> the poor quality work
I keep hearing that, but those who are in the trade listen to engineers who have done real analysis. What looks good often is bad, what looks bad is often good.
I keep hearing that, but those who are in the trade listen to engineers who have done real analysis. What looks good often is bad, what looks bad is often good.
It's not like this is some slum. They're 600k townhouses a few blocks from city hall in downtown Dallas. I kind of regret deciding to live in the middle of the city at this point. The builder had to fix our water main for free when it was discovered it had a joint running through where the driveway meets out foundations, causing it to split when the blocks sheered in cold weather. The guy that came out to fix it (the builder's son no less) told me townhouse construction was a joke. It's impossible to find a legit tradesman who will do it. Apparently they all prefer the suburbs. I guess putting up pre-fab houses is faster and more profitable or whatever. So we get the lowest common denominator fraudsters living downtown. I'm kind of amazed some of these guys are still alive. I've been watching a construction project next door for a while. They broke ground three years ago and finally put walls up last month. Instead of a real cherry picker, dude's were using some kind of four-story forklift and had a wood crate on top of it with one wall ripped off and they were using that for work. No safety harnesses. A guy the other day was doing window work on a 60 foot ladder, very top, with one person holding it, and he was reaching a good 4 feet to his left to mess with I think a dryer vent. Again, no safety harness.
I'm reasonably sure "poor quality work" is an accurate description of what is happening here.
(But maybe it is just cheaper.)
Better? No idea. Although there might be less to screw up unless someone cost-saves by not installing the spec tape (it really is necessary).
ZIP will let water vapor out, so your walls won't rot out. So if you want your house to last OSB is actually worse (though OSB houses have lasted a long time with no problems so this is again on the margins).