jossie

Hello everyone

Can anyone tell me what are the advantages and disadvantages of the different materials houses are built with in Canada,for example foundations, exterior structure and roofing materials. Thank you Jossie

zigspider

Hi,

are you buying or building? Whereabouts in Canada?

Some materials work better in different climates/locations.

Jerry

Liana

Well if you want to go with the cheap houses you will get the cheap products- particleboard/flake board/chipboard covered by vinyl siding. Next step up would be plywood but the best built houses and much better ecologically and therefore health wise would use tongue and grooved board for frames with cedar shingles/clapboard/brick for siding.

Most houses have the asphalt shingle roofing but some use cedar shingles also. I have seen slate roofs recently and that - if I can get our roof strengthened, is what I will go for when the shingles need replacing in about 10 years (they will be 25 years old then and ready for replacement). That way when I am really old I will not need to worry about changing the shingles yet again.

Foundations- go with concrete not the concrete blocks and definitely avoid a house built with basement made of pressure treated timber.

sinope

It is amazing how different construction materials are when compared to the UK. I should imagine people over here getting quite snooty about vinyl sidings.

dbd33

Our house is up for sale. There's a standard form to mark off what the basement and above ground walls are made of; brick, siding, block, shingles, etc. I was rather pleased to be able to tick all of the boxes, the house is made of a bit of everything.

sinope

I love the thought of cedar shingles - must smell divine when they are new.

dbd33

I expect so, but I believe the ones on this house have been there since the twenties, they don't smell of anything now.

PMM

Hi

Wait to you get a quote for re-roofing a cedar shake roof, double the price of 35 fiberglass ashphalt (35 yr) with only a 15 year guarantee. The ashphalt price included stripping the old shakes, new plywood roof, roofing paper and shingles.

Hudman

Pro's: Quicker construction, use of relatively cheaper materials, 6X2 timber framing properly insulated, sealed wrapped etc gives generally better insulation than brick/ stone, timber framework gives huge variety of design permutations,
system of foundations gives a lot of homes functional basements.

Cons: Longevity issues especially with roofing products, many building systems are pretty new and there have been some very costly mistakes made in the use of materials, basements have high percentage possibility of leaking (especially if done to basic building code, which most are),
higher sound transmission in multi-occupancy buildings, they burn very well, the oil crises of 70's changed building styles creating a huge reliance on vapour barriers ( bad news especially in colder/ more humid climates), any moron can sling a bit of framing together and cobble it up to look ok.... not so easy with traditional stone built homes.

hudd

Hi jossie

We had a new house built near Calgary in 1998. Construction material was OSBboard(Chipboard), 6x2 studs, vinyl siding and ash felt roofing shingles.
Advantages:
That heating costs were not too bad considering the extreme in climate.
Its was easy to move walls around and modify the wooden framed house during design and when you want to renovation.
Engineering I beams allow you to have Silent Floors with huge room sizes.
Cheaper to build, as I told a tradition brick/block house cost twice the sq ft.
Quick to build, some can be factory built and deliver to site and erected within a day or so.
Disadvantages:
Poor noise insulation, road noise seemed a problem. Our house shook/creaked in strong winds or when front door were slammed.
Electrical systems not up to EEC standards, as we found out that the lights would flash on and off when you were say ironing etc.
Vinyl rattled in the wind and creaked in the summer and was easy damaged(vinyl is only as think as a shoebox cardboard).
Build quality, as said any Cowboy can build a wooden framed house and this was a real disappointment for us.
I would say longevity and quality of building material used on new houses as said on previous posts.

Brick clad houses are better for noise reduction and will last longer i.e cladding.

Some new houses are being built of concrete. This in my mind are more superior construction and with the double foam blocks they have good insulation as well as better fire resistance. This style of house has been approved recently in the UK as part of Gordon Brown trying to get the building industry to build a family home for £60K. I would consider building this style of home in the UK if we go for self build.

Must admit our favourite house in Canada was 1900's farmhouse build by Scottish immigrant family. It was well build and it suffered no damage when we had a twister about 200 metres way. Downside with older house is heating costs, and some homes build say in 1950's or early were not insulated.