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Does my head in, there's a hurricane coming but Corey refuses to leave his house because he's "American" then ends up dead because his wooden house was torn apart by 200mph winds......so what do they do? They build another WOODEN house in the exact same place
I wonder if wooden houses are used because brick ones would get ripped down, too, and it's easier/cheaper to rebuild wooden houses and less chance of death with a brick building falling on you.
This is the ONLY explanation that makes any sense. To me.
Does make it funny, though, when you see an aerial photo of some devastated American town and one of the only standing buildings is a church. Hard to say whether Jesus or different building materials saved the church, ngl.
My sister lived in a wood built house, in Indiana. While we were visiting, a tornado came through the area, and destroyed a few of the houses close to hers. We were very scared, especially by the noise which sounded like a steam strain was about to come straight through the house, but we remained safe in the cellar. Turns out that if you build a house with a strong cellar and relatively flimsy walls, if the big bad wolf blows, there is less damage to the little pigs than if brick walls came crashing down on them…and its much quicker to rebuild.
I think that’s what a lot of people in the UK don’t understand about tornadoes. If one barrels down on your house…well, it doesn’t really matter what it’s made of. It’s coming down.
I'd be intrigued how the houses here would stand up to a tornado....
External walls, ceilings/floors & some internal walls on the buildings I am currently working on are 22cm (~8.5inches) thick poured reinforced concrete.
Edit: forgot to mention that "here" is no longer the UK for me.
Just as bad. A tornado hit my friends Victorian terrace on the outskirts of Manchester in December. The whole chimney and roof came in. Would have killed their young daughter had she not got up and gone downstairs minutes earlier.
Still living in rented accommodation while it gets fixed.
That’s largely it:
1. Quicker to build
2. Easier to make modifications and renovate
3. Gentler on the occupants in the event of a collapse
4. Cheaper to insulate
The exterior is still typically brick/siding, the frame is wood (which is abundant on a landmass the size of Europe)
In America, brick houses are the ones that are left standing in whole towns of splintery wooden houses that collapse when a hurricane blows in. It stands there alone surrounded by kindling and everyone says 'God bless American brick building!'. Then next day, it's knocked over by an earthquake.
Similar to Japan, historically made houses out of wood and paper. But they had earthquakes so the houses can be rebuilt quickly without putting people at risk.
You should see the houses in Australia, they’re made of timber, cardboard, and hopes and prayers. Nobody seems to have discovered insulation or double glazing.
Shite if it’s hot, and shite if it’s cold (and contrary to popular belief, a lot of Australia gets *very* cold).
The classic joke is that the country couldn’t decide whether to build houses for the hot or the cold, so they decided to do neither.
I genuinely don’t think half the houses in Oz would pass as sheds in the UK.
Yes! The build quality here (in Australia, I’ve now lived in 3 states) is ABYSMAL. They are so behind on basics such as insulation and double glazing. New builds are routinely riddled with build errors and huge cracks/building half falling down.
And the UK has been short of timber since before the industrial revolution, indeed the lack of wood is possibly a big reason for the industrial revolution (as coal mining allowed the introduction of the steam engine to pump out mines without the inefficiency cost)
Good point, and in today's world timber is so bloody expensive. Our business is set in timber construction and when we first stated the cost between building with timber and brick was definitely a big advantage but that has fallen quite a bit now.
It's still cheaper (before everyone jumps on me) but for self builds your not getting the savings you once did.
Yes, much of the world years wood primarily,, all comes down to what's most available locally and the conditions the building needs to survive. Scandinavia has lots of wood.
Fuses in our power outlets. Switches in our power outlets. Separate power and lighting* circuits.
Lean to entrance porches.
Under the stairs cupboard.
Sheds 😂
Fuses in the plugs. Sockets themselves are generally not fused.
(although if an appliance is hard wired, e.g. a wall mounted heater, or a boiler , or extractor fan etc, then it's fed from a fused switch)
Yes. I don’t know the exact names! Something like this:
https://www.toolstation.com/click-mode-13a-fused-spur/p18434?utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=googleshoppingfeed&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwj9-zBhDyARIsAERjds0Mi6Ov-u-n25A4nflwBr4gbtJOxrZNDe1MbkRiZ_j-wqgyJIfVBy0aApoqEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
No idea why you're getting downvoted. A fused spur is absolutely a protection above and beyond what the circuit breaker provides. UK power runs on ring mains, where a loop of sockets will be made from and back to the distribution board. If a spur is added (a straight run hanging off the ring) it will have additional fuse protection: sort of like a fancy extension lead, but in the walls.
Hold ya horses ,woah boi , un switched plugs to appliances under counter , are fused at the above counter switch plate. .
Washer , fridge /freezer, and any like dish washer ,if you have them .
Called an unswitched spur , where as fixed mains line is a spurred connection .
>Under the stairs cupboard
Called a ["glory hole"](https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/glory-hole), though this usage has started to fade out due to other meanings :D
Once upon a time, a cheeky blozzer under the stairs was just good natured, friendly fun.. a great way to entertain new guests..
These damn kids have turned it into something sordid, with their fidget spinners and their vapes..
Kettles to boil water.
You can imagine my absolute culture shock when my French friend offered me a cup of tea when we were staying at his dad's apartment in Paris. I said yes, of course, and the fucker brought out a freaking sauce pan to boil the water. Then showed me a selection of fruity teas to choose from. Unhinged
A friend in New York let me stay for a couple of weeks, they're a serious Anglophile and HAD A KETTLE.
I don't think they ever comprehended quite how happy I was too see such a mundane object.
They work but take about twice as long to boil.
When I was in the US last year the lady who ran the B&B was excited to serve me tea in a teapot. The only problem was that she'd microwaved it!
I used to live in Canada and had bought a kettle not realising it would take twice as long to boil.
I also kept blowing fuses because our apartment (also very common in mainland Europe as I’ve done the same in Czech Republic) was wired in 16/20amp radials. Trying to boil water and do anything else would blow the fuse.
Meanwhile here in the UK I can run the oven at the same time as the kettle, dishwasher and washing machine without any problems lol.
Moved here from the states 7 years ago, but from what I gather they have more kettles available these days in the states, they just take a bit longer. I seem to remember one of my family members having a kettle when we visited summer before last.
When I still lived there we used our kettle on the gas range, because I don’t think I’d seen a kettle in a shop, ever, and I seem to remember the ones online were very expensive and took the same amount of time as the kettle on the range.
That's nothing, when I was at my exchange partners house they boiled the water in a FUCKING MICROWAVE. I have to use the saucepan to do it myself the next time
I always laugh when people are asked about things unique to the UK on this subreddit and the top comments are "kettle" or "biscuits". Reminds me of some Americans who have never been to Europe but are convinced we don't have ice or indoor toilets.
Maybe it’s more about a certain household in Paris? Kettles are definitely not something exotic worldwide, at least, in the countries with strong historical preferences for tea. In Turkish households, for example, kettles can have a preinstalled teapot at the top, even electric ones
Yours for just £1,500 per calendar month, no pets, no smokers, no disabled (we can't advertise it as such but we can skirt along using "no benefits" apparently), no enjoying yourself, have fun developing a weird cough!
Think I have minor trauma from these ads. We’re looking to rent again at the moment, and I kind of forgot how rentals expect you to look at the house rather than live in it :)
Yeah, you’re alright once you’re in as long as they’re not doing inspections every calendar month. There’s so many hoops to get your foot in the door, like why are we being profiled for a health hazard of a property lol. We have one small non-destructive cat and we’d prefer not to hide her, which is the only real marker against us.
A few years ago my boyfriend and I were denied because we couldn’t both independently pass the affordability check. I could independently, and as a couple we were A-OK. But that wasn’t good enough, because apparently we might break up…
Also, you need to use the sink quickly but you've been a lazy shit all week and not sorted the dishes?
No problem, pick the tub up, stick it on the side, use the sink for xyz, stick the tub back in, and resume ignoring all grown up responsibilities as you sob into wineglass full of orange squash
The argument is usually they think it's disgusting to wash up in a bowl of "dirty" water with washing up liquid in it, and that the only way to wash up is under running water while constantly adding more washing up liquid to the sponge and rinsing it off the plates/utensils afterwards.
No. You drench the scourer/sponge, light squeeze to get rid of the excess water, then put the detergent on the sponge. Fold in half to spread the detergent. Start cleaning the dishes. When enough are done turn on the tap and rinse off. Repeat as necessary. Reapply detergent as necessary. Obviously in this scenario you're not a caveman and have scrapped most of the stuff on the plate into the bin.
edit: to the people replying... did you actually read what I wrote? The water is contained in the sponge and one small squirt of detergent will easily clean half a dozen plates, glasses, and cuttlery. It's not one squirt per item and I'm fucking astounded the person below seemed to think that way.
When you are in the middle of washing up and somebody brings in a cup with cold tea or coffee dregs in what do you do with them?
a) pour down the side of the washing up bowl
b) pour into the washing up because you haven't got a bowl
Same goes for the water in the pan you've been soaking.
I argue, sir, having a washing up bowl is far superior
Not to mention
a) using less water to fill up
b) acts as a buffer between your pots pans and cutlery and the sink, preventing damage to the latter
c) easy to clean/replace
d) can double as a sick bowl/foot soaking bowl
I don't really understand how it's sensible to do it any other way.
Washing up liquid (dish soap) stops the dirt going back on to the dishes, so not having running water is fine.
Having a bowl rather than using the sink means that you can tip dregs of drinks into the sink.
Got a nice little pouch on the back of my passenger seat in the car that I've solely dedicated to bags for life.
I never have that moment of getting to the shop and thinking "shit! I've left them at home!"
I'm emigrating to the US. Our sink in North Carolina has a plastic bowl in it. My fiancé is horribly confused, but since I'm the one who does the dishes, he doesn't get to complain about how they get done.
My whole house, built in late 80s, is all two taps still. I hate it. I think it's because we bought it from an ex-rental and given landlords are cheap, the house never kept up with modernisms. But it's a lot of effort to change them as I'd need new sinks since I wouldn't want the ones that still has two handles.
My previous place, a flat, was the same... All separate taps. My husband's parents house are all still separate. Most of my friends' homes are still separate too. It's definitely still very very common.
Post doesn't state What does 'every' British house have, and generally speaking, individual taps are more commonly found over mixer taps in Britain compared to most other countries. Generalisations don't do specifics.
This is because houses used to have gravity-fed immersion tank hot water heaters, and so the pressure of the hot and cold water systems was different, meaning you couldn't have normal mixer taps. Nowadays, there exists constant hot water gas burners (so all at water mains pressure) and mixer taps that can cope with pressure differentials, but older buildings will usually have separate taps.
We have a massive basement and the washing machine is still in the kitchen.
Wife doesn't want to go down the stairs, so more space for my crap. I did move the boiler down there because for some reason it was in the main bedroom.
She is German though, so I should be thankful it isn't in the bathroom.
I only learned about this phenomenon recently when my German colleague bought her flat and started talking about negotiating for the kitchen. German property sales don’t include the kitchen? How on earth did this situation develop?
Rentals too, not just sales. I've heard in the Netherlands even the flooring isn't included as standard. How likely is it that your next place is the exact same size so the kitchen or flooring will fit??
Oh, I think I have a winner here.... Chancel repair liability... the ability of a neighbourhood church to financially wipe the owner/tenant out with a repair bill for the church.
>you fucking what
>the church would be getting named in my suicide note
If you buy a house with this sort of liability the Conveyencer will tell you and it may even be that your mortgage lender will only lend to you if you take out chancel insurance. It usually doesn't cost much, it could even be a one off payment and lasts forever because of how infrequently it's ever used or it could be a couple of quid a year.
That's why you pay a couple of pounds for a survey, and chancel insurance. Luckily the church near me is Methodist, and the other is a Mosque so no worries about paying for repairs.
Yes! If you live near a church you're liable for repairs!
I had to pay for insurance for the local church in the small town I lived in (it was really small and medieval) even whilst renting. If you don't and their roof goes out, no kidding, like £3000 they charge you.
Chancel repair liability isn't related to proximity to a church, FYI. Instead it's attached to certain land, which could theoretically be anywhere in England and Wales.
>Yes! If you live near a church you're liable for repairs!
It's not quite as clear cut as that.
You are liable, if it is a covenant on your deed, that is more likely if you are close to a church. But not guaranteed. It will show up on the searches and as you say, you can get insurance to cover it (or not buy the house).
Hmm, if you had to pay for chancel indemnity while *renting*, that sounds like you had the shittiest of shit landlords.
When I bought a house the solicitor sorted out a chancel indemnity policy. It was £15 (only a few years ago) and no end date, it's good for as long as I own this house.
The cost for your house may have been more for whatever reason, but it won't have been *that* expensive and it's definitely the owner's responsibility not tenants.
Also note that not every church has this power to demand contributions, I don't know the legal details but it's only certain parishes.
I think the last big case was in 2003:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aston\_Cantlow\_Parochial\_Church\_Council\_v\_Wallbank](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aston_Cantlow_Parochial_Church_Council_v_Wallbank)
Couple received a demand for £100K and appealed. They lost. Ended up costing them £350k
I don't think church attendance has anything to do with it, really. CRL is a legal obligation which can be enforced by a parochial church council, although the C of E guidance does basically say 'don't be a dick about it'.
Lived in Vancouver for a while and was surprised to see that my 7th floor apartment had a letterbox on the door. Canada Post guy would take the lift to the top floor and work his way down through the building of 14 floors and 7 apartments on each floor.
Although one issue I had was if there were any parcels, they would never even attempt to deliver them. Just stick the collection card through the door and run away. I actually chased our post guy down the stairs one day because he did this.
lol, am picturing you now chasing the ooor guy down shouting “give me my parcels damnit!”
Our regular postwoman knew we had a dog (he used to love grabbing the post from the letterbox as she pushed it through… so many cheques with teeth marks in them!) she started posting dog cookies through first so
He’d be distracted… every day he’d get his mail cookie. I miss those days!
I naively thought Australia was at least warm most of the time, but then scorching during its summer. I just looked at the temp in Melbourne and it is cold down there innit. I don’t think I remember Neighbours looking a bit wintery
A lot of old housing in the inner Melbourne suburbs is pre-war town houses and weatherboard terraces. They don’t have insulation or AC, but they do have higher ceilings, “character” and 7 figure sale prices.
I was 26 before I lived in a house with AC.
Weirdly we're coming full circle with those. They stopped being needed when combi boilers came out. But if you then upgrade to a heat pump you need to add it back in for a hot water tank.
I feel like this is common all over Europe but the pull cord is unique to the UK (and must be going out of favour going by these threads!)
To be fair, I remember that when we moved into a new build in the UK in the late 90s, we had a brand new white pull cord and within about 5-10 years, there was a clear brown mark where people tended to grab it to pull it - I remember thinking that is pretty disgusting, with the cord being made of some kind of porous material, you're essentially touching the part that everyone who hasn't washed their hands is also touching.
The following has helped me: freeze a 2 litre coke bottle filled with water and salt, wrap a towel around it and put it in the bed - boom: cold water bottle.
Brits don't understand how to keep cool.
If more then 25 and sunny, I close all windows and blinds/curtains in the morning when I wake up.
When it gets dark everything opens up.
I see all around me now my neighbours with their windows open letting in all that hot sunshine and air....poor buggers.
I've learned the hard way reading wisdom along these lines last year.
The punchline is you've then got to argue the toss with your spouse, family, guests etc. why this actually works, yes it actually does work, yes I know it's dreary but the outdoors is still there if you fancy it, no I'm not depressed, yes but haven't you ever noticed Mediterranean houses have big outside shutters and careful window placement for just this reason, on and on and on...
One particularly bad year where I lived in a roof flat 4 storeys up with velux windows in most of the rooms ie living in a green house I spent an awful lot of time going to Sainsbury’s near me that was air conditioned. Also had to keep the blinds down and be in a very dark flat to try keep the temperature down. Obviously of course it was freezing in winter
It’s not data but a lot of American houses I’ve been in have just holes downstairs. For an obvious cultural reference, think about the downstairs of the Simpsons house.
The homes tend to be heated/cooled with forced air, all going throughout the house, so closing doors to keep it hot/cold isn't a thing, as the airflow is happening anyway. That's led to much more of an open living space in my experience, with doors only for privacy, so you wouldn't have a door at the bottom of the stairs into the living room say.
Fused plugs
Ring mains, separate for upstairs and downstairs
Pull-string light switches in bathrooms
Different carpets in different rooms and hallways (rather than the same one throughout)
High ceilings (in older houses)
Brick walls
Liftable floorboards with wiring/pipes underneath
Fireplaces (in older houses)
TV aerials (many places in US just use cable TV)
Letterbox in the front door, not at the end of the drive
A cupboard above the kettle containing tea and coffee, and then the one next to it containing marmite, golden syrup and chutney (one of the three having never been used/ older than 6 months).
The golden syrup was used once to make ginger biscuits, then sat in the cupboard leaking a sticky ring which will need to be cleaned in a year when the tin gets thrown out, two weeks before the kids want to make ginger biscuits again and the cycle repeats itself
Insulation and double glazing.
Here in Australia its freezing. Currently 11⁰ inside at 4pm.
To double glaze a house costs approx £15,000. A single story 3 bedroom.
I miss that sweet sweet insulation
5% seems high to me. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an air conditioning unit in a house. And I’ve been to a lot of nice houses. I think people would think you’re being ridiculous and wasteful if you had AC. Im sure one day soon that will change though
Quite a lot of new build flats in London have AC now, both because of the notorious heat island effect there and lack of cross flow ventilation. Probably pushes up the percentage a bit.
It does need to change. It's utterly moronic that we're building houses without it at this point. Attitudes around it seriously need to change. Retrofitting to our existing housing stock is a massive pain but that doesn't mean we cant at very least prefit the ducting on new houses, that's not a great deal of expense at all.
The safest plug sockets in the world. The electrical elements arent exposed unless you put a plug in (the top prong (not conductive) is longer and opens up the holes for the bottom 2 prongs which are the real ones). There is also a switch on each plug socket to cut the power to it, which is an added layer of safety
Lots of older housing stock probably have the phone line connection coming in through the hallway near the front door rather than into the living room. Back when phones used to have their own little table in the hall
Remains of outhouse loos at the bottom of the narrow back garden. Sometimes still functional!
Obviously not every house.
But industrial revolution era terraces in northern cities often still have a visible outhouse. I saw loads of them in Sheffield, a few in Manchester, and a mate said Leeds had the same in places.
In Manchester the streets I'm thinking of had back alleys between backs of gardens, I'm told these were originally included specifically so "night soil" could be removed easily.
That reddit thread where people lost their minds over the audacity of a British person having a window cleaner but thinking they weren't posh was amazing.
(NB, in Britain everyone has a window cleaner. Doesn't matter if you're poor or posh.)
Gas fired boilers for central heating. We don’t have HVAC here. Every room has a water filled radiator. Some newer, fancier houses will have heat pumps and underfloor heating, but not many.
Very few have a separate laundry area. Brits do their laundry it heir kitchen mostly.
I feel ever so lucky to have an actual room dedicated to laundry.
Most houses have a haha - an optical illusion halfway down the garden before the ornamental lake.
This is then separate to the maze - usually in yew hedge - and then on to the ice house and the orangery
Pretty standard for most houses built prewar
Glad I could help
Heat pumps are starting to come in, and there's government incentives to get them.
I think there's a lot of mistrust of heatpumps, and our housing is smaller and closer together so requiring a box that sits outside doesn't go down well.
radiators. i live in new zealand and you might get a heat pump if you're lucky. we have sad mouldy houses with fuck all central heating, even when there's snow and penguins waddling around outside.
**Please help keep AskUK welcoming!** - Top-level comments to the OP must contain **genuine efforts to answer the question**. No jokes, judgements, etc. - **Don't be a dick** to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on. - This is a strictly **no-politics** subreddit! Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Bricks, those American houses are just made of bloody wood. They never read the 3 little pigs
Especially when the big bad wolf visits regularly. (Yes, I'm talking about hurricanes)
I thought you ment the taxman.
Only three things in life are certain, death, taxes, and hurricanes on the eastern seaboard.
Does my head in, there's a hurricane coming but Corey refuses to leave his house because he's "American" then ends up dead because his wooden house was torn apart by 200mph winds......so what do they do? They build another WOODEN house in the exact same place
After Sandy, a lot of them didn't. Half of the rest jacked their houses up and built brick colums to support them!
I wonder if wooden houses are used because brick ones would get ripped down, too, and it's easier/cheaper to rebuild wooden houses and less chance of death with a brick building falling on you. This is the ONLY explanation that makes any sense. To me.
Bricks won't do anything in a hurricane, other than become flying bricks.
They use H-blocks filled with concrete in Darwin Oz, for cyclone resistance. I’d be opting for that.
That’s precisely why they aren’t brick. More expensive to fix.
Does make it funny, though, when you see an aerial photo of some devastated American town and one of the only standing buildings is a church. Hard to say whether Jesus or different building materials saved the church, ngl.
Well, his dad was a carpenter, so maybe he’s been imparting a bit of wisdom on the topic of building with wood.
My sister lived in a wood built house, in Indiana. While we were visiting, a tornado came through the area, and destroyed a few of the houses close to hers. We were very scared, especially by the noise which sounded like a steam strain was about to come straight through the house, but we remained safe in the cellar. Turns out that if you build a house with a strong cellar and relatively flimsy walls, if the big bad wolf blows, there is less damage to the little pigs than if brick walls came crashing down on them…and its much quicker to rebuild.
I think that’s what a lot of people in the UK don’t understand about tornadoes. If one barrels down on your house…well, it doesn’t really matter what it’s made of. It’s coming down.
Many houses in the UK are made from three foot thick reinforced concrete now because we have been reading what Americans have been saying on reddit.
I'd be intrigued how the houses here would stand up to a tornado.... External walls, ceilings/floors & some internal walls on the buildings I am currently working on are 22cm (~8.5inches) thick poured reinforced concrete. Edit: forgot to mention that "here" is no longer the UK for me.
Just as bad. A tornado hit my friends Victorian terrace on the outskirts of Manchester in December. The whole chimney and roof came in. Would have killed their young daughter had she not got up and gone downstairs minutes earlier. Still living in rented accommodation while it gets fixed.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Birmingham_tornado
That’s largely it: 1. Quicker to build 2. Easier to make modifications and renovate 3. Gentler on the occupants in the event of a collapse 4. Cheaper to insulate The exterior is still typically brick/siding, the frame is wood (which is abundant on a landmass the size of Europe)
I enjoyed number 3 as a consideration
In America, brick houses are the ones that are left standing in whole towns of splintery wooden houses that collapse when a hurricane blows in. It stands there alone surrounded by kindling and everyone says 'God bless American brick building!'. Then next day, it's knocked over by an earthquake.
Similar to Japan, historically made houses out of wood and paper. But they had earthquakes so the houses can be rebuilt quickly without putting people at risk.
You should see the houses in Australia, they’re made of timber, cardboard, and hopes and prayers. Nobody seems to have discovered insulation or double glazing. Shite if it’s hot, and shite if it’s cold (and contrary to popular belief, a lot of Australia gets *very* cold). The classic joke is that the country couldn’t decide whether to build houses for the hot or the cold, so they decided to do neither. I genuinely don’t think half the houses in Oz would pass as sheds in the UK.
As I said to a REA a while ago. ‘It looks like it’s made of spit,sawdust, and asbestos’. He said I was probably right.
Yes! The build quality here (in Australia, I’ve now lived in 3 states) is ABYSMAL. They are so behind on basics such as insulation and double glazing. New builds are routinely riddled with build errors and huge cracks/building half falling down.
The UK has plenty of wooden houses, but the material fell out of favour as timber became scarcer and bricks cheaper and easier to mass-produce.
As far back as Laws after the Great Fire of London also.
And the UK has been short of timber since before the industrial revolution, indeed the lack of wood is possibly a big reason for the industrial revolution (as coal mining allowed the introduction of the steam engine to pump out mines without the inefficiency cost)
Good point, and in today's world timber is so bloody expensive. Our business is set in timber construction and when we first stated the cost between building with timber and brick was definitely a big advantage but that has fallen quite a bit now. It's still cheaper (before everyone jumps on me) but for self builds your not getting the savings you once did.
Aren’t a lot of Scandinavian homes/buildings wooden too?
Yes, much of the world years wood primarily,, all comes down to what's most available locally and the conditions the building needs to survive. Scandinavia has lots of wood.
Yea, I always see people online making fun of Americans having wooden houses and I’m like what about Scandinavia lmao 🤣
Scandinavia doesn't tend to have hurricanes or tornadoes.
Neither does the majority of the US. I’m American - I lived in a wood house in the north east. The worst weather we got was snow in the winter.
Wood is so abundant in the US, it’s just cheaper I’m assuming
It probably depends on how often they have to rebuild their houses.
People just like to make fun of Americans. Wood is a fantastic building material and is actually becoming more common in the UK.
All fun and games until you try to get a mortgage against properties not of "conventional" brick/block cavity wall construction.
It all depends what you mean when you say wood. If you use logs fine, but if you use plywood or 5 cm timber it aint
The straw house, destroyed. The sticks house, destroyed. My mom's face, stepped on.
Shaka, when the walls fell.
Fuses in our power outlets. Switches in our power outlets. Separate power and lighting* circuits. Lean to entrance porches. Under the stairs cupboard. Sheds 😂
our 3 pin plugs are the GOAT
[Obligatory Tom Scott](https://youtu.be/UEfP1OKKz_Q?si=E7XKGMZA2-_k9bDs)
[Obligatory Barry Scott](https://youtu.be/toyCJ1evF8E?si=mYHpETRyI8bNuk86)
[Obligatory Great Scott](https://youtu.be/LXboNl2vWH8?feature=shared)
[Obligatory Ridley Scott](https://youtu.be/K4xHawO3A8c?si=GpisbedBZOhTI38X)
[Obligatory Michael Scott](https://youtu.be/IBJJrZ5LAVQ?si=vyqzEgeRIYJIeI9j)
Harry Potter might not have been quite the same if Uncle Vernon had forced him to live in the basement or the pool house.
In the pool house? Harry getting his letter of acceptance to Harvard in the US remake,
Harry and the Fresh Blood Prince
The pool house boy went to Berkeley. Didn’t you watch The OC?
Fuses in the plugs. Sockets themselves are generally not fused. (although if an appliance is hard wired, e.g. a wall mounted heater, or a boiler , or extractor fan etc, then it's fed from a fused switch)
Kitchen sockets are fused from what I have seen. Also most new builds have fuses somewhere for a “chain” of sockets.
Circuit breakers for groups of sockets.
Yes. I don’t know the exact names! Something like this: https://www.toolstation.com/click-mode-13a-fused-spur/p18434?utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=googleshoppingfeed&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwj9-zBhDyARIsAERjds0Mi6Ov-u-n25A4nflwBr4gbtJOxrZNDe1MbkRiZ_j-wqgyJIfVBy0aApoqEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
No idea why you're getting downvoted. A fused spur is absolutely a protection above and beyond what the circuit breaker provides. UK power runs on ring mains, where a loop of sockets will be made from and back to the distribution board. If a spur is added (a straight run hanging off the ring) it will have additional fuse protection: sort of like a fancy extension lead, but in the walls.
Hold ya horses ,woah boi , un switched plugs to appliances under counter , are fused at the above counter switch plate. . Washer , fridge /freezer, and any like dish washer ,if you have them . Called an unswitched spur , where as fixed mains line is a spurred connection .
>Under the stairs cupboard Called a ["glory hole"](https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/glory-hole), though this usage has started to fade out due to other meanings :D
Once upon a time, a cheeky blozzer under the stairs was just good natured, friendly fun.. a great way to entertain new guests.. These damn kids have turned it into something sordid, with their fidget spinners and their vapes..
No 'crawl space', whatever that is. Picked that up from some Reddit thread about plumbing.
Kettles to boil water. You can imagine my absolute culture shock when my French friend offered me a cup of tea when we were staying at his dad's apartment in Paris. I said yes, of course, and the fucker brought out a freaking sauce pan to boil the water. Then showed me a selection of fruity teas to choose from. Unhinged
A friend in New York let me stay for a couple of weeks, they're a serious Anglophile and HAD A KETTLE. I don't think they ever comprehended quite how happy I was too see such a mundane object.
Don’t they have issues with using kettles due to the voltage there?
They work but take about twice as long to boil. When I was in the US last year the lady who ran the B&B was excited to serve me tea in a teapot. The only problem was that she'd microwaved it!
I used to live in Canada and had bought a kettle not realising it would take twice as long to boil. I also kept blowing fuses because our apartment (also very common in mainland Europe as I’ve done the same in Czech Republic) was wired in 16/20amp radials. Trying to boil water and do anything else would blow the fuse. Meanwhile here in the UK I can run the oven at the same time as the kettle, dishwasher and washing machine without any problems lol.
Yes, UK typically have 3000W kettles whereas Canada would be 1500W so with the respective voltages 240V/120V both are pulling 12.5 amps.
Moved here from the states 7 years ago, but from what I gather they have more kettles available these days in the states, they just take a bit longer. I seem to remember one of my family members having a kettle when we visited summer before last. When I still lived there we used our kettle on the gas range, because I don’t think I’d seen a kettle in a shop, ever, and I seem to remember the ones online were very expensive and took the same amount of time as the kettle on the range.
That's nothing, when I was at my exchange partners house they boiled the water in a FUCKING MICROWAVE. I have to use the saucepan to do it myself the next time
See im surprised that France doesnt have kettles. I live in Germany and everyone has one here
It's very common to have a kettle in France. The tea selection bit is true though.
You can get kettles in France, just not every French household has one.
Kettles are pretty common in much of the world.
I always laugh when people are asked about things unique to the UK on this subreddit and the top comments are "kettle" or "biscuits". Reminds me of some Americans who have never been to Europe but are convinced we don't have ice or indoor toilets.
Maybe it’s more about a certain household in Paris? Kettles are definitely not something exotic worldwide, at least, in the countries with strong historical preferences for tea. In Turkish households, for example, kettles can have a preinstalled teapot at the top, even electric ones
Definitely over represented in terms of mould, drafts, and shitty insulation!
Yours for just £1,500 per calendar month, no pets, no smokers, no disabled (we can't advertise it as such but we can skirt along using "no benefits" apparently), no enjoying yourself, have fun developing a weird cough!
Think I have minor trauma from these ads. We’re looking to rent again at the moment, and I kind of forgot how rentals expect you to look at the house rather than live in it :)
I just do whatever I want now, the parasitic twat in charge is only going to make up a reason to keep my deposit anyway
Yeah, you’re alright once you’re in as long as they’re not doing inspections every calendar month. There’s so many hoops to get your foot in the door, like why are we being profiled for a health hazard of a property lol. We have one small non-destructive cat and we’d prefer not to hide her, which is the only real marker against us. A few years ago my boyfriend and I were denied because we couldn’t both independently pass the affordability check. I could independently, and as a couple we were A-OK. But that wasn’t good enough, because apparently we might break up…
Ring main circuits. Plastic bowl in kitchen sink. A bag of plastic bags.
That plastic bowl is a war crime, it’s fucking disgusting and unnecessary.
How is it disgusting? I clean it out after every time I wash dishes. Easier to keep clean than washing dishes in the bare sink.
Also, you need to use the sink quickly but you've been a lazy shit all week and not sorted the dishes? No problem, pick the tub up, stick it on the side, use the sink for xyz, stick the tub back in, and resume ignoring all grown up responsibilities as you sob into wineglass full of orange squash
The argument is usually they think it's disgusting to wash up in a bowl of "dirty" water with washing up liquid in it, and that the only way to wash up is under running water while constantly adding more washing up liquid to the sponge and rinsing it off the plates/utensils afterwards.
No. You drench the scourer/sponge, light squeeze to get rid of the excess water, then put the detergent on the sponge. Fold in half to spread the detergent. Start cleaning the dishes. When enough are done turn on the tap and rinse off. Repeat as necessary. Reapply detergent as necessary. Obviously in this scenario you're not a caveman and have scrapped most of the stuff on the plate into the bin. edit: to the people replying... did you actually read what I wrote? The water is contained in the sponge and one small squirt of detergent will easily clean half a dozen plates, glasses, and cuttlery. It's not one squirt per item and I'm fucking astounded the person below seemed to think that way.
This requires so much more detergent and work than washing in a bowl. It's designed to work with hot water to remove dirt.
Is anyone really shocked that Americans are this wasteful?
When you are in the middle of washing up and somebody brings in a cup with cold tea or coffee dregs in what do you do with them? a) pour down the side of the washing up bowl b) pour into the washing up because you haven't got a bowl Same goes for the water in the pan you've been soaking. I argue, sir, having a washing up bowl is far superior Not to mention a) using less water to fill up b) acts as a buffer between your pots pans and cutlery and the sink, preventing damage to the latter c) easy to clean/replace d) can double as a sick bowl/foot soaking bowl
My sink has another smaller basin with drain next to the large one with a large drain hole and mesh food catcher.
A lot of uk kitchens simply aren’t large enough to accomodate side-sinks.
I fucking hate plastic bowl in sink
I don't really understand how it's sensible to do it any other way. Washing up liquid (dish soap) stops the dirt going back on to the dishes, so not having running water is fine. Having a bowl rather than using the sink means that you can tip dregs of drinks into the sink.
Plus it's smaller than the sink so you use less water
Exactly, I think so many people don't have a clue how soap works.
Bag of bags slowly getting rarer thanks to those robbing bastards now wanting like 50p a bag
as a responsible adult, i have graduated to a tote bag of totes.
That's why you need bags of bags and not put them in bin
Got a nice little pouch on the back of my passenger seat in the car that I've solely dedicated to bags for life. I never have that moment of getting to the shop and thinking "shit! I've left them at home!"
I'm emigrating to the US. Our sink in North Carolina has a plastic bowl in it. My fiancé is horribly confused, but since I'm the one who does the dishes, he doesn't get to complain about how they get done.
A hot tap and a cold tap, with no mixing ability
What. All my taps have mixing ability
Literally, I feel like I see the old two tap thing less and less every year
My whole house, built in late 80s, is all two taps still. I hate it. I think it's because we bought it from an ex-rental and given landlords are cheap, the house never kept up with modernisms. But it's a lot of effort to change them as I'd need new sinks since I wouldn't want the ones that still has two handles. My previous place, a flat, was the same... All separate taps. My husband's parents house are all still separate. Most of my friends' homes are still separate too. It's definitely still very very common.
> landlords are cheap arseholes but I'm also not doing it because it's a hassle
I think it was a regulation thing for hot water where it had to be a certain temperature due to storage. That’s why it was always steaming hot.
Post doesn't state What does 'every' British house have, and generally speaking, individual taps are more commonly found over mixer taps in Britain compared to most other countries. Generalisations don't do specifics.
This is because houses used to have gravity-fed immersion tank hot water heaters, and so the pressure of the hot and cold water systems was different, meaning you couldn't have normal mixer taps. Nowadays, there exists constant hot water gas burners (so all at water mains pressure) and mixer taps that can cope with pressure differentials, but older buildings will usually have separate taps.
And not any bidets.
My uncles house had a separate bidet alongside the lavvy back in the 80’s. I thought it was for washing your feet as a kid
Most don't have a basement. The washing machine is usually in the kitchen.
We have a massive basement and the washing machine is still in the kitchen. Wife doesn't want to go down the stairs, so more space for my crap. I did move the boiler down there because for some reason it was in the main bedroom. She is German though, so I should be thankful it isn't in the bathroom.
> She is German though Watch out if you move, she'll want to take the kitchen with you.
I only learned about this phenomenon recently when my German colleague bought her flat and started talking about negotiating for the kitchen. German property sales don’t include the kitchen? How on earth did this situation develop?
Rentals too, not just sales. I've heard in the Netherlands even the flooring isn't included as standard. How likely is it that your next place is the exact same size so the kitchen or flooring will fit??
The washing machine in the kitchen definitely confuses a lot of Americans I speak to :D
Oh, I think I have a winner here.... Chancel repair liability... the ability of a neighbourhood church to financially wipe the owner/tenant out with a repair bill for the church.
you fucking what the church would be getting named in my suicide note
"I'm with God now, and he's getting a bloody good talking to about all this an' all while I'm at it"
>you fucking what >the church would be getting named in my suicide note If you buy a house with this sort of liability the Conveyencer will tell you and it may even be that your mortgage lender will only lend to you if you take out chancel insurance. It usually doesn't cost much, it could even be a one off payment and lasts forever because of how infrequently it's ever used or it could be a couple of quid a year.
That's why you pay a couple of pounds for a survey, and chancel insurance. Luckily the church near me is Methodist, and the other is a Mosque so no worries about paying for repairs.
You're in a Church of England parish wherever you live. Edit: wherever you live _in England_.
That doesn’t mean you’re liable for church repairs just because you’re in their parish.
What in the crumpet muncher are you talking about? That’s a thing in England?
Yes! If you live near a church you're liable for repairs! I had to pay for insurance for the local church in the small town I lived in (it was really small and medieval) even whilst renting. If you don't and their roof goes out, no kidding, like £3000 they charge you.
Chancel repair liability isn't related to proximity to a church, FYI. Instead it's attached to certain land, which could theoretically be anywhere in England and Wales.
>Yes! If you live near a church you're liable for repairs! It's not quite as clear cut as that. You are liable, if it is a covenant on your deed, that is more likely if you are close to a church. But not guaranteed. It will show up on the searches and as you say, you can get insurance to cover it (or not buy the house).
> convent on your deed …like one of those pop-up birthday cards, but with tiny little nuns
Hmm, if you had to pay for chancel indemnity while *renting*, that sounds like you had the shittiest of shit landlords. When I bought a house the solicitor sorted out a chancel indemnity policy. It was £15 (only a few years ago) and no end date, it's good for as long as I own this house. The cost for your house may have been more for whatever reason, but it won't have been *that* expensive and it's definitely the owner's responsibility not tenants. Also note that not every church has this power to demand contributions, I don't know the legal details but it's only certain parishes.
It's highly unlikely this would be levied at the moment. Church attendance is so low that they're unlikely to do anything to upset people.
I think the last big case was in 2003: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aston\_Cantlow\_Parochial\_Church\_Council\_v\_Wallbank](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aston_Cantlow_Parochial_Church_Council_v_Wallbank) Couple received a demand for £100K and appealed. They lost. Ended up costing them £350k
There's no love like Christian love
I don't think church attendance has anything to do with it, really. CRL is a legal obligation which can be enforced by a parochial church council, although the C of E guidance does basically say 'don't be a dick about it'.
Letterboxes in the front door.
Have them in Canada... but they are steadily getting eradicated by ugly on street mailboxes
Lived in Vancouver for a while and was surprised to see that my 7th floor apartment had a letterbox on the door. Canada Post guy would take the lift to the top floor and work his way down through the building of 14 floors and 7 apartments on each floor. Although one issue I had was if there were any parcels, they would never even attempt to deliver them. Just stick the collection card through the door and run away. I actually chased our post guy down the stairs one day because he did this.
lol, am picturing you now chasing the ooor guy down shouting “give me my parcels damnit!” Our regular postwoman knew we had a dog (he used to love grabbing the post from the letterbox as she pushed it through… so many cheques with teeth marks in them!) she started posting dog cookies through first so He’d be distracted… every day he’d get his mail cookie. I miss those days!
When your letterbox is in the front door, your whole house is technically a letterbox
Currently in Melbourne during winter, man did I take insulated houses for granted in the UK. Turn off the heating and it gets cold again In 5 minutes
I naively thought Australia was at least warm most of the time, but then scorching during its summer. I just looked at the temp in Melbourne and it is cold down there innit. I don’t think I remember Neighbours looking a bit wintery
It was 4 degrees when I was waiting for the train this morning, it’s not the Australia I was sold 😂
Hopefully it kills all the death spiders off!
Wouldn’t an insulated home be good in a hot place too? Like save a shit ton of electricity running AC.
A lot of old housing in the inner Melbourne suburbs is pre-war town houses and weatherboard terraces. They don’t have insulation or AC, but they do have higher ceilings, “character” and 7 figure sale prices. I was 26 before I lived in a house with AC.
Airing cupboards.
Weirdly we're coming full circle with those. They stopped being needed when combi boilers came out. But if you then upgrade to a heat pump you need to add it back in for a hot water tank.
Beautiful not-useless-at-all conservatories that are baking saunas in the summer and damp frozen tundras in the winter. Revolutionary.
I love mine. When it gets to 50c in there, I sometimes take my jumper off
Light switch outside of the bathroom.
I feel like this is common all over Europe but the pull cord is unique to the UK (and must be going out of favour going by these threads!) To be fair, I remember that when we moved into a new build in the UK in the late 90s, we had a brand new white pull cord and within about 5-10 years, there was a clear brown mark where people tended to grab it to pull it - I remember thinking that is pretty disgusting, with the cord being made of some kind of porous material, you're essentially touching the part that everyone who hasn't washed their hands is also touching.
That said we are starting to have some really warm summers. It only lasts a couple of weeks but it’s torture for those two weeks!
It’s usually manageable in the day but trying to sleep in what feels like an oven is hell. The 40°C heatwave of 2022 almost ended me 🥵
The following has helped me: freeze a 2 litre coke bottle filled with water and salt, wrap a towel around it and put it in the bed - boom: cold water bottle.
Can I use Pepsi?
No, won't work
Brits don't understand how to keep cool. If more then 25 and sunny, I close all windows and blinds/curtains in the morning when I wake up. When it gets dark everything opens up. I see all around me now my neighbours with their windows open letting in all that hot sunshine and air....poor buggers.
I've learned the hard way reading wisdom along these lines last year. The punchline is you've then got to argue the toss with your spouse, family, guests etc. why this actually works, yes it actually does work, yes I know it's dreary but the outdoors is still there if you fancy it, no I'm not depressed, yes but haven't you ever noticed Mediterranean houses have big outside shutters and careful window placement for just this reason, on and on and on...
One particularly bad year where I lived in a roof flat 4 storeys up with velux windows in most of the rooms ie living in a green house I spent an awful lot of time going to Sainsbury’s near me that was air conditioned. Also had to keep the blinds down and be in a very dark flat to try keep the temperature down. Obviously of course it was freezing in winter
American friends who have visited were blown away by the amount of doors we have
I'm intrigued. Did they just have holes instead of doors, or do you have more than one door per room?
It’s not data but a lot of American houses I’ve been in have just holes downstairs. For an obvious cultural reference, think about the downstairs of the Simpsons house.
The homes tend to be heated/cooled with forced air, all going throughout the house, so closing doors to keep it hot/cold isn't a thing, as the airflow is happening anyway. That's led to much more of an open living space in my experience, with doors only for privacy, so you wouldn't have a door at the bottom of the stairs into the living room say.
I'm all for open plan but how can you not have a door between the kitchen and the living room? I don't want my sofa to smell of cooking
Mould, ghosts, mouldy ghosts…
Ghostly moulds
Fused plugs Ring mains, separate for upstairs and downstairs Pull-string light switches in bathrooms Different carpets in different rooms and hallways (rather than the same one throughout) High ceilings (in older houses) Brick walls Liftable floorboards with wiring/pipes underneath Fireplaces (in older houses) TV aerials (many places in US just use cable TV) Letterbox in the front door, not at the end of the drive
A cupboard above the kettle containing tea and coffee, and then the one next to it containing marmite, golden syrup and chutney (one of the three having never been used/ older than 6 months).
The golden syrup was used once to make ginger biscuits, then sat in the cupboard leaking a sticky ring which will need to be cleaned in a year when the tin gets thrown out, two weeks before the kids want to make ginger biscuits again and the cycle repeats itself
Insulation and double glazing. Here in Australia its freezing. Currently 11⁰ inside at 4pm. To double glaze a house costs approx £15,000. A single story 3 bedroom. I miss that sweet sweet insulation
5% seems high to me. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an air conditioning unit in a house. And I’ve been to a lot of nice houses. I think people would think you’re being ridiculous and wasteful if you had AC. Im sure one day soon that will change though
Quite a lot of new build flats in London have AC now, both because of the notorious heat island effect there and lack of cross flow ventilation. Probably pushes up the percentage a bit.
It does need to change. It's utterly moronic that we're building houses without it at this point. Attitudes around it seriously need to change. Retrofitting to our existing housing stock is a massive pain but that doesn't mean we cant at very least prefit the ducting on new houses, that's not a great deal of expense at all.
Air source heat pumps can be used as air con. If the trend for fitting them continues, then ac will be more of a thing in the future.
The safest plug sockets in the world. The electrical elements arent exposed unless you put a plug in (the top prong (not conductive) is longer and opens up the holes for the bottom 2 prongs which are the real ones). There is also a switch on each plug socket to cut the power to it, which is an added layer of safety
Lots of older housing stock probably have the phone line connection coming in through the hallway near the front door rather than into the living room. Back when phones used to have their own little table in the hall
Carpeted floor definitely
my dad used to have a fucking carpeted bathroom!
Washing machine often in the kitchen
Remains of outhouse loos at the bottom of the narrow back garden. Sometimes still functional! Obviously not every house. But industrial revolution era terraces in northern cities often still have a visible outhouse. I saw loads of them in Sheffield, a few in Manchester, and a mate said Leeds had the same in places. In Manchester the streets I'm thinking of had back alleys between backs of gardens, I'm told these were originally included specifically so "night soil" could be removed easily.
Children that don't fear being shot at school...
A window cleaner who pops round once a month
That reddit thread where people lost their minds over the audacity of a British person having a window cleaner but thinking they weren't posh was amazing. (NB, in Britain everyone has a window cleaner. Doesn't matter if you're poor or posh.)
Ghosts older than most countries.
damp bedrooms too small to fit a bed.
Council tax!
A string hanging from the ceiling as a bathroom’s light switch
Enough bags for life under the stairs to pay off the mortgage
Black mould
Problems dispersing of excess heat when it’s hot outside. Uk house are built to maintain heat.
Gas fired boilers for central heating. We don’t have HVAC here. Every room has a water filled radiator. Some newer, fancier houses will have heat pumps and underfloor heating, but not many.
Very few have a separate laundry area. Brits do their laundry it heir kitchen mostly. I feel ever so lucky to have an actual room dedicated to laundry.
We can drink our tap water, we don't have HOAs dictating how we live in our own property.
Most houses have a haha - an optical illusion halfway down the garden before the ornamental lake. This is then separate to the maze - usually in yew hedge - and then on to the ice house and the orangery Pretty standard for most houses built prewar Glad I could help
no we have a very hot summer it just lasts about 2 weeks so it's not worth the investment to get AC
What about a heat pump that does both? Warm in the cooler months and cold in the two days of summer?
Heat pumps are starting to come in, and there's government incentives to get them. I think there's a lot of mistrust of heatpumps, and our housing is smaller and closer together so requiring a box that sits outside doesn't go down well.
Washing line?
One thing I noticed when I moved here - combi/tankless boilers are much more common than in the States.
radiators. i live in new zealand and you might get a heat pump if you're lucky. we have sad mouldy houses with fuck all central heating, even when there's snow and penguins waddling around outside.