One of the major differences between the US and the rest of the (Developed) world is our prolific use of wood in buildings. Not just homes but many small commercial buildings. The "It's cheap and affordable" has been the cry of GC's everywhere here, when in truth they have been reluctant to learn new ways to construct buildings using anything but wood.
The second major stumbling block is that while we look at our homes as an asset, we assume a short term asset at best. Americans move like every 10 years. Here in steamboat it's like every 5, so I guess there are some people somewhere only moving every 15 to make up for that. In any case we are not like many of our European associates where families buy homes and live in them for generations. Even our agricultural homesteads are being sold off more often as commercial farming, and the exodus of younger generations makes life on the farm a lifetime limited option. In any case what I'm trying to say is that 13D gives us time to leave that "temporary" abode, with the full expectation of re-building or buying, Bigger, Better, Newer! Contents usually are the source of residential fires, be they stoves, heaters or cigarettes. We don't look at saving the building, because it was just a stopover anyway. And being built of wood, once the contents go, the building shortly follows. So while 13D can give us the opportunity to "Move on UP' earlier, the added cost of full protection will never make sense to Americans, as long as we build with wood, because the cost is not "A little More" it's a significant amount more. Thom McMahon, SET Firetech, Inc. 2560 Copper Ridge Dr P.O. Box 882136 Steamboat Springs, CO 80488 Tel: 970-879-7952 Fax: 970-879-7926 _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field)
