Was in washington dc area this past week and went into a couple of homes under construction with a friend who is a builder
I am sure that there are many other differences but I was surprised that some of the projects used “truss” floor joists instead of I-Joists ( he says they are a lot stronger)
out in my area, only see those on comercial projects
and stair stringers were made of 5/4 solid material, we use 2x minimum
then it looked like the roof trusses were made of pine, ours are doug fir
a lot of aluminum siding,or brick, rarely see that here
and one neghbor hood was completely going up with panelized homes
another surprise is how strong the unions are out there, or so said a homeowner I met.
talking with a perso who was having a home built, he wanted to run his own cat-5 cables and sound proof the bathrooms. He was told by the builders that he cant, it was not a code issue, but a union issue, and that no one can go into a house under construction and do anything, owner or not, if it is being done by a general contractor and there is a union for that particular task
of course there could be other reasons the builder did not want the owner doing any of that, and I can see maybe not letting him run his own cat-5, but the soundproofing bathroom part surprised me.
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Makes one wonder what those homes will look like in 20 years.
Makes one wonder what those homes will look like in 20 years.
Oh, they'll look about the same cept for a few squeeks, a couple of coats of paint and the price increase...lol