> two walls of bricks separated by a cavity
What is "cavity"? In US brickwork, it may be less than an inch, just to break water seepage. As you see in other replies, we put 3" to 5" of fiberglass in our flimsy walls. Thermal mass does not compete with brick, but my right-size furnace must churn many hours to re-heat the plasterboard if I let the house cool.
> why you guys want to live in flimsy wooden boxes.
Wood is very cheap in the US, and even cheaper in Canada, who gladly ships it to the US. You who logged-out centuries ago can not imagine our wood abundance.
The US is a b-i-g place. Shipping bricks long distances is costly. Shipping boards and studs is much cheaper. (Though "board" is all flake-panel now.) Relatively small crews can erect a balloon frame quickly, brick is hard work.
We do not pretend a house is "forever", because our lives change frequently and so do our neighborhoods. Build for a century, and 60 years later the developers bulldoze the small houses and erect tall apartments or office buildings. (My parents' little shack was built just right: a few structural repairs just before it was knocked-in for a mini-mall for all the city-folks moving into the the suburbs.)
And while I don't expect _this_ woods-house to be over-run by expanding Maine population in 2030, it is wood because this plot is 5 acres of spruce/pine begging to be cut-out, and the owner felled and sawed his lumber on-site. This "flimsy wooden box" has withstood yearly winds and snows you hardly ever see on your green island. Three of Glen's sons raised here, and the only permanent mark is a height-chart on an upstairs wall. (Oh, and small toys found in cracks in renovations.) Still on my 1980 roof and siding, with life left in it.
What is "cavity"? In US brickwork, it may be less than an inch, just to break water seepage. As you see in other replies, we put 3" to 5" of fiberglass in our flimsy walls. Thermal mass does not compete with brick, but my right-size furnace must churn many hours to re-heat the plasterboard if I let the house cool.
> why you guys want to live in flimsy wooden boxes.
Wood is very cheap in the US, and even cheaper in Canada, who gladly ships it to the US. You who logged-out centuries ago can not imagine our wood abundance.
The US is a b-i-g place. Shipping bricks long distances is costly. Shipping boards and studs is much cheaper. (Though "board" is all flake-panel now.) Relatively small crews can erect a balloon frame quickly, brick is hard work.
We do not pretend a house is "forever", because our lives change frequently and so do our neighborhoods. Build for a century, and 60 years later the developers bulldoze the small houses and erect tall apartments or office buildings. (My parents' little shack was built just right: a few structural repairs just before it was knocked-in for a mini-mall for all the city-folks moving into the the suburbs.)
And while I don't expect _this_ woods-house to be over-run by expanding Maine population in 2030, it is wood because this plot is 5 acres of spruce/pine begging to be cut-out, and the owner felled and sawed his lumber on-site. This "flimsy wooden box" has withstood yearly winds and snows you hardly ever see on your green island. Three of Glen's sons raised here, and the only permanent mark is a height-chart on an upstairs wall. (Oh, and small toys found in cracks in renovations.) Still on my 1980 roof and siding, with life left in it.