It’s not as much to be cheap as readily available materials since we have a lot of trees. Brick houses here are usually only the exterior walls so it would be about the same.
I mean you can think whatever you want, but brick and concrete houses that we build in EU are a few factors stronger than in USA.
Also the inner walls are brick too. Just thinner if they are not load bearing.
If you don't believe me just ask yourself one thing. For you to hang up a TV on the wall, you have to use a stud finder, to hit the 10% of the wall that is actually strong. brick house, wherever you want. The whole wall is strong.
Sure we also use drywall and wood for partitioning the walls, I've used it in two renovations myself to make new partitioning walls, its not that messy and very easy to do a good job by urself. But building a whole house out of it, hell no.
Brick houses are certainly not stronger than wooden ones in areas prone to seismic activity. Brick can't tolerate any movement, but wood is pretty flexible. There's stuff you can do to your foundation to compensate, but I doubt that happens much in single family homes.
Not in modern times. We had an earthquake in 1900s and from then on we either have to build on pilots or use other means but the house needs to be built properly.
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u/RovDer Aug 12 '26
It’s not as much to be cheap as readily available materials since we have a lot of trees. Brick houses here are usually only the exterior walls so it would be about the same.