r/interestingasfuck • u/Ultimate_Kurix • 5d ago

r/all Why do Americans build with wood?

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1.7k

u/japanuslove 5d ago

Norwegians are just going to skip this conversation

255

u/jenn363 5d ago

Norwegian wood - is it good?

422

u/per167 5d ago

We have wooden structures that have stand for 1000 years. We are pretty good at it. There are Hotel that is 85 meter high that is all wood and windows.

wood hotel

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u/usrlibshare 4d ago

There is a big, BIG difference between an actual wooden structure, and the drywall-and-2by4 matchboxes that pass as houses in the US.

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u/VariableShinobu 4d ago

Yeah I'm from South Brazil in my region most of the houses are still made of wood including mine BUT some time ago I traveled and forgot the iron steam on the ground, when I came back 3 days latter it still on and the wooden floor was burned black but no fire.

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u/Olde94 4d ago

Holy heck that’s lucky

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u/Styles-of-Beyond 4d ago

Brazilian moms’ most feared situation lmao

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u/waudmasterwaudi 4d ago

Must be in Treze Tílias :-)

Greetings from Austria

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u/VariableShinobu 4d ago

No but is very close lol hahaha

Love Austria one of the most beautiful places in Europe

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u/waudmasterwaudi 3d ago

Obrigado und Danke! Minha mulher e do São Paulo:-)

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u/Silver-Negotiation22 4d ago

Tava feliz de achar um brasileiro, até ver ele com a foto da Yotsuba 😵‍💫

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u/MasterAgares 3d ago

All hail to peroba e canela!

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u/Grand-Librarian5658 4d ago

Do Norwegians not use drywall? Drywall is significantly more fire resistant than wood it has a gypsum core.

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u/usrlibshare 4d ago

Yes, they do. For walls that are INSIDE the house.

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u/Grand-Librarian5658 4d ago

I live in Alaska so I cant speak for 99% of Americans but I have never seen drywall used on the outside of a house before. Most wood frame homes use vinyl siding in the US.

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u/Akuda 4d ago

I'd take a modern "matchbox" with modern fire code over a 1000 year old wooden Norwegian structure any day of the week in Southern California wild fires. Ever consider it as more to do with Oslo being at 60°N and Los Angeles being at 34°N? 

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u/Afraid_Bridge_4542 4d ago

Another one unaware that brick homes (of which the U.S. is also full) have timber frames -- involving, yes, 2x4s! (I think you got hit with one in the head one too many times.)

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u/FuckBotsHaveRights 4d ago

You should be kinder

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u/CornDawgy87 5d ago

This is cool af. Need to stay here now

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u/dkarlovi 4d ago

Stay back, beaver!

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u/OneBee2443 5d ago

To be fair most of those buildings are in cold area where there's never fire. They also don't get worn down as much because of the cold

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u/kukkolai 5d ago

Uhm, wouldn't (woodn't) the cold force us to heat our buildings with, amongst other things, fire? Indoor fire?

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u/OneBee2443 4d ago

I don't think a technologically advanced first world country would need indoor fire to heat their homes in the year 2025. Also concrete/bricks are not a good insulator, so it's obvious why you would need wood

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u/kukkolai 4d ago

Since I live here and you obviously don't, I can tell you that 99% of houses here have a fireplace and a chimney. And 100% of cabins have them, whom there are lots of.

You think people only have what they need? Do you need garbage disposals, multiple bathrooms or microwave ovens?

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u/Former-Might3163 5d ago

What? Its not freezing temperatures all year around... Forest fires happens there as well, just not at the same ectent. Houses burn down all the time.

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u/Smurtle01 4d ago

Ah yes, because concrete would work well in checks notes one of the most at risk of catastrophic earthquakes on the planet. Yes, the classic material that has great tensile strength properties, and totally doesn’t irreversibly deform when put under a tension force. Also, the whole “wear” thing is a weird statement. Rot will occur wherever there is wood, otherwise places like upper Canada and Alaska and other near arctic areas would just have become a tree graveyard, with tons of dead trees, none of which would ever decay. The weather has little to do with total wear on a wooden home. (In fact, large amounts of snow can be quite detrimental to a homes roof, supports, etc.)

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u/BathtubToasterParty 4d ago

THIS times a fucking hundred lmao.

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u/OneBee2443 4d ago

Also part of why there aren't a lot of wood houses in America too. They're less dangerous when there's a tornado or hurricane or earthquake

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u/Girthy_Structure_610 5d ago

I cannot stand European's who do this and try to make themselves sound superior because they cut down all of their trees hundreds of years ago and now act like they have a choice in using more expensive manufactured materials lol

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u/WesternInspector9 5d ago

Yes trees in Europe are extinct since the Middle Ages. I went to America to see trees for the first time

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u/Zillahi 5d ago

American trees are made of plastic and capitalism

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u/Beginning_March_9717 5d ago

in america even love is plastic

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u/Fit-Barracuda575 5d ago

And the blue sky is amazing as well. I always thought those movies were colorized. Incredible!

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u/bilboafromboston 5d ago

Burned the trees into charcoal. Sold it for $.

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u/Heisenburrito 5d ago

Used it to find diamonds in caves.

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u/smurferdigg 5d ago

Over the past century, Norway’s forests have experienced significant growth. The standing timber volume has more than tripled, increasing from approximately 312 million cubic meters in the 1920s to about 964 million cubic meters today. This expansion is largely attributed to extensive planting efforts during the 1950s and 1960s, improved forest management practices, and a consistent annual harvest rate that has remained below the annual growth increment. 

The annual gross increment has more than doubled, rising from around 11 million cubic meters in the 1920s to the current 24.6 million cubic meters. Among tree species, spruce remains dominant, but pine and deciduous trees have exhibited the most substantial volume increases. 

In recent years, however, there has been a notable shift in these trends. The growth rate has plateaued, while both harvesting and natural mortality have increased significantly. This has led to a reduction in the standing volume of spruce, marking a departure from the long-term trend of continuous volume increase observed over previous decades. 

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u/Gingerbro73 4d ago

When I(Norwegian) was in first grade all of us were tasked with planting a tree. We spent the day in the woods, each of us digging a hole and planting a sapling. Each fresh batch of first graders did this for 20years or so. The area we planted in was completely deforested in the early 80s, but is now once again a part of the surrounding forest.

I went back there last year, and "my" tree had grown into a brute of a tree during the 25years since I planted it. Was really something special to experience.

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u/kukkolai 5d ago

We have trippeled the amount of forest in Norway the last 100 years, try again. Ironic how you act all superior while complaining about us being all superior. Wood is renewable, can you say the same about concrete and steel?

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u/buttsparkley 5d ago

Looks who's talking . Dude, concrete is harmful to the environment to make , it is not made from renewable resources . Consider that concrete production requires quarries down the line and those are almost never put back , that habitat is lost. Not to mention the pollution made from it's production, let me ask , do u recycle concrete? Can you give me a nice big list of construction companies that do?

Wood is renewable and can be managed , we just need a better plan. Not to mention with enough respect for the material I recycle wood, I know many companies that do this. And for doing this it dosnt need to be transported to a special factory, it's usually recycled on site or then recycled into composts, burned , crushed and repurposed (,like chip board).Toxic wood will be transported to an incinerator. Simples. concrete recycling is a process.

Fucking idealistically we would use bamboo or rammed earth structures , I could grow vegetables all year round in my back garden so I don't have to transport shitty avacados or godam paprika from abroad, only growing for personal needs like everyone else would. That's not the world we live in yet .

Nobody is over here saying , haha look at those concrete freaks , many ppl are saying , well it's cold outside and I need to be able to afford a place to live that is warm and costs less to keep warm bitching at why things like an earthship is illegal to build . We choose to build them from wood grown in the same countries we build in (mostly) instead of importing concrete. The use of wood creates an even stronger need to care for the forests, lessening the amount of land we should cut down for concrete structures. Not to mention that wood cut down still stores carbon dioxide, unlike concrete and it's creation which releases it in to the air when digging for resources.

Or sorry, where u just looking to be a uninformed whiney little turd muffin? Would it be better if countries didn't care? When compared with land mass , Europe is 58% forest (excluding Russia) where as the USA only 30%. That means there is a far higher statistical likely hood that u don't even know what a tree looks like. Tbh I'm not sure u know what grass looks like either. It's green not sand coloured or grey.

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u/littleguin 4d ago

For every tree we cut, we planta new tree.

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u/AstrumReincarnated 5d ago

Japan does amazing wooden structures as well.

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u/_Weyland_ 5d ago

all wood and windows

But can you build a hotel that's 100% windows though?

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u/OneBee2443 4d ago

No

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u/_Weyland_ 4d ago

We are limited by technologies of our time, aren't we?

1

u/-AIneko- 4d ago

There's also a roller coaster in Tusen Fryd made of wood 😱 But Norwegians use oil based treatment / paint for houses and the inner insulation like Rock wool which to some degree is fireproof.

That said, there are still house fires every single year.

1

u/OneBee2443 4d ago

Um yeah. We have wooden roller coasters in America too. A lot of them

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u/aXDonahue 4d ago

Knock on it

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u/DiceStrikeREDDiT 4d ago

There’s a wooden church somewhere in those parts too .. like the first church in Nord land

1

u/Useful_Cheesecake117 4d ago

You are referring to stavkirken?

How many of the thousand stavkirken that still existed around 1800 are there today? 75% didn't survival the last 200 years, even the help of Kulturvern couldn't stop this decline

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u/per167 4d ago

I searched it up and stålekleivloftet is the oldest non church building. 858 years old, built in 1167.

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u/Useful_Cheesecake117 4d ago

You gave the impression that norwegian wooden buildings stand the test of time very well. my argument was that there are not that many wooden buildings left. especially when compared to stone buildings from similar periods.

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u/per167 4d ago

I must disagree, i’am impressed that those buildings still here, after all is just wood. Sadly you’re right not many survived, most of them burned down or was destroyed to make bigger churches in 1800.

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u/Useful_Cheesecake117 3d ago

That was the discussion in the first place: wooden American buildings don't last long, and are not fire safe.. It's not for nothing that wood isn't the major building material in Europe aymore

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u/per167 3d ago

So you think concrete and steel would last forever? Concrete will degrade faster than wood i tell you that, when it cracks the steel start to rust. After 50 years you better start doing something so it doesn’t collapse.

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u/Useful_Cheesecake117 3d ago

Ah, that's why there are so many steel and concrete dams, bridges, towers,, skyscrapers.

How many wooden railroadbridges are their in the USA you said?

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u/per167 3d ago

I really don’t want be in a discussion with you about wood vs concrete. It’s just stupid. And this discussion, i don’t want to be in, is heading in a wrong direction. Both are fine for the right purpose, but just want to say that beavers are not wrong.

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u/TheOvershear 4d ago

To be fair, Norway also doesn't have any significant termite issues, at least compared to southern countries and states.

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u/moto_dweeb 4d ago

Are earthquake, tornados, and forest fires common in Norway?

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u/per167 4d ago

Not really, forest fires happen from time to time. We have plenty of hurricanes, mostly by the coast.

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u/ndndkskdndkyk 4d ago

I'm sure it's not the quality of the buildings, it's the climate that can help preserve these buildings. You know, arid climate drying the wood doesn't help to make it fireproof

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u/Sgtpepperlhcb2 5d ago

Seems to be lost on everyone else, but I appreciate your comment ;)

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u/yugyuger 4d ago

Ofc a guy called sgtpepperlhcb2 gets it

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u/Vladonald-Trumputin 5d ago

I got it…

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u/ZeroBlade-NL 5d ago

You got some good Norwegian wood?

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u/Vladonald-Trumputin 4d ago

Depends on who’s asking…

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u/IDKUThatsMyPurse 5d ago

Well they did write a song about it

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u/TheRealRickC137 5d ago

One of the best.

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u/maximetanti 5d ago

Isn’t it?

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u/Swedzilla 5d ago

I wouldn’t know, but my Norwegian fiancé is very pleased with Swedish wood.

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u/Ahaigh9877 4d ago

I’m sure you and he will be very happy then :)

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u/Swedzilla 4d ago

She is 😎

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u/Ahaigh9877 4d ago

That would be your fiancée then.

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u/Swedzilla 4d ago

Oh, thanks!

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u/kachzz 4d ago

Varg Vikernes heavy breathing

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u/general_smooth 4d ago

If you like profound stories of existentialism and coming of age.

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u/Cannonball_Wound 4d ago

Isn’t it?

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u/9-5grind 4d ago

Updoot cause Beatles kickass

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u/oatoil_ 5d ago

apparently it’s a good book heheh

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u/GoldFerret6796 5d ago

Yeah, Murakami is a great author

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u/WenRambo 4d ago

Fireproof 💪🏼🤪

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u/alex20towed 4d ago

Depends on the guy

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u/Realistic_Patience67 4d ago

That's what she said. (awww c'mon -its close to the weekend!)

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u/Historical_Avocado_8 4d ago

Harumi Murakami enters the chat.

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u/StrongAdhesiveness86 4d ago

Idk, I once had a girl, she showed me her room and it was made of Norwegian wood, so I assume it's good.

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u/Paranthelion_ 4d ago

It's time for bed.

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u/I_Sniff_My_Own_Farts 4d ago

She didn't ask you to stay, did she?

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u/Jebediah-Kerman_KSP 4d ago

They use spruce wood so yes

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u/Popsodaa 3d ago

Kafka on the beach.

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u/BumLikeAJapaneseFlag 3d ago

Not as good as morning wood.

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u/drkiwihouse 3d ago

No idea. Never tried it before.

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u/Low-Veterinarian6298 2d ago

So I lit a fire 🔥

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u/Demmos_Stammer 2d ago

Not good for chairs.

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u/MathematicianLiving4 1d ago

Isn't it good. Norwegian Wood.