500-Year Home

[Nolan Kienitz]

Today's JLC had this story from Matt Risinger ... builder in Austin, TX area.

[utube]

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[Marc]

Exposed framing is ugly. I noticed what seems to be a bit of NM in a wall cavity (4:35).

More talk than truth.

Marc

[kurt]

i couldn't finish.... it could have been condensed into about a minute.

[mjr6550]

We have better looking barns in Pennsylvania than that house.

Also, would a pier and beam foundation really last? Does treated wood resist WDIs forever?

[Jim Katen]

It's a stupid title. The idea seems to be more along the lines of a house that will be easier to fix in the future. But that assumes that we'll have the same (or similar) building materials for the next 500 years and the same (or similar) climate.

I see nothing about that house that will make it any more likely to last 500 years than most other houses. And if a house will last 500 years, why not 1,000?

[Tom Raymond]

It's a pretty framing job. Omitting the OSB will get it past the 25 year mark, but none of the other components have more than 50 years life spans.

Is it still the same house if everything has been replaced 10 to 20 times in 500 years?

[Jim Baird]

No mentions of the R-values he got with that outer jacket, nor of how he met any kind of codes. There is likely lots more exposed NM than he showed us.

The publisher of a line of books I like called Wooden Books lives in an 800 year old house in Wales, so what is so new about this design?

[mlparham]

500 years old? I find that hard to believe.

[kurt]

I saw 300+ year old houses in China...mud brick, parged thick inside and out with lime. Tile roof. No foundation to speak of.

As long as the roof doesn't leak into the mud brick, the things could hit 500, easy.

[Jim Katen]

Barring floods, earthquakes, landslides, etc, most any house will last as long as someone keeps renewing the sacrificial surfaces.

Heck, the USS Constitution is 220 years old and still afloat and it a freaking ship.

[Jim Baird]

The common box turtle, which wears its house, is said to live for as long as 138 yrs.

[Jim Katen]

The common box turtle, which wears its house, is said to live for as long as 138 yrs.

I had no idea.

Do you suppose they renew their sacrificial surfaces?

[Chad Fabry]

I think most people miss the intent of the headline- every year you spend in this house just seems like 500 years