Anyone live in a wooden house?

[madrone]

This stick house is 100 years old, and seems to have been built with no plan in mind, with whatever scraps were laying around. Not the picture of craftsmanship. Nonetheless, I'm sure it will be here in another 100 years. Wonderful old growth fir scents waft out from wall cavities whenever I'm working on improvements.

 

[Battenkiller]

in my renovation it is like the guy who says he's replaced his axe handle twice, and the head three times, and is happy to say it's the best axe he's ever had!

I love that! I'm in the musical instrument restoration field and I have done a lot of jobs like that. Best one was a 1942 Martin D-18, where the only original parts left were the back, one side, and the Martin neckblock carrying the serial number identifying it as being made in 1942. Guess what year the owned claimed it was when he later sold it on eBay?

BTW, my house is made of 100% mud wattle... even the windows.

 

[jharkin]

216 years old here. Oak framed, cedar calpboard siding. Roof replaced with asphault but probably was cedar originally.

We are over 100 years newer than the oldest house in town.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Log home here. In England the cool wet weather causes some structures to rot out faster if not attended to I guess. A Brit friend in grad school had his folks over for his graduation. We had a party on someone's back deck- the parents were floored. They never heard of such a thing

 

[fishingpol]

216 years old here. Oak framed, cedar calpboard siding. Roof replaced with asphault but probably was cedar originally.

We are over 100 years newer than the oldest house in town.

It looked old. I thought you had a granite foundation from the pics. Nice New England set-up there.

 

[CTYank]

Stone, brick were common construction materials in areas where forests had already been depleted by the previous generations. Mud wattle was also common. Wood is still plentiful in many areas here and thus still commonly used, but go to Greece and a wood house is a rare thing.

Try that in Iceland, too. IIRC, they have ONE TREE there, fenced off for its protection.

 

[logger]

They do have a poor insulation value.

Lots of variables to just say something like that. By wood, are we including log cabins too? Our log home was built in 1985 and has far better insulation than any other house I've lived in. Stays warm all winter and cool all summer. No chinking, just solid tongue and groove logs.

 

[begreen]

The other reason stone/brick is used more frequently in Europe is that they commonly built to last for many generations. Out here we often see fine old houses bulldozed down so that the next generation can put up their 5000sq ft castle of their dreams on the property.

 

[rowerwet]

my house was built in the 1800's, no one knows exactly when, even on the deeds it is listed as 1800's for year built, back then they really didn't care, I do know my house has a cellar hole that is only as big as half the house, you can see where the back door to the cellar was, it is now under the house. My house also was built with full dimension lumber, rough cut (lots of splinters) and everything in it was built to the yard or half yard, 19+ inches on center for some areas. the only brick I have is the foundation above the ground, from what I have read that was a more expensive/snobby kind of thing than granite block like other houses in my neighborhood have.

 

[mjbrown]

i tried living in a glass house once, the view was beautiful...then, during the divorce, i found out what the old timers meant when they said people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones...lol, just kidding of course.

i actually live in a 1967 mobile home, you probably dont have these in europe, but then again, maybe you do. these are lesser expensive homes built on a metal frame with axels and tires beneath it. typically, they are 12-14 feet wide, and a variety of lengths, mine is a 12x60 and i built a 16x40 addition on one side. my mobile only had 2X3 walls, and one inch insulation originally. i have since updated the walls to 2x4, 4 inches of insulation, wood stapping on the outside w/ 2" styrofoam covered by vinyl siding. older mobiles came with very cheap , drafty aluminum crank out widows, but now, most have good vinyl house windows. all of mine have been replaced with house replacement windows. it aint the ritz, but its dry, warm and a roof over my families heads.

 

[benjamin]

We have quite a variety in this land. I live in a post framed barn, sawed pine beams and a threshing floor so I'm guessing it was built soon after 1888 when the railroad came to this town.

Most new houses (McMansions) are built with very little sawn lumber, many of the framing members are built of chipboard. The floors and roof are chipboard, and the wall sheating is often foam covered with vinyl siding. Someone could break in with a utility knife.

Real brick housing is mostly found in the older cities of New England, and usualy in apartments or attached housing. There are older houses throughout the midwest that have solid brick or stone walls, but they're pretty rare. Sometimes there will be a tiny (8x10') original structure that has been added onto until it is an interior room, but you run into the logs or stones when something gets fixed.

 

[Shari]

Our entire exterior and portions of our interior are Pecky Cypress and feather edge lannon stone - not your usual construction in this area.

 

[mikeyny]

my old wooden house was built in 1870. My great grandparents bought it in 1890, not sure what they paid but in 1901 they took out a mortgage for 800. dollars to put on an addition that would cost 200 thousand or more today. Stained glass windows, cherry paneling, chestnut and maple floors, clawfoot tubs, porcelain sinks and central heating. Very nice old house, but really a newer house compared to what is over on your side of the pond in the U.K. Today you couldn't buy the nails to put it together for $800. bucks. THAT is no exaggeration.
Mike

 

[jharkin]

Shows how much I know, thought all of Europe drove on the left side.

Who says Europeans drive on the wrong side of the street?

Yeah, I know the Brits do; but Europeans?? Nahh....


Henk (Flying Dutchman)

I'm not 100% sure but I think the majority of the world does drive on the right. Left side is Great Britain, a number of the commonwealth nations (Australia, India), and a lot of Pacific rim countries including Japan.

 

[jharkin]

216 years old here. Oak framed, cedar calpboard siding. Roof replaced with asphault but probably was cedar originally.

We are over 100 years newer than the oldest house in town.

It looked old. I thought you had a granite foundation from the pics. Nice New England set-up there.

The foundation is mortared rubble topped with ~6ft granite slabs. There used to be a granite quarry 10 miles down the road from us.

 

[mayhem]

My log cabin is only 8 years old. I expect it to outlast my daughter.

House I grew up in was a 3 story wood frame house built around 1890 or so. Cedar sgingles on the outsite, interior walls were plaster over slat boards and the roof was slate.

While not as common as a newer house, there are still a fair number of perfectly good, viable wood homes in the area that predate the American Revolution. My brother's first house was built in 1750-something. Crawspace dirt basement, hand hewn wood beans and wide plank pine floors with those really cool irregular square headed nails.

A well built, properly maintained wooden house will last centuries.