer a real cement/brick wall to the flimsy drywall over wood beams, but I simply could not affort to build my house that way here.
I guess that's the reason, it's much more expensive here to build brick/concrete than it is to build using cheap wood.
ISAslot
Platinum Member
- Jan 22, 2001
- 2,891
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Around here I don't think there are any houses that have a structure made of brick. For new houses, most are wood. There are a few that are using foam forms and then pouring in concrete for the structure. In the 60's and 70's they used concrete block, but not much anymore.
Commercial structures however use a lot of concrete block, poured concrete/steel, and steel.
Brick is used as a decorative facade.
In the early 20th century our commercial buildings were made of brick though.
Commercial structures however use a lot of concrete block, poured concrete/steel, and steel.
Brick is used as a decorative facade.
In the early 20th century our commercial buildings were made of brick though.
The #1 reason for brick and/or stone exteriors is less maintanence than wood. Must not be any house painters here.
Throckmorton
Lifer
- Aug 23, 2007
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They're as bad as any farm. A tree farm is a single age monoculture with very little ecological value, that replaces a natural forest. A lot of water and fertilizer is used to grow trees quickly. "Planting a tree" sounds good to hippies, but is not necessarily good.
http://www.gly.uga.edu/railsback/CTW/TreeFarm.jpeg
(That pic is from here... interesting article http://www.gly.uga.edu/railsback/CTW.html)
http://www.heritageplantations.com/Farm.jpg
http://brennertreefarm.hypermart.net/farmphoto.jpg
jaqie
Platinum Member
- Apr 6, 2008
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They aren't as good for the environment as a natural forest, but compared to the alternative (harvesting natural forests) they are about as perfect as we can get. Nobody seems to complain about corn fields and the like, and this is basically the same thing, growing and harvesting resources for ourselves.
Interesting. I live in southern georgia.
Trees are going to be harvested from somewhere. I'd rather cut trees from a tree farm for the paper and building industries than virgin forests. There are pine species that can be harvested for pulp in as little as 15 years from seedlings. Trees grown for lumber take 20-25 years. Talk about long range farming...
Throckmorton
Lifer
- Aug 23, 2007
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jaqie
Platinum Member
- Apr 6, 2008
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Ohh, there's a good one, synthetic plastic. As if oil was a renewable resource and we had an infinite supply! Most plastics are made partly or wholly from oils, even synthetics - that is, the ones that are not designed to break down in a few years. Those are made from grains, and the process is not near as efficient as growing the pine itself. So we replace treefarms with more corn farms to get material for biosynthetic plastic?
The biggest problem with those is not that, though - it is the cost of making the plastic versus making pine lumber in treefarms.
The biggest problem with those is not that, though - it is the cost of making the plastic versus making pine lumber in treefarms.
I wondered the same thing when I moved here. No one builds homes from wood, but in states man ... its take like one semester to get a house us, sometime they even hall them in trucks and just drop them somewhere and put in a few nails ...lol
There a lot of interesting things in this place.
There a lot of interesting things in this place.
How do you avoid them? Duck?
Its not the price, but the labor, that makes brick building so expensive. A house made of brick would likely take three times as much time to build. A house with stick walls that can ultimately last 40 years is good enough. Also, you could imagine that changes which might need to be made based on the preference of the owners would be more difficult.
Throckmorton
Lifer
- Aug 23, 2007
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Well tree farms are of course a lot better than virgin forests or even secondary growth but pretty mature forest.
They use fertilizer, made with oil, for tree farms anyway.
I bet there is enough existing plastic to recycle into lumber to build every American house for a long time. It may be less expensive.. a plastic table costs less than a wood one. Stop letting loggers use the national forests for pennies, and the value of wood will rise.
waffleironhead
Diamond Member
- Aug 10, 2005
- 7,064
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