Solid wall masonry construction is not a good choice in all climates, and energy code requirements for a wall's R-value are a hang up of plan examiners and building inspectors. It's tough to argue the thermal mass point with them.
R
In the 80's I did a bit of business in Houston and liked the suburbs. What I "think" I recall was a lot of Tuscan style homes, but my memory is getting old. Like the homes in Austin, I recall a bit more detail and curb appeal from exterior detailing than in many other areas, also.
Here, they seem to run about 2' deep and are quite common in living rooms, dining rooms and kitchens.
Something else I've noticed here is that walls have a lot of "building out." By that, I mean a wall, either a shear wall or curtain wall, might have a second wall built beside it, such as the old plumbing wall or wall for ductwork. They're done as much for detail as for function. That's where some of the pot shelves come from: a second wall built beside the real wall to give detail to a room. Despite the cost of these walls and the small amounts of wasted space inside them (between the walls), they seem to be pretty popular. An example might be a master suite that has one corner rounded, rather than square. The wall between the master suite and an adjoining room might be straight and square, but on the bedroom side, a second curved wall is installed, with the enclosed area either ignored or made to hold a small alcove with shelf for a vase or statue.
Nonny
Having grown up in a 1840ish-built home with 16" thick brick exterior walls, I have to agree about the benefit of mass. However, beyond the price of materials, solid masonry construction doesn't easily permit wires or pipe to be installed, modified or maintained. Insulation, if required, is also a problem, as is the cost of labor building it.
Nonny
I can't recall for sure, it was close to I-10 and there was a sugar mill close by.
Typically concrete walls have a very low R-value when compared to typical insulated stud walls. In 1986 the car dealer I worked for built a new state of the art facility. Solid poured on site contrete walls. Inside the air conditioned offices the walls were quite warm to the touch from the afternoon sun.
From what I read about that kind of massive wall, they almost need to be "tuned" to the area. Ideally, the cooler night would offset the warmer day and the overall climate wouldn't have much summer/winter swing, such as in a desert setting. There, clear nights are cold and days are hot, but winter-summer is not that much different. If it's much colder than warmer or the opposite, the mass has less significance. In one city were we lived, it was colder than the dickens and a poured concrete wall would have required extensive thermal break and further insulation to be effective.
Nonny
This was Louisville, KY. Not the Arctic, but not the tropics either. We did get some snow. I lived in a similar house, although it was much older. I can't remember the walls being cold in the winter or warm in the summer. That dead air in between works pretty well. The one I was renting had 12' (at least) ceilings and the gaslight fittings were still there.
This was before residential AC was common and the house was nice and cool in the summer - in fact it did better than my father's house.
"Leon" wrote
That is why you use Insulating Concrete Forms. Strength of masonry, efficiency of good insulation. Such as:
"Nonnymus" wrote
I have found that a lot of amenities in homes are overpriced and low quality If a person is a craftsman, they are better off to find a floor plan they like, or just a house that they like for some other reasons, and then do the upgrades themselves, doing them exactly to order, getting probably a better job, and getting it for less. And in the case of some really high end amenities, (SubZero, Wolf, Dacor, Vulcan, etc.) the cost could be halved, and moderately high quality amenities substituted without sacrificing a lot.
MHO, YMMV
Steve
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Yeah, ICFs and SIPs are the only way to build any more.
What some people call "amenities" often look like "fads" to my wife and I. We've looked at some new homes and remodeled homes where we both saw features we predicted would look hopelessly dated in not too many years. And frankly some currently popular features don't appeal to us even if they're still fashionable, e.g. granite countertops. To each his own of course, but fashion is a fickle mistress.
Very true. Today, appliances are SS, where 15 years ago, the best kitchens had the built-in look, where refrigerators and dishwashers, for instance, had a panel to match the kitchen cabinets. The color of wood changes, also. I saw one home that hit me as obviously '70-90's. The flooring was natural laid oak, as were the cabinets. Even things like built-ins have decreased in today's taste. Our first home had a built-in set of doors and drawers between two closets in the master bedroom and also for linen in the hallway. You don't see that anymore.
What I see in today's market are natural materials more than man-made. One person commented that Corian and Silestone were "cheap substitutes" for the "better" Granite and marble on counter tops. Likewise, Travertine is a very popular flooring in upper end homes, with large tile being a close second. It then spirals downward into the man-made things like laminates, vinyls and even carpet is not as popular here as it once was.
OTOH, things like skylights and sky tubes are increasingly popular, and they're something that will probably remain in fashion for a long while.
Nonny
Some do, I suppose to everyone. I'm not so thrilled with painted trim, arches, or rounded drywall corners. OTOH, SWMBO loves her granite counter tops and would never have anything else, now (well, perhaps quartz). They're great for baking. Wood floors are another "fad" that's back "in".
You do see large walk-ins with all that stuff inside. The one thing that our (2YO) house is missing that gripes my wife is no linen closet on the first floor. There is one on the second, but it's mostly useless since the master is down.
Corian was "cheap"? I never liked the stuff but never considered it in any way cheap, even compared to granite. Vinyl was an immediate 'X' when we were looking a couple of years back.
I like the looks of them but get concerned about anything poking through the roof. The idiot builders seem to have a hard enough time with chimneys. Giving them more to screw up seems like a bad idea.
Funny how region has a lot to do with thends. SS was popular in the Houston
30 years ago and coming back again.I would not necesserily consider Silestone a cheap substitute foe granite nor would I consider granite better.
In Houston it seems the slykights are increasingly unpopular, again back on the 80's these were popular but leaked. Now I don't see them so much in new construction.
Some built-ins make sense as anyone who ever lives there is going to need certain forms of storage in certain areas. But I can see people wanting to set up rooms as they please and thus not wanting a lot of built-ins, e.g. built-in book cases push you towards using that room as a library or office when maybe you'd rather it was a guest bedroom.
When we remodel our kitchen (next on the list after a successful bedroom renovation that is getting rave reviews from SWMBO) I'm pushing for recycled ground glass in concrete or resin for the counters. It's as close to bullet-proof as you can get, which granite or marble certainly are not.
I can tolerate tile in the bathroom, but anywhere else I can't stand it--cold, slippery, noisy. I like hardwood floors since they look good and are easy to maintain. We have area rugs here and there, but wall-to-wall carpeting (something I grew up with) is more trouble than it is worth to me now--gimme that oak!
Yup, they make sense because it isn't like the cost of energy is going down over the long term.
"Leon" wrote
Use VeLux skylights. There will never be a leak problem, with the flashing system they use.
IIRC the lens? would crack.
Swingman built a house and used that ground glass counter top material, IIRC it had local beer joint broken beer bottle glass in it. Much of the top has chunks of glass on the surface, it is flat, but I have to wonder how bullet-proof that glass is. I could see a heavy object chipping the class. The counter top appearance reminded me of taffy, strange indeed.
FWIW, we had them on our home and they were great. As Leon said, the glass was broken by a branch on one, and another developed fogging. Outside of those two glitches, we were pleased and would use them again if we needed a traditional skylight.
A home we're considering has these in an inside hallway. I'm amazed at the amount of light they give off, and there doesn't seem to be heat associated with it.
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