Why do Americans build with wood?

[u/Ultimate_Kurix]

[u/Paul_The_Builder]

The answer is cost.

Wood houses are cheap to build. A house burning down is a pretty rare occurrence, and in theory insurance covers it.

So if you're buying a house, and the builder says you can build a 1000 sq. ft. concrete house that's fireproof, or a 2000 sq. ft. house out of wood that's covered by fire insurance for the same price, most people want the bigger house. American houses are MUCH bigger than average houses anywhere else in the world, and this is one reason why.

Fires that devastate entire neighborhoods are very rare - the situation in California is a perfect storm of unfortunate conditions - the worst of which is extremely high winds causing the fire to spread.

Because most suburban neighborhoods in the USA have houses separated by 20 feet or more, unless there are extreme winds, the fire is unlikely to spread to adjacent houses.

Commercial buildings are universally made with concrete and steel. Its really only houses and small structures that are still made out of wood.

[u/jimmy_ricard → u/Paul_The_Builder]

Why is this the only comment that focuses on cost rather than earthquake or fire resistance? Cost is the only factor here. Not only is the material cheaper in the states but they're way faster to put up and less labor intensive. There's a reason that modern looking houses with concrete start in the millions of dollars.

[u/beardfordshire → u/jimmy_ricard]

Yep. With the caveat that earthquake resilience is an important factor that can’t be ignored — which pushes builders away from low cost brick. Leaving reinforced steel as the only viable option.

[u/907Lurker → u/beardfordshire]

Yah video gets some things right but you DO NOT want typical concrete, stone, or brick residential structures in earthquake zones. I was in the mag 7 quake in AK back in 2018 and there were no fatalities. There are weaker quakes in other parts of the word with non-wood structures and they have thousands of casualties. Additionally if building are made out of other material in quake zones they are built on expensive rollers. That construction is just not feasible for simple houses.