Why are American houses built from bricks?

[Dinner]

As a geologist and I can tell you that you have nothing to fear from granite. The argon and potasium elements which are radioactive are extrodinarially small and even trained scientist with state of the art equipment have a hard time measuring the amount of radioactive decay which has occured. They have to take their time and be extra careful.

Besides all volcanic rocks and all sedimentary & metamorphic rocks derived from volcanic rocks contain trace radioactive elements but it is far lower then the background radiation we get bombarded with each and every day.

[Al B. Sure!]

Oerdin:

Wood houses don't collapse due to earth quakes but brick ones do?

[Nubclear]

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

I once watched a propaganda video of that sort

[monolith94]

I know that, but on the other hand I like scaring people with Granite houses. And you have to admit that Granite IS radioactive, although I heard that it was a bit more than you seem to believe...

"I dont think I've ever not seen a brick house"
If you get to Temple, and I hope that that works out, then I'm willing to bet that you'll be seeing quite a few wooden houses.

[GePap]

The Northeast urban centers is the center of brick in the US. Wood or some more mixed constructions are more popular elsewhere.

[Al B. Sure!]

Monolith:

Why's that?

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Albert Speer
Oerdin:

Wood houses don't collapse due to earth quakes but brick ones do?

Wood houses have a tendency to sway back and forth while brick houses have a tendency to crumble and kill everyone inside them. Watch next time there's an earthquake in a third world country like Iran or China. See all the people buried alive in brick homes? Hmm, all the wooden homes seemed to survive intact...

[monolith94]

Temple is in Connecticut, right? Why is that? Because they exist, and you'd have to wear blinders to not see them. Seriously, watch Good Will Hunting - he's wicked poor and lives in a wooden house. Not all ghettos are built the same.

[Imran Siddiqui]

for real there's houses that are not brick?

YEAH . I don't think I've lived in a house that wasn't brick, except for my college dorms.

[Edan]

So the nasty, mean old wolf won't be able to blow our houses down - not by the hairs of our chiney-chin-chin!

[Al B. Sure!]

ah... Temple is in Philly...

[Dinner]

Originally posted by monolith94
I know that, but on the other hand I like scaring people with Granite houses. And you have to admit that Granite IS radioactive, although I heard that it was a bit more than you seem to believe...

"I dont think I've ever not seen a brick house"
If you get to Temple, and I hope that that works out, then I'm willing to bet that you'll be seeing quite a few wooden houses.

The granite itself is not radioactive instead it contains in it's matrix a certain about of radioactive isotopes which are commonly found in the earth's crust. Often those elements are Potasium and or argon because those two elements are of the right size and charge to fit into the crystal matrix of the rock. Scientists use the decay of these isotopes to date how long abo the magma crystalized and formed the Granite.

Still, if you want to call that radioactive then just about everything is radioactive. Turn on a gieger counter sometime and just watch how you get random hits all the time. That's just the background noise which exists on this planet.

[Inverse Icarus]

it's cheap, and fairly common.

[The Mad Monk]

Originally posted by Albert Speer
Oerdin:

Wood houses don't collapse due to earth quakes but brick ones do?

Yep.

Don't get me wrong -- both can fall, depending on the quality of construction and the strength of the quake.

Wood frame houses (and steel frame buildings) are able to flex, which allows them to 'ride' out the waves.

Brick buildings have several things going against them:

- brittleness of the bricks themselves, which means they're much more likely to fracture when hit with a wave

- the fact that bricks and mortar are two different substances, with different physical characteristics which will cause them to respond to waves differently -- in terms of flexing, rates of transmission, angles of reflection and refraction (is that the term I'm thinking of, Oerdin? it's been so long) -- and which, in turn, increases the effects of all the planes of weakness brick buildings naturally have (that is, each and every place brick meets mortar).

- the heavier weight of overlying bricks makes any displacement of bricks in lower layers much more significant.

[:) Smiley]

Wood frames are most common in residential building because it's cheap to buy and cheap to work with, the USA has lots of trees, and its aesthetically pleasing. Wood also has a special place in the American culture, which invented things like the log cabin, the balloon-frame house, and the do-it-yourself house kit. Wood framing also allows for easier modification of the house later on, something you can't do with concrete. Wood can also be prefabbed and hauled into place on a trailer. Structurally, wood has one of the highest strength-to-mass ratios of any material (a wood beam is stronger than a steel beam of the same weight) and properly cared for will last the expected lifetime of any American house (30-50 years).

Older US cities have lots of brick buildings due to fire codes, in the suburbs houses are far apart so wood is OK.

Most other places in the world don't have a big supply of trees to chop down locally, so concrete is used instead. Most commercial construction in USA is done with concrete cinderblock these days, though there are many wood framed businesses as well.