Wooden Houses

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philthom

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Can anyone tell me why we never see wooden houses in South Africa as we usually see in America (in movies, etc.). Maybe there are some here and there (Squatter camps excluded, and also wendy houses), but not on a large scale basis.

Are there building codes and regulations that prevent South Africans from building wooden houses?
Are wooden houses more expensive to erect?
Does the geographical landscape or South African climate prevent wooden housing from being feesible?

Or, is there just no demand in SA for wooden houses?
 
More of a pain to get appoval to build, higher insurance rate, easier to break in to, not enough expertise in SA to build them never mind maintain.
And I suspect it will work you out more expensive, our suppliers are not stocked with everything you need in sufficient quantities.

Reason the americans build timber frame houses. better able to withstand earth-quakes, cyclones, snowstorms or temperature extremes.
You have to see the extremes those guys have to go to just to have a brick fireplace, especially in california (earthquakes).
 
biena said:
Reason the americans build timber frame houses. better able to withstand earth-quakes, cyclones, snowstorms or temperature extremes.
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With the exception of earth-quakes I reckon a brick & mortar house will fair much better.

Building with brick & mortar is also more expensive in the US compared to wood.
 
brick and mortar more susceptible to water damp than the wood, can insulate them better too.
 
biena said:
More of a pain to get appoval to build, higher insurance rate, easier to break in to, not enough expertise in SA to build them never mind maintain.
And I suspect it will work you out more expensive, our suppliers are not stocked with everything you need in sufficient quantities.

Reason the americans build timber frame houses. better able to withstand earth-quakes, cyclones, snowstorms or temperature extremes.
You have to see the extremes those guys have to go to just to have a brick fireplace, especially in california (earthquakes).
Click to expand...

Would be able to build wood houses a lot quicker than brick & mortar houses especially wrt RDP houses.
 
ponder said:
With the exception of earth-quakes I reckon a brick & mortar house will fair much better.
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Sure. Fixing damage is more difficult though & bricks falling on people isn't much fun either. i.e. Less damage but the damage that is done is more of a hassle.

Oh and thanks OP for thread...been wondering about this a while too.
 
You guys are forgetting the most obvious reason...

The weather in SA doesn't work well with wooden structures. We have a very high rainfall compared to most countries and we also have scorching summers. Throw in some termites and other wood eating beetles and you have your answer. The upkeep on such a home is insanely high. Building a brick and cement house has just about zero upkeep as opposed to a wooden one.
 
philthom said:
Can anyone tell me why we never see wooden houses in South Africa as we usually see in America (in movies, etc.). Maybe there are some here and there (Squatter camps excluded, and also wendy houses), but not on a large scale basis.

Are there building codes and regulations that prevent South Africans from building wooden houses?
Are wooden houses more expensive to erect?
Does the geographical landscape or South African climate prevent wooden housing from being feesible?

Or, is there just no demand in SA for wooden houses?
Click to expand...

Quite simple really, -- resources

Before European settlement, forests covered nearly one billion acres of what is now the United States. Since the mid-1600's, about 300 million acres of forest have been cleared, primarily for agriculture during the 19th century. Today about one-third of the nation is forested. While total forest area has been relatively stable for the last 100 years (currently about 747 million acres),
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http://www.nationalatlas.gov/articles/biology/a_forest.html

SA has lots of soil not many forests, certainly not sustaiable for housing as on the same scale as the US so brick and stone is much more viable.
Considering we have hot dry weather for a large portion of the year in most parts of the country, fire is a hazard, wooden houses tend to burn easily, and water is often scarce or in drought conditions their are restrictions, which could affect the control of fires.
Winters are faily mild in Sa compared to the US where insulation against plumeting temperatures is need.

For SA School of Log Building
http://www.loghomes.co.za/brochure.htm
 
Well wood can be treated for termites/beetles, as to the rainfall look at a place like San Francisco, during the day it is scorching then every evening you have this wet fogbank rolling in and everything gets damp. The houses there do seem to survive it.

No matter where in the world, fire is allways a big hazard to any wood house, just look at the wildfires that the usa have each year.
 
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It has mostly to do with labour cost. I am a big fan of the DIY/building shows on The Home Channel... There was a show called The house of Bryan.
The structure was assemebled in a few days, out of wood . And that was done with about 5 poeple. A house of that size, built out of brick would have taken 3 months to do, with twice as many poeple to get it to the same point in the construction. After that the cost in the US house will increase dramatically. This is because you have to pay even a entry level trades man, tiler etc a descent rate. The amount of tradesman between the SA and US house will be roughly the same, but in the US time is money.
 
As nanfeishen said, resources. In the US, timber is reasonably plentiful and cheap, whereas here it's scarce enough to make it non viable as a large scal building material for most of the country.
 
Interesting discussion thus far, guys. You all make some good, insightful points. :)

But with regarding the time factor in building the houses, one has to wonder then why do they exert so much effort and resources into building huge basements beneath their houses. (Again, I'm speaking out of ignorance, 'cause I only know of basements through watching amercian shows/movies.)

Those basements are made out of brick and mortar, right?

And here in SA we don't find houses with basements, not that I know of anyways. This might be just for economical reasons, or we South Africans might be picky, and don't like having 'floors' beneath our houses.:whistle:
 
I have also investigated this and wondered why not here in SA. Firstly weather/climate plays NO role whatsoever. In US you have any form of weather you can imagine and people build with wood. Also the building regulations there are a 100 times more stringent than here in good old SA. I am also not sure resources play such a big role. Only the frames are from timber...the rest is "dry-wall". We have a crapload of pine in this country...

I think the main reason is lack of demand. We must remember that our "house" culture is purely an old historic European one i.e. brick & mortar, "plaashuis". I for one would love to see these houses built here...the speed and effectiveness is amazing. There are slowly but surely a trend developing for this kind of construction though. Here in CT, Dicksons Real Estate are starting to build these kind of homes, but using Light Frame Steel.
 
philthom said:
Interesting discussion thus far, guys. You all make some good, insightful points. :)

But with regarding the time factor in building the houses, one has to wonder then why do they exert so much effort and resources into building huge basements beneath their houses. (Again, I'm speaking out of ignorance, 'cause I only know of basements through watching amercian shows/movies.)

Those basements are made out of brick and mortar, right?

And here in SA we don't find houses with basements, not that I know of anyways. This might be just for economical reasons, or we South Africans might be picky, and don't like having 'floors' beneath our houses.:whistle:
Click to expand...

A basement will be the ideal place to store your freezer etc. Less heat.

But - nothing will stop you from building a brick & mortar house, then use wood panels on the inside.
 
biena said:
brick and mortar more susceptible to water damp than the wood, can insulate them better too.
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Wood expands and then rots if damp gets in.

biena said:
No matter where in the world, fire is allways a big hazard to any wood house, just look at the wildfires that the usa have each year.
Click to expand...
Although brick is a huge problem if it catches fire.
 
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