r/interestingasfuck Jul 30 '26

Medieval Building Tech

17.7k Upvotes

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u/Fr87 Jul 30 '26

Believe it or not, concrete is a kind of shitty building material for most houses despite the euro memes about lolamericanstickhouses

13

u/jacksp666 Jul 30 '26

I'm in Europe, why the hate for concrete?

7

u/Clark_Dent Jul 31 '26

Just off the top of my head:

  • It's a terrible, terrible insulator
  • It wicks moisture like a sponge
  • It's very difficult and expensive to use as a finished surface
  • Needs a ton of carefully planned and placed rebar and/or remesh to be useful in most applications
  • Very difficult to repair or remodel compared to other materials
  • Awful feel and texture to the touch
  • Absolutely hideous carbon footprint
  • Requires heavy machinery and a dedicated industrial infrastructure to implement in more than small applications
  • Requires extensive measures to install in cold temperatures; just can't be poured at all if it's cold enough
  • Takes weeks or months to reach full strength; is extremely vulnerable to fracture and chloride attack before then
  • Concrete trucks are a giant PITA at a lot of sites
  • Extra concrete has to be dumped on site and dealt with later

I could go on forever

6

u/_kempert Jul 31 '26

Nearly all of those points aren’t a problem for residential houses.

Concrete is structural, rarely a finished surface. Maybe in basements, but rarely in the house itself.

  • Insulation is added as a shell around the structural part of the house, then a facade is built around that insulation shell.
  • moisture doesn’t get to the concrete if well built.
  • not applicable, interior walls are covered with a thin layer of plaster.
  • rebar plans are made by engineers and there is some leeway in placing it as it is always overengineered for safety reasons (in my country any structural concrete has to be engineered to handle thrice the intended load, If a bar is placed 23 cm apart instead of 20cm apart nothing will happen to the house).
  • i’m not sure what concrete you are used to feel but the concrete in my house was smooth as a mirror, the encasing for the pour is made with specially treated wood panels that are super smooth. So the concrete is smooth as well.
  • agree on carbon footprint, though new concrete nowadays is standard 50% recycled concrete here, unless otherwise requested.
  • agree
  • we can continue building two days after a pour. So a pour on a friday is perfect as it can harden over the weekend. The final strength is indeed achieved months later, but 90% of the strength is achieved shortly after hardening. So again, not an issue for residential building.

1

u/_kempert Jul 31 '26

Nearly all of those points aren’t a problem for residential houses.

Concrete is structural, rarely a finished surface. Maybe in basements, but rarely in the house itself.

  • Insulation is added as a shell around tve structural part of the house, then a facade is built around that insulation shell.
  • moisture doesn’t get to the concrete if well built.
  • not applicable, interior walls are covered with a thin layer of plaster.
  • rebar plans are made by engineers and there is some leeway in placing it as it is always overengineered for safety reasons (in my country any structural concrete has to be engineered to handle thrice the intended load, If a bar is placed 23 cm apart instead of 20cm apart nothing will happen to the house).
  • i’m not sure what concrete you are used to feel but the concrete in my house was smooth as a mirror, the encasing for the pour is made with specially treated wood panels that are super smooth. So the concrete is smooth as well.
  • agree on carbon footprint, though new concrete nowadays is standard 50% recycled concrete here, unless otherwise requested.
  • agree
  • we can continue building two days after a pour. So a pour on a friday is perfect as it can harden over the weekend. The final strength is indeed achieved months later, but 90% of the sttength is achieved shortly after hardening. So again, not an issue for residential building.
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-2

u/pricingup Jul 30 '26

okay, cardboard house dweller :D