Lol - actually I dunno why I wrote that. I think I was trying to allude to the fact that it's hard to miss... but maybe I just kind of forgot the joke mid sentence... either way - the point is it's hard to miss.
Lol - actually I dunno why I wrote that. I think I was trying to allude to the fact that it's hard to miss... but maybe I just kind of forgot the joke mid sentence... either way - the point is it's hard to miss.
Copying doesn't excuse idiocy.
What's so idiotic about it? Ok, the thread title was quite sarcastic, but that was just a joke. As for the article, nothing I can do about it, the man is just a total retard. Stop complaining, this sort of stuff usually only happens in America. And of course, there are Americans who are not idiotic, but ye just get tarnished with the same brush 
I think that's the idiocy he meant.
But you don't exactly hear about these stories anywhere else
Anywho, no point in argueing. it's pointless
Drying Poodles in the microwave anyone? - the stupid old woman sued the manufacturers and won.
Only in America
Only in America
You have to keep in mind also that there are probably many more reporters per sq.m. in the US that are eager to grab a story and that they all end up online one way or another. Almost anything that happens in the US is instantly known worldwide and very possibly also includes a youtube video publication - it's sort of scary if you think of it.
The houses are made out of 2x6 outer framing with 2x4 inner framing. The outer frame has a 1" sheet of plywood covered by 1' sheet of insulation. Then The siding is banged into the plywood. The siding is made out of sheets of PVC plastic that lock together. For insulation the 2x6 cavity is filled and then there is usually 1" sheet of sheetrock or drywall.
The roof frame is wooden framed, usually set on 24" centers IIRC (been a good 10 years since I helped my dad build his house) and are then covered in plywood (1" IIRC) over the plywood sheets of tarpaper are set down. Once the tarpaper is down sheets of "shingles" are placed down by nailing them to the plywood. The shingles are made of tar with gravel or other various die'd material stuck into one side of the shingle to provide a protective layer. Because of the tar the shingles stick together when it's warmed up, usually by direct sunlight.
With the insulation the houses are pretty good at keeping in heat and vice versa. They are much cheaper than stone and if taken care of can last just as long as a stone house.
The insides are what you make it and if you buy a cheap house your going to get cheap stuff inside it, but on the whole, when comparing to the UK to the USA there is no difference in furnishing or fixings. Cupboards, appliances, shelves, and doors are the same quality.
You get into the $1million plus range you can usually pick up a nice stone house in the states =)
I guess maybe out west? IDK, on the east coast I really don't think that holds true at all...
Pretty much everywhere but the east coast then
It's the same way my Uncle made his house in Portland and they are made that way in Texas roughly from what I have seen and when I lived in Georgia thats how it seemed too.Actually, I think it's the next step of evolution; subconsciously our bodies know there are too many humans on the planet, and so more and more people being born are severely mentally handicapped (read: incompetent) and kill themselves off, reducing our numbers and improving the human gene pool in the process. Unfortunately, evolution is slow and so this brilliant evolutionary step has not shown its full potential, yet.
its not that usa is the only place w/ dumb people... its that the world is watching america. I dont know of any recent murders in ireland that have occured in the last 2 years... but people in ireland read about america. 
(wark)
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by wark : dbl
This made me actually laugh out loud in work today
Just because your house may be poorly built, doesn't mean every house is poorly built.
Replace Chris' narrative on US home building using 1 inch plywood and sheetrock with half inch and 5/8's inch and he is pretty much spot on.
Older houses (mine, 1968) would have 2x4 exterior walls while newer construction (1990+?) will have 4x6 exterior walls. And the stud framing is 16 inches on center with roof rafters and floor joists being 24 inch on center.
Exterior treatment can be anything from vinyl siding, wood siding, brick, stone, log, and in the case of California, stucco.
You obviously haven't seen too much. Look at any development that was built within the last 10-15 years. All the houses are crap. Period. There is no argument. Older houses maybe, and custom-built houses are fine, but ALL the new developments going up now - which account for a very large percentage of homes in many areas are utter crap.
you mean wood-made houses?
Yes. The typical wood-framed homes. There are extravagant, and amazingly well built stone/brick homes around here. There are even amazingly build wooden ones (though very rare) but the typical wood-framed homes that are popping up all over the place are not at all quality products.
I'll put it this way. When someone buys one of those homes, generally the first thing they do is replace all the appliances with ones that won't break. Then they refurbish the cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms with ones that won't break...
In other words it's like buying a fake Audi A8 with plastic body panels, cardboard frame, brakes that might work a few times before they melt, electronics that are prone to electrical shorts, etc... The REALLY wealthy people spend a lot of money replacing all these parts with real ones little by little - and only the UBER rich can afford a REAL one to begin with.
curiously enough the same applies to nra members
on the house thing... considering how ceilings are built in the us im glad to sit on 20+cm of concrete
The reason most residential developments these days are crap (in North America, at least) is because companies buy huge spaces of land and build houses "in bulk." A majority of the construction crews of these houses have no idea what they're doing and more-so, don't care. Additionally, they are under pressure to build all these houses very quickly and this leads to cutting corners and ultimately crappy, and sometimes unsafe, houses.
Anybody seen the nra-website. There's a video with a guy wearing a baseballcap, a jeans-shirt and a tie on the homepage explaining how to use it. Probably to keep people from shooting at it. 
Same way most houses around here are built too.
See: the entire run of Arrested Development.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/6644 ... -where-they-build-a-house
... This video is not available in your region, please lose 100 brain cells and move 500 KM south, kthxbai.
I hate these stupid region things, where they're IP censored.
:o
Use a proxy.
Use a proxy.
That's it exactly. It sucks.
Only In America, Thats A FACT!
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