Why are American houses built from bricks?

[Al B. Sure!]

I heard that in the middle east and latin america, a lot of houses are built out of dried mud and tile. apparently, this construction (aside from being real cheap) cools the interior in the summer and keeps in fairly warm in winter...

so why are all the houses here in the US made out of brick?

[Zkribbler]

Mine's not brick. It's wood framed.

[Inverse Icarus]

Re: Why are American houses built from bricks?

Originally posted by Albert Speer
I heard that in the middle east and latin america, a lot of houses are built out of dried mud and tile. apparently, this construction (aside from being real cheap) cools the interior in the summer and keeps in fairly warm in winter...

so why are all the houses here in the US made out of brick?

because mud doesn't last long and we have a life expectancy longer than theirs?

i'm fairly sure the houses you heard about arent that large, ie 2 story houses with full basements. mud might not support that.

and, on long island, almost no houses are made of brick. wood and sheetrock (drywall) on concrete foundation.

[Inverse Icarus]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
Mine's not brick. It's wood framed.

speer lives in the city. the buildigns are usually older and far more standardized. a lot of buildings there are probably made of brick.

[Dinner]

You need to travel more Speer then maybe you would notice the regional differences in building materials.

[monolith94]

Mine's wood. Brick is more attractive than mud, and isn't that what's important???

If I were tremendously wealthy, I'd have a granite house.

[Inverse Icarus]

Originally posted by monolith94
Mine's wood. Brick is more attractive than mud, and isn't that what's important???

If I were tremendously wealthy, I'd have a granite house.

no, all chrome house. hardcore.

you'd have to get your fingerprints burnt off though.

[Winston]

It was so the big, bad commies wouldn't huff, puff and blow them to the ground.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by monolith94
If I were tremendously wealthy, I'd have a granite house.

There's one of those in mountains north-east of LA the guy made his entire house by cementing granit bolders together. It's something like three stories tall with a basement.

[Asher]

Scope issues

Why is everyone in Canada upper-middle class??

[GePap]

I have never heard of these materials being good insulators. brick is much better at insulation, and keeping the house warm in winter is more important that keeping cool in Summer (you can always sit on the porch). Same reason why windowns in the US are usually smaller and thicker as well.

[monolith94]

the nice thing is that granite is radioactive, so every day you lived there you could say that you were killing yourself a little bit too follow your dreams.

[Dinner]

Here in Califonia most of the houses are made out of wood frame because unreinforce masonry (read: bricks) has a tendency to fall down during earthquakes.

Still, some of the states oldest and most beautiful buildings are made out of stone or brick.

[Inverse Icarus]

Re: Scope issues

Originally posted by Asher
Why is everyone in Canada upper-middle class??

communism

[Al B. Sure!]

granite is radioactive?

what? for real there's houses that are not brick? I dont think I've ever not seen a brick house... every single house, rowhome, and apartment building in philly is made out of brick except for maybe some of the downtown sky-scrapers