patrick.net

The guy doesn' t know how old his own house is or what he is talking about. There haven't been balloon built houses since the 20's at the latest, or houses with rough cut lumber. or houses with stone foundations. No contractor, even in Maine used those techniques in the 50's. Not only that, but the balloon built he is praising isn't a particulary strong or good construction technique. Its primary virtue was saving on labor and cutting. Rough cut lumber increases fire hazard and is very hard to use with sheet rock unless you really like wavy walls. It only worked well with plaster. Having a rock wall foundation is weaker than rebar concrete or even cinderblock with rebar. Plywood sheathing (I don't use chipboard) with ring nails is much much stronger than rough cut boards with cut nails. Crappy cut nails are the primary reason a lot of old houses end up as parallelograms. Carpenters, even me, don't have any trouble at all working with non dimensioned lumber, it's not rocket science to put a plywood shim on a piece of dimensioned lumber to make it match.

There is definately a lot of just meeting code construction going on. That's not necessarily poorly built, but is not great either. But I've worked on plenty of old houses (when there was no building code or inspectors) that have totally sucked. I've done 6 total remodels on old houses plus helped friends a lot. The reason old houses that survive are well built is the bad ones have long since fallen down Inadequate sagging joists and rafters, no insulation, 60 fuse amp service, inadequate roof pitch, unsupported rafters forcing the sides of the house out, brick foundation walls sitting on dirt, poorly framed openings with little or no headers, wind blowing through the windows, the list goes on.

If I were having a house built today the only thing I would insist on is plywood sheathing and having minimal corners. The modern trend for lots of shapes is just asking for trouble. As they say in the construction business corners cost money. As a bonus each one is a potential leak. A traditional 2 story rectangle with a straight gable roof is the best design for cost, living space, and longevity.

As long as you keep water out any house will last pretty much forever. Barring tornadoes, earthquakes, or hurricanes.