WOOD! Why Are We Still Building with Lumber and Is There a Better Way?

[@DIYwithDave]

PDS Debt is offering a free debt analysis. Make this the year you take control of your debt. It only takes thirty seconds. Get yours at PDSDebt.com/diywithdave Thanks for watching. If you liked this video, be sure to subscribe and check out the other videos on my channel: kzbin.info

[@getinthespace7715]

I worked for my buddies dad one summer. He was building an ICF house (25 years ago). After the 2 of us set and poured the footings, put up all the ICF blocks, braced them, and poured the whole thing with him taking the pump truck nozzle and me going behind and vibrating the cement in the forms, etc. In 3-4 ft lifts the process was so easy and the final product was such high quality, I'd never even consider a stick built house. The level of comfort you get in a completely sealed up ICF house with in floor heat, humidity control system and a heat exchanger is unmatched. Those nice warm floors in the winter... AWESOME. completely uniform interior temperatures with no drafts... PERFECT. extremely strong structure that is bulletproof, tornado resistant, and can be built with steel and concrete exterior finishes to be virtually fireproof.

[@johnhaller5851]

While there are solutions, attic vents, both plumbing and unconditioned attic vents are one of the ways fire enters the flammable part of even an ICF house. The solution to these issues can also be applied to wood framed houses, but there are a lot more steps to make a wood framed house equally fire resistant. Which one is cheaper is the question for volume builders.

[@pcno2832]

I've always liked the ideas behind ICF construction, but doesn't the fire resistance depend a lot on the foam used in the blocks? If that's flammable, the inside and outside of the house could burn away, even if the concrete survives. With any kind of low-rise construction, it seems that the most important factor in fire safety is protecting the parts of the building that can burn, be they wood or plastic

[@joewoodchuck3824]

Cost comparisons please.

[@getinthespace7715]

@joewoodchuck3824 , go look it up. It depends on a lot of things. Lumber prices, concrete prices, What ICF blocks you chose, if you are doing the work yourself or paying someone else to do it. The general assumption is ICF costs 5% more... but with lumber prices fluctuating wildly over the last 4 years, there were times when ICF was actually cheaper.

[@RichardRoche-c2w]

Heated floors can be put into ANY new construction. No drafts? My stick-built home is so tight that every hour a fan Myst pull air out fo the house can breathe. Houses which don’t breathe have excess moisture, then mold.

[@yodaiam1000]

As a structural engineer, I am often asked what the best material to use is? There is no best material. You use the material that suits your situation. I have designed many composite structures with mixtures of all kinds of material. BTW, they are "concrete" homes and not "cement" homes. Cement is the ingredient in concrete. :)

[@GregLeBon]

Well said… we may see more concrete block structures as a result of the LA fires. In some places that maybe the material that insurance companies will require in order to provide coverage. I am an architect and totally agree with your statement of letting the site condition influence the material selection. Wood has been an excellent choice in most conditions as suggested by the author of the post… for us in LA we may need to think differently as fires of unstoppable force seem to be a 30 to 50 year occurrence in many communities…

[@ceeweedsl]

This. I've built many types of houses; straw bale, adobe, ICF, post and beam, stick frame and concrete. The best material for the job cannot be dictated out of context. It all depends on the design criteria, what resources are available, where you are building, what has traditionally worked in an area, how sophisticated the utilities are (hollow vs solid walls) etc, etc. And there is "Embodied energy' to consider. In the US, there is much forest still and framing lumber comes from small fast growing trees. Concrete depends on petroleum, it's very very energy intensive. If pollution and global warming were priced into cement production the costs would be different.

[@GregLeBon]

@ well said ceeweeds

[@TheFrewah]

Ask how they define ”best” which is the keyword.

[@jakeaurod]

@@ceeweedsl Does concrete have to come from petroleum? The Romans had concrete without a petroleum industry, so far as I know. Didn't they use volcanic ash in place of cement?

[@zatomb2574]

I've lived overseas in steel and concrete homes in warm, wet parts of Asia and lived in the US in brick and wood houses. One thing I noticed is that wifi will not pass through concrete walls. This can be a pain if you don't have wired connections already taken into account. Much electrical wiring and pipes are is on the outside of the concrete walls which is easier to access but obviously uglier. Concrete walls do deaden the sound well. And when the house is made of concrete, instead of metals or wood fences outside, there are concrete walls, which are also very strong. I don't know if this exists, but I would prefer a steel framed house with concrete exterior walls and roof with wood interior walls. This is to try to get the best of both worlds.

[@clutteredchicagogarage2720]

I really appreciate that you present historical statistics and charts from FRED in your videos. They're great. I live in Chicago, and I've moved several times over the years. Every house or apartment I've ever lived in within the City of Chicago was built from structural Chicago brick between 1880 and 1925. After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, I think it makes sense that people here were reluctant to build balloon-framed wood structures -- the dominant form of housing in Chicago before the fire. Also, the soil around the western shores of Lake Michigan is very high in clay, and much of both Chicago and Milwaukee were built with bricks fired in local kilns from local clay-rich soil. Multi-wythe brick walls are very durable rain screens. They're fire resistant, they don't rot, and bugs don't chew through them. Re-pointing bricks is pretty straightforward. If the building's footings were well-built then the buildings are very sturdy. I've seen cases of old joists starting to rot at the ends in masonry pockets that took on some moisture over a period of >130 years, although if the buildings use cornices or other overhangs, very little moisture makes its way through the walls. There's almost no structural brick construction in Chicago today. Masonry buildings are generally built with CMUs with non-structural single-wythe bricks on the outside. Older buildings that used this design have various issues from cheap galvanized brick-ties used to bind the CMU to the brick that eventually rusts. I think materials used today are a little better (stainless steel or other), although I think a lot of builders still try to build on the cheap with materials that won't last 100 years like the older simple structural brick buildings. In areas with seismic activity, I think platform-framed wood makes sense over masonry. In cities with lots of housing density, masonry probably has more long-term durability if there's no seismic threat. In any case, all my brick Chicago homes over the years have used wood to frame partition walls and for floor and roof joists. Outer walls of newer or renovated construction are generally non-structural stud walls, while older buildings that haven't been renovated use wood for lathe with plaster over it. So there's still a lot of wood content in masonry homes in Chicago and other older USA cities in the north + northeast.

[@DIYwithDave]

That is fascinating information, thank you! As a side note on balloon framing. It was actually invented in Chicago in the 1800's and was used extensively there. One of its major weaknesses was that it allowed for fire to travel from floor to floor within the walls because there were no fire breaks and the studs usually ran the length of the structure. That is one of the major reasons that it isn't used anymore. Today fire code requires fire breaks to be installed and platform framing can also delay a fire from spreading to other floors. Thanks again for sharing. That was a great History lesson!

[@Singlesix6]

What about the mortar? Isn't most of it soft? "Mortar The mortar used in Chicago's brick buildings was primarily made from lime and sand, but could also include other ingredients like crushed shells, brick dust, and clay. The mortar was generally weaker than the brick, which made it easier to repair."

[@ceeweedsl]

@@Singlesix6 Soft can be best, depending. Most people don't understand that hard is not always best. Hard means brittle. Glass is hard, rubber is soft. Often flexibility adds durability.

[@Newslies1]

The SoCal valley that I live in had two 6.7 quakes. 1899 and 1918. Most masonry buildings were destroyed. Some timber framed buildings were damaged but mostly repairable. Doug Fir rules earthquake zones.

[@DIYwithDave]

You are absolutely right!

[@shubus]

Wood is not so good in fires as we're seeing in SoCal now.

[@BramBiesiekierski]

Where i live in west Australia. Double brick is traditionally the standard. Although many houses now are using steel frame brick veneer.

[@dpbusby]

Much of Italy is earthquake zone , their houses aren’t crappy wooden houses and don’t fall down in a quake, and a lot of them are centuries old.

[@ginyilee6538]

Japan and Taiwan live through a lot more earthquakes. Most house are built from concrete

[@aray777]

From the slab up the house I built in 1995 in Central Florida was 100% light gage steel framing with fiber-cement siding. Rated at 150mph we weathered multiple hurricanes and were insured as non-combustable. That said, ICF homes were the lone coastal survivors in hurricanes Katrina and Michael, and I would use that if building new tomorrow.

[@robhoffman510]

My wife and I have lived in ICF homes for the last 25years and it would be Very Hard to persuade us to build the next house with something else…

[@DIYwithDave]

Great comment, thanks for sharing!

[@richardwilson5709]

I worked for the power co in 1972 >>and there wer several USS homes constructed in my district. The occupants enjoyed the structures and the speed of construction and performance of the houses were excellent. If constructed today 2025 with advanced technologies the outcomes would be even better. Building for a future remodeling, I view as an obsessive notion.

[@rangerdoc1029]

Earthquakes DESTROY masonry homes.

[@nspowers7130]

Also in central Florida Block with 36 rebar through the block adding cement poured from top to bottom. Minimal windows. Windows pgt. Glass sliding doors pgt. Roof commercial 19$ thousand rated category 5. Exterior doors steel no windows. It's like a cave.

[@micktinker]

In the UK, where I grew up, the house building boom was fueled by pre-fab wood framing with plastic film around the wall panels to keep out moisture and block airflow, however almost every building site would damage the film and the houses would rot in 20 years. The brick was really siding passed off as structural. In reality it needs to be designed to limit moisture inflow and maximize moisture outflow. Brick and concrete are moisture permeable and still need to be insulated. ICF was on my list of possible house building methods, but that 10-15% cost and all the EPS foam put me off on my own home.

[@DIYwithDave]

Interesting points, thanks for sharing!

[@gordonmclean2794]

Nice video Dave. I'm from the UK too and now living on the Canadian Praries. Our house in the UK was from 1903. Solid brick walls that were rendered. Not a lot of insulation and very damp! Much warmer now mostly because of a newer construction and a far drier climate even at -40C That's the big difference all that rain ! I would not be so confident in the house I am in coping with all that water You are right that people can be derisive on North American construction - that because it's how sheds are built in the UK! That's changing now with more timber frame. Faster to erect faster to get wind ad weather tight and a lot quicker to dry out as a result. Imagine the amount of water soaked up by block work over the 8-10 week british winter build! Still habits die hard so still there is a brick or block work skin round the timber frame. Roofs traditional slate or concrete tile. Big influence on both sides of the pond on conservative building regs and insurance sticking with the status quo. Can't blame anyone. If that new fangled development goes wrong it's a big miss for a long time

[@johnfilce9236]

I live building with wood. So many design choices and very forgiving material. Also, as strong as you need it.

[@DIYwithDave]

Great Points!

[@brodriguez11000]

Our chemical science means we don't have to go with plain wood.

[@ceeweedsl]

@@brodriguez11000 Boric Acid !

[@emills1417]

My current home is a 100 yearold 2 story wood house. We've had to address some draft issues since there was no insulation in some of the exterior walls, single pane windows (windows used lead counter weights so didnt have room for insulation as orig. constructed). Also had old "knob and tube" wiring but now that its been replaced it's great! We love this house and it will easily last us another 50+ years.

[@taiwanluthiers]

I do agree wood is easier to insulate, homes in Taiwan are poorly insulated because there's simply no way to insulate a concrete structure. However wood structure is rarely used in Taiwan, except for temporary structures. Termite is a huge problem here and wood structure wouldn't last without a huge amount of care and maintenance. The only place I seen wood used is for temporary structures or internal partitions. However 2x4 isn't a standard used here, the wood sticks used for internal partitions are much smaller, about 1" x 1.5" in actual size. They are either made out of phillippine mahogany which is very poor quality as far as wood goes (it feels like balsa wood), and is unsustainable, or more recently they are made out of layers of wood pressed together. These are actually not bad as far as quality goes, as in they are straight and mostly remain straight unlike the S shaped wood you might get from Home Depot. Unreinforced masonry is illegal in Taiwan though, and I never see them unless the house is extremely old, and often single story with a wood roof. Historical buildings that are often built out of brick with a wood roof actually have steel I beams inside to form their main structure, retrofitted later on to provide seismic resistance. I've seen it at historical buildings here. Every new construction here must use reinforced concrete. Bigger problem in Taiwan is wood of the proper dimension in Taiwan is much more expensive, must be imported as forest land here are all national parks, and logging is illegal. Apart from small scale logging for making wooden trinkets, no large scale logging exist in Taiwan. Often people will import entire logs from Canada and process the wood here, often for building wooden decking (after pressure treating them). These planks are not cheap, and wooden decking can cost as much as a house in the US to build in material cost alone. Specific species of pine are chosen for their rot resistance, as we cannot use home depot wood for them.

[@DIYwithDave]

That is very interesting, thanks for sharing! I lived in South America for a time and it is the same issue that you have in Taiwan - wood destroying insects run rampant in a place with high humidity. Building with wood just isn't practical, even if you did have lumber resources nearby. It is possible to treat lumber and build in such a way to avoid terminates, but like you say, the cost of importing lumber is likely too great compared with other more reasonable alternatives.

[@Askorti]

No way to insulate a concrete building? We just stick styrofoam to the exterior and put a protective coating on that. Works like a charm.

[@taiwanluthiers]

You could treat lumber but then it gets as expensive as steel, and you might as well use steel. You can insulate buildings by sticking foam outside but then it gets mold...

[@aberba]

'no way to insulate a concrete'...naa

[@SilverStarHeggisist]

There are ways to insulate concrete

[@WayneCook306]

Hi Dave, here in Australia, we use a lot of light steel frames to build our houses these frames are easy to modify build onto etc termite prof and are very strong. 👍👍👍👍👍

[@crosslink1493]

If its light steel framing that looks like the wood framing in this video, that's an available option in the USA too (at least in California). The problem is steel framing raises the cost of a new home about 10%-15% above that of a more traditional wood-framed home, so when builders of tracts of homes offer light steel framing as an option it almost never gets chosen by a new homeowner. Additionally, the roof framing still gets made with wood (they're factory assembled). Plenty of termites here in southern California so it would be a good idea to use light steel framing.

[@andreycham4797]

The guy is just clueless about the world and what he is talking about

[@DIYwithDave]

That is a great point. What about cost though? I know that you guys have a lot of forests - do you also have a healthy timber industry or would you get most of your wood from New Zealand or other places?

[@DIYwithDave]

Great points!

[@dovahkindragonborn9827]

@@DIYwithDave cost is much closer to wood for them because they buy cheap chinese steel and don't have our lumber production to the same degree ... its always about cost first and foremost

[@fishpotpete]

I'm not sure about global standards - but all the brick homes in my area (St. Louis, MO) have wood interiors - floors, stairways, etc. We have some run down areas that had rows of magnificent brick homes at one time and now are essentially collapsing once the roof material is gone (due to lack of maintenance, etc). And after a fire, they may not fall down immediately, but they are an extremely hazardous place to hang out because the unsupported brick walls will and do collapse.

[@DIYwithDave]

Great points, thanks for sharing!

[@leongeisberg294]

I live in Sonoma County in Northern California where we lost 5000 homes to fires in 2017. A small but growing number of homes are using steel framing that is quick to erect and fire resistant.

[@philosoaper]

wood is by far the most common in Scandinavia too...of course the wood you get these days is often of much lower quality as it's been grown as fast as possible for commercial interests

[@andreycham4797]

Brick is obsolete material. All world uses AAC blocks for construction, if you know how to level and plum laying those blocks is easier than frame and steak construction

[@philosoaper]

@@andreycham4797 we also have quite a lot stricter building requirements here than usa..and we have wood all around us so..also 1000 year old still standing churches made of wood

[@DIYwithDave]

Interesting, we are dealing with the same issues on quality here in the US: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m5fWZmB8eLuKrMk On an interesting note, I was just at the Hardware store this week and some of the highest grade lumber was from New Zealand and Sweden - I'm in Texas. Kinda crazy! A lot of the high grade lumber milled in the US goes to Asia. The world is flat, I guess.

[@AlanChunkyMunky]

@@DIYwithDavejust bought my first home (townhouse community) in NC and while I love it here, I sometimes wonder if I should be worried about the wood used to construct it (and the build fast nature of most modern new builds post COVID). I suppose it’s not a near future concern but I really hope this new construction can last long enough to be passed down and not be a burden. Curious how things are over in Texas

[@raymichael7078]

If I was building today and using wood I would use 2x6's for insulated walls. This addresses the lower quality of wood instead off 2x4's and also allows better insulation. However, my building material choice would reflect where I am building a house. In a flood area I would not, in a tornado prone area partially underground. In a wooded or grassy area look at building with fire resistant materials. Earthquake area an eight sided house built of wood. Eight sided is most resilient in an earthquake.

[@richdobbs6595]

2x6 walls are really poor for insulating compared to the amount of wood that they use. The problem is thermal bridging, so you have R-21 batts but the studs are R-5.5. Best practice is to use external insulation as much as possible, and just treat cavity insulation as a cheap add on. 2x6s probably make sense for the first story of two story houses, but are overkill for one story houses and second floors from a structural point of view.

[@DIYwithDave]

Great point on building for the location. That is really important. 2X6s for exterior walls would be amazing. It would allow for so much space and more insulation. The only drawdown, of course, is cost, both of the wood itself and the extra insulation that you plan on putting in. Oh, and then there is the potential loss of square footage, but maybe that is negligible. I wonder how long it would take to recoup the cost with lower energy bills?

[@jakeaurod]

The 2x6 would be more expensive and have issues with thermal bridging. Instead, you could use a double stud wall with the 2x4 studs offset to avoid thermal bridging. In a flood prone area you could build on on piers, but some flood prone areas are in tornado country. Partially burying a home in Tornado Country sounds like a good idea until you realize parts of the plains has a high water table that will either flood the structure or cause it to float from buoyancy. In the Midwestern Tornado Alley, we do build partially underground mostly to get below the frost line, but usually just use that basement as storage and mechanical space, but more and more homes are making it livable.

[@ceeweedsl]

@@jakeaurod I have built double stud and really like it. A little bit more complex and requires 2x8 plates, but very well insulated. I'm not a big fan of foam siding though I've used it when needed. Assuming that wood is appropriate for the location.

[@prem524]

In Poland 95% houses is build from block bricks and isolation is 10-12 inch polystyrene, glued from the outside to the wall, then goes plaster and outside paint. Inside also plaster. Houses like that are energy efficint. To build a house with 5 bedroom you need 200 000 usd , land excluded. Such a house can stand 100years at least.

[@frenchydampier2209]

I built a double timber frame. Timbers on the outside. SIP’s between and Timbers on the inside. Hardwood Timbers with high tannins to prevent rot. And damage. ( black walnut on the outside, white oak on the inside.). On the exterior I used stone/ brick as infill between Timbers. Load bearing I’m approaching commercial bridge strength. With extremely high fire resistance. The reason I used hardwood was because of the extremely low prices at the time. I paid 17 cents per bd ft for the black walnut and 23 cents for the white oak. Those prices dated from 1998 and were green, rough sawn, mill run. ( in other words I dried the Timbers myself , milled and surfaced the Timbers plus did all the joinery work myself. And hauled them home myself. About 55,000 board feet that I paid less than $40,000 for. It built my 5500 square foot 3&1/2 story house. Great room with 28 foot ceilings & exposed timber construction. 11 dormers and a 22 foot diameter tower providing full access to the top art studio the Billiard room, bridge across the great room., and 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms . The main floor has a breakfast room, 8x22 kitchen, walk in pantry, 2 bathrooms, one master bedroom, walk in closet and adjacent laundry room.

[@DIYwithDave]

That is amazing! 55,000 board feet of walnut and white oak for $40K?!? That would easily cost you $380K plus today! Sounds like an amazing building.

[@kermitefrog64]

In California many new homes have a stick frame but will have fiber cement for siding or stucco over foam board insulation which can withstand fire much better. The devastating fires in L.A. finds that many of the homes are much older and were more vulnerable to fire but with newer building codes and fire resistant materials on the roof and siding such as fiber cement and metal roofs or non-combustible materials L.A. can be rebuilt using wood framing on the interior.

[@jsurace]

Actually, in Altadena most home were built in a Spanish style with tile roofs and stucco (over wood) exteriors. Made little to no difference once the winds kicked up to carry the fire. I lived there for decades.

[@barneymiller4088]

I live in an ICF house built in 2004. It is fantastic up until you want to make changes. It is also important to protect the foam from the sun and builders seem to get lazy about making sure it isn’t exposed to UV. Other than that it is superior to stick built in every way.

[@ceeweedsl]

It's not all peaches and cream. It has it's issues. For me, ICF is my least favorite to build and I don't know about living inside so much foam. Also, foam burns like crazy, right? Is it really fireproof?

[@TBJK07Jeep]

If I were building a house, I would metal stud it. My current house is wood frame with brick veneer. About 5 years ago I put a stone coated steel roof. It cost more but it will be the last roof I buy.( it was 18K if anyone wonders for a 20 square roof)

[@ddmitch1]

I am building a house using structural steel and MIPs (R42 Metal Insulated Panels for exterior walls and roof). It is well insulated and with my electric heat pump, costs very little to heat. At 7,000' elevation, no AC is needed in SW Colorado. I also used extremely fire resistant MgO (magnesium Oxide) panels on my interior walls instead of drywall and 3/4" MgO as floor underlayment. This house should be fire proof and wind proof. We don't get tornados at this elevation and winds rarely exceed 50 mph. In 30 years of living in the Telluride, CO area, I have only experienced 70 mph gusts once. There is no wood in the structure of the home. Contents (bedding, furniture, etc) are the only flammables. I have no gas appliances, everything is electric. I'm thinking of adding solar, as we get 300+ days of sunshine here, but I worry a bit about LFP battery bank fires. My electric bill is only about $2000/year, so I'm not sure it is worth going 100% off grid, other than for apocalypse protection.

[@danlayman2194]

Termites are my biggest concern in Hawaii. Borate treated lumber and moisture control are necessary.

[@DIYwithDave]

Termites are a huge issue in areas where it is humid which is why you see a lot of concrete block homes in Hawaii and South Florida.

[@danlayman2194]

@ Thanks Dave. I always look forward to your videos. Some strange times are happening. Stay Healthy and Well

[@ceeweedsl]

Borate is a great solution for using wood in tropical zones. Just make sure it stays dry! As they say "a good hat and boots" will protect you.

[@coliv2]

I’ve lived in brick homes and in wood homes, and there’s no question that a brick home is better, safer, and easier to maintain. However, the reason the US will never admit it is that the construction industry makes much more money with wood houses: the materials are cheaper and it is faster to build. So the construction industry will forever maintain the idea that wood is better, because it is truly better for them.

[@richdobbs6595]

I'm planning to build a small home by myself this summer. I can't imagine doing that with a brick home - it would end up being a multi-year project! Going with a roof that wasn't based on wood would seems like it would require bringing in a heavy crane. The risk for wild fires is largely driven by surface finishes and detailing, not the wood structure itself. That said, the way we've built subdivisions makes them burn more aggressively than the forest fires that ignite them.

[@DIYwithDave]

Most brick/concrete homes still have wooden trusses/roofs, although I lived in South America for a time and saw a few flat roofs made from concrete. And, yes new homes today seem to be built on top of each other. Good luck on your build! I am sure that it will be amazing.

[@alis49281]

What about European style wood frame? You only need professionals for the wood structure and roof. Then you fill the frames with clay bricks. The clay is often found on site. You need a machine to mix the clay and negatives for the bricks. They are air dried and glued together with the mix they are made of. It is very easy and fast. The inside is covered in a clay-drenched straw and then clay plaster. Yes, you need very few machines and then quite a bit of straw. In harsh climate, straw wood frame would be ideal... For clay plaster, you need sand for plaster and clay. It is easier to use than cement.

[@richdobbs6595]

@@alis49281 Those take forever to build. You've got a mistaken impression if you think anything involving air dried bricks is fast. Clay plaster takes a long time too. I need it closed in before it gets too cold to camp outside. That sort of approach works better in drier climates. I wouldn't even know if I've got suitable material before I was in the construction season. You just seem to be skipping over the points made in the video on why so much housing in the USA is built with light frame construction, and why those are particularly true for my situation.

[@alis49281]

@richdobbs6595 clay needs long? Yeah, a week. Two at most. The bricks dry three weeks in the summer, after they are set in place, the bricks absorb the moisture from the mortar and are dry enough to continue after three days. Straw blocks are definitely faster. The way to work with it, is to start in room A, continue room B, then room C. Then continue in room A. These houses are built in one summer. Especially straw block filled wood frame is very fast once the frame and straw is in place. With a plaster spray machine a single person can finish the walls quickly, because mixing and applying the clay consumes the most time. Yeah, of course, cement dries in mere hours, but it has many disadvantages too. And it has become expensive!

[@richdobbs6595]

@@alis49281 Yeah, but I'm only building the foundation piers out of cement. These post and beam with infill houses are built in a single season by having a crew. I'm convinced that you are a keyboard builder. Have you done any of these steps yourself? Have you priced out this? Have you ever gotten this strategy through a building permitting process? I'm sure there are situations where this building approach makes sense. But not for my situation.

[@orazha]

Thanks for the video, Dave. I don't disagree with most of what you say but I'll give my experiences and preferences. My wife and I have lived in, explored construction material ideas, remodelled, and built homes since 1980. The best home we lived in was an underground dome, concrete home. We once had a forest fire headed right toward our home and, due to the way it was built felt that we were in better shape to handle the fire than any of our neighbors. There are many other building techniques that we've been involved with that I would argue might possibly be, if not less expensive to build, make more sense than stick built. Paper Crete is one of our favorite. It's lightweight, keeps water out, is easy to put electric and water in, can be reshaped after structure is up. We considered timber framing for one of our projects. On first look, it appears to be well made. Almost anything can fill in between timbers. I would think it would require less wood than stick but have no more info on that. There are different ways to use sand for building a house. Most common is using sand tubes to create a dome like structure. But one can be more creative with the tubes. The main problem I see is that the ones I've seen don't seem to use fireproof bags. I don't know how secure they are once finished. We've built 2 different types of log homes, one with square logs, another with logs from an old house we tore down to reassemble. People have built homes in volcano tubes. You can find almost any alternative structure built somewhere. I understand that underground housing can be seen in places in the middle east. We knew a couple in AZ that built their own underground home which was far in the sticks but attracted a lot of attention. There's a community near Coquille, Oregon that is built using Cob construction. It's a village made up of students who are paying to learn how to build with the cob technique. Their husband/wife teachers live there in their own, separate cob homes. Visitors are welcome, however, the trip itself is an adventure. There's another community in southern New Mexico which doesn't fall under any building code restrictions. My wife spent a few days there looking at the interesting array of building styles people used to construct their own homes. The alternatives to wood (or variations from current codes) are too numerous to name them all. The current terrible fires in CA may have met their match if all the homes had been underground, bermed, or other non - wood options. Of course not many people living there would even consider alternative building (if they could get around building code restrictions). So, while I say that you're absolutely correct regarding how and why we're a nation of stick build houses, I don't see anytime soon that that will change, even if there are better options available. People don't see alternative building as status indicators, are often afraid of trying something "new", and building codes will often not allow it.

[@mak4374]

Pretty much the only advantage for me: I know how to work wood, but not brick. And as I do most building myself, well I suppose it is the only option I have. However, metal studs are tempting...

[@DIYwithDave]

Metal studs have been tempting before, but since wood prices are back down and metal prices are up, it isn't economical anymore. Also, I have watched bricklayers... makes me tired just thinking about it. It is a TON of hard work. They don't get those muscles for nothing. They basically lift weights all day long!

[@chrisiphone2574]

In Arizona I lived in a brick home for 27 years. Always too cold in the winter. I bought a new house built of wood & it’s been way more insulated. That slump block was just cold to the touch in winter & hot to the touch in summer. All those years of crappy utility bills were for ugly walls!

[@chow-chihuang4903]

The saying goes something like “you can have cheap, quick or quality. Pick any two.” When you see stick-built during the process, you can see why homes built that way aren’t durable. It’s commonly used because it’s cheap and quick. Another reason is OSB is used instead of plywood. Both warp when they get soaked by water, but OSB practically disintegrates. Another is cross-sections of lumber have kept shrinking. A “2x4” is no longer 2in x 4in, and so on. Engineered wood beams are more efficient with material, but the web in such beams would be stronger if it weren’t made from OSB. The first home I recall living in was wood frame, but reinforced with heavy plaster n the inside and real brick on the outside of exterior walls. It was a townhouse style, but we never heard our neighbors through those thick plaster walls. The second was stick-built, and it was drafty, cold in winter, hot in summer and creaked a lot during high winds and hurricanes. Of the college dorms I lived in, the cinder block ones had terrible insulation but felt solid and were good at keeping out noise. The stick-built ones were better insulated, but you could hear everything and everyone. That was also the case for the two apartments I lived in afterwards. Our first flat-style condo was decently built for stick-built. They built better than code required, with cavities between walls of adjacent units, so we didn’t hear our neighbors to the sides. Even with similar gaps between units vertically, you could still hear if someone dropped something heavy, but it was muted compared to ones that shared a floor/ceiling. Our first house was stick-built, and wasn’t insulated well, with barely-insulated exterior walls. It creaked a lot during windstorms. Similarly-built houses around here get obliterated when hit by tornadoes, which come through every year, sometimes several times a year. Our current house, we built with ICF exterior walls, from slab to gables. For a house with about 4X the enclosed volume compared to our prior house, we use about the same amount of energy to climate control it, much less so during the temperate months when the concrete core averages out the daily fluctuations. Both houses had only electricity, no gas, but our current one uses a ground-source heat pump vs air-source. When our power was out for about a week during one summer, the internal temperature went from 76 to only 85F before power was restored. The walls feel solid and the interior faces of exterior walls never feel too cold or too hot to the touch. The attached garage never gets too hot or too cold, even though it isn’t climate-controlled. I only am aware of high winds when whistling sounds come around the door or window seals. I wish I’d done the interior walls, floors and roof with steel studs or ICF systems as there is significant difference in shrinking and expansion between the ICF exterior walls and the wood-framed interior as temperature and relative humidity change throughout the year. If I were to build new again, I’d stick with ICF, hempcrete or one of those sandwich systems (hard skin, foam insulation core) for exterior walls, floors and roof, and steel studs with plate gussets to stiffen wall segments for interior framing.

[@Kheti1234]

I’ve wired up a 3 story home and 4 story housing projects. They used metal studs with pre-fabbed holes in them. The outside is stucco and the inside is Sheetrock. I can’t imagine how hot the fire would have to be to burn these buildings. It is so much easier and quicker to run the electrical with the pre-fabled holes as compared to drilling wood studs. With the price of lumber constantly going up I wonder why I don’t see houses ever using metal studs. Obviously, despite the price it must still be cheaper than metal? Then again, I see thousands of $700K houses being built 6 ft. apart. If one home catches on fire they’re taking a few with them. I guess that’s not important to companies though, they’ve been able to build and sell more houses, made more money and that’s all that matters.

[@courtk7150]

It’s interesting in the small town I grew up in, in the early 2000s one local builder transitioned to using poured concrete method. It did not catch on with others around the area.

[@DIYwithDave]

There are a lot of interesting building methods out there, but few have really caught on and none on any significant scale.

[@fredstutske3129]

Great video Dave! Even with wood quality going down my new home has the engineered laminated wood joists which are straight and true, love them. Some walls are 2 x 6 which offers more insulation on the 11 ft high great room.

[@DIYwithDave]

That is great. Engineered lumber is growing in popularity and has a lot of positives.

[@xtion111177]

I love the callout of Hempcrete - it seems like a great material to use in conjunction with wood framing or cement pillar structures.

[@browngreen933]

I built a cordwood house with mortar joints. Very strong and cost effective, but only if you get the logs free or low cost.

[@gusgreen3104]

The foundation damage sustained by the Joplin Mercy Hospital should put to bed any discussion about building material superiority. I never thought about homes being a carbon sink.

[@brodriguez11000]

I think the video needs to keep in mind with modern science and engineering a lot of the materials used are hybrids (engineered beams for example). Plus, modern buildings are more than the sum of their parts and have features that ensure their survivability (windows that reflect heat and keep interiors from easily catching fire).

[@DIYwithDave]

I had to go back and read about the Joplin Mercy Hospital - it wasn't something that I was aware of. Thanks for sharing!

[@svk-fi5lw]

If a house of bricks and concrete is built correctly, single and two-story houses are completely safe from earthquake. Earthquake is not a danger and excuse

[@J-1410]

So, no one has ever built a house correctly in California?

[@DIYwithDave]

If by correctly, you mean reinforced brick and concrete, then yes, but they are still expensive. However, if properly designed and built, wood structures can also perform well due to their flexibility and lighter weight, making them able to flex with the ground movement during an earthquake. Heavier structures tend to receive much more damage because of the higher seismic load. Added to that, in addition to being cheaper to build, wood structures are also cheaper to repair.

[@robbypolter6689]

​@@DIYwithDaveUnfortunately, their statements regarding earthquakes are not true at all. Wooden houses and stone houses may or may not be destroyed in an earthquake. It depends on the construction that the foundation and the structure above are decoupled from each other. The connection is made by shock absorbers and dampers. This means that the foundation can absorb vertical and horizontal forces. However, such a foundation is not affordable for the normal house builder. The problem is that a really good and solid house, whether made of wood or stone, is unaffordable for the average American earner. The average American home is a wooden structure, but only a cheap slatted structure, not a solid construction or a stable wooden post structure. If you then look at the quality of these slatted houses and what prices are sometimes charged for them, you start to ponder. For many of these houses you should remove a zero from the price or halve the price. These prices would be more realistic and more in line with the quality of these homes.

[@robbypolter6689]

​@@J-1410For example, if German building regulations, including fire protection and earthquake safety, were taken as a basis, no home in California would meet the regulations. If you take energy efficiency into account, it becomes catastrophic. The question here is how is the house insulated and how well ventilated and how is it heated when necessary. And how well is the house soundproofed inside and out?!

[@J-1410]

@@robbypolter6689 The same would go vice versa, as in Germany you are not building for 100+ degree summers AND -60 winters, earthquakes, AC, heat, garages, and anything else that in California, which may I remind you covers more than Germany ever did at any point in time. Saying "California" is meaning hundreds of different region specific codes, as does probably "Germany". Codes are different in Sacramento than they are in San Fransisco along with Los Angles and Bakersfield, as some are wrote with earthquakes in mind(buildings that move but do not break) and little to no winters(Air Conditioning required, the thing that cools the air to your Europeans) to no need to worry about earthquakes, but instead yards of snow and -40 winters. So, while you take a dump to make yourself feel good, at least make an attempt at trying to know what you are talking about.

[@danontherun5685]

Been building custom homes for long time and tried modular, ICF and metal frame. Given practical construction and kept sealed stick built on site will easily last couple hundred years even in rain forests and no point building to last longer. Housing cost matters now more than any other time in history in the US.

[@jsurace]

I live in Hawaii and you quickly learn here that the ideal building material doesn't exist. My own home is close to 100 years old and made from old growth fir from the pacific northwest. But it's also accumulated termite damage - in this area you need to tent every five years, ten on the outside. If you wait to 20 the house will fall down. That said, brick and concrete aren't great either. The soil here shifts and settles significantly, and we have huge wind loads and torrential rains and high humidity. Masonry will crumble unless reinforced. But rebar rusts like crazy, which eventually leads to spalling, and again the concrete and mortar disintegrates. The intense UV from the sun here destroys any sort of synthetic material after a year or so. Pick your poison. On the plus side, temperature-wise it's so mild we don't have or need HVAC or insulation.

[@mickbadgero5457]

Cheaper and easier, but ignores the point of the story of the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf.

[@hneifield]

I just bought a stone house built in 1902, been living here 2 months. It's holding up great and is beautiful. The downsides are poor insulation (heating bills are insane), running electrical for lighting and ring cameras is more expensive, you need a spend a few thousand on a mesh network for reliable WiFi and all phone carriers (my fiancee and I have different carriers) drop calls even when on wifi calling. Homeowners insurance is also very high given the high cost to rebuild with stone. Old stone homes weren't built for modern hvac solutions. That said, there's durability and beauty in stone and other non-wood structures thats just impossible to get with wood.

[@DIYwithDave]

That is a great overview, thank you! I am sure that your home must be beautiful!

[@BrankoDimitrijevic021]

“Few thousand on a mesh network”?? Is your “stone home” actually a castle? 😂

[@buddy1155]

Europe also has wildfires, floods, tornado's, earthquakes and even a rare hurricane. These events are rarely catastrophic and don't make the news, simply because our infrastructure is much more resilient (not just houses). Italy and greece are build on fault lines, yet it is not hard to find 1600 year old stone buildings, although rare, there are some 2000 year old stone buildings left.

[@jreeder6168]

I would like to hear Dave's view on steel framed homes. Log homes are simple to construct too.

[@DIYwithDave]

In a lot of cases it becomes about tradeoffs. Their are pros and cons to each method and steel is definitely more durable, but it may not be worth the added cost for most people.

[@jreeder6168]

@@DIYwithDave Thank you for responding. What about a mix of steel and wood, for example, using steel trusses and joists? Just a thought.

[@MakerBoyOldBoy]

78 year old raised lumber worker in many capacities. Luv the stuff. In the modern world there is simply no reason for stick built homes over better materials. The only homes surviving some of the weather change fire storms are brick, concrete or stuccoed homes. One of the potential great materials is reclaimed plastic interlocking plastic bricks. There are ancient world used wood techniques easily modified for modern materials. One is long length interlocking wooden pieces for wall buildup. The only legitimate and rational use of wood today is exploiting its interior decorative value. The rest of the world has far better ideas and we're still building fire pits.

[@stainlesssteellemming3885]

As far as the construction cost in CA for (say) steel vs wood, I would suspect it's not as big an issue as you'd expect. If you look at the property valuation breakdown for a home in a major CA city, probably 70% of the market price is for the LAND not the structure. Look at your home insurance and compare the cost to rebuild vs the market value.

[@dhsscd]

REAL SIMPLE. PEOPLE WANT WOOD. SO MUCH FOR YOUR VIDEO.

[@disqusrubbish5467]

The wood house we are in now is just about 100 years old and doing fine. We were in it in a 6.8 magnitude earthquake, and it swayed and made noises, but was undamaged. I lived for awhile in Germany in an old brick farmhouse that was freezing cold in winter. The smug snarkiness that you get in comments is definitely uncalled for. And cement production is one of the worst polluting industrial processes, while trees pump out oxygen, while - as you note - sequestering carbon. I also framed for a living for a time when I was younger, and have built very expensive beautiful houses out of wood, which we all expect will last for a very long time.

[@georgestreicher252]

A very interesting building method is steel structural insulation panels. Unfortunately, this building method has not caught on. These homes are exceedingly strong, fireproof, and very well insulated.

[@gloofisearch]

I have lived in many regions of the world and the US. However, what it boils down to is the quality of the house. In the US, I lived in 5 different houses in Florida, 3 different in California and 5 different in Nevada. Not one of the houses were build in any good manner, meaning, from the frame to the water heater, electric or pipes, we had issues in all of them. In several houses, you heard the hot water line moving in the ceiling when the pressure changed. The entry door has one dead bolt and the door is on a wood frame.....seriously! The sliding doors have this hideous tiny lever to look the door, so do the windows. Sometimes I didn't even want to open them as I had no idea if it falls apart. The HVAC system in many of the houses was wasting energy as you used it, especially when you have a two story house. The walls in general are like 3 inches thick and when you remove the drywall, and see how the studs are, you do not want to see what is done in there, and wonder how the house does not crumble (Please do not say a US house has a wall. It doesn't!). Just to compare that with a house in Spain I wanted to purchase last summer. The house was built 20 years ago but abandoned and never lived in. It was in a somewhat remote location. Nevertheless, the house looked like it was build just yesterday. There was absolutely nothing on the house that you would say, is bad. It had rolling shutters, double pane windows and aluminum framed sliding patio doors. The HVAC system was zone based, meaning you could manage each room to get more or less cold/heat in there. The main door was made out of thick wood with metal and the frame was metal too. The best thing about the door was, it had 10, yes, 10 dead bolts that went into the steel frame when turning the key. Ah, yes, that key cannot be reproduced easily as it had like 20-30 different sized holes in it. No police officer can kick that door in;-) But the best part was the roof. I looked into the attic and you would not believe that. It was made out of steel and concrete. I was blown away. The only wood on this house was the doors and the kitchen cabinets. Can you built with wood, sure you can. I lived in Germany in a 400 year old wood house. Norway and Finland build with a lot of wood, but to last. However, as you mentioned, in the US it must be fast and cheap, not because the consumer wants it that way, but because the corporations can make more profit. So, that is what we get. Cheap houses.

[@cassio-eskelsen]

Here in Brazil, for a long time, having a house made of bricks and cement meant “social ascension,” while wooden houses were seen as something for the poor. However, wooden constructions here have always been simpler than those in the United States. Basically, a wall was made of two columns, one beam on top and another on the bottom, with planks nailed to them to close the wall. Nowadays, wooden houses are almost no longer built, with wood being limited to roof construction. The latest trend is roofs made entirely of concrete (laid horizontally). Ceramic material blocks are being replaced by concrete blocks, which are cheaper, but I find them terrible in terms of thermal and moisture insulation.

[@DIYwithDave]

That is interesting. I lived in Brazil (Pernambuco) for a few years and know exactly what you are talking about. Most of the homes I saw were brick with a wooden framed roof with roof tiles at the top. When people could afford it they skimmed the outer and inner walls with cement to make a smooth surface. The only purely wood homes that I saw were in favelas and usually were made of mismatched pieces of whatever people could find and a tin or fiberglass roof.

[@billhaughenberry2917]

Hi Dave, I’m surprised you living in Texas that you did not bring up hybrid Barndominium, which is using red iron welded and bolted to a concrete slab or foundation and then also framed with common conventional lumber and usually insulated with closed cell spray foam and a combination of open cell, depending on where you need to insulate advantages being large open spans because of the steel structure and then super easy to design on the interior because it’s back to conventional wood. The other vans that I’m saying are overall lower cost, high insulation and energy efficient, which they are usually doing the zip system on the exterior as well as the roof. Also lower cost on insurance because termites don’t like metal and of the fire rating. The reason I’m surprised that you didn’t bring it up is Texas seems to be the largest populations of Barndominium being built in the country as far as hybrid Barndominium’s versus. Pole barn style. I would be interested in your thoughts of this. I know it’s not as popular as a stick built and a lot of that I believe is because a lot of people are building very simple structures with not a lot of curb appeal. I believe is why they’re not as popular as I think they will become. Although I am not a builder I am recently retired after 45 years in the construction trade of actually selling different products to builders. I too am in tornado alley and have just recently purchased a large property that I am planning on building basically a family compound on again I would appreciate your thoughts on hybrid Barndominium’s thanks again, Bill

[@davidthepetmoretransportgu5859]

You mentioned updating electrical or adding outlets… I Like the “industrial” & simplistic look of Exposed Conduit with wires enclosed running on outside of walls, ceilings, perimeters of rooms…

[@SiliconPower74]

That is fine for a garage or a workshop, not for a house.

[@DangRenBo]

I live in a tropical country, and there is virtually no word construction because of insects. My previous times in northeast Asia were filled with concrete, mostly because everything was a high rise. Few people owned standalone homes and most owned condos.

[@Pete-p6p]

I've wondered about this since I moved here from England 30 years ago.

[@emeraldviking1919]

It is about how you use it... We could learn some things from Japan... There are treatment options to make it very flame resistant... Siding choices are critical...

[@LorenBridges-ic6bp]

I think a ICF house is the way to go, only if you have the right roof and it was constructed correctly.

[@markmccormack1796]

I know. This is a great question. Why do we still use sheet rock?

[@1new-man]

Amazing Dave TY Sir

[@DIYwithDave]

Thanks for Watching!

[@_B_B_B]

There is a very simple reason why "wood" houses are so common in the US. The US uses the cheapest construction system that allows a developer to sell a reinforced cardboard box for half a million apiece. Huge marginality. Oh yeah, the service life of these boxes is from 25 to 50 years. Every year the maintenance of such a house will become more expensive. This is a very convenient cycle of constant construction for the developer.

[@JoJo-l9g1u]

Natural home built with cob is the dream! Healthy, inexpensive and helps us stay connected to mother earth

[@sweetsuccesstrading5097]

It definitely DEPENDS on your LOCATION, and the Weather Threats in your Area.

[@DIYwithDave]

That’s a great point, location matters!

[@mikldude9376]

I’ve lived in brick and timber quite a few of each ( I’m old) , both have good and bad points . A very old brick place built in the early 1900’s in Melbourne city Australia that was very well built ( my grand parents place) is still up today , it has 10 foot high ceilings, in summer it remained cool ( thick walls), and even in a bustling noisy city area , inside the house , it was dead quite . A lot of the houses I’ve lived in, in recent decades , where working man’s houses , built to a price , and a lot of them as they have aged because foundations where not all they could be suffered with movement of the frames , cracking walls , out of square door jambs, like anything , regardless of the material if the house is built to a price rather than a standard , it will not age well. I actually prefer a heavy brick structure with a timber frame inside of it made of good timber( not some of the crap they use nowadays), having a good solid foundation is everything , because if your foundation falters , so will the rest of the house. Even stone is a good material if done properly, some stone buildings hundreds of years ago are still up today. Again like anything , the quality of the build is everything , and not everyone can afford the Taj Mahal , so you just have to build the best you can.

[@Building-IT]

I did a post frame home, I think that is more superior to a standard stick home. A lot of these homes that they put up quickly and dozens at a time are junk, won't deny that at all.

[@jimschumacher2834]

A properly designed wood home will last 100+ years in any place you want to build it. There are ways to design for hurricanes and tornadoes, it's called CLT panels. More expensive than conventional framing, but what they are designed for is far from ordinary. It's always a balancing act between what is affordable and what you want the building to survive. Remember, it's not the building that is important, it's the people inside Just remember, wood is good and it is the only solar powered building material in the world. Give a seed some dirt, some water and some sunshine (solar power) and you will have a 🌲

[@lewis7315]

we have earthquakes. Brick and unreinforced concrete fall down quickly when the ground shakes :( AND NO ONE really wants to live in an apartment building with lots of dangerous strangers.

[@alexskatit4188]

How about composite materials close to wood?

[@DIYwithDave]

It would be nice, but there still are not a ton of options that are as affordable as wood. I did a video on Hempwood which was very interesting: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jnzUZoerd5l9qJo I am also working on a video about a company that is building with panels made from Bamboo.

[@allenpierce4575]

Wood can be a lot safer for fires if you used a better quality insulation like a Stone Wool insulation that burns at 2,200°. Yes newer fiber glass does not burn and catch on flame anymore, it smokes away in 3-5 minutes exposing your beams.

[@kevinmontgomery1054]

I would love to hear a comparison between wood 2x4 construction vs steel 2x4 construction. It seems homes are all built with wood and multi-story offices are all build with steel. Add to the comparison prefab homes built with 12" thick wall pieces made of plywood/insulating foam/plywood sandwich construction. I've also seen foam cinder blocks used for the outside walls where the hollow inner part of the blocks are filled with rebar and concrete (for strength to hold the upper floor/roof). I'd like to hear how the hemp blocks compare with those. Are CNC concrete homes you referred to similar to brick? How well do they insulate?

[@rroades]

You did not mention houses built on slabs, like oklahoma, where the clay is famous for allowing houses to settle, slabs crack, drywall cracks, and so wood framing lacks a strength that might help a house settle as a whole. My house has a central area with garage, bedrooms that extend from that central “square” structure. Each one has settled. Tile has cracked in floors - meaning the slab foundation also, walls in several locations. You’d probably say it’s poor construction. Maybe, but is there any affordable right way to do it? And what is my recourse? Tens of thousands of dollars I simply will never have.

[@jsurace]

That's a foundation issue. But the wooden house will handle this way better than masonry. Unreinforced masonry will just crack right over where the foundation sags, compromising structural integrity. Lived in Houston where "floating slab" was all the rage when I lived there (70/80s). Obviouslt, steel might be better option at that point but now we're getting very pricey.

[@jeffr878]

I think lumber prices are about to skyrocket due to demand for rebuilding in LA

[@DIYwithDave]

It will definitely have an impact. I am working on an analysis now.

[@vikruus7997]

At least in my area stick built houses are still the norm but there's not that much "lumber" that goes into them. They're made with lumber studs maybe, but just about everything else that goes into them is some cheap composite junk that will do well to last a few decades. I expect most new stick built houses will disintegrate with the first burst pipe or roof leak.

[@saulgoodman2018]

Look at LA this past week. There concrete, brick, and wood framed houses. All the one's that caught fires. None of them survived.

[@jeffl.dillard8681]

If people knew how easy it is to build a fire proof, hurricane proof and probably tornado proof house there would never be another wood frame house built! A 8” block home with a 6” flat concrete (slightly slopped) roof and High Impact windows and doors and no fire or hurricane would ever damage it. Homes on the beach need to be built on 12’ concrete columns for storm surge but other wise the same home can be built anywhere in America!!!

[@YuiSiPinIII]

There is no best construction technology; each has its own area of ​​application. But from my point of view, AAC is optimal. It does not burn, does not rot, due to the lime in its composition it suppresses the growth of mold and does not require external finishing. Does not emit any harmful substances and has heat-insulating properties allowing the construction of single-layer walls without insulation. The USA has done a lot of work to bring its construction technology to perfection, but the original idea was to build quickly, simply and cheaply, but now if it is a really high-quality house, then its price is close to other technologies, but the potential problems remain the same

[@JeffCrawfordInTokyo]

Here in Japan we have a lot of challenges. The winters get around freezing, but summers are hot and humid. We also get doses of both earthquakes and typhoons. Termites are a problem. Most houses (90%?) are built out of wood. However some of the big house makers can build using lightweight steel or concrete. I don't see too much ICF. Given the challenges above, I wish there were more choices.

[@MythicalWorx]

Dave, I would love a video on how our quality standards vary compared to similarly developed countries like the UK or Canada. It wouldn't surprise me that the corruption of our government has made it into building codes and quality standards because someone lobbied them to skirt safety/quality to save a buck.

[@randallquiring9525]

While concrete block are a structural item bricks are not, at least the kind most of us are familiar with. Concrete block are used for foundations rarely are they used for walls in homes. Insulated concrete forms, yes. Bricks are non structural and basically used in place of siding. True stone structures are different but not as an exterior facade.

[@DIYwithDave]

Right, in most of the US, brick and stone serve only as a facade. Concrete block is used in some locations for more than just foundations (like Hawaii and Florida), but in many parts of Europe they actually use structural brick that is not just cinderblock. I also lived in South America for a time and all buildings - even some 20 level apartment buildings are build with Brick with concrete structural beams reinforced with concrete. It was wild watching them get built.

[@nicholeluthi7834]

Great video!

[@DIYwithDave]

Thanks for watching!

[@paulioshak9438]

You points are very good. What about longevity of stone vs modern stick built(platform) style?

[@multipotentialite]

What are your thoughts on wood foundations?

[@DIYwithDave]

Wood is not suitable for home foundations. Wood will rot when in contact with the soil. How quickly depends upon many factors, including the type of wood, the type of soil, moisture, etc. Even the best treated lumber will not last more than 20 years. It may be fine for a small structure, like a shed, but not for a home.

[@multipotentialite]

@DIYwithDave I'm currently in a 35 year old PWF (CCA treated) home with wood footings touching soil. No signs of rot yet.

[@w9jim]

How long has that lumber been sitting there? That piece with the paint on it has been in many videos!

[@aberba]

YTers

[@DIYwithDave]

Lol... A while. I am working through a separate stack of reclaimed white oak at the moment. I just built a desk for my son's room and it looks amazing... Video coming soon (as soon as I have time to edit it!).

[@jakeaurod]

You didn't really address the fire risk. Masonry doesn't burn so far as I know, but a house built out of fuel might. Maybe the contents of a masonry home would burn, but that would require the fire to get inside if it's a wildfire threat. Internal sprinkler systems might be useful in both cases for internal fires.

[@MythicalWorx]

How do building codes abroad fair compared to the US, because the new homes being built around me seem to be extremely cheaply made and cost a fortune. One house I looked at, everything seemed miniture, the kitchen, living room and bedrooms were all so tiny. It seemed like they just wanted to say it was a 5 bed, 4 bath house and thats all they cared about. One of the bedrooms was so small that a twin bed and a dresser wouldn't both fit! Also they claimed it was a 2 car garage, but even 2 mini coopers couldn't both fit. They were asking 500k for this garbage, and that experience turned me off to new homes. We only looked at homes between 1980-2008ish after that, unless you have your own plans, I would never buy a builders house, I guarantee they cut every corner they could in the name of profits.

[@unwatchedspacebum]

my dad was a carpenter and he would bring home scraps and make things out of them(the boss would complain about it he said, but he worked at a union shop and he actually had skill so fuck em) but he would talk about how sometimes they had crap wood and always complain about making cookie cutter yuppie garbage for idiots...as he put it, I guess he liked making single piece craftsman stuff more. Anyway, I just think we need more apartments in the states and fewer single family homes, telling people they need to get into a lifetime of debt with buying a house and car only to work a job(or two) they hate to support their family or themselves is draining the soul from the world, the hard truth is that a small one bedroom for single people or clean 2 bed for family apartments are all we need and should be building for the next decade with some houses for spicing maybe at a 80/20 ratio favoring the apartments with heavy dose of low-mid income range...NOT luxury garbage, housing is not an investment, life is not an investment, not everything needs to be privatized and monetized and optimized, all that corporate stuff needs to stay out of housing, food, education, health, etc.

[@barbarabrooks4747]

If we would build homes in the sides of hills where there are hills, we could use less wood and less energy. Straw bales make good homes with either lumber or metal for the structure.

[@underthemicroscope9225]

I have known how to frame a houses since I was 16 that is why.

[@luisraulvelazquez5114]

Hi Dave, I enjoyed your videos. Sometimes I ask myself if you are from PR. Are you?

[@DIYwithDave]

By PR, you mean Puerto Rico? No, I am not. I have never been, but I would love to go!

[@LorisSawmill]

Why? Because it's cheaper than other materials and is renewable. Pine can he harvested at 25 to 40 years, and new trees planted where they were cut down.

[@DIYwithDave]

That is definitely one of the reasons, but it goes far beyond just that.

[@bobowon5450]

a lot of people in Europe really do not understand just how young canada and the usa are. Society didn't start with stone buildings, it built up to that over hundreds, if not thousands of years.

[@barneymiller4088]

I don’t know what he means by a brick house. Brick is a veneer, and isn’t structural. I see buildings of traditional sticks, SIP, ICF, pole, red iron and tube steel. I think in Europe they build some out of straight stone, but I just see it here. I see SIP and ICF as the future of home building due to being quicker, more consist quality, more energy efficient and stronger.

[@KingKali-u4n]

MATCHSTICK CONSTRUCTION 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@mrright1068]

Wood is very recyclable and regenerative.

[@paulpollard3617]

How about Rammed Earth homes? I've toured one and it was impressive.

[@ytorwoody]

Other than in a tiny percentage of cases, stone, block, brick, etc. homes still use wood for upper floor framing, roof framing, miscellaneous interior partitions, and all sorts of random things that go into the final building. Hneifield mentioned a deal killer for me with the comment on poor insulation. Living in a home with "cold spots" can be miserable. A well designed and well insulated wood framed American home beats anything that I ever lived in when I lived in Germany.

[@DIYwithDave]

Great points, thanks for sharing!

[@jorgeundertaker2827]

Is not like that everywhere. My house is all CBS and steel rebar.

[@manojkumarswarrier7225]

Steel structures are catching momentum. Multistory residential buildings especially are built using steel structures.

[@TheBerserker50]

steel framing and hempcrete.

[@jonathanblum2994]

Better, faster and cheaper - wood construction has been historically been all three and will remain the primary material long as this remains true. Wood can be cut, processed, transported and used with much lower skill and capital investment as compared with other materials. And given advances in wood technology, most notably glue and polylam together with composite sheet goods, combined with a lower carbon footprints and sustainability, will keep wood as the main building material for a long while to come.

[@DIYwithDave]

Absolutely. One other thing I was thinking about after I posted the video was supply and demand. If we started shifting to block and concrete for homes, demand, and costs as a result, would go through the roof. We have had shortages of concrete recently and there is no way the current infrastructure could keep up. We currently have excess capacity in lumber and lumber resources are literally limitless, if we manage them correctly.

[@Bigdog1787]

We already use so much concrete here in the USA like he said price of concrete if we use it for entire houses would skyrocket as they can't even keep up as it is it's why big skyscrapers get delayed in building as they waiting for enough concrete supply most of the time for each floor being poured.

[@bmay81]

SE Asia builds with concrete, seems to withstand typhoons and multiple earthquakes.

[@Belaziraf]

From what I saw in the image of the destroyed brick house, there was no concrete framing. There cases and environments you can build without concrete framing, and there are cases you should. Like in zones with frequent tornadoes. Concrete, blocks or bricks are sturdy and fire resistant materials. But it doesn't mean you can use the same build any and every where. As for wooden constructions, till the 80s/90s, they were much cheaper in North America. looking at the housing market now, it doesn't seem to be the case. So it makes less sense to keep mass produced houses with wood. Abandoning wood construction would also be non sense. Developing bricks and concrete houses in parallel would be a good strategy for a country that can produce huge amount of concrete and have large reserves of wood. The greatest benefits would be to allow trees to grow older and stronger and raise the wood quality. Thus, the quality and durability of houses made out of it.

[@guru47pi]

I want to know why we can't do big things anymore, for example the housing boom in the'50's. If we'd passed a veteran's home loan program, it would just lead to greater shortages and huge gone inflation; it would take forever for construction to catch up to demand. Why can't we do big things anymore? Zoning and licensing of contractors is certainly a factor, but those existed in the past as well. It can't explain everything.