# Why are houses build in wood in North America? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 25, 2016, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-houses-build-in-wood-in-north-america/744160 "2016-01-25T08:40:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mdcastle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/958977/32.png) [@Mdcastle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mdcastle)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-houses-build-in-wood-in-north-america/744160/21 "2016-01-25T14:15:07Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > While we are at it, can anyone explain the prevalence of wooden tiles on roofs(shingles)? Oh - and cladding walls with plastic or aluminum (siding?) Wooden roofs aren’t the norm (although not uncommon), They have a rustic look to them that’s hard to duplicate with other materials. Most houses have asphalt shingles. Plastic and Aluminum siding is cheap to put on and you never have to paint it, which overrules the atrocious aesthetics for most people (there are a few maintenance free materials that look a bit nicer but they’re not common). Personally I split the difference and put metal on the soffits and fascia, but put cedar on for siding when redoing my house. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-houses-build-in-wood-in-north-america/744160/22 "2016-01-25T14:22:08Z")
Wooden roofs are facing more resistance from fire codes now. Metal roofs also. The wooden ones are flammable, and the metal ones are difficult to cut through in case of a fire. Sometimes I wonder if the roofing tile industry is behind this. Obviously in the western wild fire zones wood is an undesirable material but for much of the country it seems like much less of a fire hazard than what we’re finding inside the houses now. ---
**Author:** ![Frankenstein\_Monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ccd318/32.png) [@Frankenstein\_Monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frankenstein_Monster)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-houses-build-in-wood-in-north-america/744160/23 "2016-01-25T14:39:14Z")
More than 80 percent of building construction in Finland is in wood. And it used to be way over 90 percent. [Number of buildings by construction material in Finland](http://tilastokeskus.fi/til/rakke/2014/rakke_2014_2015-05-28_tau_004_en.html) Wood construction is heavily promoted here. An entire “wood house” district here in Helsinki is under construction and being promoted that way right now. [Blog post](http://urbanfinland.com/2012/04/15/finland-goes-back-to-the-future-with-wooden-construction/) ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-houses-build-in-wood-in-north-america/744160/24 "2016-01-25T14:39:55Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > By UK standards American houses look flimsy. (I see people ‘flipping’ houses on TV). I will say, the houses you see on those type shows are not representative of all areas in the US, and I think they are indeed on the flimsy end of American housing stock. Solid older houses aren’t “flip” candidates because the bones and locations are often too valuable to buy cheaply, even when the surface is dilapidated; and, fixing them up to look their best is more demanding. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-houses-build-in-wood-in-north-america/744160/25 "2016-01-25T14:40:41Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > But bricks insulate better against the cold. This isn’t even remotely true. Bricks moderate not insulate. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-houses-build-in-wood-in-north-america/744160/26 "2016-01-25T15:30:05Z")
In Florida, there are very few brick houses simply because of inertia. Brick requires ovens, and ovens require substantial demand to provide a return on investment. Nobody fires bricks locally because there isn’t enough demand, so bricks must be shipped in from other states, so bricks are expensive, so even fewer people want brick, etc. We also have lots and lots of experience with building wooden and concrete-block houses to withstand hurricanes, and very little with building brick ones to do so. It makes me sad. I always lived in brick houses in the UK and I really wanted to buy one here, but those that exist tend to be mansions or limited to single developments in outlying towns. > [@bob\_2](#): > > Actually, as I understand it, the move away from wood in England was largely due to the devastating fires in the 17th century. Expensive houses were made with timber frames and brick or plaster infill, but poorer houses were made with cheap clay bricks. Of course the Romans favoured brick over wood, although their bricks were more like tiles. > [@MrDibble](#): > > It was doubtless one factor, especially in London, but other factors also feature, including [scarcity](http://nature.berkeley.edu/er100/readings/Nef_1977.pdf) of [wood](https://www.eh-resources.org/the-role-of-wood-in-world-history/) (Stuart England looked to New England and the Baltic for ship timbers), pure fashion (this was the time of the rise of Brick Renaissance in Northern Europe and England wasn’t an isolated backwater) and probably improved architectural techniques as well. Brick construction was also artificially depressed until 1840 or so because of taxes on bricks that didn’t apply to other building materials. Also, at that time you had to fire bricks on-site, since there was no economical way to transport them before rail (unless you happened to be building on a waterway). So you could only build in brick where there was clay; London is so bricky primarily because it is built over clay (and because bricks were the only major building material that [didn’t degrade heavily in the sooty/acidic air of the 19th century](https://books.google.com/books?id=UeiOAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA120&lpg=PA120&dq=houses+of+parliament+acid+rain&source=bl&ots=Nv-yvrxPMt&sig=3gFa2hjz8mttkrjMx4_D0FPb1xQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj308uFpMXKAhWJ2R4KHSCGCXIQ6AEIKjAD#v=onepage&q=houses%20of%20parliament%20acid%20rain&f=false)). ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-houses-build-in-wood-in-north-america/744160/27 "2016-01-25T15:39:49Z")
Brick housing will be found in North American cities that had major fires in the 1800s, causing them to change the housing codes. Toronto is an example. So is Chicago, which was so synonymous with balloon framing that it used to be called Chicago framing, but prioritized brick after the fire of 1871. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-houses-build-in-wood-in-north-america/744160/28 "2016-01-25T15:43:24Z")
> [@iljitsch](#): > > Wood houses that keep standing for hundreds of years?? Color me skeptical. Especially that _have_ been standing for that long without the benefits of recent advanced treatment methods. The main feature in preserving wooden buildings is keeping the roof in good repair. sideways water usually isn’t that much of a problem, but if the roof goes the rest of the house follows pretty quickly. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-houses-build-in-wood-in-north-america/744160/29 "2016-01-25T15:58:20Z")
On thing to keep in mind. Most brick houses are NOT brick houses. They are wood framed houses with a layer of brick on the outside whose main job is to just look nice. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-houses-build-in-wood-in-north-america/744160/30 "2016-01-25T16:02:24Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > The main feature in preserving wooden buildings is keeping the roof in good repair. Yes. Absent fire & termites, expected lifetime of wooden building with watertight roof: 1000+ years. Without: 6 months. ---
**Author:** ![FluffyBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@FluffyBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FluffyBob)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-houses-build-in-wood-in-north-america/744160/31 "2016-01-25T16:27:02Z")
I don’t know where this idea that wood construction is somehow flimsier than masonry comes from; people that never played with Lego maybe? Masonry walls offer better fire resistance, and greater sound proofing due to mass, but are full of joints weak in shear and tensile strength. A properly constructed wood wall is very strong in shear and tension and is easy to build to the compressive strength required. Maybe to the inexperienced modern 2x6 walls at 24" spacing look flimsy, but they are at least as strong as older 2x4 16 o.c. walls, and provide more room for insulation. There is a move to change framing styles to reduce the amount of wood even further to increase insulation value. Sheathing of OSB or plywood stapled on to the wall gives the wall great shear strength. Increasingly we are seeing reinforced gypsum sheathing (DensGlass) used to increase fire protection. This is often just shot on with roofing nails by framers working on a marginal budget, and is not as strong in shear when installed like this. Masonry absolutely is superior for party walls in multifamily construction due to sound an fire resistance. You are much more likely to see ICF used in this application rather than brick or cinderblock, at least around Alberta here. ---
**Author:** ![Doughbag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Doughbag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doughbag)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-houses-build-in-wood-in-north-america/744160/32 "2016-01-25T17:35:16Z")
The main reasons for building a house with wood in the US is that it’s cheaper and faster then building with Stone. They also build them with wood in Europe, but the stone/concert house is preferred. ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-houses-build-in-wood-in-north-america/744160/33 "2016-01-25T17:54:51Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Yes, I had one myself in Massachusetts, built in 1760, and my daughters still live in it. They aren’t even that rare. My ex-inlaws have a huge farmhouse in New Hampshire built in 1790. There is a much older one down the street built in the 1600’s. > > There are some misconceptions about what ‘upkeep’ requires for antique wood houses. It basically means just keeping it occupied, un-burnt down and unflooded. It doesn’t require replacing all the wood over time in a Washington’s axe kind of way. Almost all of the structure itself including the floors and fireplaces are completely original. > > Many people seem to think that wood naturally rots over time but that isn’t true at least for quality wood under some conditions. Quality hardwood lasts indefinitely as long as it has the opportunity to dry out regularly. Wooden structural beams can also get incredibly hard as their resin hardens over time. In my 1760’s house, it is extremely difficult to nail or screw into some of the original door frames because they are so hard. You are more likely to bend a nail or screw than you are to make even a dent in it. What about termites or is the climate too cold much of the year? ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-houses-build-in-wood-in-north-america/744160/34 "2016-01-25T18:16:10Z")
> [@Mangosteen](#): > > What about termites or is the climate too cold much of the year? We can get termites. Termite damage in New England is much less common than other parts of the country. I assume it’s climate but I don’t really know the reason. Most people do not treat for termites here unless there are signs of a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-houses-build-in-wood-in-north-america/744160/35 "2016-01-25T19:08:22Z")
> [@FluffyBob](#): > > Sheathing of OSB or plywood stapled on to the wall gives the wall great shear strength. We have a relatively new beach house built to hurricane codes - OSB sheathing on both the inside and the outside of 2x6 exterior walls. I’ve never been in a house that felt so solid during high winds. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-houses-build-in-wood-in-north-america/744160/36 "2016-01-25T19:32:50Z")
> [@iljitsch](#): > > Wood houses that keep standing for hundreds of years?? Color me skeptical. Especially that _have_ been standing for that long without the benefits of recent advanced treatment methods. Come to New England or upstate New York some time. They aren’t that rare. > [@Mangosteen](#): > > What about termites or is the climate too cold much of the year? As long as the wooden frame is sufficiently elevated above grade by the foundation (rubble stone basements are common for the era in cold climates) termites should not be a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-houses-build-in-wood-in-north-america/744160/37 "2016-01-25T19:42:48Z")
Very little brick housing in California - we learned early on that it doesn’t last here. And some folks won’t live in a brick house even if it’s been reinforced, just because they don’t trust it. “The Big One” is always in the corner of our minds. ---
**Author:** ![Chihuahua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dec6dc/32.png) [@Chihuahua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chihuahua)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-houses-build-in-wood-in-north-america/744160/38 "2016-01-25T21:07:50Z")
FWIW, I know several people who were caught in a tornado. They said their wooden house would flex or bend when the wind hit it, where brick houses broke and fell down. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-houses-build-in-wood-in-north-america/744160/39 "2016-01-25T21:38:14Z")
> [@iljitsch](#): > > Wood houses that keep standing for hundreds of years?? Color me skeptical. My house has been standing since 1912 with exactly the same wood holding it up the entire time. There is no sign at all it will fall down anytime soon. Houses far older made of wood are not uncommon at all. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-houses-build-in-wood-in-north-america/744160/40 "2016-01-25T23:05:58Z")
Yeah, in earthquake country and places prone to some other sorts of natural hazards, you are better off with a wooden frame structure that can flex, rather than old masonry / brick construction. That said, I would say the most predominant sort of house in CA is stucco on a wood frame. Certainly true in newer urban construction. Wooden shake roofs started out as a matter of available materials, but eventually became something that a lot of people just liked the look of, and paid extra for. Asphalt shingles are cheaper. The wood shakes don’t last as long either, and are fire prone. My house had a wood shake roof that was leaving shakes all over the yard every spring. I replaced it with a [Gerard metal roof](http://www.gerardusa.com/) that looks like tile - goes better with the stucco anyway. Shake roofs belong more on rustic wood exterior construction - of course that means you’ve probably built the thing somewhere out in the woods where there’s significant fire danger. Wooden shakes or shingles are sometimes used as a siding material. That used to be much more common, and you will see it in older neighborhoods. Some modern companies still promote it: > **[Cedar Shingles Siding and Cedar Shakes Siding - Parr Lumber](http://parr.com/products/cedar-shingles-siding-and-cedar-shake-siding/)** > > Photo courtesy of Shakertown Real Cedar shingle siding and cedar shake siding are two great cedar siding products for setting your beloved home apart from all the indistinguishable and uninspired facades on your block. With Real Cedar shingle siding,... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-houses-build-in-wood-in-north-america/744160.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-houses-build-in-wood-in-north-america/744160.md?page=3)