Comment on Daily discussion thread: 👨🔬 8 January, 2025
PeelerSheila@aussie.zone 1 month agoWow, lucky you built when you did, I’d hate to be building a house from scratch now. Just going by the way the building industry is at the moment and the kind of shoddy cookie cutter places getting whipped up around my way, styrofoam in the foundations and particle board in the frames. It’d take a bit to find a good builder around here I think, and then you’d be praying they didn’t go bust and leave you with a half finished house. Glad you stuck to your guns with your place, sounds like you had a fight on your hands but worth it in the end.
Salvo@aussie.zone 1 month ago
There was a house behind us where the builder did a runner.
Styrofoam is always used in the slab, but never in structural areas such as foundational footings to structural areas of the slab.
Particle Board is actually used as a component in Engineered beams because it has better torsional strength than plain wooden beams. You can get timber beams that are stronger than an engineered beam, but only from old-growth forest like Mountain Ash and Huon Pine. Steel beams are another option, but then you have more thermal issues.