Rants, ramblings, observations, opinions on buildings
I have friends and family who live in the affluent suburbs of Dallas. I've been to their houses and I can't believe how much they paid when the fixtures are obviously from the bargain bin. (It does not cost nearly as much to build here, much less than the California price of $200 Sq. Ft. When I first moved to Port Arthur in 1999, admittedly an economically depressed area, I could have a new house built for about $72 Sq. Ft. The cost is now closer to $100-$120 sq. ft.) When the overall costs of building the house are considered, it is not that much more expensive to install good quality (not necessarily top quality) fixtures. If I was going to buy a new home, and I wasn't involved in its design and construction, I would tell the home builder that he would either have to lower his price or upgrade the fixtures if he used crap, or I wouldn't buy.
As far as construction quality, I think older homes are built better than new homes, even with the current building codes. I'm talking pre-1960s construction. After 1960, quality became worse and areas that previously had lenient building codes had to toughen them to stop poor quality and dangerous building practices. A couple of reasons for the better quality of pre-1960 construction: the quality of lumber was better, it has since greatly declined (faster growing trees are being planted and harvested in as little as 15-20 years - knotty, twisty, inferior. No old mature trees with good heartwood are available for use now.), and most of these older homes were constructed with shiplap inside and out. This is wood that interlocks via a tongue and groove system. When the 2 X 4 frame was put up, the inside and outside was all shiplapped. Often, the shiplap was applied at a 45 degree angle, the angle inside was reversed from the outside, giving greater strength (one observation on my house: this old wood is HARD. The roofer had a really hard time nailing the new roof on). Shiplap construction is not really feasible today because it would require much more wood to build a house, and it would be cost prohibitive.
My parents 1976 home, while nice, has a lot of slipshod elements. They had to replace the entire master bath area - the builders did not use any moisture barrier under the tile. Other problems can be found through out the home.
My house was built in 1940 and is really solid. Back then, there were no codes for building to meet windstorm ratings like now. They were just built well. My house just withstood a direct hit from Hurricane Rita, and a few other hits in the past. Most of the houses in this area are older and withstood the storm well (except for the ones that the owners basically let rot - but even they were still standing), the major damage was to their roofs, or from trees falling through them. People with old or cheap three tab roofs had damage, people with architectural shingles and/or newer roofs had little damage from the wind (I cannot stress this enough - if you are going to make the effort and spend money to put on a new roof, it does not cost much more to use top quality materials: a cheap three tab roof was only a few hundred dollars cheaper than the architectural shingles I chose. Much of the cost of roofing is the labor, not the materials. I'm a believer after this hurricane: do not use cheap three tab shingles!). Commercial buildings suffered the worst by far, especially ones with big window fronts. Codes for commercial construction are supposed to be tougher, but those buildings did not hold up well. The Sherwin-Williams paint store near me completely collapsed (really impressive to see). The large indoor mall was closed for almost a full year - heavy roof damage. Most of the gas stations also had severe damage. There were tornados associated with Rita and they did cause a lot of damage to houses, but again mostly from trees falling or to the roof. Look at New Orleans. Based on pictures on the news, it looked like most of the old houses withstood the 140mph winds, it was the flooding afterward that basically destroyed the town.
BTW - my house still has the original gas water heater in good working order. It is a Ruud with a monel tank - monel is an alloy, it will probably never corrode. It is 30 gallon. I bought a 50 gallon Sears water heater with a 12 year warranty to run the kitchen and laundry areas. As little as 10 years ago I used to see water heaters with lifetime warranties, but now I can't find any. Another example of crappy modern manufacturing practices, or "Progress" as the manufacturers like to call it. People think I'm strange for using mostly old stuff, but I don't have to buy replacement appliances every five years like they do.
