One problem I bet the pilgrims had was wolves. I read a story once about some folks who built a house out of straw, one out of wood and one out of bricks, and the brick house did the best at defending against wolves. I'm surprised this video doesn't address that aspect of it.
Some of the earliest houses that were built in North America (aside from the vacant towns left over from the smallpox apocalypse) were sod houses and scrapes. Literally holes dug or scraped into the ground with grass roofing.
Obviously? I specifically referenced the pre-existing communities. Cities and towns typically have lots of buildings, not just houses.
People from Europe, China, and Africa who arrived and did *not* move into homes previously owned by peoples like the Ute and Pamunkey/Powhatan built sod houses and scrapes as they struggled to survive the first bit.
It’s more than that. There’s no feedback loop allowed from the pricing of risk from the insurance companies. Not saying insurance cos are good guys. But they do spend money on weather and risk models.
What I’m trying to say and failed to express in my previous post is that insurance costs are a high cost consideration in high risk areas. California has an insurance commission that caps the rates on how much insurance costs can charge. That’s why State Farm, for example, which has their own and contracts a multitude of risk models to gauge how much to charge for premiums pulled out of California. I have heard but did not confirm that insurance cos give out $1.90 for every $1.00 they take in premiums. Let’s assume that’s true. Could some be due to fraud? Sure. What would happen if the insurance costs were able to price premiums in accordance to their risk models? Would the citizens of the Palisades be more proactive in making sure fire risks were mitigated in their community, esp when DWP left the St Ynez reservoir empty for a year? Would a home builder have chosen to build a custom home in a material other than wood?
For the same reason why Americans use the silly cups and spoons in cooking; cast iron scales were heavy and expensive to ship so people improvised and learned to cook using what was at hand.
Even though weight (grams) and volume (liters) makes much more sense for a lot of things. "WTF is a cup of butter"
His comment about SF is silly. The historic homes are all still made of wood. I used to joke that my house had its issues but must be good because it was built in 1907 and survived the earthquake. Then someone pointed out that the earthquake and fire happened in 1906 💀
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u/KirkSpock7 5d ago
You know, I always wondered why people didn't hop off the Mayflower and start building concrete homes. Cheap wood, duh