07-01-2015, 11:50 PM
(07-01-2015, 11:21 PM)SCN-3_NULL Wrote:(07-01-2015, 10:45 PM)Nepeta Wrote: Well shit.This is why our building are made from steel reinforced concrete and bricks, who would think thin walls of wood with insulation foam is a good idea?
Sooo, it rained REALLY badly last night, and a kid my mom babysits sorta...accidentally kicked a hole in the wall.
Turns out there was a leak from the roof and the entire wall has been getting wet.
We ran out of there faster than a sanic.
The engineer who is able to carefully calculate strong and lightweight load bearing sections of either wood or steel framing instead of having to deal with the weight of monoliths of stone that are always looking for a place to fall.
The builders who can have a wooden house's frame and exterior complete in perhaps a week vs the several months of pouring concrete or bricklaying it would take to make solid masonry walls.
The plumber who can easily hide his pipes between the plywood and sheetrock in the hollow insulated space, and easily access them again later on when necessary.
The electrician who does not have to lay out conduit when he can simply thread his cables through the same hollows as the plumber and have it all out of sight but still accessible if necessary to repair.
The eventual owner of the house, who is very glad for the cost savings of all four above professionals being passed on to him, and the additional cost savings during the life of the house of having hollow walls lined with insulation to offer energy savings during the coldest and hottest months compared to the amount of heat lost to the environment by an uninsulated masonry wall
And most important of all, the maintenance man who must someday bash open the wall to make repairs or upgrades to the house's structure and modern systems. With sheetrock on stud construction this is as simple as swinging a hammer, making the changes, then bolting up a new panel of sheetrock and blending it in to the rest of the room with joint compound and paint.
Ultimately, the lesson here is you should be alert to the condition of your house. Leaking pipes or a leaking roof will make visible evidence of damage long before a section of sheetrock collapses, giving you plenty of warning to find and fix the problem. And in a case where a section did collapse, the studs are exposed and probably show significant water damage. If there was any wiring near this water-damaged section I would expect it to have been affected as well and need to be removed and replaced.
Feel free to PM me if anything is broken