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I visited a relative in Norway who was building a new house. He called them “Two by fours” although they were a little thicker on the two and a little shorter on the four than ours. The cross section was about the same.
Incidentally, you should have seen the foundation work!! It was made from a porous, low-density cement block that was basically dry-stacked. Mortar was used between courses, but not between adjacent blocks. Then they nailed on THICK corrugated polyethylene sheets (about 1/8 inch) with mastic sealant. The perimeter of the house had a drain tile; since they were on a hillside, the drain tile simply emptied out the low end.
Oh, yes! The granite bedrock is about 2 feet down, and they blasted out for the basement. Then the tradesman let a level string, and chipped and mortared the first course right onto the bedrock.
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If Canada, Europe, and the rest of the world is on the metric system does that mean their lumber comes in metric sizes? Do they frame with 3x7s? (centimeters that is) Does their plywood come in 1x2 meter sheets? What about all the lumber products the US exports-- are they cut to metric sizes? Just wondering???
*Can't have you loosing sleep, Mark,In Canada.....In residential, most products are identified in imperial measure but some are actually metric, such as masonry blocks. Blocks are 200mm instead of 8 inch.In commercial, most products are identified in metric measure but are supplied in standard imperial sizes. A 2x4 is identified on drwgs as 39x90Construction calculations are much easier in metric than in imperial.A concrete slab that would be 13 meters by 29 meters and .100 meters thick would calculate at 13 times 29 equals 377 times .100 equals 37.7 cubic meters of concrete.Suppliers from both sides of the borders manufacture for the market in whatever weights and size increments requested.Now go to sleep,Gabe
*What about Germany, Italy, Russia, China....Canada is not that far from the USA and it's easy to see that our feet and inches show up there.near the stream,aj
*I visited a relative in Norway who was building a new house. He called them "Two by fours" although they were a little thicker on the two and a little shorter on the four than ours. The cross section was about the same.Incidentally, you should have seen the foundation work!! It was made from a porous, low-density cement block that was basically dry-stacked. Mortar was used between courses, but not between adjacent blocks. Then they nailed on THICK corrugated polyethylene sheets (about 1/8 inch) with mastic sealant. The perimeter of the house had a drain tile; since they were on a hillside, the drain tile simply emptied out the low end.Oh, yes! The granite bedrock is about 2 feet down, and they blasted out for the basement. Then the tradesman let a level string, and chipped and mortared the first course right onto the bedrock.
*AJ...No, it isn't your feet and inches that show up here, We the people just haven't changed to completely metric, the way the govt would have us. Until all the baby boomers die off, I suspect we'll still be able to ask for a sheet of 4x8 plywood, and get one 48x96 inches. Don't even ask me what size that is in French. We get some pretty hilarious conversions here. I saw a car's mileage rated as kilometres/gallon. The govt would have us think about litres/100kilometres.( yeah, wrap your mind around that one. As the numbers go down, you're getting better kilometrage.) Don't know about the rest of the Canadians here, but I still want to know if a car gets 20mi/gal or 30 or in between. Paint comes in, I think, 4 litres cans, though I think they're smaller lately, but you still ask for a gallon of paint at the store. I still ask for 1-1/4 inch screws, or whatever size, though they may say 30mm on the box. Never checked. Most of us suspect the only reason the govt switched to metric is because that was the time of the first major gas price hike. Looked pretty bad to say gas was $1.80 a gallon. Went down better at 40cents/litre. Though if the hikes continue, don't know what they'll switch to next. Up to 70cents/litre now.
*Many of you may have read my rants about this before.Our system (half assed Imperial/Metric) here in Canada is a total fuck up.We supposedly changed to metric because our biggest trading partner, The Excited Snakes of Amerika, were going to do it.. . big con job. . .we did, you didn't. 'Course you still have the i penny system for nails so enuf said !!In Canada, sheet materials like plywood, MDF, Chipboard, OSB come in Imperial length & width but metric thickness for gawdsakes. All conversions are i "soft"therefore, not the same (always smaller). The only thickness that is the same is 19mm = 3/4". Trying to match old and new sheathing on reno's is impossible with out shimming or humps.D/wall is imperial all measurements. CMU and shingles, completely metric. Nails screws etc still Imperial, bolts always were Metric I think. Framing lumber all Imperial, but as Gabe says drawings in Metric.The paint can thing is a joke. Within 3 years we went from Imperial gallons, to Metric equivalent gallons (4.5Litres), then downsized to 4 litres, and now 3.96 L because it's the American gallon. The price per can was never reduced of course.. .usually went up!I still think in feet, inches, yards, miles, pounds, gallons and Fahrenheit. I go to the grocery store and ask for a half pound of ham, I get it. F**k em!!-pm
*And your milk comes in a plastic bag!!! How the hell did that happen??? I'd bet that 95% of US citizens couldn't make cereal for breakfast if left to their own devices. Had me stumped!!!Oh, ya gotta put the bag into the oblong plastic pitcher, then get the "milk-bag cutter" off the fridge(magnatized ya know) to open it. I thought they milked the cows right into the cartons! Jeff
*Hi Paddy,At the risk of draggin this into the tav: Don't forget the 3 measurements that really matter, a bottle of beer, a pint at the tav, and last but not least a bottle of whiskey. Again this is halfassed metric and imperial but at this point you might not mind.joe d
*Good grief Patrick, you are going to make the world think you are a Quebecer if you keep that up!
*Gosh - I think I'm going to end up with nightmares dreaming about living in Canada, looking at my tape measure, and being totally confused by all the different measuring scales on there, while some jewel of a customer rants about how many decimeters of crown got wasted!Stupid question... What's "Imperial"?
*How do you Canadians refer to a homes (square feet)? For example do you say you'll build this 300 square meter house for $300,000? Doesn't sound like you get much for your money!
*It isn't that simple, though; my understanding is any federal projects in the US have to be drawn and specced in metric. And certain trades everywhere use metric, like frameless cabinetmakers (even the American ones). What pisses me off is that you have to be really careful with materials; you can order 1/4 " MDF, and one time it's 1/4", next time it's 7.5 mm or something, some times it's 49 x 97", sometimes it's a metric soft conversion, usually down, and all your cutlists are screwed.Anybody remember the episode of the Larroquette show where he got hold of the 'official' American inch (a little block of aluminum or something, c/w official American inch bodyguard official)? Dinged a corner of it, started whacking it with a hammer to straighten 'er back up again. Funny.
*Der Boglander: Missed your therapy again didn't you... and Guido billed anyway didn't he? Let it all out PM... let it all out.Those of us not totally whacked out in the late '60s got fed all the same "One World, One Measure" crap you did... we just weren't stoned enough to believe whatever France did made a rats ass difference to the rest of the world."France speaks French, it's the "universal language"... France uses the Metric System... it's the "universal measuring system"... the UN says so." Yawn... even to a 12 year old... I wondered:"If the French are so damn good at this... why don't we see more Citroens on the road, and less on the tow-truck?"I learned metric... not because the school and Gov't said so... but rather, my neighborhood fleet of wanna-be VWs needed it. I also learned about that left-front king-pin, but... that's another story.
*The old, official measuring standard of the British Empire. Closest we have to it, was referenced with great awe by PM... "Pennyweight" nail measurement. From back when England's Ships were made of wood, Men of Iron, and a King was a King... and not a Queen*. *Now: to the less astute... that's not a gender reference.
*the only two times i've ever gone metric was military... (nato.. sure made artillery computations easier)....and ""Baltic Birch"" when we were making some shelves with exposed edges..the great metrification kinda fizzled out...been weighing the pros & cons... and was just about convinced that metric was superior.. now i'm not..the internet will do more for world standards than the UN or Euro ever could have imagined .. and english is the language of the internet...which way is daimler / chrysler going to go ?that will be a tip-off...
*Australia is all metric. We use millimetres and metres...no centimetres.All timber, ply, sheet goods and hardware are metric...except for, ( and this one doesn't make sense ) bolts which are still in Imperial.
*If you retro-grouches had your way, we'd probably still be back with pecks, rods, gills, rods, chains, and furlongs (actually, I guess we still have furlongs - I just don't spend that much time at the track to know how long it is, however.) It ain't just the French, it is just about everyone except the US, Liberia, and Mynamar - not exactly dandy company. For all those who really want to dig into this try:http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/ or the government website at:http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/
*I'd fathom*, you haven't seen a peck* of (local to you) Washington State Apples? Perhaps we're in a league* of our own. * more units of measure.
*Nope... whole thing changed while you were roaming the States... The Land of Oz saw the error of their ways... now the bolts are metric (take your pick Mate, 12mm or 13mm, no 1/2 inch) but the beer's back in Pints, Rum in Quarts, Wine in Half-Gallons.Nevermind Petrol... you don't wanna know.
*In Japan they refer to floor space in "Tatami Matts", as in, "Dude, how big is your apartment?", "It is seven Tatami matts!".A Tatami matt is that woven matt that you see Kung Fu masters jumping around on. They 'carpet' the floor with them and make a handy unit of measure for floor space. They are each about the size of a child's matress, though (pretty small).In the auto industry everything is OFFICIALLY done in Metric, but all of the tool shops work in inches around Detroit. Those of us who have lived with this have little trouble switching back and forth throughout a technical conversation but it really messes up foriegn visitors.For engineering, the metric system rules. But for home construction I'd be amazed if it ever changed (probably if it did we'd get the same kind of rip off that Patrick M refers to, above, that happened in Canada with Pails of paint).
*Interestingly, the metric conversion of booze bottles is probably the only thing that actually worked in our favour. The former 12oz bottle o' beer became 341ml, and the 26oz bottle of booze became a shocking 750ml (exact conversion is 738.66ml). Wine bottles here always followed the European sizes because it traditionally came from there... 750ml and 1L. Don't know what you've got in the US, part gallons???? Of course your gallon is weenie compared to ours as well, as is all your fluid measurement. Must be more of that Colonial bullshit you hang onto like the 16d nails!!!The Imperial system must have changed at some point where weight and fluid measure are concerned (we used to refer to the Yank Ton as the short Ton because ours is 2200lbs or 1000Kg) and of course you Yank Luddites held onto the i old just so you could claim a difference.Speakin of Luddites I ain't one, or I wouldn't be here playin on a computer on the "net". It's just that certain things i talk to youbecause of the way you were brought up, and Imperial measure and Fahrenheit temp do that for me and many others here in Canada. I can picture an inch, foot or yard etc. Tell me the dimensuions of a cabinet or a room or a house in feet and inches and I can see it in my mind. Give me the same in metric and I won't know whether we're talkin matchbox or skyscrapper.It doesn't matter that it might be more efficient. .. I can't argue that, but it ain't i evergonna talk to me!! And the half assed system we've got here isn't doing anyone any good.-pm