Brit Reacts to Why US Houses Are Built From Wood And Europe Uses Brick

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]Yo, what's up, guys? Welcome back to another video. This is a reaction to why US houses are built from wood and Europe uses brick. Um this is a fairly new video.

[00:00:08]Um yeah, a week ago, so it's very new, to be fair, but we're going to just check this out and see. It's probably going to be to do with price of making it and also the resources around making it easier to um I'm guessing in the US [clears throat] lumber is a lot more abundant, so it makes it a lot easier to use that and it's cheaper again.

[00:00:27]And yeah, I guess we're going to sort of see more in put in just that, but yeah, we're going to jump into this. Hopefully you're going to enjoy and yeah, check this video out. In Germany, 90% of new houses are built with brick or concrete blocks. In Italy, almost every residential structure is masonry.

[00:00:42]In Spain, the same.

[00:00:44]In the Netherlands, brick. In the United Kingdom, brick.

[00:00:48]Across the entire European continent, the standard residential wall is built from a material that lasts for hundreds of years and does not burn.

[00:00:56]In the United States, 90% of new single-family homes are framed with wood. 90%? 2 by 4s? Damn. Plywood.

[00:01:03]Oriented strand board.

[00:01:05]The same material a beaver uses.

[00:01:07]The same material that catches fire in seconds.

[00:01:10]The same material that termites consider [music] a buffet.

[00:01:13]Oh. Two wealthy regions.

[00:01:15]Same century.

[00:01:17]Same access to every building technology on the planet.

[00:01:20]Two completely opposite ways of constructing the most expensive purchase of an average person's life.

[00:01:26]Why?

[00:01:27]The standard answer is that America has more trees.

[00:01:30]And that is true.

[00:01:31]The country has one of the largest commercial forestry industries in the world. Lumber is cheap, abundant, and renewable.

[00:01:38]But that explanation only describes how the system started. It does not explain why it stayed.

[00:01:43]Europe also had vast forests once.

[00:01:46]They cut them down centuries ago and switched to brick.

[00:01:49]They never went back.

[00:01:51]America had the same option in 2000 and chose wood.

[00:01:55]In 2026, even with mass timber technology and engineered concrete and prefab steel framing all available at competitive prices, 90% of new American homes are still wood.

[00:02:07]The real reason is not the trees.

[00:02:09]It is something economists call path dependence.

[00:02:13]Once a country sets up a building industry around one material with its workers, its codes, its supply chains, and its bank financing, switching becomes nearly impossible, even when better materials exist. What?

[00:02:26]America locked in wood 300 years ago.

[00:02:28]Europe locked in brick a thousand years ago.

[00:02:31]Both systems still run on the inertia of decisions nobody alive ever made. Right.

[00:02:36]>> And here is the data that proves the difference is not just aesthetic.

[00:02:40]A wood-framed American house has an average lifespan of around 50 to 70 years before major reconstruction.

[00:02:46]A brick or concrete European house regularly stands for 200 to 500 years with maintenance. Got that. Some homes in Spain and Italy are still occupied after 700 years. That's crazy.

[00:02:57]>> States demolishes and rebuilds the same housing stock multiple times in the time Europe holds on to a single structure.

[00:03:04]Two systems.

[00:03:06]Two completely different relationships with the idea of home.

[00:03:09]So, how did the split happen?

[00:03:11]Walk back to the 17th century.

[00:03:14]When European settlers arrived in North America, they encountered a forested continent on a scale they had never seen.

[00:03:20]Massive old-growth pine, oak, maple, cedar.

[00:03:25]The eastern half of the continent was essentially a wall of timber stretching from Maine to Florida.

[00:03:31]Estimates suggest the eastern woodlands covered roughly 1 billion acres before colonization.

[00:03:36]Cutting trees was not just permitted, it was strategic.

[00:03:39]Forests had to be cleared for farmland anyway.

[00:03:42]Wood was the cheapest, Damn, so Europeans are the reason this even happened in the first place as well.

[00:03:48]I mean, obviously, realistically, if you come to a new land, this makes sense.

[00:03:52]It's just easier to do and more efficient. I mean, I say more efficient. I mean, yeah, probably is in terms of like you probably you probably build stuff a lot faster.

[00:04:02]Um yeah, yeah, and then with that, just have the ability to just make more homes and stuff, so it does make sense.

[00:04:09]fastest, most abundant building material a colonist could possibly use.

[00:04:14]The first wave of American homes was not a design philosophy.

[00:04:18]It was the path of least resistance through a landscape [clears throat] buried in lumber.

[00:04:22]>> [laughter] >> Meanwhile, Europe had already been deforested. The continent had been clearing its forests for ships, firewood, and construction since the Middle Ages. Damn. By the 1500s, mature timber was a luxury good.

[00:04:34]Most European countries had no choice but to build with stone, brick, and lime mortar.

[00:04:39]The materials were heavier, slower to assemble, and required skilled labor.

[00:04:44]But there was no alternative.

[00:04:46]Europe ran out of wood before it ran out of demand for housing. I mean, that's pretty mad to think, realistically, that they were forced to not build of wood, cuz who knows what would have happened if they didn't run out.

[00:04:59]Probably would have still but still built a lot of like would have like continued or started to build structures with wood, cuz it would be cheaper.

[00:05:05]It'd be more Yeah, just it'd be easier to build these homes and again, faster.

[00:05:10]Especially like Europe and like the UK, you don't get like extreme weather. I mean, you get a lot of damp, to be fair, so maybe that'll be an issue.

[00:05:17]You don't get like storms that could like damage the buildings that much, so building with wood probably wouldn't be as much of a problem, other than again, like dampness, which is obviously an issue, cuz it rains here a lot.

[00:05:27]That single resource gap three centuries ago sent the two continents down completely different industrial paths.

[00:05:35]In Europe, brick making became a regional craft.

[00:05:38]Every village had a kiln. Every city had masons.

[00:05:42]Construction techniques were refined for hundreds of years around the assumption that walls were heavy, permanent, and assembled by hand.

[00:05:49]Building codes evolved around masonry.

[00:05:52]Bank loans were structured for properties that would last a century.

[00:05:55]Insurance assumed buildings would not catch fire.

[00:05:58]Skilled labor specialized in This doesn't look like Europe, though.

[00:06:02]This looks like America.

[00:06:04]That is definitely America.

[00:06:06]And it's showing a brick home. not catch fire.

[00:06:09]Skilled labor specialized in stone. In America, the opposite happened.

[00:06:14]The country invented balloon framing in the 1830s, a system that allowed a house to be assembled by a small team using nothing but standardized lumber, nails, and a hammer.

[00:06:24]No skilled masons were required. No expensive kilns were needed. Just sawmills and railroads.

[00:06:30]Within 50 years, balloon framing and its successor, platform framing, became the universal American method.

[00:06:37]The country could build a house in weeks, not months.

[00:06:40]That speed is not a footnote.

[00:06:42]It is the entire story.

[00:06:44]Wood framing makes American housing cheap. A standard wood-framed home costs 10 to 60% less than an equivalent brick or concrete home.

[00:06:52]Construction is faster and labor requirements are lower. The materials are easy to ship by rail or truck.

[00:06:58]Modification are simple. Drywall comes off, new electrical goes in, drywall goes back on.

[00:07:04]An American contractor can throw up the bones of a house in 7 days with a crew that does not need years of specialized training.

[00:07:11]Masonry requires a different industry entirely. Bricklayers must apprentice for years. Yeah. Mortar must cure.

[00:07:18]Walls must be plumb. In all fairness, in all fairness, there is such a crazy housing crisis in the UK.

[00:07:25]It shows that maybe whilst the house like the actual houses are built and they're they're more sturdy and maybe they're better quality, people aren't able to afford homes here a lot of the time.

[00:07:35]So, whilst it may have those benefits, there's also a lot of drawbacks and that's because I think building regulations in the UK in general are just a bit stringent and like it's a bit difficult to just build a lot of the time and then also the materials being used are making it more expensive. And yeah, there's housing shortages and people can't afford to live in these homes, so whilst yeah, you have these positives, there's also a lot of drawbacks. Plumbing and electrical have to be planned before the walls go up, because retrofitting through brick is brutal. The whole process takes months, costs more, and depends on a labor force that simply does not exist in most of the United States.

[00:08:16]There are not enough trained masons in America to build the country at scale with brick, even if every developer wanted to.

[00:08:22]This is the path dependence trap.

[00:08:25]Wood is cheaper because the entire American construction industry is optimized for wood.

[00:08:30]Masonry is more expensive because nobody is set up to do it and nobody gets set up to do it because masonry is more expensive. The cycle runs forward forever.

[00:08:40]Then there are the codes.

[00:08:42]American building codes are written around wood.

[00:08:45]Inspectors are trained on wood. Banks underwrite mortgages assuming wood.

[00:08:50]Insurance companies have actuarial tables built on the lifespan of a wood-framed home.

[00:08:55]Even when a developer wants to build with concrete, the financing, the inspection process, and the supply chain all push back toward the standard format. Damn. The system does not have to forbid masonry.

[00:09:06]It just makes it inconvenient enough that almost nobody bothers.

[00:09:10]Europe is the inverse.

[00:09:12]Try building a wood-framed single-family home in central Berlin.

[00:09:15]Building codes will block parts of it.

[00:09:18]Insurance will be more expensive. Resale value will collapse because buyers expect masonry.

[00:09:24]Banks will hesitate to finance it.

[00:09:26]The European market has been shaped around brick for so long that wood is treated as the exception, not the rule.

[00:09:33]Now, look at what the American choice costs.

[00:09:35]In 2023, the National Fire Protection Association recorded over 380,000 residential structure fires in the United States. Damn. Roughly 2,800 civilians died. Thousands more were injured.

[00:09:47]Property damage exceeded $11 billion in a single year.

[00:09:52]The fire death rate in the United States is roughly three times higher than in most Western European countries.

[00:09:57]Germany is around 5.3 deaths per million.

[00:10:00]The United States is above 12.

[00:10:03]The country with 90% wood-framed homes burns at double the rate of countries with 90% masonry-framed homes.

[00:10:09]Hurricanes hit even harder. Yeah. When a category 4 storm passes through Florida, wood-framed homes shatter.

[00:10:17]Brick and block homes built to Florida code regularly survive intact. After Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Florida updated its codes and pushed concrete block construction in coastal zones.

[00:10:27]Okay. The houses built to that standard outlasted the storms that destroyed everything around them.

[00:10:33]The technology works.

[00:10:35]It just is not used nationally.

[00:10:38]Termites cost American home It is quite insane how I feel like if it was the other way around, it'll probably fit both um regions better. I mean, maybe not Europe cuz it gets quite cold in a lot of parts in Europe and damp. And I don't know how damp like how if like with wood, I feel like that is quite a big issue to be fair.

[00:10:57]But, I don't know. Especially in America like brick housing in like these tornado alley regions and stuff like that would obviously help.

[00:11:06]But, I know some of the tornadoes are so strong that even then it wouldn't actually necessarily stop anything. But, overall, I feel like that could help with like different cuz of the US is just bombarded by different weather conditions.

[00:11:17]And then in like the UK where we don't really have extreme weather, you could probably get away with having wooden structures. Again, just minus the damp and like the the rain. But, I feel like wooden structures in America will be in all different regions anyway. Cold or regions like wetter regions like like for example like Washington state. I'm pretty sure that's a pretty rainy rainy state. And I assume it's still a lot of the the structures there or the houses are wooden. So, I guess it kind of argues against that point. But, how is like wooden struc- how are these wooden structures like these wooden homes against rain in general?

[00:11:51]I guess that makes it more of an issue.

[00:11:53]But, I don't know. homeowners around $5 per year in damage and treatment. European homeowners do not have this expense at scale because termites cannot eat brick.

[00:12:04]Wildfires in California and the Pacific Northwest level entire neighborhoods of wooden homes in a single This is where I have an issue. I mean, like the Great Fire of London for example. Just every every building caught fire because it's all just wooden.

[00:12:16]Obviously, it's definitely not good for this. Let's be real.

[00:12:20]Certain like regions should probably have laws where it is just brick because otherwise it's going to lead to this devastation. Don't get me wrong. It will probably still not like it will completely stop these wildfires from spreading, but just with brick in the structures, it would just make it a lot less.

[00:12:37]It would just probably wouldn't spread as much as this in major cities, right?

[00:12:40]But, again, I could be wrong. I mean, look. I don't know how this building survived to be fair.

[00:12:44]It looks wooden, so I'm not even going to say it's brick. But, maybe there'll be more buildings that are a bit more like this. But, hey, I don't fully know. A masonry house in the same neighborhood often stands.

[00:12:54]And there is one more cost that nobody puts on the bill.

[00:12:58]A wood-framed home is designed to be replaced. Its lifespan is measured in decades, not centuries.

[00:13:05]When the structure deteriorates, the house is torn down and rebuilt. That cycle creates work for builders, suppliers, lenders, and insurance companies. It is good for GDP.

[00:13:17]It is terrible for wealth accumulation.

[00:13:20]A European family that bought a brick home in 1940 often passes that same home to grandchildren.

[00:13:28]An American family that bought a wood-framed home in 1970 is likely watching it crumble while their property value depends on the land beneath it.

[00:13:38]The structure is a depreciating asset.

[00:13:41]The dirt is the investment. There is movement at the edges.

[00:13:46]Concrete homes are growing in Florida hurricane zones. Makes sense.

[00:13:50]>> Insurance-driven masonry is appearing in wildfire areas.

[00:13:54]Mass timber and cross-laminated panels are starting to show up in commercial buildings.

[00:14:00]But, residential construction at the national scale has not moved. Wood still wins because the entire industrial system is built to make wood win.

[00:14:10]300 years ago, an American settler chose wood because the trees were free and the bricks were across an ocean.

[00:14:18]300 years later, the trees are still free, the labor is still cheap, and an entire industry is still optimized for the same decision.

[00:14:27]Europe ran out of wood and accidentally built houses that last for centuries.

[00:14:31]America never ran out of wood and built houses that need replacing within a single human lifetime. So, the question is this. Will the United States ever break the wood cycle? Or is the country permanently locked into building disposable homes because that is what the system was built to do. Let me know what you think. When he's all mentioned like depreciating um houses like the prices. Is that true?

[00:14:56]Like do you like say you buy a house in America that's 25 years old and it's a wooden structure.

[00:15:02]Does it depreciate in price or will it still gradually increase because of the land? Like how does that actually work?

[00:15:07]Cuz that's actually made me wonder now like how that sort of specifically works.

[00:15:13]In the USA, they play football with hands. What?

[00:15:17]In the US, they use toothpicks to build houses so they can make big nuclear tornadoes and everything.

[00:15:27]Right.

[00:15:28]Um We also have earthquakes. I prefer 5 kg chandelier falling on my head instead of a 5-ton ceiling.

[00:15:38]Um as an Asian, I was told the Westerners build things to to last.

[00:15:41]However, having observed housing in the US, I now question whether the US should be considered Western. Right.

[00:15:47]Interesting comments. I mean, look.

[00:15:48]There's pros and cons, right? Like everyone like I don't know the in-depth details, but certain regions it makes sense to have houses like that because it means more people can have housing, right? But, I do understand the concept of like it's not built to necessarily last. And then for some people that may not be how they want it. I assume if you're in like if you're from America and you've got a lot of money, you would probably choose to have a house built from brick.

[00:16:12]Like I guess wealthy people want that, right?

[00:16:14]But, I could be wrong to be fair. I don't actually know the the real sort of details behind that. But, yeah, this is an interesting look into this into this.

[00:16:21]Let me know your thoughts and what you sort of think of this. But, that's pretty much it. Until next time, subscribe.