Why are houses in the US made using wood and not stone/brick?
To expand on some of the other answers here, there are two main reasons:1) economics: brick laying is expensive. A lot of labor is involved. In contrast, fast growing timber wood is plentiful in the USA. Pine (fir, yellow pine, spruce, etc.) family trees in particular grow tall and fast and are excellent as construction raw materials. And the assembly and erection is very fast because all you need is a compressor and a nail gun. Brick requires trowels, pointing, drying time, and heavy trucks for delivery of the raw materials. Not just the bricks are heavy (they are), but also the portland cement, the sand mixes, and the water! Also, think about insulation. In wood construction you already have a natural cavity that you can install the insulation with. In brick construction you have to construct a separate area, usually wood framing, so you are doing the wood construction anyway and then facing it with brick. Windows and doors are harder with brick too, unless you already are using wood framing. So, in the end, you’re (usually) building a wood framed home on the inside and just putting a brick face-coat on it for esthetics, which adds another $20,000-$60,000, or perhaps even more. There are other factors such as water vapor permability, lack of insulating properties, etc. that make brick usually only used for esthetics.2) geography. brick and stone are really really bad materials in earthquake areas. The Horizontal stresses make brick and stone mortar joints crack and crumble and collapse. The whole thing comes toppling down, heavy, hard, fatal, on anybody nearby. So, while good for certain areas of the country, it’s not good near a fault line at all. Wood and steel, on the other hand, will sway and bend without collapsing, especially when constructed correctly according to codes.
A few questions about Andrew Carnegie??????HELP!?
Andrew Carnegie, Philanthropist Throughout his life, Andrew Carnegie loved to read. So it made sense that he wanted to give money to support education and reading. When Carnegie was a young man he lived near Colonel James Anderson, a rich man who allowed any working boy to use his personal library for free. In those days, America did not have a system of free public libraries. Carnegie never forgot Colonel Anderson's generosity. As a result, Carnegie supported education; he gave money to towns and cities to build more than 2,000 public libraries. He also gave $125 million to a foundation called the Carnegie Corporation to aid colleges and other schools. What else did Carnegie believe in? Andrew Carnegie, Philanthropist World peace was another cause Carnegie believed in. He established the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and funded the building of the Hague Palace of Peace, which houses the World Court, in the Netherlands. By 1911, Carnegie had given away a huge amount of money -- 90 percent of his fortune. About the time that community foundations were taking off, an even more momentous event occurred -- albeit one whose impact would take several decades to unfold in full force. In 1913, Congress imposed a personal income tax on Americans, and in 1917 it allowed people to take an income-tax deduction for their gifts to charity. At first, the influence of the tax deduction was small because the income tax affected mainly the wealthy. But during World War II, the impact of the tax grew considerably as income-tax rates rose and the pay of average Americans increased sharply because of the booming wartime economy.
What Masonry Wall Construction Techniques were used in 1850 - 1930?
Hi, I just need to know which masonry wall construction techniques were used in typical dwellings built around the 1850's , 1930's and today. A small list, bullet points would be fantastic and a would of course give 10 points to show my appreciation . Thank you in advance.
What are the conquered territories of the Indus valley?
i need help with my mid term questions. i had 30 to do and i have been working on it for 3 days. i still have a couple of questions unanswered. can u help me What are the significant monuments that I need to visit in the Indus Valley?,Where are they located?,When were they constructed?,Why were they constructed?,Your itinerary must begin from the time I wake- up until I go to sleep.,You must provide justification for each activity on the itinerary.,Explain the breakdown of the social classes in the Indus valley. (Who is at the top, middle and bottom?), What are the laws that I must follow so as to not get in trouble with the authorities.,What influential individuals do you believe I should attempt to meet with? Why?,Explain how The Indus valley has been influential to the world.,Why should I visit the Indus valley?
Are house made from brick stronger than wood framed houses?
Hello Max Kozarez, yes brick is generally stronger than wood frames. although this is not a house, it was built of brick by the Romans in the late 2nd or early 3rd century and a great deal of it was maintained until the 18th. century, when much of it was robbed and reused to build new housing in the expanding city. What is the average lifespan of a US house made of drywall and wood? Nominally homes in the United States are demolished due to changing expectations of what is acceptable in space and amenities rather than lifespan of the materials making up the home’s primary construction.Homes built today are on average 30% larger than homes built in 2000. At a certain point it becomes far more expensive to remodel/expand an older, smaller home than it is to demo it and start over, especially given the consumer’s desire for smart home features, integrated solar and Information system, and all the requirements in code compliance today WRT structure and safety and efficiency.Contrary to what other posters have said, there is no inexpensive nature to building an average home in the United States as compared to Europe specific to construction costs. The costs to build and to own in Europe are related to land cost, regulation, and the greater hurdles (down payment amount) that tends to be required in European countries.The materials and construction costs alone are actually fairly close on average; between $110 and $200 per square foot, depending on appointments and size. It depends a lot on location/region in both the U.S. and Europe.There is no reason why a home built to code in the United States cannot last hundreds of years with appropriate maintenance and timely renovations as systems like plumbing, roofing, electrical service, and HVAC wear out or are overtaken by superior technologies.All the above being said, I love the feel of homes built in the “common” European manner. There is something about a masonry home that feels very cozy/homey, or gemutlichkeit as they say in Germany. Unfortunately that manner of construction is a no go in any area where the Earth likes to move around, like anywhere on the West Coast.
.It is quite rare to see ancient timber buildings, though not impossible.Greensted Church, in the small village of Greensted, near Chipping Ongar in Essex, England, is the oldest wooden church in the world, and probably the oldest wooden building in Europe still standing, albeit only in part, since few sections of its original wooden structure remain. The oak walls are often classified as remnants of a palisade church or a kind of early stave church, dated either to the mid-9th or mid-11th century. The Grade I listed building lies about a mile west of Chipping OngarSee more on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Text under CC-BY-SA licenseRegards, James</p></section><section class=)
How many bricks does it take to build an average house?
There are two factors here, the size of the brick and how do you define “average house”?There are at least 10 different brick sizes, but I'll assume you mean standard or modular sized material. Plan on 7 bricks per square foot.If you define average sized house as about 1,200 square feet, the perimeter of the house might be approximately 146 linear feet (25′ x 48′). Multiply that by a height of 8 feet to get a total square wall footage of 1,168.At 7 bricks per sf, you'll need about 8,176 bricks.If you have a different definition of average, two stories, or will have siding in some areas, modify the math.
Who was Sam Hill - as in "what in the Sam Hill are you talking about"?
There is a story sometimes told (for example in Edwin Mitchell’s Encyclopedia of American Politics in 1946) that one Colonel Samuel Hill of Guilford, Connecticut, would often run for political office at some point in the early nineteenth century but always without success. Hence, “to run like Sam Hill” or “go like Sam Hill”. The problem is that nobody has found any trace of this monumentally unsuccessful candidate. On the other hand, an article in the New England Magazine in December 1889 entitled Two Centuries and a Half in Guilford Connecticut mentioned that, “Between 1727 and 1752 Mr. Sam. Hill represented Guilford in forty-three out of forty-nine sessions of the Legislature, and when he was gathered to his fathers, his son Nathaniel reigned in his stead” and a footnote queried whether this might be the source of the “popular Connecticut adjuration to ‘Give ‘em Sam Hill’?” So the tale has long legs. The expression has been known since the late 1830s. Despite the story, it seems to be no more than a personalised euphemism for “hell”.