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Comment by scurvy | Hacker News Reader

Worried about earthquakes? Or city-wide fire? Or termites?

None of the above (though Vancouver is very susceptible to quakes). I think OP was referring to the massive leaky condo scandal of the 90s where vast numbers of buildings couldn't stand up to simple weather. It wasn't just the wood framing, but widely used water sealing practices were shoddy and allowed moisture infiltration in a vast number of buildings.

The fallout cost billions and many homeowners were straight up screwed as contractors and builders went under one after another.

Noise through floors and ceilings. Creaks and steps and thumps. These buildings all loosen up over time, and if you walk through one under construction you will understand when you see the C grade plywood, particleboard and chipboard.

And the worst thing about Vancouver's 1990s lowrise condos: Water damage. Unfortunately someone imported building plans from southern California which had never been tested in a climate with six months of rain...

(But this problem at least Seattle can probably avoid, since it's entirely possible to withstand the climate; you just need a different design.)

If you read the article there's a whole section on how Seattle had a similar problem. That's why all the new condos look so similar, there are very few materials that don't leak.

Leaks are fine--they happen to all buildings sooner or later. The key is to let the leaked water out of the building, which synthetic stucco of the late 1990s was terrible at. Today, if you want stucco in a wood framed building in BC you have to include an air gap between the stucco and the building itself, and that setup has no issues.

Same with brick and stone facades. If you have a sprinkler system where water gets directed onto the building (intentionally or not), there's a phenomenon called "Vapor Drive" which is essentially capillary action. Without the air gap between the facade material and the wood framing, that moisture goes in there and rots the wood.

http://mattrisinger.com/understanding-vapor-drive-in-reservo...

Seattle's 90s condos all had water damage too (not exaggerating either). Let's see what happens in 10 years.

Vancouver's condos all started leaking within 5 years of construction. With it being 15 years since the building codes changed and not a single similar problem, I think it's safe to say that the new building codes fixed it.

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