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Startup Builds Houses by Pumping Concrete into Inflatable Forms

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161–170 of 172 posts

Re: Startup Builds Houses by Pumping Concrete into Inflatable Forms

#161

The most expensive bit in a building is the land it sits on. The denser the cluster of people the more expensive the land becomes. People cluster around jobs. The more the jobs get distributed geographically the less people need to cluster and the more affordable housing becomes. Remote work is the way to solve the housing crisis. There can be smaller regional clusters of people working in shared offices or small off…

> Remote work is the way to solve the housing crisis.

Housing got totally out of control after this started. RTO is going to bring housing back down to earth.

Re: Startup Builds Houses by Pumping Concrete into Inflatable Forms

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would I let my pets run around in the garden? Where do I put my wood fired pizza oven? How do I teach my kids how to grow potatoes and build things? Where do I put the koi pond? There is perhaps some platonic ideal of an apartment where you can live a similar quality of life to a house. But in the reality that we actually live in currently, living in a house usually has a much better quality of life so it's natur…

Europeans don't need those things

What a ridiculous generalization. Everyone has their own preferences, needs, and wants.

Re: Startup Builds Houses by Pumping Concrete into Inflatable Forms

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would possess someone to say this? You think there is something different about americans or that americans don't live in apartments?

American apartments in general are shoddily constructed and thus are a lower quality of living. There's no getting around that. Walls that are paper thin with no insulation so you can listen in on your neighbor's phone calls. Poorly done ceilings/floors so the upstairs neighbors' kids running around wakes you up in the morning. Single pane glass so heating/cooling bill is expensive, and the sounds of the street are a…

> Walls that are paper thin with no insulation so you can listen in on your neighbor's phone calls.

These sound like wild assumptions with nothing to back them up.

https://basc.pnnl.gov/code-compliance/air-sealing-and-insula...

"Many builders are insulating these walls fully for sound proofing purposes per the International Building Code (IBC), Section 1207, Sound Transmission walls, partitions, and floor/ceiling assemblies separating dwelling units from each other must have a sound transmission class (STC) of not less than 50 for airborne noise when tested in accordance with ASTM E 90."

Also the comment I replied to said 'americans' not 'in america'

Re: Startup Builds Houses by Pumping Concrete into Inflatable Forms

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve had some pretty bad experiences living in mid size apartment buildings. Everything from a drugged out neighbor causing a fire, to bed bugs coming through the wall from a slob next door, to someone nearly stealing my car until I shouted at them from four floors up, to landlords who wouldn’t fix leaks for weeks/months after I left a voicemail on their high priority line, to dreadful indoor temperatures because the…

We can't have density without multi-family units. And density is what's required to make housing affordable in medium-size or larger cities. > must be either paying for a ritzy place Yes, a compromise for a more pleasant place to live is price. But a side-effect of more affordable housing is that nicer places also get cheaper. Another compromise to get a nicer place to live for the same price is to move to less desir…

If a nice place is becoming cheaper, it’s also probably becoming less nice.

Re: Startup Builds Houses by Pumping Concrete into Inflatable Forms

#165
What good is more housing without more schools, new parks, wider roads, more public infrastructure, etc? Net net it becomes a step-backwards for the group when just adding more housing alone

Startups like this are extremely guilty of offloading massive externals costs on the communities they sell to

Re: Startup Builds Houses by Pumping Concrete into Inflatable Forms

#166
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, replacing wood, which is a carbon sink, with concrete, which is a huge emitter of CO2, seems like a bad trade.

Concrete doesn’t burn.

Everything inside the concrete shell can still burn: wood flooring, carpeting, furniture. People will probably furr out the walls with wood and drywall anyway so they can hide wiring and pipes and so they don’t feel like they’re living in a prison cell.

Re: Startup Builds Houses by Pumping Concrete into Inflatable Forms

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can't have density without multi-family units. And density is what's required to make housing affordable in medium-size or larger cities. > must be either paying for a ritzy place Yes, a compromise for a more pleasant place to live is price. But a side-effect of more affordable housing is that nicer places also get cheaper. Another compromise to get a nicer place to live for the same price is to move to less desir…

If a nice place is becoming cheaper, it’s also probably becoming less nice.

Is that true though? Or is it just something that your monkey brain feels?

Re: Startup Builds Houses by Pumping Concrete into Inflatable Forms

#168
post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I prefer to live somewhere that lasts more than 30 years.

You should let the people in Boston who live in 200 year old wood houses know!

It’s basically theseus’ ship at that point.

Re: Startup Builds Houses by Pumping Concrete into Inflatable Forms

#169
post #157
post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should let the people in Boston who live in 200 year old wood houses know!

Have you ever owned a 150+ year old house? Everyone I know that has either hates the maintenance or is wealthy enough to constantly throw money at it and not care.

I owned a 100 year old house and that wasn't my experience.

Re: Startup Builds Houses by Pumping Concrete into Inflatable Forms

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well would you want to share a wall and roof with most Americans?

What would possess someone to say this? You think there is something different about americans or that americans don't live in apartments?

Home ownership rate in the US had been over 60% for a long time. Because of that there is a high chance that your apartment neighbors grew up in a detached home and have no habits that apartment dwellers teach their children. Combined with the fact that apartments are usually temporary accommodations this can produce very disruptive neighbors.

This is not unique to America, all the countries that went through rapid urbanization that moved millions of former farmers from detached homes into city apartments have an archetype of a rural rube unable to accommodate to communal living with strangers.

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