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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Par for the course these days. Buyers are looking for flash, and for maximum square footage, not quality and durability.

You couldn't give me one of these cardboard houses. Nothing but grief in the future with those.

As for what houses [i]should[/i] be made of if not manufactured boards wrapped in plastic, try brick. [b]It'll pay for itself in energy efficiency and durability[/b]. I love not having to deal with water leaking under vinyl siding and rotting out the plywood (almost guaranteed with today's construction standards.) [/quote]

Over what time horizon? I'll answer for you: more than one lifetime. That's why it's not being done. People no longer have any expectation that their children or grandchildren are going to occupy their homes. So why would they build for paybacks measured in the dozens or hundreds of years?

There are Mennonite families living in stone farmhouses in the Cumberland valley that are 250 years old. Their families have lived in them for generations. But none of us are running that program. We're on DCUM.[/quote]

My utilities are less than half per square foot what folks who live in newly build status-houses pay. Not total. Per square foot. Because I have bricks and thick framing and plaster, and they have cardboard. And I paid less for my house because it's not a Mcmansion, so to your question about over what time horizon? Now. The time is now. [/quote]

Well yeah, I'll grant you that. If you buy an older, smaller house made of brick then yeah it's cheaper to buy and maintain. But the conversation was new build materials.[/quote]

Bricks haven't been outlawed. It's still legal to build a house with lasting materials, believe it or not. It's just that mcmansion people choose maximum square footage and palladium windows over something that will last. They have the choice. They choose poorly, and then moan about it here. [/quote]

It's not (just) McMansions. I lived in a modest 1980 townhouse that was basically cardboard. It had brick facing on the front and vinyl over cardboard on the back.

Solid brick houses haven't been common in this area... maybe ever. Solid stone, not for 100 years. It's fine to say stone is better quality (although I'd quibble) but it's not realistically available to the average buyer. Basically all houses here are wood frame, and then you can argue about what's best to put between the framing. [/quote]

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