Why don't we build more timber homes, like the US does?

Section62

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81951745#Comment_81951745

There's a big difference between the old hardwood timber framed structures and the modern brick faced house with a timber inner skin.

Absolutely… and also a huge difference between either of those and the homes (like the one in the picture the OP posted at the start of the thread) where timber is the principal external building material.

BikingBud

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81951268#Comment_81951268

Course it is mate they have NASA🤩

RelievedSheff

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81951136#Comment_81951136

There have been a few companies dabbling in prefabricated housing in the UK in recent years. Most have now shut up shop because the demand just isn't there.

Legal and General were big players but are now winding down their operations and finishing off existing developments.

https://www.lifebuiltin.co.uk/

There just isn't the market for this type of housing in the UK. People know and trust brick and block construction.

Several developers, the likes of Barratt, Countryside and Taylor Wimpey use timber framed construction but these are faced up to look like brick houses to meet peoples expectations.

BikingBud

Bear in mind the housing industry in the UK is set up to generate vast profits for those VI and not to build good housing stock. And that most people are still indoctrinated by the marketeers who consider having a granite slab kitchen island and a boiling hot tap more important than insulation and being able to produce 4.5MWh of electricity then we know where the problems are.

There just isn't the market for this type of housing in the UK. People know and trust brick and block construction.

Know and Trust? - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-68020951

Didn't expect that did they?

RelievedSheff

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81953268#Comment_81953268

That issue on that particular site has been brewing since 2023, so yes "they" did know that one was coming!!

Jemma01

Only time I want to see a timber house is for childhood dream of a treehouse...

stuart45

The quality and lifespan of a house, whether it's timber or masonry depends on the quality of the tradesmen and maintenance over the years as well as it's initial design. Houses built in the USA suffer from problems the same as over here. They work at a higher speed than over here, even since the greater use of sub-contractors

BikingBud

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81953288#Comment_81953288

Who knew?

The buyers who trusted the housebuilders? Nope otherwise they would have run away, oh sorry perhaps they succumbed to nice, shiny, new.

I would persist that the builders did not else how do they explain building so poorly?

If they knew they were a problem waiting to happen why is someone not getting a little porridge?

If the people who designed and built them were previously deemed competent they have now clearly demonstrated that they are not?

If they were not deemed competent who let the contract for the houses?

If it looks and walks like a duck…………

MysteryMe

Every developer in every country is profit motivated regardless of building materials.

RelievedSheff

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81953807#Comment_81953807

Of course they are. At the end of the day it is a business and business is there to make money.