zlacker

>>hrl+(OP)
This should be an economics piece, not an environmental piece. The author states that "one of iron’s unalterable properties is that it rusts" yet further on acknowledges the existence of stainless steel.

There's nothing wrong with reinforced concrete, but the incentives to produce long lasting buildings are not there. The cheapest bidder will generally win and their building will last the "design life" of the building, but often not much more. The simplest way to change this is to extend the design life, which would result in stainless steels or another more expensive material being used in this application.

>>brutus+J5
How can I know if a building was designed to last a long time? Is it the materials, the method of construction?

>>matheu+J8
One way is to see how the building protects itself from water. Water is the great destroyer of buildings.

A flat roof, for example, is very prone to leaking, which when not constantly taken care of will wreck the building. Another is if the roof keeps water off of the walls (how big the overhang is). Many buildings have eaves that are an inch or two. The exterior walls of these buildings won't last.

Any building on a flat area near a river is going to flood. Any building without proper drainage around it is going to rot away.

Wood shingles need constant maintenance or goodbye to the building.

>>Walter+8k
> Many buildings have eaves that are an inch or two. The exterior walls of these buildings won't last.

Unless you’re talking about a very old house, this depends a lot on the local climate, construction materials, and design.

You can pretty successfully mitigate water entry with a dimple membrane and a gutter on an exposed wall, for example, and obviously this is a minimal concern if your house is in a desert.

(I’m not a trained architect, just someone interested in building science.)

>>cultur+Er
I live in Rain City (Seattle). Quite a lot of homes are built with ridiculously tiny eaves. I'd never buy one of those.

My house has eaves that stick out about 2 feet. It added nothing significant to the cost, but boy what a difference it makes. The exterior walls almost never get wet. The windows and their frames stay dry and free of rot. No mildew. Haven't even needed to repaint.

There are a lot of things one can do with a house that, at trivial expense, will dramatically improve its life and lower maintenance costs.

Here's another one. Run the plumbing up interior walls. Then it won't freeze.

>>Walter+2t
There's nothing wrong with having long eaves if that's your preference; I'm just pointing out that there are a lot of factors that go in to building a long-lasting structure, and the answer to most questions around best practices is "it depends."

If you have a two-storey house in a wet area that gets a lot of storm activity coming from the northeast, for example, and you have an exposed northeast-facing wall, the eaves aren't going to do much to shield that wall from driving rain. You'd have to make sure it's dealt with in other ways.

> Here's another one. Run the plumbing up interior walls. Then it won't freeze.

Same with this - it might be good advice in Seattle, but if I told a local builder to worry about frost mitigation where I live now (Singapore) they'd probably question my sanity.

>>cultur+Ju
> it might be good advice in Seattle

Jeez, of course one pays attention to the local climate. I don't worry about tornadoes in Seattle, but would if in the midwest.