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[Varche]

Anyone else find it slightly odd that everyone is surprised when the houses blow away? They are just glorified sheds. How much more would they cost to rebuild using bricks/mortar or reinforced concrete. Persianas that cover windows are a readily available product. Just metal slats on a roll. Burglar and most projectiles proof.

We were in the Dominican Republic exactly twenty years ago. Very poor country so understandable. Maybe aid programmes should focus on rebuilding with simple but sound buildings and not sheds. Same in Florida - US has enough money.

[tunnie]

I've noticed this too, all wooden frames on concrete base. 

[Sir Tigger KC]

Yes you have to wonder if the rot will set in on these timber framed houses that were sat in 4ft of water for a week in Houston. 

[Mister Rog]

Stayed with people in the USA and also in new build houses in the uk. Fart in one room, and the whole house knows about it. Our Victorian house has a host of problems, but privacy and stability aren't on the list.

[Doctor Gollum]

Timber is sustainable, bricks and concrete are not.

Just saying 

[Rods2]

iirc I think in the US when near an earthquake zone they build either wooden houses or steel reinforced concrete ones as they both survive earth tremors.

Log cabins and now wooden houses have a long tradition in the US in suburban and rural areas.

In some areas of Florida (around Tampa) also remember this is the first hurricane they have had since 1921, so there will be plenty of old housing stock.

[Mr Gav]

Bricks and mortar would probably be structurally damaged by Hurricanes and Tornado`s that they get in the US so overall it is quicker, cheaper and easier to rebuild a timber house than repair brick and mortar houses 

[Lizzie Zoom]

Timber is sustainable, bricks and concrete are not.

Just saying 

.......and readily available at a far lower cost than alternatives

In Britain the materials for brick making are readily available, and that is why during the 19th century, once the cost of production could be greatly reduced, brick houses took over from wooden ones coinciding with a shortage of timber to meet the great demand produced by the Industrial Revolution for workers houses.  In the States timber is still the cheapest form of material for house building and, as I understand it, far more readily available than bricks.  The market decides that.

[Varche]

And availability of concrete and steel reinforcement?  The worlds favouredconstruction technique , pretty cheap and pretty good against natures vagaries.

[Sir Tigger KC]

Timber is sustainable, bricks and concrete are not.

Just saying 

Given that it takes 5 minutes to chop a tree down and decades to grow a new one to maturity, I've always found this claim extremely spurious. 

[Kevin Wood]

Timber is sustainable, bricks and concrete are not.

Just saying 

Given that it takes 5 minutes to chop a tree down and decades to grow a new one to maturity, I've always found this claim extremely spurious. 

Yes, and that assumes that you do grow a new one instead of building houses where it stood.

Having watched a few timber framed houses being built near me, I'll stick to my bricks and mortar, if it's all the same to you?

The thing about development in the US is that they seem to bulldoze everything and rebuild it every couple of decades anyway, so the longevity of bricks and mortar construction might be wasted anyway.

[Lizzie Zoom]

And availability of concrete and steel reinforcement?  The worlds favouredconstruction technique , pretty cheap and pretty good against natures vagaries.

Post war in the UK this was tried across the board.  But it has proved to be a real problem in terms of reliability and comfort.  The concrete in a house is cold and prone to failure due to the steel reinforcement rods corroding and bursting the outer fabric.  Hence houses of Non-Standard Construction being either valued at a vastly reduce market price, being often unmortgagable, or subject to expensive re-cladding in brick, or demolished, like many blocks of flats and office blocks.  If you have ever lived in a concrete house you will know about the cold you feel and often the damp that forms on the walls.

Of course they are still trying to make concrete houses work, but for many people it is good old brick and tile that will always be the best.  Not even timber framed houses can equal that.

[Mr Gav]

Timber is sustainable, bricks and concrete are not.

Just saying 

Given that it takes 5 minutes to chop a tree down and decades to grow a new one to maturity, I've always found this claim extremely spurious. 

Yes, and that assumes that you do grow a new one instead of building houses where it stood.

Having watched a few timber framed houses being built near me, I'll stick to my bricks and mortar, if it's all the same to you?

I totally agree with you there, for most countries anyway.

The thing about development in the US is that they seem to bulldoze everything and rebuild it every couple of decades anyway, so the longevity of bricks and mortar construction might be wasted anyway.

Bricks and mortar still wouldn`t be up to the job in areas where they get extreme weather, you only have to look at the work that has to be done to buildings over here when some drunken idiot has driven a car into them. To cover the cost of that work for whole towns after a hurricane has hit wouldn`t be worth while, it`s far easier to build a new timber house on the remaining concrete slab after the hurricane has blown the previous one away.

[Varche]

And availability of concrete and steel reinforcement?  The worlds favouredconstruction technique , pretty cheap and pretty good against natures vagaries.

Post war in the UK this was tried across the board.  But it has proved to be a real problem in terms of reliability and comfort.  The concrete in a house is cold and prone to failure due to the steel reinforcement rods corroding and bursting the outer fabric.  Hence houses of Non-Standard Construction being either valued at a vastly reduce market price, being often unmortgagable, or subject to expensive re-cladding in brick, or demolished, like many blocks of flats and office blocks.  If you have ever lived in a concrete house you will know about the cold you feel and often the damp that forms on the walls.

Of course they are still trying to make concrete houses work, but for many people it is good old brick and tile that will always be the best.  Not even timber framed houses can equal that.

with a huge success too. Might not work in Britain but then you don't get hurricanes like Irma!

[Lizzie Zoom]

And availability of concrete and steel reinforcement?  The worlds favouredconstruction technique , pretty cheap and pretty good against natures vagaries.

Post war in the UK this was tried across the board.  But it has proved to be a real problem in terms of reliability and comfort.  The concrete in a house is cold and prone to failure due to the steel reinforcement rods corroding and bursting the outer fabric.  Hence houses of Non-Standard Construction being either valued at a vastly reduce market price, being often unmortgagable, or subject to expensive re-cladding in brick, or demolished, like many blocks of flats and office blocks.  If you have ever lived in a concrete house you will know about the cold you feel and often the damp that forms on the walls.

Of course they are still trying to make concrete houses work, but for many people it is good old brick and tile that will always be the best.  Not even timber framed houses can equal that.

with a huge success too. Might not work in Britain but then you don't get hurricanes like Irma!

No, that is very true Varche thank God.