As for residential construction there are all kinds of reasons for quality dropping. Some of it is just rich people taking a written exam and learning the book side of the trades without really understanding how to put it into practice. But a lot of it also has to do with inflation. The cost to build a house has went up significantly more than the wages homeowners are making and saving. So they tend to skim out on quality. Part of it is the massive amount of stick framing popping up in cookie cutter HOA driven subdivisions where everything has to look the same. It’s small properties. Land 10 feet bigger than the houses. So kids don’t grow up thinking of a house as a home to be passed down generation to generation and so it does not need to last a while. Their kids wont be living there once they are adults and the property is not big enough to have multiple houses on it.
The other issue is that greed is really damaging the trade. Instead of having a nice 24x24-32x32 house with 10 foot ceilings, more and more are going with stuff like 60x48 with 14 foot ceilings. Or if they are smaller homes it’s the amount of them being compacted into land. Wilderness is constantly being cut down. So there are no old growth 50 year old well limbed lumber anymore. It’s 20 year old lumber. Really good lumber comes from the rainforest being cut down and not replaced to make more livestock feed farms.
It’s the issue that for a while construction in many places of the world begin to pay less wages unless you were a boss. Instead of w-2 employees, they tried to cheat the tax system by calling everyone 1099. So now you have 20 year olds making $20 on a 1099 who have to pay back 35% into taxes and can’t do they don’t. That led to more and more taking other forms of work and now there is a major gap in the labor force. There are not enough 20 years older that will stick with it for 10+ years to replace the 50 and 60 year olds. Many who are now dying from cancer because to make profit harsher and harsher chemicals and no OSHA laws for things like gloves and dust masks.
Also construction is more and more leaning towards technology to automate the process. Many are even, and I think it’s a good thing, more from stick building with brick as a siding option to actual concrete and steel homes.
In a few years I’m going to build my own small three story 24x24 concrete and steel home. The first floor is just the garage and storage. The second floor will be kitchen/living room and 2 small bedrooms and a bathroom and 1/2 bath. The top floor will be 16x24 and just master bed and bath. Since it’s concrete and steel, I can weatherproof the roofs to turn them into private patio and gardens. But I may go with a 40x40 two story with the bottom floor larger kitchen/living space and 2-3 smaller rooms and baths. The top floor would still be around 20x24 and the remaining roof of the first floor would be a larger private patio and garden with native plants as would the top of the second floor. A wildflower garden to help replace the habitat lost at the ground level.
The other issue is that greed is really damaging the trade. Instead of having a nice 24x24-32x32 house with 10 foot ceilings, more and more are going with stuff like 60x48 with 14 foot ceilings. Or if they are smaller homes it’s the amount of them being compacted into land. Wilderness is constantly being cut down. So there are no old growth 50 year old well limbed lumber anymore. It’s 20 year old lumber. Really good lumber comes from the rainforest being cut down and not replaced to make more livestock feed farms.
It’s the issue that for a while construction in many places of the world begin to pay less wages unless you were a boss. Instead of w-2 employees, they tried to cheat the tax system by calling everyone 1099. So now you have 20 year olds making $20 on a 1099 who have to pay back 35% into taxes and can’t do they don’t. That led to more and more taking other forms of work and now there is a major gap in the labor force. There are not enough 20 years older that will stick with it for 10+ years to replace the 50 and 60 year olds. Many who are now dying from cancer because to make profit harsher and harsher chemicals and no OSHA laws for things like gloves and dust masks.
Also construction is more and more leaning towards technology to automate the process. Many are even, and I think it’s a good thing, more from stick building with brick as a siding option to actual concrete and steel homes.
In a few years I’m going to build my own small three story 24x24 concrete and steel home. The first floor is just the garage and storage. The second floor will be kitchen/living room and 2 small bedrooms and a bathroom and 1/2 bath. The top floor will be 16x24 and just master bed and bath. Since it’s concrete and steel, I can weatherproof the roofs to turn them into private patio and gardens. But I may go with a 40x40 two story with the bottom floor larger kitchen/living space and 2-3 smaller rooms and baths. The top floor would still be around 20x24 and the remaining roof of the first floor would be a larger private patio and garden with native plants as would the top of the second floor. A wildflower garden to help replace the habitat lost at the ground level.
even in a link .
