Thom, There's an apartment building in Rome that I'm told has been continuously occupied since the time of the Republic (the one ending with Gaius Julius Caesar so before even I was born).
On Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 8:24 AM, Thom McMahon <[email protected]> wrote: > 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) > -- Ron Greenman Instructor Fire Protection Engineering Bates Technical College Tacoma, WA Member: SFPE, ASCET, NFPA, AFSA, NFSA AFAA, WSAFM _______________________________________________ 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)
