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Comment by dekhn | Hacker News Reader

Yep, this was one of my great enlightenments: no matter how good or professional a wall looks, it's really just drywall mounted on wood, some cracks sealed, and then painted over.

When the walls are off in the house is the best time to get anything done. Sometimes I don't even want to put the walls back on- for example, an unfinished garage with exposed studs is very convenient.

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Maybe where you live. All of our walls (and I mean all) are solid concrete.

Hence one reason why DIY is nearly unheard of in most of Europe and Asia (that and lack of space for tools).

Come on most Americans are completely clueless DIY wise compared to most French people.

Cette Vieille Maison is one of my favorite shows.

Cite?

How much of this is just the hacker news demographic skewing perceptions? For a lot of people here, it makes far more sense to hire someone to do home maintenance while you continue to work on a well-paid technology job. Doing a lot of home repair is a hobby/choice, not something you're doing out of necessity.

For techies, for sure. Also most techies (in my experience) don’t have a lot of exposure or hands on with blue collar type stuff, which most of this is.

Every town in America has at least one, if not several Home Depot’s, Lowe’s, OSH’s, etc. and at least 75-90% of the traffic at any given time is private home owners, not contractors. Americans do a LOT of DIY.

There isn’t any real comparison anywhere else I’ve been able to find, and I’ve looked. Not as much in France, but Germany, Switzerland, Italy, India, Bulgaria (closest to having something like that), Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, etc.

Europeans are the most inclined to modify stuff around their homes in my experience. In Asia I don’t see it at all.

Yes, here in SE Asia almost nobody who owns a home does the work, there's a very strong culture of hiring someone to do it.

How much of that is just a cost thing? Is hiring people to do home maintenance inexpensive and easily available where you are? That's usually not the case in American cities.

Some of it is cost. And almost everyone knows a handyman or somebody in the neighbourhood who is an electrician, concrete guy, tile guy, &c. But part of it is cultural. It's considered a form of virtue signalling to have a bunch of servants or workers on your property. Most middle class people also have maids, nannies, drivers, and such.

I may someday use shiplap instead of drywall in specific rooms, simply because you can make it so you can take it off and put it back on relatively easily.

I have a couple of large plywood sheets in closets for this purpose. Paint it the same color and nobody knows

One of the big benefits to drywall, that often gets missed in the typical libel it gets, is its fire resistance. It's basically a water-containing gypsum powder.

Some areas where plywood would be preferrable for durability, like a garage, are often prohibited from using something other than sheetrock due to the fire risk. Probably not a big deal unless you have entire walls of it.

They should make some kind of drywall panels with easily-removed fasteners at the corners.

Oh yeah that's a good point. Mine is limited to a couple of areas where there are or will be plumbing and network cables.

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