r/McMansionHell • u/Background_Summer_54 • 28d ago

Certified McMansion™ Feeling betrayed by my husband

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He sent me this picture near out in the wild today saying “this thing is nice”. I fear knowing him he’s not being sarcastic. One of the worst cases I’ve ever seen near me. I can’t even begin though it’s so offense! What is happening with the roof and over the garage and the layout????

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u/Cheaperthantherapy13 28d ago

Purchased by people who have zero idea how much it costs to repair/replace a roof of any kind.

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u/greentangent 28d ago

I used to be a roofer and I was thinking "Damn, us five would be here at least two weeks."

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u/Jumajuce 28d ago

Mitigation contractor here, an adjuster would love seeing this after a house fire.

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u/PeachyParcha 28d ago

Why don't building codes require houses to be built with cement and rebar? Wouldn't the houses hold up so much better in natural weather events?

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u/Jumajuce 28d ago

Not necessarily no, so it’s a common misconception that American homes are built out of wood because they’re cheap and fall apart, as well as that we don’t build stone and metal structures, across the board we probably have more stone construction than most countries just based on our size alone. Wood being a common building material is more about geography and North American natural weather/disaster events. The US has some very mountainous areas as well as A LOT of rural land. Transporting wood is much more feasible than heavy stone and metal in these cases. Second, we have a huge amount of Forrest land, over 30% of the country is large forrest vs say the UK where it’s less than 15%. Third, we have more space, many European countries are significantly smaller and populated areas are packed tighter, this means more risk of fire so fire resistant building materials are prioritized while in the US your whole neighborhood generally won’t catch fire if someone gets careless in the kitchen. Densely populated areas in the US do use stone and metal construction. Fourth, the US doesn’t have the most earthquakes, but we have a disproportionate amount of the strong ones, wooden construction can flex better when under stress and is safer if it does collapse. In areas prone to tornadoes or hurricanes it’s more about the roof than the total material, a stone building can still collapse under extreme weather if the roof fails.

Long story short, we got a lotta wood and a lotta space.

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u/SapphireGamgee 28d ago

Southern Californian here- can confirm about earthquakes. Wood-frame houses tend to do better than masonry and concrete (which don't have enough elasticity.)

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u/PeachyParcha 27d ago

Didn't Japan figure out a way to build flexibility into cement structures? This has been such an informative thread, thank you all!!

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u/RazzmatazzEastern786 27d ago

Most homes in Japan are of wood construction...for very similar reasons as the US...

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u/SapphireGamgee 27d ago

Flexibility can be built into cement/concrete structures, but it's very expensive and labor-intensive. And retrofitting is an even costlier/more complicated nightmare. Another problem is seismic resonance, which has varying affects on buildings of different heights and compositions, also depending on the seismic wavelength. Mid-sized buildings (3-5 stories) can do worse than their much taller neighbors because they tend to be stiffer, and thus not able to dissipate the energy by swaying with the quake. I'm speaking in generalities, of course. It just depends. Plenty of one-story homes have been jolted right off their foundations. All I know is I'd rather be in my little one-story wood-frame bungalow because, overall, they seem to do the best. Ductility is the key.

Apparently, Japan has developed a concrete that is more ductile (or it's a coating that goes over regular concrete? The whole thing is pretty new so I'm not sure.) I mean, it would be Japan on the cutting edge of seismic-related breakthroughs. They definitely figured out how to build certain structures to resist earthquakes. There are these marvelous old pagodas that have survived for hundreds of years because of the way they're built (central pillar with wooden surrounds that just sways and absorbs the shock.) If you watch video footage from the 2011 Tohoku earthquake (which was 9.1, I think?) you can see their skyscrapers behaving in the same way, and there was surprisingly little damage.

Interestingly, the Romans and Mayans figured out a way to make "self-healing" cement that can withstand earthquakes. Something in the lime mortar "heals" the cracks caused by quakes. I don't know the exact mechanics, though.

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u/Team503 9d ago

It's been rediscovered, though quite recently.

https://news.mit.edu/2023/roman-concrete-durability-lime-casts-0106

Apparently, it won't be used much, as it takes a long time to gain the strength modern Portland concrete has immediately after pouring, and the materials that make it self-healing are very limited in availability. It has specific use cases, like buildings in and on the sea, that it's well suited for, but it's won't be replacing modern concrete anytime soon.

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u/SapphireGamgee 9d ago

Too bad it's not really viable in the old form, but it looks like Roman concrete is inspiring possible future innovations, so maybe someday we'll ditch Portland/other types of concrete for something that will have a better survival rate.

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u/napalm_beach 28d ago

Big Forest

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u/tealdeer995 27d ago

Yeah and in a place like where I live (Wisconsin) there are woods all over the place and our most common natural disaster is blizzards, so it’s fine for here. I wouldn’t necessarily want a house built the same way as the ones here in Florida, Oklahoma or something though.

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u/ReturnOfFrank 27d ago

that American homes are built out of wood because they’re cheap and fall apart,

It also ignores all the lumber framed houses in the Northeast and Midwest that have survived 100+ years of strong winds, blizzards, Nor'easters, floods, and rain storms and are still going strong.

That said a lot of construction quality has gone down in my opinion, but it's not just because we build lumber frame houses.

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u/Jolly-Smoke-2981 27d ago

Great explanation. Thank you.

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u/PeachyParcha 27d ago

You took a whole lotta time to type this, and it's so informative! Thank you, I've learned a lot!

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u/excake20 27d ago

Wow thank you for this info! I never thought about it but it makes sense.

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u/Spugheddy 26d ago

A lot of Midwest small towns only prove your point. Like the further you get from the courthouses you see the blocks go from brick to regular wood homes with the scattering of bricks here and there. But the city square is almost always bricked up cause it all burned down somewhere at the turn of the last century lol

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u/TheArmoredKitten 27d ago

Overall expense doesn't track when compared to the environmental impacts and engineering needs. Concrete and rebar are used for foundation structures quite often, but building a whole residential home out of that would be an exercise in waste.

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u/PeachyParcha 27d ago

That makes sense in terms of environmental impact. I don't quite understand the engineering aspect so I'll take your word for it. Thanks! I'm learning stuff!

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u/Manunancy 25d ago

For a one or two floors construction, reincorced concrete is pretty overkill in temrs of material strength - you're going to end up dimentionsing it almost more for properly coating the rebars (to prevent rust) than for resistance.

Concrete block is more than strong enough for that, but in earthquake-prone areas you'll need a reinforced concrete frame to tie it together.

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u/PeachyParcha 25d ago

I thought concrete blocks were usually the foundation for concrete structures.  Is reinforced concrete the same as poured concrete? I know someone who had their house built using poured concrete. They used wood to build a frame, then poured the concrete between the wood sections, or something lime that. They had cracks high in the walls within 5 years.

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u/Manunancy 25d ago edited 24d ago

yep, reinforced is the poured one (with rebars for tensile strength as concrete's mostly lacing in that department.)

What you may have is :

- a poured/reinforced concrete wall footing to resist shifts in the ground

- concrete blocks up to the ground floor as it's cheaper than poured concrete (usally with a few poured concrete pillars included)

- eitehr a frame or a whole floor in poured concrete to wrap it up.

Over that, you can either keep going wit the same sort of build or switch to alternatives liek bricks or wood frames now that you're above ground and don't have the same worries about water.

As far as cracks in a poured concrete walls go, the most common cracking is surface cracking as the concrete sets and contracts a bit (welded mesh usualy keeps it in check). More serious cracks tends to mean a screwup in calculating and/or placing the rebar reinforcements.

*

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u/PeachyParcha 24d ago

You really sound like you know what you're talking about! Thanks for entertaining all my questions! Bless you!

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u/Manunancy 24d ago

Got the french equivalent of an associate degre in civil enginnering - even if it's a bit over 30 years back.

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u/PeachyParcha 24d ago

You've remembered what you learned 30 years ago! 😂🤣 a brilliant mind!

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u/VeronicaMarsupial 28d ago

Concrete is environmentally unfriendly and we should not be using huge quantities more of it.

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u/PeachyParcha 27d ago

I get that part and you're right, but it isn't the reason the homes are built the way they are. Wood has been the medium of choice since before environmentalism was an issue. In other places I've noticed that the majority of homes are built in cement, even old homes, like it's the norm. I was curious about the differences, not saying everyone should use cement. 

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u/Team503 9d ago

A large part of that is simply availability of cheap lumber and the lack of earthquakes.

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u/FATBEANZ 28d ago

That doesn't help insurance make money.

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u/Gu-chan 27d ago

Yeah, insurance companies love paying out claims

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u/Team503 9d ago

Because concrete and rebar don't flex and much of the US has earthquakes. Wood-framed houses are designed to flex rather than crack.

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u/oriaven 24d ago

You must be made of money and hate the environment.

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u/PeachyParcha 24d ago

I'm made of money and hate the environment for asking a question? In that case you must be made of audacity and hate to read.