How to build a house alone [video] • Hacker News Board

Re: How to build a house alone [video]

#21

Post by hobofan » Fri, Apr 20, 2018, 9:08 AM UTC

adventured wrote: post #18

cateye wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this difference mainly caused by weather conditions or is it a cultural or economical consequence?

The US has, for practical purposes, an unlimited supply of cost effective, renewable timber (domestically + Canada). It makes tremendous economic sense. Also consider the renewable + cost + timber supply factor, when it comes to population. Germany's population has barely increased since 1970. The US population has increased by ~55% in that time, adding over 100 million people. Rarely building new structures for a st…

That only answers one half of the question, doesn't it? Germany should also have the same unlimited supply of timber (it has the same percentage of forests of their land area), so why don't Germans build wood houses?

Re: How to build a house alone [video]

#22

Post by kstenerud » Fri, Apr 20, 2018, 9:10 AM UTC

mrleiter wrote: post #16

Back in the 50s, my great grandfather built the house where my mother and my grandmother grew up in all by himself. It took him 6 years, but he had no help. He started digging into the ground with a shovel. He was a carpenter and bricklayer and used his spare time and skill to do it. This house is still standing and my grandmother still lives in it. This is him with his wife, my great grandmother: https://i.imgur.com…

Very cool! If you have a picture of the house, I'm sure HN would love to see it!

Re: How to build a house alone [video]

#23

Post by narag » Fri, Apr 20, 2018, 9:13 AM UTC

In my hometown it was very common for people to build their own house twenty years ago, ignoring all kind of permits. A lot of people worked in construction or were plumbers, painters... they worked patiently in the weekends and with a little help from friends, only sprinting at the moment of the concrete injection.

Even if the houses were illegal (there's an interesting background on why people takes that risk) the quality of the build and regulations compliance were OK, since the process is the same and done by the same people that builds legal houses.

Now there is a political nightmare around this question, but that's another story.

Re: How to build a house alone [video]

#24

Post by gkya » Fri, Apr 20, 2018, 9:14 AM UTC

Jakob wrote: post #4

Impressive! Of course technically he’s building it not by himself but with the help of a lot of technology. ;) This man is building a house including the tools you need to build that house completely by himself: Primitive Technology: Tiled Roof Hut https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P73REgj-3UE

Primitive Technology is an awesome channel, one of the marvels of youtube. To anybody who decides to follow his videos: please do not skip reading the description of the videos. He's not just making some primitive-looking stuff with crap he finds about, he actually often tries to replicate what actual primitive peoples did, and explains the historical period and some other details. There are those other channels that copied the concept, but they are just bad copies, half naked men doing silly things for the views.

Re: How to build a house alone [video]

#25

Post by Tepix » Fri, Apr 20, 2018, 9:14 AM UTC

hobofan wrote: post #21

adventured wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US has, for practical purposes, an unlimited supply of cost effective, renewable timber (domestically + Canada). It makes tremendous economic sense. Also consider the renewable + cost + timber supply factor, when it comes to population. Germany's population has barely increased since 1970. The US population has increased by ~55% in that time, adding over 100 million people. Rarely building new structures for a st…

That only answers one half of the question, doesn't it? Germany should also have the same unlimited supply of timber (it has the same percentage of forests of their land area), so why don't Germans build wood houses?

Stone houses last longer.

Whenever I see a report about a tornado or a hurricane in the US I wonder what the damage would be like if people had stone houses instead of wooden houses that disintegrate during a storm and then in turn damage other houses. It reminds me of the Kessler Syndrome.

Re: How to build a house alone [video]

#26

Post by adventured » Fri, Apr 20, 2018, 9:16 AM UTC

hobofan wrote: post #21

adventured wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US has, for practical purposes, an unlimited supply of cost effective, renewable timber (domestically + Canada). It makes tremendous economic sense. Also consider the renewable + cost + timber supply factor, when it comes to population. Germany's population has barely increased since 1970. The US population has increased by ~55% in that time, adding over 100 million people. Rarely building new structures for a st…

That only answers one half of the question, doesn't it? Germany should also have the same unlimited supply of timber (it has the same percentage of forests of their land area), so why don't Germans build wood houses?

There's actually an extraordinary gap between the two.

Having the same percentage of forests is not the same thing as having the same supply of renewable timber. You're forgetting about population density. The US has vastly more timber supply vs population, than Germany does.

US territory size is something like 26x the size of Germany, with just 4x the population difference.

304 million hectares of forests vs 330 million people in the US. A near 1 ratio for hectares per person.

11 million ha of forests vs 82 million people in Germany. A 0.13 ratio.

Now throw in Canada, which is an almost comical 347 million ha (and their modest domestic needs for 36 million people).

edit: adjusted the US figure to hectares

Re: How to build a house alone [video]

#27

Post by tpetry » Fri, Apr 20, 2018, 9:18 AM UTC

hobofan wrote: post #21

adventured wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US has, for practical purposes, an unlimited supply of cost effective, renewable timber (domestically + Canada). It makes tremendous economic sense. Also consider the renewable + cost + timber supply factor, when it comes to population. Germany's population has barely increased since 1970. The US population has increased by ~55% in that time, adding over 100 million people. Rarely building new structures for a st…

That only answers one half of the question, doesn't it? Germany should also have the same unlimited supply of timber (it has the same percentage of forests of their land area), so why don't Germans build wood houses?

Wood houses are slowly coming to Germany too, but there seems to be a cultural refusal to them. Maybe it's because of WW2 and the bombing of the cities? Maybe a solid concrete house is feeling more safe in german heads?

Re: How to build a house alone [video]

#28

Post by bdowling » Fri, Apr 20, 2018, 9:18 AM UTC

bufferoverflow wrote: post #19

He isn't even wearing a hard hat. That's an OSHA violation. I watch the video about him installing the stairs, and I cringed half the time. The guy is very close to injuring or killing himself.

He’s Canadian, so OSHA doesn’t apply. Even if he were in the US, it seems he’s an independent contractor and not an employer, so he would be exempt.

Re: How to build a house alone [video]

#29

Post by bitexploder » Fri, Apr 20, 2018, 9:21 AM UTC

adventured wrote: post #18

cateye wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this difference mainly caused by weather conditions or is it a cultural or economical consequence?

The US has, for practical purposes, an unlimited supply of cost effective, renewable timber (domestically + Canada). It makes tremendous economic sense. Also consider the renewable + cost + timber supply factor, when it comes to population. Germany's population has barely increased since 1970. The US population has increased by ~55% in that time, adding over 100 million people. Rarely building new structures for a st…

US building standards are pretty good for our wood frame houses these days. These houses can withstand pretty much anything but tornado or earthquake. Proper maintenance of the external facing structures of the house (roof, paint, siding, windows) mean it can last a very long time (100 years). We also insulate houses more or less depending on where they are. New homes are quite energy efficient.

Re: How to build a house alone [video]

#30

Post by underko » Fri, Apr 20, 2018, 9:27 AM UTC

gkya wrote: post #24

Jakob wrote: post #4

Impressive! Of course technically he’s building it not by himself but with the help of a lot of technology. ;) This man is building a house including the tools you need to build that house completely by himself: Primitive Technology: Tiled Roof Hut https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P73REgj-3UE

Primitive Technology is an awesome channel, one of the marvels of youtube. To anybody who decides to follow his videos: please do not skip reading the description of the videos. He's not just making some primitive-looking stuff with crap he finds about, he actually often tries to replicate what actual primitive peoples did, and explains the historical period and some other details. There are those other channels that…

And don't forget to turn on captions, as his commentary is there.