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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   2777 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 12, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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We do need to build more, because the UK has the smallest, ugliest houses (barring some good stock inhabited by some rich people and/or pre-1920ish in construction) in the West. We need to be razing entire neighborhoods of shitty 1930s-1970s semi detached streets and replacing them with much larger, better homes, which will require more land.

Since that kind of demolition is going to get blocked on environmentalist grounds, the best option is just to build more and better in the hope that these ugly places collapse in value and homeowners lobby the government to be allowed to demolish and replace them.

The UK has the most retarded wall design that it needs to abandon first, though. Cavity walls suck, because you're sandwiching the insulation layer between two layers of masonry. You'll want to replace the insulation in a couple of decades and this means you'll have to dismantle the façade to get the old insulation out.

Either make the inner leaf warm enough that you don't need additional insulation (AAC or good honeycomb bricks) or replace the outer leaf with stucco or a thin façade of brick-shaped tiles that hangs off the inner leaf.

Forgive me, I thought you were arguing for density. Partly from pattern recognition, partly because you appeared to be expecting resistance from people who 'live in large single-family homes in locales whose character would be damaged by large-scale construction'.

I don't think I've ever seen people arguing for less density, or for replacing awful postwar buildings. I always thought this kind of thing didn't happen because left-wingers are pro-density on principle and builders are pro-density on profit grounds. I think that people in general would be more keen on this, and would be more keen to suspend environmental concerns if the results looked good.

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