They don't build them like they used to.

[Keith Mathewson]

I ran across a rant about the quality of homebuilding recently-

"In early day when people were content to live natural lives, and before the ruthless destruction of forests had reached its present stage, houses were built as they should be- substantial, well put together, and lasting. Conditions of today, however, preclude such construction.. Houses are now usually built with a total disregard for lasting qualities and this is not always the fault of the builder, but of the purchaser who will not stand the expense of first class construction.
To those contemplating building a house the best advice that can be given is to keep the cost down by reducing the size of the proposed house rather than resorting to cheap makeshift construction....

...How well they built their works remains as a silent witness; suffice it is to say the latter day workmen could gain some good pointers in construction from these old timers....
...everything is rushed from start to finish, and in the hurry many things that should be done are overlooked, to the detriment of the house."

Taken from Audel's construction books 1937

Some things don't change.

[smtitmas]

Re: They don't build them like they used to.

most homes that are built today are built to be sold. they are not built to house a family or to be passed on from generation to generation but rather they are built to be sold. after the sale most of them start to loose value and fall apart from the quick and shoddy construction work.

about 10 years ago my brother and i were busy working in the atlanta suburbs doing all sorts of repairs to newly built mcmanision sub division homes. the major culprit was poor flashing on both windows and roofs. in one subdivision we found 6 homes that had no chimney cap at all just the tin pipe and a big hole on top of the framing to allow water inside the building. these homes were just the biggest pile of crap you would of ever seen.

[kreg McMahon]

Re: They don't build them like they used to.

yes that is true that they are built to be sold... I am in a lot of newer homes here doing projects etc.. people bitch about this and that and I always say well you bought the house anyway!!!

one of the worst was a whole subdivision of about 125 homes all had 2 1/4 door casing as the baseboard! wtf.... I said to the guy didn't anybody complain? or well some did and some replace it themselves and paid for it themselves... the rest just left it or did not know the difference... the builder never did a thing.

but some people do not want to pay for quaility..... but then they expect quality at non- quaility prices

[worthy]

Re: They don't build them like they used to.

I've been through homes built in the 19th Century that were framed with scrap lumber and sitting on inadequate wood pilings sinking into the underlying land fill. Great old-time quality.

[texastutt]

Re: They don't build them like they used to.

Oh if you were in Canada you could watch Homes on Homes, Mike Homes finds the worst built houses...

I've been reading "Get Your House Right" and Oh man it like what not to do is just piled on top of each other and the McMansions have not stopped up here yet. It is slowing down on repairing and adding stuff, but ya gotta have NEW!
Really depressing. We are going to run out of land and resources, and in the process of doing it, it's just McMansion Crap.

[frenchie]

Re: They don't build them like they used to.

As others have mentionned, on other threads... We think old houses were better built, because we only see the good ones. The crappy ones fell apart or got torn down.

In a hundred years, most of the stuff that got built this year will be gone. A small fraction - the houses that were well-designed enough for people to love living in them, and well-built enough to last that long - will remain.

Carpenters will look at those few houses, and say... "they sure don't build them like they used to."


David - we've discussed Holmes a couple times; you know he uses screws on deck hangers?

[philthegreek]

Re: They don't build them like they used to.

A couple of years ago I was in a McMansion in a nearby town to measure and quote some custom cabinetry for an office. The home was $1.2 M at the time. As I walked through the dining room on my way to the office room, the china cabinets were bouncing off the walls and the glassware was moving around. Code is a 65 average. You can't get into Harvard on a 65 average. Many people want a Harvard House with Community College workmanship. They really don't get the difference unless you spend hours educating them on your dime. We can't save them all, just a few at a time.

Screws on deck hangers??? Really? So much for all that engineering on the manufacturers part. :-)

[tom struble]

Re: They don't build them like they used to.

lot of those houses burned down framing built into chimney, balloon framed no fire blocking

[Dick Seibert]

Re: They don't build them like they used to.

Hopefully one of the results of the energy efficiency movement will be better quality homes, now that "Dust to Dust" analyses are part of the movement keeping junk out of the landfills should mean building buildings designed to last. I had a man go to the dump and he came back telling me that the dump was full of Home Depot cabinets, the truth is that we are now having to segregate materials before we dump them, what he saw was the particle board, Flakeboard, and other engineered woods, we now segregate that from the real wood, and it's taken somewhere else, the plastics are also segregated and I've read they are shipped to China. As D2D analyses increase and the total lifespan costs of materials are taken into consideration, people might even start asking how long will these products last, as opposed to how much per square foot do you build for.

[JohnCR]

Re: They don't build them like they used to.

[, people might even start asking how long will these products last, as opposed to how much per square foot do you build for.[/QUOTE]

Dick, That's an interesting observation. Maybe we need some sort of Home Durability Rating, like the energy star stuff. Of course then we would have another bureaucracy of some sort, but it could be a second career for us older baby boomers no one wants to hire.

John

[Lavrans]

Re: They don't build them like they used to.

It's funny, I'm framing in new stairs in a 100 +/- year old house. It's been gutted completely, and once the ceiling was removed on the 2nd floor it's obviously not been built by "great" carpenters. 32" oc framing for the roof- 2x4 (1 3/4x3 1/2, my favorite of the dimensional lumber dimensions) rafters. But they don't meet at the ridge, which is a 1x6. Full dormer on one side with 2x6 valley rafters (nicely backed on the interior w/a hatchet), but no corresponding rafter on the opposing side. If we got snow on a regular basis that roof would have been gone 50 years ago.

[hdrider_chgo]

Re: They don't build them like they used to.

Hopefully one of the results of the energy efficiency movement will be better quality homes, now that "Dust to Dust" analyses are part of the movement keeping junk out of the landfills should mean building buildings designed to last. ...

As D2D analyses increase and the total lifespan costs of materials are taken into consideration, people might even start asking how long will these products last, as opposed to how much per square foot do you build for.

Dick, this is a very key point, and often overlooked. We have a lot of homes and buildings here in Chicago that were built over 100 years ago still have the original interiors and exteriors intact. Many of these places are still highly sought after. How green is anything that needs to be totally reworked every couple of years? If we could combine modern mechanicals, insulation, and windows with classic design, and decent craftsmanship we would be truly green.

[dixonpeer]

Re: They don't build them like they used to.

You know why "They don't build them the way they used to". Because it isn't allowed now. The houses we build here at Peer Construction are all engineered by a professional engineer. The structures are so much heavier than they used to be, even twenty years ago at which time the framer often was the engineer who decided what kind of header to use. Even when an architect specified structure we sometimes had sixteen foot garage door headers indicated as double two by ten, and the snow loads over the years have bellied these door jambs down.

I think houses today are much better structurally, if not stylistically. But style is really a taste thing and has nothing to do with durability. And if some "trimmer" uses casing for base, well...

[tom struble]

Re: They don't build them like they used to.

no power tools, material bought in by a horse drawn waggon,no backhoes ,bobcats,dump trucks,no nail guns, tape measures,gatorade,gore tex im amazed they built anything

[hdrider_chgo]

Re: They don't build them like they used to.

I think houses today are much better structurally, if not stylistically. But style is really a taste thing and has nothing to do with durability. And if some "trimmer" uses casing for base, well...

It is taste to some extent, but (IMO) classical design done well continues to look good to most people year after year and does not become "dated" in a few years, increasing the desire to rip it all out and redo it. Or sell it and get something "better" (which usually just ends up being something bigger, anyway).