Why do so many of us live in wooden houses ?

Tornado season again

110 last year

350 this year so far

Go figure

Cost i assume will be a big reason.

I guess if the house was going to be blown down by a tornado, i rather have wood fall on me, rather than bricks, having said that, the likelihood of bricks falling is smaller, as seen in the 3 little pigs.

A lot of it has to do with how the 'trades' work.

Most new skilled construction workers (known as 'helpers' usually) are trained by other, more experienced workers (journeymen.) The knowledge of how to actually do the work is passed from individual to individual, as there aren't really any 'Construction Colleges' to do the teaching. Unless the journeymen are keeping up-to-date on the newest techniques (and they have no real incentive to do so), the helpers don't learn new techniques. Only the most proven and simple of methods gets passed along the chain, since this is the 'safe' professional path to take. Besides, many tradesmen, while by no means stupid or dim, are not in the business because of their great SAT scores...if you know what I mean.

Because of this, and the inherent conservative nature of the construction industry (after all, do you want to introduce some new-fangled building technique or material...and have it fail?), innovation comes very slowly to the construction industry. Homes have been built of wood in this country for a long time. And that tradition is hard to overcome. Especially when combined with professionals who aren't eager to change.

Wood is light, has good tensile & compressive strength, and is easy to work. There are economic advantages - trees grow over much of this continent and wood is inexpensive.

There are alternatives, of course, but they're typically more expensive and inconvnient.

Conventional wood frame houses could be nearly tornado-proof, much more hurricane resistant, and have much greater structural rigidity with moderate changes in contruction methods - none of which are revolutionary or risky:

• Use 2x6 for exterior-wall studs for greater strength
• Drill and screw joints together instead of nailing them so that greater axial force is required to break a joint and you don't stress the wood with nails that try to split it
• Reinforce all joints with metal plates so that destructive forces have to work against nails/screws in shear (difficult!) instead of pulling along their axis (trivial!)
• Bolt footers to foundations/floors
• Build houses with actual joinery like some of the centuries-old houses from colonial times that have been through centuries of violent weather
• Put in diagonal reinforcement wherever it will work - triangles are inherently strong unlike rectangles.
• Minimzie windows - they're structural liabilities!

These methods would cost more, but judging by the quality of tract home I see going up in the Dallas area, I think they would be a good idea. I'd think that insurers would cut you a break on homeowners' insurance if you built a sturdy house in a storm-prone area - maybe enough to make the extra costs pay off.

Of course, everyone seems to be more intested in maximizing square footage and amenities in new home construction as opposed to addressing all aspects of home design. Contractors just want to get the job done as quickly as possible, as do the builders who are mostly cashflow-management outfits. The faster you can build a house, the happier your customers seem to be (so long as you don't make any huge, immediate blunders) and the more profitable you tend to be.

Wood or steel is vastly preferable over brick or stone in earthquake country. Those last two are actually uninsurable there.

Your chance of your house being hit by a tornado is probably more than 1 in 10 million. A stone house (like most in Europe) would cost 3-10x as much.

Cement is the way to go http://www.cement.org/homes/brief07.asp

A tornado will destroy almost any house, no mater how it is constructed, except maybe a concrete bunker.

It is possible to build houses that are better able to resist damage from hurricanes. Florida is beginning to do so, but still has a long way to go.

I would think it depends on which country you live in...

Here in Hong Kong, there are NO wooden structures. Homes here are built from brick and steel, and must withstand the seasonal typhoons (hurricanes to those of you in the US) that hit Hong Kong in the summer.

Unlike Florida and other gulf states in the US, there are no evacuations when there is a typhoon as it is expected that the homes here will withstand those winds without any damage. Since I moved to Hong Kong 10 years ago, the worst typhoon was rated a "9", which means that sustained winds were between 89km/h - 117km/h (55mph - 72mph) with gusts exceeding 180km/h (112mph). During the storm, I could actually feel my apartment building swaying, but the worse damage I suffered was some water damage when rain water came blasting in through the rubber seals around the air conditioning units in my apartment due to the high winds... No damage to the building at all.. I would hate being in a wooden building in such a storm.

im going to make my house outa a huge hot air ballon

I live in a Log Cabin no tornados up here kinda sucks that i can see daylight through a lot of the cracks in the wall though

Here's another option - the foam house - "Xanadu"

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/set/xanadu.html

A level 9 typhoon of only 72 mph is considered a Storm here in the US. A Hurricane does not start until 74 MPH by our measure. Most houses can withstand 70 mph winds. Many do OK in a category 1 and 2 (winds up to 110 mph).

I was watching some "how to" shows after Hurricane Hugo. They filmed the rebuilding of Florida homes that were damaged by the hurricane. They were using 2x4 studs set pretty far apart . I think they were 24 inch centers. The sheething was plywood that was flimsy enough that I watched it bend as it was carried by the carpenter. The vinyl siding that went over that was basically just for show. It passed the building inspection, but according to the documentary it would not withstand a category 3 storm.

I live in earthquake country. My house is wood frame with a stucco finish. The roof is fireproof steel tiles designed to look like cedar shake from a distance. The roof is rated for a category 3 hurricane. The foundation is bolted to the frame, and the rafters are tied to the walls. In a strong quake the house flexes, but is designed not to fall. If it were knocked from the foundation the gas lines have interrupters to prevent a fire from broken pipes. I am high enough that flooding is not a problem (per the flood maps published by the covernment).

It's not hard to build a house to withstand the local dangers. I'm OK when it comes to fire, wind, flood and rain. A really strong earthquake will damage the house, but it should not fall. Being in a valley 40 miles from the ocean, hurricanes and tornados are not usually a problem.

Hmmmm. Volcanos. I have not looked into volcanos. YIKES!



Daniel

(Joke mode on)
Hehe...Wooden houses...only because you are cow boys
(Joke mode off)

Here in France houses are made with brick.. but I think the price is not the same as your wooden houses...and we don't change house each years or so

I think that it is due to the customs of life of each country

as far as Im concerned metalhead got it right; what he said, plus the %@%$#@#$ building codes..can't use a different better material anywhere with out hiring a %#@$%#@ lawyer and suing the county for the right..
forget ferrocement domes!

every nut and screw and stick is scrutinized and has to be approved..
(of course, the house still leaks..)

It's really bad here in Ventura, easier other places..

argh don't get me started..

For Hong Kong, I wonder if ermites are more an issue in construction materials than typhoons. In Taiwan, not so far away, wooden structures have a very short life unless regularly treated. At the same time, traditional wood framing becomes very inefficient once you get past about 3 stories. Are there any small homes in HK? Certainly in downtown, all you have are high rises.

Wood houses with proper construction as mentioned are easily as strong as steel framing. Reinforced concrete is the only way to get a real quantum leap in resistance to typhoons, although a well build wood framed house is quite possible safer in a severe earthquake.

By the same token, my mother used to live in GA. Termite city. The assumption was that any home you bought had termites, the issue was whether the owner had kept them under control. That's where the real potential is for steel studs, etc......

my (not) wonderful contracter told me the wood already had termites and the house would fall down when they stopped holding hands..

Frenchy - do they have earthquakes in France? I know Turkey is quite active, but that's kind of a ways.

In the US, brick is still very common but it's no longer structural - mostly serves as an exterior covering. I have been in houses from about 100+ years ago that are structurally brick - really strange. Walls are riduculously thick (lke 18+ inches) with pillars here and there. It has similar limitations to wood framing - it becomes very inefficent to make a brick structure once you get past 3 floors or so.

26-2, no many earthquakes in France

And I can't translate really, in fact it's not brick but " parpaing en béton, moellon"...PArpaing

A picture of a Parpaing

Frenchy,

Those are "masonry blocks" or "concrete blocks" in the US. They are used around here for foundations and things like the structure of masonry steps. They would typically be covered on the exterior surfaces with a layer of cement or another masonry product like bricks or stone veneer or slabs. Standard dimensions for concrete blocks in the US are nominally 8 inches high by 16 inches long (actual size is slightly smaller than that to allow for the mortar lines) and various widths and core configurations and edge configurations.

Why wood houses? Because it is generally a decent way to build a house. Note I said "decent" and not "best". If you build a house of solid poured concrete, it would probably withstand hurricanes and tornadoes pretty well, but might not do so well in an earthquake (depending on the reinforcement, among other things).

Wood is generally easily worked on-site by tradespeople.

And regarding the 'strength' of a wooden house, usually they are plenty strong. Could they be beefed up to withstand non-normal conditions (earthquake, hurricane, etc) better than they currently do? Yup, and the newer building codes address many of those issues.

Residential construction and codes are kind of 'old school' and conservative, as some above mentioned. But then again, this way the job doesn't need a structural engineer to design everything and oversee the entire job.

Having the house fall down on you, it won't matter if it's wood or brick. You're still squashed.

IIRC, hurricanes damage a structure from both wind AND water. The wind tries to peel the structure apart, as well as bending and flexing things. Once an opening occurs, then there is all the water that gets in. And many/most interior building materials, like insulation, wallboard, carpeting, etc, are damaged by all the water.

And regarding GregW in Hong Kong, there is usually a big difference in construction between residential homes and commercial buildings. Residential wooden-framed construction is rarely going to go above three floors high in the US. That's a limit in the material and the construction details. Building a typical US single family two-story house out of steel I-beams and reinforced concrete slab walls, floors, and ceilings is usually not cost efficient for the size of the structure.

It's all a bunch of trade-offs. Cost, availability, strength, durability, vulnerabilities, etc all play a role.

Regarding 2x4 exterior walls framed 24 inches OC (on-center) and flimsy 'plywood' sheathing? The sheathing was more likely OSB (oriented strand board). Even so, the walls would probably be strong enough for 'normal' conditions. 'Normal' is not a 100+ mph hurricane. Heck, older houses (early 1900's era or so) would often be built without solid sheathing at all! Northern climes would have had diagonal solid wood board sheathing, southern US climes might have had just a few diagonal corner braces and non-structural or flimsy sheathing on the outside underneath the siding material.

Northern US residential building/energy codes now are recommending/requiring 2x6 exterior walls, not so much for strength but to be able to get more insulation in the walls.

Enough rambling for now ...