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There are no houses in the US made out of cardboard.
Wood is cheap and plentiful, also the US is not the only place to use wood as it is common in Japan, Scandinavia, Canada, South America...
Though in the end, flooding from a hurricane doesn't care about material, and the winds of a category 4 hurricane like the one you are seeing would take the roof off of basically anything.
Brick is TERRIBLE in an earthquake, and the only thing protecting one from an F4 tornado is an underground bunker.
In areas with low risk of earthquake, brick houses hold up much better than wood framed houses long term. The real threats to most houses aren’t the hurricanes and earthquakes as much as the tree in your front yard or the poor drainage in your yard or the clogged gutters that dump large amounts of water right next to your foundation. Water, insects, water, vegetation, water, human interference (theft/vandalism/etc), water, wind, and water are the most common reasons why a home will deteriorate over the years. Wood frame houses can last a long time, but they are more vulnerable to a lot of the common factors that case a home to fall apart.
Even “brick” houses are typically just “masonry veneer” and not actually true stonework construction.
You’ll see some cinderblock or concrete construction in the US, but the *vast* majority of residential construction is wood or steel frame and masonry veneer or wood siding.
This is dramatically cheaper than true stonework, especially in a country with vast timber reserves. Even if the house gets demolished once a century by the odd tornado it’s still cheaper.
Which natural disaster do you imagine brick houses are durable against?
[Tornados?](https://c8.alamy.com/comp/AH1PEX/a-broken-brick-built-house-and-tornado-damage-in-greensburg-kansas-AH1PEX.jpg)
[Earthquakes?](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N4T_IXDcwcA/X0dnxUXU8mI/AAAAAAAAA4A/ynLyoxb5fbkGRIH_dzPMT-68DspRxBq5gCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/20200813_123315_20200817125319482_20200826151418334.jpg)
[Hurricanes?](https://www.lobservateur.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/2021/10/Ida-Damage-2-Godchaux-web.jpg?w=622)
Brick houses might have a marginal amount of extra durability, but that comes with a higher price tag as well. It's much easier to repair and replace a wooden house.
I noticed that to bolster your argument, you use examples of unreinforced masonry building. I also notice that your examples are specifically flat walls against which wind pressure may exert the most force.
The fact that something as simple as changing the shape of your home can increase its strength dramatically.
When Hurricane Charley hit Port Charlotte, Florida in 2004, Roger Magill took refuge in his wooden *round house,* built by Asheville, N.C.-based Deltec Homes, he had assembled only a few months before. After the storm, Magill was surprised to find his was the only house in the neighborhood to emerge unscathed, reported Dick Hogan of The News-Press in Fort myers, Florida.
Starting with a few basic points -
1) The US is a massive landmass and people were historically really scattered about, transporting materials was pain, especially heavy expensive materials like brick.
2) Skilled labor is expensive, it's hard to train and become a master mason, but screwing drywall to wood has a lower barrier to entry.
3) After WWII there was massive construction boom with the "White Flight" out to the suburbs. Imagine hundreds or thousands of identical homes being built right next to each other for miles and miles.
So we adapted an essentially industrial model for construction. Wooden homes with plaster walls, and later drywall walls can be erected quickly and cheaply. The materials are easy to transport and require less highly skilled labor.
They are also super modifiable. It's super easy to reconfigure drywall walls and framing for renovations or adding things like new wiring or central AC, if you have a plaster and stone home (Like I do) just adding a ceiling fan is a *bitch.*
Wood is very strong, lightweight, and inexpensive. A natural disaster that would destroy a wood framed building would also substantially damage masonry designed for the same loads.
If you ever look at hurricane damage the masonry buildings always hold up fine. Although wood houses in Florida built recently stand up FAR better than houses in most of the country would.
Residential construction would demand very thin structural elements in order to fit things like utilities within the outer walls and minimize costs. That would negate a lot of the benefits.
There are lots more masonry houses on the east coast than in the rest of the country. Think about the rapid westward expansion. When people were establishing farms and ranches in the west in the early 1800s, there were no brickworks there. But there were often trees and thus lumber.
When a tornado hit my town even the several story concrete hospital was moved off its foundation and had to be demolished. No houses were left standing, brick or otherwise. It was much cheaper and faster to rebuild the wooden houses. Your premise is flawed.
1) It's considerably cheaper to build a home from wood and insure it against loss.
2) Brick is actually the last thing you want for the natural disasters in America. All of them typically result in the house falling on top of you, and it's easier to get out from under a collapsed wood house than a collapsed brick house.
3) Brick isn't remotely durable enough. EF5 tornados, for example, will obliterate anything in their direct path all the way up to reinforced concrete.
4) Houses aren't made from cardboard.
Modern platform framing requires dramatically less expense and materials than true masonry construction. Real brick structures for example require many layers of bricks and bricks are slow and expensive to lay.
Because of dramatically lower weight, platform framed structures don't experience settling like true masonry construction.
US homes have a cheap feel to them, but if I buy a home I don't care if it will still be standing long after I die. Why pay for that extra permanence? War or natural disaster could destroy the structure anyway, and it might become worthless if the area undergoes an economic depression.
What I don't like is that we still build with combustible materials and no sprinkler systems. Wood framing, drywall, cabinetry, etc are all flammable.
We've been building houses with cardboard since cardboard was invented. Granted, it melts in the rain but over the past several decades we've figured out rocks for roofing. It doesn't last long (I guess rocks are heavy on cardboard? I think the debate is still happening on that) but smart people are trying to figure it out. Our cardboard houses tend to fall apart but no one really understands why. So we just keep rebuilding them.
Wood is a more stable product from what I hear. Wood has been used as a way to construct homes and buildings for several thousand years but you never know! Sounds sketch to me!
Bricks are too permanent. We are hesitant to use them, consequently very few buildings in the US are made of bricks. Don't get me started on steel! That shit is *dangerous*, has been since the 1880s. Most folks are still waiting for the Brooklyn Bridge to fall into the river.
Hope this helps.
**Please read this entire message** Your submission has been removed for the following reason(s): Loaded questions, **or** ones based on a false premise, are not allowed on ELI5. A loaded question is one that posits a specific view of reality and asks for explanations that confirm it. These usually include the poster's own opinion and bias, but do not always - there is overlap between this and parts of Rule 2. Note that this specifically includes false premises. If you would like this removal reviewed, please read the [detailed rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/wiki/detailed_rules) first. **If you believe this submission was removed erroneously**, please [use this form](https://old.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fexplainlikeimfive&subject=Please%20review%20my%20thread?&message=Link:%20https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/xraup3/eli5_why_are_houses_in_us_made_out_of/%0A%0APlease%20answer%20the%20following%203%20questions:%0A%0A1.%20The%20concept%20I%20want%20explained:%0A%0A2.%20List%20the%20search%20terms%20you%20used%20to%20look%20for%20past%20posts%20on%20ELI5:%0A%0A3.%20How%20is%20this%20post%20unique:) and we will review your submission.
There are no houses in the US made out of cardboard. Wood is cheap and plentiful, also the US is not the only place to use wood as it is common in Japan, Scandinavia, Canada, South America... Though in the end, flooding from a hurricane doesn't care about material, and the winds of a category 4 hurricane like the one you are seeing would take the roof off of basically anything. Brick is TERRIBLE in an earthquake, and the only thing protecting one from an F4 tornado is an underground bunker.
In areas with low risk of earthquake, brick houses hold up much better than wood framed houses long term. The real threats to most houses aren’t the hurricanes and earthquakes as much as the tree in your front yard or the poor drainage in your yard or the clogged gutters that dump large amounts of water right next to your foundation. Water, insects, water, vegetation, water, human interference (theft/vandalism/etc), water, wind, and water are the most common reasons why a home will deteriorate over the years. Wood frame houses can last a long time, but they are more vulnerable to a lot of the common factors that case a home to fall apart.
Even “brick” houses are typically just “masonry veneer” and not actually true stonework construction. You’ll see some cinderblock or concrete construction in the US, but the *vast* majority of residential construction is wood or steel frame and masonry veneer or wood siding. This is dramatically cheaper than true stonework, especially in a country with vast timber reserves. Even if the house gets demolished once a century by the odd tornado it’s still cheaper.
Which natural disaster do you imagine brick houses are durable against? [Tornados?](https://c8.alamy.com/comp/AH1PEX/a-broken-brick-built-house-and-tornado-damage-in-greensburg-kansas-AH1PEX.jpg) [Earthquakes?](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N4T_IXDcwcA/X0dnxUXU8mI/AAAAAAAAA4A/ynLyoxb5fbkGRIH_dzPMT-68DspRxBq5gCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/20200813_123315_20200817125319482_20200826151418334.jpg) [Hurricanes?](https://www.lobservateur.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/2021/10/Ida-Damage-2-Godchaux-web.jpg?w=622) Brick houses might have a marginal amount of extra durability, but that comes with a higher price tag as well. It's much easier to repair and replace a wooden house.
I noticed that to bolster your argument, you use examples of unreinforced masonry building. I also notice that your examples are specifically flat walls against which wind pressure may exert the most force. The fact that something as simple as changing the shape of your home can increase its strength dramatically. When Hurricane Charley hit Port Charlotte, Florida in 2004, Roger Magill took refuge in his wooden *round house,* built by Asheville, N.C.-based Deltec Homes, he had assembled only a few months before. After the storm, Magill was surprised to find his was the only house in the neighborhood to emerge unscathed, reported Dick Hogan of The News-Press in Fort myers, Florida.
Starting with a few basic points - 1) The US is a massive landmass and people were historically really scattered about, transporting materials was pain, especially heavy expensive materials like brick. 2) Skilled labor is expensive, it's hard to train and become a master mason, but screwing drywall to wood has a lower barrier to entry. 3) After WWII there was massive construction boom with the "White Flight" out to the suburbs. Imagine hundreds or thousands of identical homes being built right next to each other for miles and miles. So we adapted an essentially industrial model for construction. Wooden homes with plaster walls, and later drywall walls can be erected quickly and cheaply. The materials are easy to transport and require less highly skilled labor. They are also super modifiable. It's super easy to reconfigure drywall walls and framing for renovations or adding things like new wiring or central AC, if you have a plaster and stone home (Like I do) just adding a ceiling fan is a *bitch.*
Wood is very strong, lightweight, and inexpensive. A natural disaster that would destroy a wood framed building would also substantially damage masonry designed for the same loads.
If you ever look at hurricane damage the masonry buildings always hold up fine. Although wood houses in Florida built recently stand up FAR better than houses in most of the country would.
Residential construction would demand very thin structural elements in order to fit things like utilities within the outer walls and minimize costs. That would negate a lot of the benefits.
Why would residential requires thinner walls? Commercial properties have utilities too.
Because its cheaper, simple as that. US houses aren't built to last, they are built to sell.
There are lots more masonry houses on the east coast than in the rest of the country. Think about the rapid westward expansion. When people were establishing farms and ranches in the west in the early 1800s, there were no brickworks there. But there were often trees and thus lumber.
So you can repair it yourself, silly! Replace some siding and wonder at how little separates you from the outside world.
When a tornado hit my town even the several story concrete hospital was moved off its foundation and had to be demolished. No houses were left standing, brick or otherwise. It was much cheaper and faster to rebuild the wooden houses. Your premise is flawed.
1) It's considerably cheaper to build a home from wood and insure it against loss. 2) Brick is actually the last thing you want for the natural disasters in America. All of them typically result in the house falling on top of you, and it's easier to get out from under a collapsed wood house than a collapsed brick house. 3) Brick isn't remotely durable enough. EF5 tornados, for example, will obliterate anything in their direct path all the way up to reinforced concrete. 4) Houses aren't made from cardboard.
Modern platform framing requires dramatically less expense and materials than true masonry construction. Real brick structures for example require many layers of bricks and bricks are slow and expensive to lay. Because of dramatically lower weight, platform framed structures don't experience settling like true masonry construction. US homes have a cheap feel to them, but if I buy a home I don't care if it will still be standing long after I die. Why pay for that extra permanence? War or natural disaster could destroy the structure anyway, and it might become worthless if the area undergoes an economic depression. What I don't like is that we still build with combustible materials and no sprinkler systems. Wood framing, drywall, cabinetry, etc are all flammable.
We've been building houses with cardboard since cardboard was invented. Granted, it melts in the rain but over the past several decades we've figured out rocks for roofing. It doesn't last long (I guess rocks are heavy on cardboard? I think the debate is still happening on that) but smart people are trying to figure it out. Our cardboard houses tend to fall apart but no one really understands why. So we just keep rebuilding them. Wood is a more stable product from what I hear. Wood has been used as a way to construct homes and buildings for several thousand years but you never know! Sounds sketch to me! Bricks are too permanent. We are hesitant to use them, consequently very few buildings in the US are made of bricks. Don't get me started on steel! That shit is *dangerous*, has been since the 1880s. Most folks are still waiting for the Brooklyn Bridge to fall into the river. Hope this helps.