Rupert! What were you thinking?

[bboyminn]

--- "Geoff" <gbannister10 at ...> wrote:
>
> 
> 
> ---  "zanooda2" <zanooda2@> wrote:
> >
> > > All brick houses are either cinderblock or wood frame.
> 
> zanooda:
> > Not where I come from :-). 
> 
> Geoff:
> Ditto in the UK.
>

bboyminn:

Yes, in the USA, the brick is rarely more than a cosmetic facade.
We build a house of wood or cinderblock/cement block, and cover
that house with brick.

But is seem in the rest of the world, houses are really
structurally made from brick or stone. In a discussion in an
audio forum in the UK, a person didn't want to run wires in 
the house, so he was going through the brick, running the wire
outside the house, then coming back in through the brick again.

As he describe his house, it was two layers of brick, one layer
on the outside, with a completely separate layer on the inside 
separated by a gap. In short, he has a double walled structurally
brick house.

I've seen a lot of brick houses in my life, and yes they are low
maintenance, but when they do need maintenance it is usually far
more expensive than repainting a wood house. Brick need work
less often, but is more expensive, and it presumably averages
out. Though a brick house is more expensive to build. 

But, in all honesty, I seriously doubt that a single one of 
those common family houses was really structurally brick. Perhaps
with the exception of a few old historical mansions in the big
city.  

Also, keep in mind that the average American see little beyond
his lifetime. We typically build houses to last 100 years, and 
many lower suburban house are going to be luck to reach anything 
near that. Typically in Europe, according to rumors I heard,
they build houses on the assumption that they will last 500
years. That's quite a different attitude toward construction.

Steve/bboyminn