When I was a kid I was really confused by Jerry. How could he make a home inside a wall like that? The walls are completely solid, with bricks and mortar. I had to move to Canada to understand that the walls are hollow and the house is made from wood, plaster, plastic and styrofoam.
It was all a lie, wasn't it?
Submitted 19 hours ago by NichEherVielleicht@feddit.org to [deleted]
https://feddit.org/pictrs/image/35d20d0a-19ec-478c-b194-45a66969fa5e.jpeg
Comments
argh_another_username@lemmy.ca 19 hours ago
howrar@lemmy.ca 11 minutes ago
Where did all your pipes and wiring go? What insulates the building?
Madison420@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
Wall voids are extremely common in older brick buildings. In the case of my house and many others there’s an intentional void that is also used as a massive ac duct.
azertyfun@sh.itjust.works 2 minutes ago
The 100 years old brick buildings don’t have any voids. That only started post-WWII when ventilation became a real concern.
But even then those houses are likely to have wooden floors and more modern drywall remodeling in some areas. My house is hurricane-proof but not rat-proof.
GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip 18 hours ago
and the house is made from wood, plaster, plastic and styrofoam.
I’m sorry, is this some kind of americas problem i am too european to understand?
mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 hours ago
Probably. American homes are typically made with lumber and foam insulation. Older homes (pre-WW2) will use lath and plaster for the interior walls, while newer (post WW2) will use drywall (gypsum board) sheets. There are two big reasons for the differences between American and European construction.
First, Europe had the luxury of time and existing infrastructure. When people were building homes hundreds of years ago, they already had trade routes in place for things like stone. When America was being settled and people were moving west, the only things settlers had was whatever they could fit on their wagons. They weren’t carting massive quantities of quarried stone across the wilderness. And that’s assuming they even had quarried stone in the first place; There aren’t very many quarries in America, even today, because America simply doesn’t have good stone. Rome basically sits on a massive slab of marble, which is why they used so much of it in their construction. But America (with a few exceptions, like the mountains) sits on sandy clay. So if stone is incorporated into American construction, it’s usually in the form of brick (made from the aforementioned sandy clay) instead of quarried stone. But again, nobody was going to waste a ton of wagon space (and an entire team of horses to pull said wagon) to cart fucking bricks across the country. They were more focused on things like survival, and stone+mortar didn’t make the cut.
Instead, the settlers carried tools, and then used those tools to build houses out of whatever resources were local to the area they settled in. This usually meant lumber construction, because carrying a saw and axe is much easier than carrying an entire tree. And as they moved into the more sparsely wooded areas, they changed their construction methods to match; The Great Plains used wire fences instead of solid lumber fences, because there wasn’t enough wood for solid fences. Wire was easy to carry in bulk spools, and you can make the posts out of small pieces of found lumber. When they realized cattle would push the wire fences over, they started adding barbs (literally just twists of more wire) to the wires. And that’s how barbed wire fences were invented, and became prolific throughout the area. Not because they were the best at fencing, but because they were good enough and were extremely resource-efficient for what the settlers had laying around.
The second reason is climate. It can be difficult to get Europeans to understand the sheer destructive force of American weather patterns. My buddy from the UK came to visit, and we had a thunder+hail storm while he was here. He was hunkered down below the table, worried that the windows were all about to shatter. Meanwhile, we were just watching TV like it was no big deal. The tornado sirens hadn’t gone off yet, and the hail was only the size of pennies, so we hadn’t even started to worry about it. To us, it was just a regular storm, but my buddy said it was the worst storm he had ever encountered… We had three more storms just like it during his two week stay. Lumber construction is surprisingly good at resisting high winds. Stone will tend to crumble, while lumber will bend and flex. The lumber house sounds like it’s falling apart, but that’s just the creaking and groaning from the joints. And that’s just in regular winds; If an actual tornado comes through, anything less than solid concrete will quickly fall apart. And even the concrete isn’t a for sure thing, as the tornado may just decide to pick the entire foundation slab up.
Zenith@lemm.ee 14 hours ago
I would t consider using more technologically advanced and appropriate materials to be a “problem” I live on a fault line in wildfire country, I have zero interest in living in a stone or concrete house that will fall down and kill everyone, I want a quake rated home, which must be wood, and as far as wildfire, gypsum dryway is fire resistant and part of our fire code.
No one uses styrofoam but high tech high efficiency foam insulation does exist and works far better than stone, brick or concrete while also maintaining breathability
atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 18 hours ago
Probably;
Wood structures fair better in high wind and in earthquakes. Things we have far more of in North America.
frenchfryenjoyer@lemmings.world 11 hours ago
I was so confused too as a Brit since our houses are made of brick and mortar. I still find it weird that houses in NA are made out of wood and drywall
BeigeAgenda@lemmy.ca 19 hours ago
A beautiful entrance like that! In this economy?
NichEherVielleicht@feddit.org 19 hours ago
Of course, the economy, thanks mate!
MeatPilot@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
Changes in construction standards to increase hole ownership has lead mice to cut corners to increase holes and maintain profits from hole renters.
expatriado@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
i have done some renovations and yet to find a tiny living room set with tv in my walls, boomer mice had it easy back then
Wilco@lemm.ee 11 hours ago
They dont even put the little mail boxes on the side.
supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 18 hours ago
[deleted]Draegur@lemmy.zip 17 hours ago
Thanks, Obama
supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 17 hours ago
You are welcome mom
dinren@discuss.online 18 hours ago
😬
ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
Wood products have changed and mice don’t like the glue from the pressed baseboards.
Afflictedlife@lemmy.ml 19 hours ago
When was the last time you saw a house with wainscoting made of wood…
AA5B@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
- looks around * …… now
HikingVet@lemmy.ca 19 hours ago
Every day at home.
Klear@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
That’s an interesting word, isn’t it? Wainscotting… Wainscotting… Wainscotting… Sounds like a little Dorset village, doesn’t it? Wainscotting.
Afflictedlife@lemmy.ml 14 hours ago
We’ve been mentioned on telly!
Afflictedlife@lemmy.ml 12 hours ago
You should check it for killer sheep holes
son_named_bort@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
A new breed of supercats figured out how to condense themselves enough so that they could fit in those holes. It was a sad day for mice everywhere.
PieMePlenty@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
latexgamble@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
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