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The wonder of modern drywall

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Re: The wonder of modern drywall

#241

Post by blincoln »

enobrev wrote: post #19
accrual wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't call it easy, but it's conceptually simple to cut a square hole in some drywall to access behind it, and then pop the piece back in with screws, mud, and tape, then paint.

For sure. I've wired my old house with speakers in every ceiling, and cat-6 in every room. I've had a small pipe burst and a couple leaks behind a bathroom. I've patched quite a bit of drywall, and I'm about mediocre at it. But it seems so silly and unnecessary to me. Everything else in this world that requires maintenance comes with access panels and other means of easy access. In our living spaces, some of which sh…

If I ever have a house built to my own specs, I want to get the best of both worlds by using drywall, but with most/all of the interior walls being maintenance corridors accessible via concealed doorways. A modern version of the way the dormitory in Real Genius was constructed.

Just make the house itself ~10% larger than it would be otherwise, so the usable floorspace is the same.

Adding/repairing wiring and plumbing would be easy. Every wall could have two layers of thermal/sound insulation. And who doesn't love secret passages?

Re: The wonder of modern drywall

#242

Post by idiotsecant »

willis936 wrote: post #169
idiotsecant wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coal is expensive, but it's still cheaper than nuke and peaker thermal. If you want power fast and your state and federal government aren't worried about a few pesky environmental regulations you might see coal come back. Part of coals attraction is that it takes a lot of people to run a coal plant, and people need jobs. Those people vote and politicians like votes.

Then you would plunk down a gas turbine like everyone else. It's so much cheaper than coal to operate and uses mostly the same high capex / long-lead machinery. I could see the jobs program angle, but these are shitty jobs. It's not like working in an air conditioned mcdonald's. Workers die in mines a lot and when they don't they live shorter, less comfortable lives with disease. I'm fine with arguing against coal fo…

Modern coal mining isn't that bad of a gig, especially surface mining (which a lot of coal is). I would certainly rather make a decent middle class wage hauling coal and support my family than work in an 'Air conditioned mcdonalds' and barely subsist in poverty.

You can make all the technical and environmental point you want. They are valid and they are largely irrelevant, at least for the purpose of achieving your stated outcome.

People want to be able to live a life with some amount of dignity and we've been so diligently eroding their ability to do so for the last 50 years that it's becoming an existential issue.

Jobs matter. If you want social progress, environmental progress, any kind of progress people need to be able to build a life where their children are better off than they were. Full stop.

Re: The wonder of modern drywall

#243

Post by ragall »

CalRobert wrote: post #195
Insanity wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never wanted to adapt a house that significantly. But yeah, I much prefer the cinderblock homes and miss them. Something about the wood and drywall houses just feels incredibly cheap, and I don't like the aesthetic (de gustibus et coloribus..) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Little_Pigs

To each their own I guess. I’ll happily move walls, add or remove a bathroom, add windows, etc. Terrible carbon footprint for concrete too. I know modern structures are better but I also don’t entirely trust block in an earthquake. Obviously less of a concern in most (not all!) of Europe.

> To each their own I guess. I’ll happily move walls, add or remove a bathroom, add windows, etc.

A sign of the restlesness. Once you find a house to settle in, why would you need to change it ? European houses are typically versatile, US houses aren't due to having closets (which make a room's layout very inflexible) as well as electrical outlets being mandated exactly in the middle of the wall precisely where one would like to place furniture. US building codes are beyond stupid.

> Terrible carbon footprint for concrete too.

Carbon footprint is not that important. I want comfort. More specifically: if you are somewhat wealthy (in the top 10% of incomes, like most of the people here), in the continental Europe you can nowadays easily buy an apartment in a Passivhaus (or almost if renovated) building, with underfloor heating throughout the place, supplied by a geothermal heat pump, with triple-glazed windows and external covers that give you the utmost quietness even when there's traffic just outside. You can't get that in the US because even if you were willing to pay, there exist only a handful of construction companies that know how to build that, and they're all booked for years.

> I know modern structures are better but I also don’t entirely trust block in an earthquake. Obviously less of a concern in most (not all!) of Europe.

You can take a look at Japan. Modern buildings can withstand earthquakes. The issue in the US is that developers are allowed to just build without a civil engineer or architect designing the building. I wouldn't trust that either.

Re: The wonder of modern drywall

#244

Post by ragall »

loandbehold wrote: post #162
ragall wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very few are properly built, especially in the last decades. Asymptotically to zero.

I have many friends who own houses built in the last 10 to 30 years ago. None of them have any issues with mold.

> None of them have any issues with mold.

... or so you think. Mold contamination is most of the times invisible and triggers long-term chronic intoxication. People only realise there's a problem if the mold starts growing on the walls, at which point it's too late.

Re: The wonder of modern drywall

#245

Post by _DeadFred_ »

idiotsecant wrote: post #155
willis936 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would heightened electricity demand increase the use of the most expensive energy source?

Coal is expensive, but it's still cheaper than nuke and peaker thermal. If you want power fast and your state and federal government aren't worried about a few pesky environmental regulations you might see coal come back. Part of coals attraction is that it takes a lot of people to run a coal plant, and people need jobs. Those people vote and politicians like votes.

Isn't the entire coal industry like 50,000 jobs? I've never seen such a small industry so specially treated.

Re: The wonder of modern drywall

#246

Post by DANmode »

loandbehold wrote: post #150
ragall wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever done a mold spore count in your house ? There's a hypothesis that, due to living in stick frame houses, a large part of the American population might be suffering from a low dose chronic mold intoxication which shows up as a heightened state of inflammation. > I may be biased, because I live in a city filled with houses over 100 years old, and we get incessant rain. They seem to hold up fine I wouldn't…

In places like Boston there are many 100+ years old stick frame houses. They hold up just fine. Properly built wooden houses don't get any mold.

Hold up ≠ remain a healthy place to breathe.

ChangeTheAirFoundation.org

Re: The wonder of modern drywall

#247

Post by DANmode »

ragall wrote: post #244
loandbehold wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have many friends who own houses built in the last 10 to 30 years ago. None of them have any issues with mold.

> None of them have any issues with mold. ... or so you think. Mold contamination is most of the times invisible and triggers long-term chronic intoxication. People only realise there's a problem if the mold starts growing on the walls, at which point it's too late.

Even growing on the walls most people ignore it…

I have family like this.

Prolific recent media example: JK Rowling.

Re: The wonder of modern drywall

#248

Post by DANmode »

rootusrootus wrote: post #69
BadBadJellyBean wrote: post #67

As a German I always found North American houses and their drywall and wood constructions incredibly odd. It always felt flimsy to me. From my experience we just started using drywall for some interior walls on some newly built homes. But throughout my life I was used to very massive walls. I recently saw some house building videos and it is somehow fascinating how different the building materials and methodologies a…

I think it's just what you get used to. Every method has ups and downs. And different regions are going to gravitate to different materials based on availability (for example, my Indian coworkers just cannot fathom why we would ever build houses from trees instead of reinforced concrete; doesn't it rot?!!). I don't think of the walls as especially flimsy, though. Built correctly, they are totally fine. Yes you can pu…

> doesn't it rot?!!

It does indeed.

There’s a portion of our populace who accepts waking up tired with flu-like symptoms daily.

Re: The wonder of modern drywall

#249

Post by DANmode »

hn_acc1 wrote: post #90
BadBadJellyBean wrote: post #67

As a German I always found North American houses and their drywall and wood constructions incredibly odd. It always felt flimsy to me. From my experience we just started using drywall for some interior walls on some newly built homes. But throughout my life I was used to very massive walls. I recently saw some house building videos and it is somehow fascinating how different the building materials and methodologies a…

For a while in the 90s, a friend from Canada went to Germany and started building NA style houses (wood frame, drywall) in Germany. People loved that it could be finished in 3 months instead of 9-12 and cost 1/3 less, IIRC.

When it rained into the interior wood frame of the home before they were done building it, did any Germans happen to stop by to explain biology?

Re: The wonder of modern drywall

#250

Post by DANmode »

ragall wrote: post #220
nkrisc wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> one needs to stop all sound transmission One does not need to stop all sound transmission.

Why wouldn't I want to stop the noise of my neighbour's lawn mower, or the garbage truck very slowly passing by at 7:30 when I should be sound asleep, or the washing machine furiously spinning, or my visiting inlaws cooking in the kitchen when I want to get an afternoon nap ? These sh*tty houses let all noises through.

Off-Topic, but not really: Mack’s Ultra Soft earplugs
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