Jim Stone FreelanceThis is an old rant of mine, but I really think people need to wake up on this topic.
There is absolutely no excuse or reason to construct a home with wood. Yet when you look through the building codes in place all across America, wood is predominantly the only thing allowed even in tornado zones and I beg to question why. Actually, I have the answer but I will get to that later, and the answer came from a building contractor in Utah. The answer is cold hard proof of why you can’t construct a home in America out of solid concrete.
First of all, if safety was really a concern, wood homes would be banned. There would be no need for ridiculous fire codes if homes were built of concrete. Yet every night, Americans go to sleep in homes that could burn to the ground overnight, or be blown away by a storm, and there is absolutely no reason for it.
In Mexico, people never worry about home fires or storms because neither can destroy a Mexican home unless it’s a chicken coop built out of wood. And no matter how nice you make that wood look, in Mexico where it is all brick mortar and rebar, a wood home is just a chicken coop. That really is the attitude here.
But there is a reason why private single occupant homes in America have to be built out of wood, and it is specifically so it can be burned to the ground on a whim by authorities if they ever come across a Waco, Ruby Ridge or Dorner. Sure, Americans can still own guns, but I’d like to ask people how much good having a gun will do in a community that decides to rebel, when all it would take is an apache helicopter loaded with tracer rounds to fly through a town of five thousand, pop a few into each house to light each house on fire and burn it to the ground? A SINGLE APACHE PASS CAN EASILY BURN AN AMERICAN TOWN TO THE GROUND, and it is that way for a reason.
Quite a while ago, I wanted to have a home built. And I went to a homebuilder in Utah and talked to them to get a quote. And they quoted out the basement separately. When I saw the total on the basement, which included digging out the ground for it, laying the slab and pouring the walls for 4,500 square feet (top floor and basement), the basement portion including all piping and everything else underneath it was only $5,500.00 and the top portion of the house was $90,000. I asked him why the top cost so much compared to the basement, and he said because it has to be built out of wood, and wood takes a lot of labor – the concrete was easy. I then asked him if he could just build the entire house out of concrete, what it would cost, and he said $30,000 total, including all wiring, windows, EVERYTHING. And I asked him if he could do it, and he said NO. I asked why, and the answer shocked me –
He said “Because if you build it out of concrete, it’s considered by the government to be a military bunker, and if you get a wacko in there who wants to defy the government he can put up a hell of a fight with a few guns. I could build it, but the state would quickly arrive with bulldozers and tear it down.”
I then said, well, what about the homes that are built with brick?
He said, “that is only a facade, it has to be entirely supported by the wood wall behind it, and it has to fall inward if the wood portion of the home behind it burns and cannot remain standing after any fire, at least if it is up to code”
Now, I know the shills out there are going to have a heyday with this, and quote all sorts of places like Montana where you can build with concrete if you wish, but the cold hard reality is that virtually all of America is stuck with homes of sticks, the worst possible construction material in the world, BAR NONE. And if you want to know the real job of the Masons, it was to act on behalf of the Jew to make good and sure Americans could never be safe and sound within their own homes (among other things, such as enforcing business licensing in all areas of the country uniformly)
I have had numerous friends from other parts of the world, and they always wondered why American homes were so poorly built despite looking good on the outside. Gabriel Sharkowi, an Egyptian engineer was amazed by the wood homes in America and wondered how on earth Americans tolerated such shoddy homes but then stated “it is very intelligently put together, you would not expect wood to hold up like this”. But the reality is that wood DOES NOT hold up, for example –
Just try not re-shingling, re siding, or repainting the house after 25 years or so. Water leaks will quickly destroy it in a few years if you do not, WHY should a home need that kind of maintenance? In Mexico, they just build it out of concrete and brick and forget it. It lasts until it gets torn down for a reason other than any need. Why should Mexico have it better than America? And contrary to what you have been told, Mexican homes ARE NOT junk, they are absolutely great. Claudia has been to America a few times, and she was shocked by how bad the American homes were by comparison, “The walls are like they are made out of paper, you can hear everything in the next room. Why do Americans want that?”
My answer? Americans don’t “want that”, they are simply so unaware of what is going on in the rest of the world that they don’t know that they should be expecting more.
If America was a free country, and the safety of the public really was a concern of the government, there would be absolutely no such thing as a wood home in tornado alley.
Consider that. Look at the tornado videos – in a sea of wreckage of wood homes you will see a crappy crappy laundromat that was built out of the cheapest cinder block still standing. WTF? ARE AMERICANS TOO STUPID TO BUILD WITH BRICK IN TORNADO ALLEY, HECK EVEN PRACTICALLY FREE CINDER BLOCK, OR ARE THEY IN FACT SO OPPRESSED AND ENSLAVED BY LAWS THAT EVEN THE MOST BASIC COMMON SENSE IS NOT ALLOWED TO PREVAIL, ALL IN THE NAME OF “CODE?” And don’t be fooled by the difference between a “brick facade” and a REAL BRICK HOME, with NO WOOD WHATSOEVER. You see “brick homes” destroyed in tornado alley all the time because they are really just wood homes with a layer of brick, and not true brick homes.
If the American government actually loved the people, homes built in Tornado alley would have 8 inch thick rebar enforced concrete walls and shatter proof glass, so you could watch TV right through the worst storm and not cower in the basement waiting for the end. Obviously this lone common sense home pictured to the left is the only one standing after everything else around it got erased. If it had better windows it would have practically no damage. This is an insulated concrete formed home that is difficult to get built because there are mountains of paperwork, but some areas will now allow these if you jump through the right hoops. QUESTION: Why should there be ANY hoops? Yeah, in Mexico you can build with wood if you are STUPID, the government will let you do it. But it won’t be respected as a real home because, well, just look at that photo, where every home that was made of wood is GONE.
There is absolutely no excuse for homes in tornado alley to be built out of wood, you can’t justify that for safety reasons, you can’t justify that for price reasons, you can’t justify that for ANY REASON OTHER THAN MAINTAINING TYRANNY, PEOPLE IN HOMES BUILT OF STICKS ARE INCREDIBLY WEAK, THEIR GUNS WON’T MAKE A DIFFERENCE, JUST BURN THEM TO THE GROUND AND IF THE TYRANTS IN THE GOVERNMENT DON’T WANT THE FACT THEY FLAMED A CITY GETTING OUT IN A CELL PHONE VIDEO, THEY CAN JUST KILL EVERYONE BY SHOOTING THROUGH THE WALLS. THAT is what is going to happen if the 2nd amendment is ever brought to fruition.
Mexican, Arab, and other homes compared to American homes
In a Mexican or Arab home, if a wire burns up in the wall, you pull in a new wire (they are all run through conduit in the wall) so you just pull new wire in. In an American home, if a wire burns up in a wall, call the fire department so the neighbors house can be sprayed down and prevented from igniting while yours is burned to the point of needing to be rebuilt, at 3x the cost of concrete, which it should have been made of in the first place
If A Mexican, Arab, or any other home in Latin America is approached by a wild fire, you just sit there and wait it out. Wild fires are nothing. Maybe repaint if it gets smoked up too much. Get the car in the garage so it does not burn. If an American home gets approached by a wild fire, you are given a warning to get out in a half hour with whatever you can, they can’t stop it anyway, and you will lose EVERYTHING that was in the house including the house.
If termites get into a Mexican home, they might eat the dresser. If termites get into an American home, it’s game over.
If a storm comes to a Mexican home, well, nothing happens unless the home ends up in the middle of a river and gets washed out from underneath. If a storm gets to an American home, it might damage it in a way that does not even show, get a water leak going, rot the walls, and then one day the toilet falls through the floor. (I have seen that happen, not a joke)
A Mexican or Arab home gets built, rained on, gets a new family, goes through a tornado, and 150 years later it gets family number 8 or 9, and then needs a roof patch to get it through the next 150 years. An American home needs a new roof after 30 years or so, and then for one reason or another the most sensible thing to do after less than 100 years is tear it down, it’s degraded and worn out. A total loss. How’s that for GDP? Hows that for living expenses? Would it not be more sensible to build it right to begin with for 1/3 the cost, and then pass it on for 300 years? And THAT’S NOT ALL
“Sarah Stone” that’s her alias anyway, (she is the one who co wrote tainted nightmare) said it like it really is
Get this, she really said it – “Concrete homes are crappy homes, because they need work after only 200 years or so. All the good homes are MADE OF STONE.” I kid you not, I just about crapped my pants when I heard THAT ONE
I then showed her the picture of a burned American home to the left, and she was shocked – she said, “you mean, that’s all that is left? AND AMERICANS ACCEPT THAT? In my country, fires only happen in one room. And you just clean up that room afterward.”
And, now the big question: How well will crappy wooden homes hold up against DRONE STRIKES?
Jim,I agree that we should be able to construct homes from concrete or other stronger materials any time we want.You can for safety and ease of replacing bad wires run conduit thru whole home,good especially in a area with rodent infestation so they do not chew up your wiring.As for what good the the firearm would do with apache helicopter razing town,not much,good down the road though to get pilot and their brethren down the road in revenge though.
I moved to Florida in 1972 and the code then because of hurricanes was concrete block. No choice. The only wood was the studs between the interior walls. a lot of insulation was required too on account of the heat.
About two years ago my roof needed replacement and the code changed to deeper flashing more nails per shingle tab and 2 layers of tar paper.
However, with all the building that sprung up over the last 20 years or so I do not see concrete construction anymore except for some businesses. When I inquired of this I was told to make the homes more affordable. There must have been truth to that because I had an addition on my house in 1985 and was told since I wanted the addition also in block over wood, the contractor that it would cost quite a bit more but I chose the block as it is a much better insulator. I am sure I saved over the years in heating and cooling the additional cost.
I’m quite sure that Stone is incorrect on this issue; builders in the US can build anything as long as the building follows the international building code, which certainly allows for concrete structures. It is true that the building materials are all set up for wood-frame construction, so it would be more difficult to locate a builder to create a concrete house. But it’s not against code to do so.
I believe the article to be incorrect, he should check out Monolithic Dome Homes, there’s an outfit in Texas that has built them all over the country.
My opinion (I haven’t taken the time to compare building codes in different areas), but I think Jim Stone is correct, at least for my area of metro Houston. I used to have a neighbor from Puerto Rico, who explained to me how in this area, concrete and concrete block are barred in residential building codes. He explained that everything, business and residential, is built from concrete in PR to withstand seasonal storms and hurricanes, but he was barred from building a sturdy structure to the same standards in this area.
The homes in my neighborhood are built on the wood stick model with brick facade. This past year, my neighbor’s home caught fire. In the 5 minutes from the initial time smoke from the fire was apparent, the fire had already burned through the roof of his house and one of the trees in his front yard had caught fire. I’m grateful the fire department classified it a 6 alarm and was on scene in 5 minutes; if I hadn’t been outside to notice the smoke and call it in, I would have lost my house, too, as burning embers were already landing in my yard, on my trees, and the roof of my house in that 5 minutes. And of course, my neighbor’s insurance company has been so stinking about making insurance payments, my neighbor has had to hire a 3rd party adjustor to deal with it. You always have to follow the money, always.
My last thought on this subject is this is another reason that hemp and hemp-crete have been made illegal, as hemp-crete walls over time gradually petrify, and no storm or fire will ever destroy what has petrified; no money to be made from that after the initial construction.
For a couple grand you can create an addition or spare room out of a shipping container. No need to burn down a town when you can microwave them to death in short order. Shields up! Red alert.