Wikihouse: Open-Source Houses • Hacker News Board

Re: Wikihouse: Open-Source Houses

#61

Post by ethanbond » Wed, Jan 10, 2024, 2:06 AM UTC

eightysixfour wrote: post #52

Waterluvian wrote: post #13

They need to sell on the longevity and robustness of these homes. If the houses are crap, this is going to be an incredibly wasteful project no matter how many environmentally friendly indicators they point to.

There is at least some reason to believe we should make some types of buildings less robust. While there are many beautiful old homes, there is a bit of a bias when we think of older homes towards ones that have been kept up to date or remodeled many times in their lives. A large percentage of homes don’t go through this process and become blight. Japanese houses depreciate over a ~30 year cycle where, at the end of…

They also need to be beautiful enough and stylistically timeless enough to be worth maintaining and remodeling.

Re: Wikihouse: Open-Source Houses

#62

Post by 2toxic » Wed, Jan 10, 2024, 2:07 AM UTC

dubcanada wrote: post #40

bityard wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> pluggable plumbing and electrical That's pretty interesting and while I sincerely hope it works as advertised, what is the repair process when (not if) the connections inside the wall fail? As the owner of multiple homes, a part of me is very skeptical that those connections will last for decades untouched. In the US, code does not allow for splices and connections inside walls, period. In a pre-fab, I would like t…

All cabling is in conduit, so if it fails you either fix the gang box if that is where it failed normally as you do in US. If the wire fails you replace it by pulling it through the conduit and fishing in a new one. It's actually a fairly decent setup compared to our standards. They also typically use a installation layer, which is a furring wall where they run these cables, meaning you don't need to mess with vapour…

how is pluggable electric in conduit is going to work in prefabbed walls? you pull all wires through preinstalled conduit during wall placement?

Re: Wikihouse: Open-Source Houses

#63

Post by 2toxic » Wed, Jan 10, 2024, 2:08 AM UTC

ramesh31 wrote: post #50

jlhawn wrote: post #45

Can I build a 6-story, multi-family, point access block apartment building with this system?

No. But you can build something that is somehow both more expensive and worse than a trailer.

I lold))

Re: Wikihouse: Open-Source Houses

#64

Post by mavhc » Wed, Jan 10, 2024, 2:13 AM UTC

shermantanktop wrote: post #54

jacknews wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the UK, so everything is twice as expensive anyway.

Not the Bourbon Creams at Waitrose. 90p? What a steal.

Custard Creams are 65p at Tesco, bargain of the decade

Re: Wikihouse: Open-Source Houses

#65

Post by 2toxic » Wed, Jan 10, 2024, 2:14 AM UTC

cpursley wrote: post #21

bawolff wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What type are you supposed to use to represent total cost when spending infinite money for 0 days?

It seems the Romans took their concrete type secrets to the grave.

https://www.archdaily.com/875212/scientists-uncover-the-chem... :)

Re: Wikihouse: Open-Source Houses

#66

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jan 10, 2024, 2:14 AM UTC

shermantanktop wrote: post #51

Note that the walls and interior floors are equally thick and as insulated as the roof. It is not a sensible or efficient use of materials, given how the physics of heat work. It is great, however, if your approach to construction was formed by playing Minecraft.

[deleted]

Re: Wikihouse: Open-Source Houses

#67

Post by 2toxic » Wed, Jan 10, 2024, 2:17 AM UTC

77pt77 wrote: post #55

shimonabi wrote: post #27

The walls are the least expensive part of building a house.

What is the most expensive? The land? Permits? Appliances?

engineering and how you lay them

Re: Wikihouse: Open-Source Houses

#68

Post by foota » Wed, Jan 10, 2024, 2:18 AM UTC

MostlyStable wrote: post #19

I'd like a better idea of what the "basic, medium, high" fit and finish options mean. Clicking around various links on the site didn't seem to talk about it anywhere else besides the cost estimator.

I don't think fit and finish is provided by them, I think it's a general estimate.

Re: Wikihouse: Open-Source Houses

#69

Post by TaylorAlexander » Wed, Jan 10, 2024, 2:20 AM UTC

chubot wrote: post #15

Hm I’d like a house where everything is as easy to assemble / repair / replace as IKEA furniture, and where you can run cables, and install builtins

Furniture could be: https://playatech.com/

Re: Wikihouse: Open-Source Houses

#70

Post by ropable » Wed, Jan 10, 2024, 2:32 AM UTC

matthewfcarlson wrote: post #14

I love the idea of this. My wife and I watch a decent amount of Grand Designs are there are a few houses that experiment with the concept of cnc-cut block based assembly. I intend to build something like it someday (in the US, so it might be harder to find a manufacturer). One thing that strikes me as at odds is that they tout their reusability as well as the customization aspect of the block. It’s cnc cut so they’re…

A lot of basic structural building materials (bricks, framing timber, roof tiles, etc.) are already fairly reusable to an extent. It's just labour-intensive to do so, therefore we often don't. I'm not optimistic that prefabbed structural components would be much better.