American ones are made of plywood while African ones are made of mawe.
America ni nyumba ya carton/plywood. It rots after some years.
Africa
The stones and house last forever.
This encourages renovations and rebuilding
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Also consider extreme weather variations and availability of building materials
How would you like to rebuild your mansion after 20yrs because it has been eaten by termites and fungi.
Meanwhile stone buildings last forever.
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A house should not be built to last forever. Even a human being lives for only a few decades
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In europe they also have extreme weather but use stone. That is how we adopted british building standards of using stone.
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Dont be fooled by the stones, hata hiyo ya mwafrika still needs minor or interior refurbishments every 5-7yrs, a major renovation every 15yrs and a structural overhaul every 25-30yrs
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No house lasts forever, whatever the building material you elect to use to build it. Nature quickly reclaims all houses left disused or unmaintained.
You underestimate even the simple act of sweeping or mopping a house, heck even simply occupying it, and operating its rooms by just using them.
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Humans may live for a few decades but there will be offspring for generations to come. If our ancestors had build such houses we wouldnt be chasing 50x100 plots to build houses, hio pesa ya plots and construction or mortgages could have been used for other investments.
Nyumba za buruburu are about 40yrs old. So have they been structurally overhauled? I am sure the only maintenance has been repainting and maybe changing the corroded water tank.
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Mdau those roofs have undergone some form of maintanence usually relaying the tiles. bathrooms as well, wall and floor finished to replace the terrazzo as well as kitchen cabinetry. replacement of the louvre windows and marine ply doors.
The houses that have not undergone these overhauls you can visibly see their dilapidated states.
Don’t be fooled. Many of the brick houses are made of wood/plywood and then have a layer of red bricks outside for aesthetics and water proofing. Others use the hollow concrete blocks then use the red bricks on the outside.
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Replacing a kitchen, tiles and other maridadi is different from having to rebuild a rotten wooden house or preventing it from collapsing after its been eaten by termites and fungi.
I dont know what you are on about, Reinforced concrete as a material has only been around last 150-200yrs max… Previously all houses were timber framed even those made of stone had timber decked flooring structures. So those problems were always there ,if the houses weren’t maintained.
My point is that nyumba ya mawe ni bora kushinda nyumba ya mbao/plywood vile huyo mzungu amesema.
Wooden house are warmer in snow season
Kumbe uko na akili ?
