• JPAKx4@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 year ago

      I remember hearing that Europe doesn’t use drywall nearly as much. A benefit of drywall is cost and repairability, but is basically glorified paper, yes.

      • XEAL@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        You don’t have to repair it if you can’t break it.

        Try breaking a brick wall with your head or fists, lol.

        • protist@mander.xyz
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          1 year ago

          Try rebuilding a brick wall after a tornado, you’re going to spend so much more money and you won’t have a house for a lot longer

          • Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 year ago

            That’s the other side of the confusion. You build houses out of sticks and paper, and live in somewhere called Tornado Alley…

              • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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                1 year ago

                I think that was an empirical “you”, not you specifically…

            • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              Yeah, I live in an area prone to tornadoes. Not as tornado prone as the midwest, but we’ve seen tornadoes in this area.

              A particularly notable one touched down in a town not far from here, in the business district. It tore down multiple steel framed cinder block buildings including a Lowe’s Home Improvement Center and a Tractor Supply Company.

              A big bad wolf might not be able to blow a brick house down, but an EF3 tornado certainly can.

          • XEAL@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            I’d like to see a tornado tearing up a brick house as easily as a wood and drywall house.

      • idunnololz@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It also hurts way less if you accidentally hit it as an side benefit. I’m Canadian and we also use drywall for everything.

    • mommykink@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The benefit of stick frame houses is that they can be built quickly, comparatively cheaply, and actually perform much better than other types in hurricane and tornados. The US also has plenty of domestic wood production, so it’s the cheapest material to build with. During the housing boom and suburban sprawl of the 50s (where modern American culture started), where everyone wanted their own house and plot of land in rhe “safe suburbs,” these were all desirable.

      As for the “why don’t you build out of brick and stone,” it’s not like someone would be better off with a stone house in the event of a natural disaster or fire. Even if the structure was still standing, the damage to the foundation would condemn the house under US building code. And now not only does your insurance have to pay to build a new house, it has to pay to have the old one tore down.