wrote
Rod Speed wrote

Concrete block is the go to material for houses these days here.

Not here, tho it should be. Brick veneer is still by far the majority
here.

It is easier to get to the 150+ MPH wind code with
CBS. Brick would come from 600 miles away

We used to have a local brickworks but don't anymore.

They couldn't compete with much bigger brickworks
variety of bricks wise and on price too even with the
cost of shipping from hundreds of km away.

and is far more labor intensive than block.

Yeah massive great 8x8x16" blocks go up much more quickly.

Bit of a bugger lifting them up to eye level at the end of the
day in the top course tho. The bricklayers don't like them.

Building is not for wimps.

It is with stick built and to a lesser extent bricks.

You also have trouble with the wind code.

Not here. Brick veneer and double brick works fine.

You probably don't even have a wind code

We do actually. We get the same result you do,
we just call them cyclones. Wiped out Darwin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Tracy
It was mostly stick built. We get not quite to
dramatic ones quite a few times every summer.
The one that took out vast numbers of trees
which had been fine for decades here wasn't
actually a cyclone but was very destructive.

but how do you do uplift protection with bricks?

Don't need to, the bricks have ties to the frame
behind it with brick veneer and external brick
walls have legal requirement for peers etc.

With block you can pour the top 16" solid concrete
with four #5 rebar in it that is rebar tied to the
foundation steel via poured cells in the block.

That isnt required here.

You probably just use the brick for a
decorative coating on the block walls.

Never seen that done here.

Tile roofs sound great but the reality is they don't
seem to hold up much better than top grade shingles

That's bull****. Never seen one need to be replaced here.

You must not be looking.

Fraid I do. They stand out like dogs balls.

We do them properly in the first place.

and they are far more expensive to
fix when a coconut hits it at 100 MPH.

That's bull**** too. You just have some extras and
replace what gets lost. No flying coconuts here.

Uh huh.

They are still real popular with the northerners
who come down and think that is the "Florida
Style". Zorro ain't from Florida.

The only problem with metal is the price.

Just as true of shingles compared with a tent.

It is at least twice as much as the best shingles

Bull**** when you include the cost of what is under
the shingles and the labour. And metal lasts lots
more than twice as long as the best shingles.

and 40-50% more than tile the last time I priced it out.

Nope, and ditto with whats under them and the labour cost.

These days you need the same membrane
under all of them (like "Ice and Water")

Not under metal decking you don't.

You really build cracker boxes down there don't you?

Nothing even remotely like a cracker box
you pathetic excuse for a bull**** artist.