Built to last

watch "Flip it back" on TLC - the show features Gable Painter (that's his name, cute eh?) rehabing in Richmond VA quite enlightening ($11,000 purchase of Victorian duplex, invests $178,000, then sells each unit for $220,000 for a profit and employs a number of guys into the bargain)

www.actualreality.tv/production.html?production=flipitback

And here's a tongue in cheek BBC article on a home in straw bale construction for $8,000:
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/7275312.stm

Elsewhere its more professional (with young offenders learning construction not watching TV in gaol)
www.bbc.co.uk/shropshire/content/articles/2007/05/22/straw_bale_house_feature.shtml

(if you've ever seen Akiro Kurosawa's "Dersu Ussala" movie, then you know how warm straw can be)

A metrosexual expressway drive-by cannot accurately assess sound construction methods.

Great line, but still, the buildings going up look pretty flimsy. I take it you are a civil engineer. I've heard engineers discuss contemporary home construction, talking about how carelessly they're built, and how short the life span of the houses will be. Are they wrong? Or is it just impossible to generalize?

We'll have to bulldoze 'em before they go up!

I've heard engineers discuss contemporary home construction, talking about how carelessly they're built, and how short the life span of the houses will be.

Rod,

Could you point us to some articles (e.g., in an ASCE journal or the like) documenting this claim? I'm curious if there've been any formal studies of this phenomenon.

I wonder if this sort of "planned obsolescence" in housing might be a response to the degree of mobility in contemporary American society. How many people (in the general population, not in these comboxes) plan to stay in the same place for (say) 30-50 yrs? If the answer is "not many", then a rational homebuilder won't bother building houses that are (say) good for a century.

(This is not, BTW, my preference; I prefer to buy things that last - the longer, the better - and then run them into the ground.)

We live in an old-ish (turn of the century, with add-ons) house in a small town. The plaster is nubbly, there are cracks in the ceiling, the hardwood floors slope and creak, and the basement, frankly, is a pit.

But I love it. The windows are big and plentiful, the ceilings are high. The kitchen is huge and friendly. I can walk to town.

So, when our family outgrew the house, we found a company who could add a second story. Yes, it's frame with plywood floors & carpet & drywall, but it's solid. As in warm in the winter, heavy closet and room doors, a great roof. And big windows.

And yes, if our purses had been long enough, they would have done plaster-and-lathe, 10 ft. ceilings, the works. What we could afford, they did well. I think there are many companies that will build the quality a particular buyer wants. I think there are many corporations who take advantage of the fact that most buyers don't much care.

Buyers are no longer able to evaluate quality and are unwilling to pay for features they can't see, especially when they know they aren't buying a home their family will occupy for generations.

I definitely think you're on to something. Not long after we got to Dallas, I remember admiring some stone bank building near our church. Then one Sunday one of my kids was acting up, so we took a walk around the block, and I was shocked to notice that something had happened to the bank's corner -- car nicked it, or something -- and it wasn't made of stone at all, but styrofoam blocks with a faux-stone covering. My wife rolled her eyes when I told her, and said she couldn't believe I ever thought any of that stuff was stone. Stupid me. See, this is right next to one of the nicest parts of Dallas, and I thought surely they wouldn't go for all that fakey-fake crap in Highland Park. Now when I drive around town, whenever I see new construction I assume I'm looking at a Potemkin Village.

My parents recently built a little beach house on the coast of California, and my father decided he wanted to finish the interior walls and ceiling with 1-by-6 cedar, tongue-and-groove boards.

I only worked on two rooms, so I didn't experience the full shoulder pain and tedium of this mode ofconstruction, but if I ever build a house of my own, I will be thrilled to use Sheetrock.

The cedar looks nice, though, but the labor required to do it is mind-numbing. It's not a question of obscure lost skills in this case -- the carpentry was straightforward -- but it probably takes five times as long.

>>>
I definitely think you're on to something. Not long after we got to Dallas, I remember admiring some stone bank building near our church. Then one Sunday one of my kids was acting up, so we took a walk around the block, and I was shocked to notice that something had happened to the bank's corner -- car nicked it, or something -- and it wasn't made of stone at all, but styrofoam blocks with a faux-stone covering. My wife rolled her eyes when I told her, and said she couldn't believe I ever thought any of that stuff was stone. Stupid me. See, this is right next to one of the nicest parts of Dallas, and I thought surely they wouldn't go for all that fakey-fake crap in Highland Park. Now when I drive around town, whenever I see new construction I assume I'm looking at a Potemkin Village.
Posted by: Rod Dreher | March 11, 2008 11:03 AM
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Rod, are you sure you aren't a character in a Sinclair Lewis short story?

I've owned three old houses and after working on them and getting into the bones, I generally consider it a mental disorder. I've figured out that the only things I really like better than the suburban houses is the street appeal of having the garages in the rear and the grown-in urban forest. The only thing that is really superior about the older houses is some of the materials. In our case, all three houses were framed from 1st growth redwood. It's amazing stuff. The termites don't touch it and when we took off the back of the house we only found one board where there had been a small leak that had dry rot. Current framing lumber is pretty sad but folks are starting do steel framing which should last a good long time.

The old foundations made from bricks weren't that great. Most folks I know who have these have had to jack up their houses and have a new foundation with reinforced concrete put in. Lots of the new stuff like windows are superior and while lathe and plaster has a real quality, it cracks alot and a good drywall covered walls with quality insulation will seal out the elements much better and require less fuel to keep temporate. Also, we're replaced several of the fancy old windows with new double-paned. To keep the "original look" we've framed around them with wood by the vinal seals really nicely. People are all ga-ga about the old weights and pulley windows but having taken them apart and fixed a couple dozen, I'm not that impressed. You can gob them up with weather sealing but it doesn't work as well and requires more maintainence. I'll eventually replace all of them too.

The really good old craftsman tile is nice but it is at the end of its life cycle and you can equally good tile now for a bit higher in price than the cheap stuff. I'm not personally a big fan of the granite kitchen style but you can't argue that it won't last very long. Much longer than the old painted wood kitchens. I've had the old built-in cabinets (built on-site) and replaced them with modern modular stuff and don't see a big difference. The old tarpaper roofs (had to replace one) aren't up to modern shingles and they are easier to repair and replace.

Each of my old houses had old steel water pipes and they corrode terribly. Replaced them with copper (which is common on new homes) in two houses which will last much longer. The old steel drain pipes probably last longer than the new plastic ones, but maintainence is much easier on the new ones and usually built to be more accessible. And don't get me started on the old electrical having spent too many occasions rewiring knob and tube with romex. The old insulation doesn't hold up very well and every time I've seen the bare wires it scared the crap out of me. A fire waiting to happen.

BTW, I have watched several public buildings, all built of poured concrete in the 1960s, decay, die, and get replaced or heavily rehabbed in the last 15 years. Three of them were local institutions of higher education. I taught in two of them, and watched them leak and then disintegrate. Oddly, I don't know of any private houses that have undergone the same process.

Well, nothing is really "built to last." I live in a 60-year-old house, and it requires constant maintenance and repair. Some of these upgrades are very expensive. Anything that has not been maintained is not going to last...

As for your notion that those apartments are "flimsy" based in part on the speed of completion... Well, I'll have to take that with a grain of salt. You don't appear to know much about construction, construction materials or any technology used to help complete projects faster.

It's the downside of blog journalism: People say whatever they want, but never pick up a phone to check it out.

It's the downside of blog journalism: People say whatever they want, but never pick up a phone to check it out.

Your mistake is to assume blogs are the same thing as journalism. I would never write for the newspaper some of the things I float here. Half the time I toss out things that I'm not sure about, just to get feedback. I'm not likely to pick up a phone and check with sources before making an observation about how sturdy a construction project looks. As it turns out, I've learned from several of you some things I didn't know, and now that I'm interested in the topic beyond just yakking on a blog, I'm building a list of people familiar with the construction industry, and historical buildings, whom I can phone and interview about just this topic. So this blog, which is half-assed journalism, serves to assist my real journalism. Most of my columns for the paper start out as a post here, and reading the commentary and the interaction usually tells me it's worth taking up in print -- and I can guarantee you the columns I come up with are different from the columns I would have written without benefit of the give and take in the comboxes here.

My stepdad has a home inspection business on the side, and the stories he tells me are incredible. Being in South Florida, he's seen more crappy building techniques than I would think possible. When we added on to our house in 2000, we did almost everything ourselves, and he built it like a fortress. Consequently, when the hurricanes came through in 2004/5, we were one of three houses on the street that were undamaged. I've picked up a few things from him and my grandfather (Dad's a jack-of-all-trades, Gramps is a carpenter/cabinetmaker), but I'm nowhere near their levels of expertise. Now that I'm looking for my own home, I'm trending towards older homes in the rougher part of town- they may not be in a great neighborhood, but at least they have relatively solid construction and are cheaper.

I used to live in a brand-spanking new townhouse. In ten years, the nails popped through the drywall, the walls near the windows cracked, the carpet needed replacing, the linoleum had already been replaced as well as all the faucets and bathroom fixtures, on and on. I went to visit a friend whose mother just bought a new McMansion for about $800K. In her bathrooms was the same crappy linoleum and formica countertops. I was disgusted, but not surprised.

Now, like you, we live in a 1920s bungalow with thick walls, and beautiful craftsmanship. We could *never* afford to have this house built today. The mouldings alone would do us in.

I know a few timber-framers.

"Who is teaching old-style carpentry and craftsmanship to younger generations? Tell me, I want to know and write about them."

My sister, for one. She does custom marquetry and also teaches wood-related courses such as veneering and finishing at an adult technical school. But she knows that most of her students will end up with jobs making kitchen cabinets. Few people, least of all the craftspeople with the knowledge to appreciate the work, can afford true craftsmanship.

Wife and I have done remodeling in old homes and new ones. Older homes are usually harder because of the lack of 90 degree angles. Most older homes are poorly insulated and a lot of older electrical systems are scary (our oldest house dated to about 1820). I have always thought that the crappy homes that were built in 1920 have already been knocked down or fell down. The one thing thats harder to find now is just the really good wood.

You can still get high quality work if you can pay for it. OR, you can use illegals and get the equivalent of labor costs in the past. We just had a library done in arts and crafts style (cherry) and the guys were very competent. You can get all the mouldings and chair rails done that give your house that touch of class if you are willing to pay. They arent all that hard to do yourself and you save a bundle. Plus you get to buy power tools.

Homebuilding today goes much faster (or can) since most builders have teams (or subs) for each special area. In my area its usually teams of Amish that do the framing and those guys are awesome. New tech (like the drywalling bazooka or whatever that thing is called) saves lots of time. I hated drywall work and would have killed for something like that.

Steve

I heard James Kunstler once comment during a speech he gave, that carpenters have all this wonderful tools and gadgets, that would wow an old time carpenter, and yet they can't seem to make joints that fit together without leaving a 8th inch gap. Modern houses are more "put together", like a kit. Everything comes in standard size sheets, 4x8, 4x4, etc. It's basically just cutting boards and sheets. I am a furniture maker, and have been hired to move doors from one side of a bathroom vanity, to the other side, and the drawers visa versa. Lowes did not sell them reversed, and the manufacturer would not reverse them. Kitchen cabinets come already built to fit, and are just screwed into place. Part of the problem is modern carpenters really don't get to be craftsman. Most things are already sized for them when it gets to the job site. House building like everything else, has been "industrialized". And like everything else that got industrialized, it lost a lot in the process. Older houses were literally built like a big piece of furniture. Cabinets, and everything else were built on site. It really did take skill and craftsmanship to build a house. Other than things like plumbing, electricity, they really are built better. Modern windows are more efficent, but not nearly as lovely. Just look at 19 century 6 over 6, multipaned windows. We still don't make windows as lovely as those on a colonial, or Fedral era house. I just can't see people 200 years from now, admiring much about modern housing. If it doesn't fall apart before then.

A similar thought related to how well your 1914 bungalow was built: back in the day, there was real architectural thought deployed on some small houses, in addition to on large houses. A walk down the few blocks of Bryan Parkway takes you past a lot of houses that are 1500 - 2000 square feet, I'm guessing, many of which are genuinely interesting and successful architecturally. I wish that were true today -- even most of the big houses are awkward and unoriginal.