• GluWu@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    In America we have to keep our windows closed to keep out the fent smoke and bullets.

        • irmoz@reddthat.com
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          8 months ago

          They can go through shitty American drywall

          post brought to you by brick wall gang

        • greenteadrinker@midwest.social
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          8 months ago

          I think it’s a joke that American houses (in the eyes of Europeans) are made out of sticks (stud framing in the house) and paper (drywall is made from gypsum and has a paper backing)

          In European countries, their houses are made of tougher materials like stone, concrete, or some other material I’m forgetting about

          It’s a known thing in America that stray bullets end up in people’s houses (and sometimes their residents) when it’s an American holiday like 4th of July or Memorial Day

          • psud@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            America tends to build with the cheapest materials. So wood framed houses are clad in wood or plastic

            Australia copied a lot from America. Our houses also are wood framed, but we use brick cladding and concrete tile roofs

            New tech is more available now. If I were to build today it would be out of foamed plastic and reinforced concrete (as insulated concrete forms). And I’d use tilt/swing windows

            • anti-idpol action@programming.dev
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              8 months ago

              yeah in some states like the Tornado Alley or California (earthquakes) ig that might actually make more sense since sometimes such materials might withstand more force than brick

              • psud@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                Not an issue in Australia, but I bet brick stops or slows bullets more than wood

                Our brick construction doesn’t do well in earthquakes. If a roof is going to fall on you, you don’t want it made of tiles

  • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    While I agree that our windows are generally superior from a functional perspective, the Americans have us beat in the fact that you can’t install a window AC unit in our windows.

    Hence we get to just die in the increasingly common heat waves. Not great - we’ve got to figure this one out.

    Before portable ACs are mentioned - I’ll point out that they have terrible efficiency, and connecting the tube to blow out the hot air is still terrible with European windows.

    • ExLisper@linux.community
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      8 months ago

      Window mounted units are still terrible for comfort. External AC unit is like 300 euro + 300 euro for installation. It’s not a big investment and you get totally silent unit. In Europe people will use portable units if it’s short term and install external one if it’s permanent.

      • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml
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        8 months ago

        The quoted prices I saw for installation were a lot higher, more like 700 euro, but that probably depends on the cost of labour where you are.

        There are also non-monetary aspects to this issue - I’m not allowed to make any modifications to my facade on account of it being made out of asbestos, for example. I’d have to get a specialist to cut the hole to make that work. It’s also a bit tricky to fit in an outside unit - or inside unit for that matter - on my walls.

        I’m in complete agreement that mini splits are superior, but the downsides do exist and need to be acknowledged.

        • ExLisper@linux.community
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          8 months ago

          Yep, I’m just saying that 90% of people in Europe will simply go with external AC. Where I live most new apartments simply come with central AC installed and roof top units. But that’s in southern Spain, AC is a must.

          • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml
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            8 months ago

            Absolutely. I’m speaking mostly from a Swedish apartment-perspective, where ACs have been optional basically forever, but the climate crisis is quickly making them more and more mandatory each year.

    • 9point6@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Mini split heat pumps.

      All you need is a 3cm hole in the wall to run a refrigerant line from the outside heat pump unit to the wall unit.

      Window AC units are pretty poor efficiency too, IIRC

        • realitista@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          There are the freestanding air conditioners. They have a hose you put in the window. There are plastic seals you can buy that fit in the windows to seal off the exhaust. They aren’t perfect but they are better than nothing.

    • Marcbmann@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I’m in the US and have these windows. They have screens. They’re also not that special. I prefer the regular windows

  • Vespair@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    They aren’t standard in the US, but I promise you these windows exist here. My parents installed them in their home

    • TheSanSabaSongbird@lemdro.id
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      8 months ago

      Anyone who has worked in high-end construction can tell you that they’re very common in rich people’s houses. The reason you don’t see them more often is that most people don’t want to pay for them. Americans tend to value the size of their houses more than anything else, and since McMansion developers know this, windows are one very easy way to cut costs.

      They’re also a lot more common in older homes (like mine) because if you’re going to replace all your windows (which you should do for energy reasons), you might as well get the good ones.

  • Fal@yiffit.net
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    8 months ago

    Lol wtf? Why can’t you get a light breeze without tilting windows?

    • TheSanSabaSongbird@lemdro.id
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      8 months ago

      Yeah I’m a little confused too. The thing with windows is that you get what you pay for. It’s ridiculous to think that there’s some kind of window design that’s magically available in Europe but not in the US. There are probably designs that are more common in different parts of the world, but it’s absolutely not the case that if a homeowner wants to pay for it they can’t get whatever they want in the US.

      I have to think this post was made by someone who knows nothing about construction.

  • Mr_Blott@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I asked a builder why this was, and he said that the lateral forces created by a slightly tilted window has just enough force to rip the entire side of a house clean off due to houses having the structural integrity of wet newspaper, which is the preferred construction method in the States

    • LeroyJenkins@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      can’t tell if this is a troll or not. youre telling me people outside the states think we live in wet newspaper?

      • Mr_Blott@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Well not wet newspaper exactly but I heard you have walls so thin the neighbours can hear your cell division

        • AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml
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          8 months ago

          Depends on where you live. The US is huge and has a wide variety of building codes. I personally never hear my neighbors

        • LeroyJenkins@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          I mean it exists for sure, but not something people expect when moving in places. usually correlates to the cost and age. decibels wise, it’s not too different than Europe imo. I lived in France and mother fuckers be yelling from their windows all day. I also lived in Germany and the walls are thick as shit, but mother fuckers have their windows open all day and yodelling. if you live near people, you’ll hear them some way or another. renting in the US is also much simpler. fuck Germany’s renting culture shit.

          • Mr_Blott@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            You’ve… you’ve never been out of your state, have you? 😂

            People don’t…shout at eachother out of windows! What sort of savage would do that?

            Oh, the ones in the movies you watched about Yurp. 😂

      • M137@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Hitting a wall and having any chance of the wall breaking isn’t really a thing outside the US. Everyone elsewhere notices that a lot in movies and videos. It’s not uncommon for children outside America to ask adults why Americans have paper walls. People being mad and punching a wall and putting a fist-sized hole in it, falling and breaking the wall or throwing anything and the thing getting stuck in the wall. In most of the world it’s you or the thing hitting the wall that’ll break, not the wall itself.

        • TheHarpyEagle@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          To clarify, the paper (and rock underneath it) are not the structural part of the house, they just cover the actual structural parts (the studs) and provide a pocket to fill with insulation.

        • Fal@yiffit.net
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          8 months ago

          The wall isn’t the structural integrity part of the house. And that’s for interior walls. You’re getting your opinions from the questions that children ask in other countries?

      • pascal@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        You know that tool called stud finder that you use in America if you ever think about hanging a picture on the wall, or a TV, otherwise you risk your wall falling down with anything attached to it?

        Never seen a stud finder in Europe.

      • Kilgore Trout@feddit.it
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        8 months ago

        It’s an intentional exaggeration, but it’s true that houses in the US are usually built without a proper foundation and with thin walls.

        • Misconduct@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          They’re built differently depending on where you live in the states and your environment. I know y’all love staying ignorant to feel superior but this one is still pretty dumb. People in Japan practically have paper walls and I don’t see you guys all up your snobby butts about that. Xenophobic turds. It would take people 10 seconds to learn why some of our houses are built the way they are but they won’t bother if they haven’t by now because they prefer the ignorance.

  • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
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    8 months ago

    Ah, but that classic wood-on-wood sliding window, where all that stands between a destructive crash is an irreplaceable rope installed inside walls when the house was built.

    • TheSanSabaSongbird@lemdro.id
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      8 months ago

      They aren’t that difficult to repair if you have basic carpentry skills. All you have to do is take the sash out and open the side of the frame and you’ll have access to the weight and pulley. They’re designed to be pretty easy to do. YouTube probably has hundreds of videos on it. You just want to be careful about lead paint if it’s an old house and you’re producing dust or disturbing old paint.

  • XEAL@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    Bruh many old homes in Europe don’t have these fancy windows.

    Source: WHERE ARE MY FUCKING TILTING WINDOWS!?

    • lud@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      Yeah, tilting and flipping and all all other crazy stuff is a fairly new thing .

      • HopFlop@discuss.tchncs.de
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        8 months ago

        I have never seen non-tilting windows. At least in Germany, pretty much every house has these. These windows were invented around 1950 after all…

        • lud@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          They are fairly common but not everywhere here.

          But my country wasn’t destroyed in two world wars so that might be the reason we still have old windows in old buildings.

  • vsis@feddit.cl
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    8 months ago

    Southamerican living in Spain here.

    First time I saw those windows my mind blew to pieces.

  • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works
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    8 months ago

    Lite breezes were great maybe 30 yrs ago. With modern heat waves and obesity you gonna sweat like a mofo 'les you figure out how to put an AC up in that tilt.

    • TheSanSabaSongbird@lemdro.id
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      8 months ago

      You need to go through a window company and have them custom-made. They’ll come over to your house and take measurements then build them at their factory and then install them. It will take a few weeks and will be expensive, but for my money it’s worth it.

      Where I live Andersen is probably the best as they come with a forever warranty on everything including the glass itself, but they may or may not be in your area. There are plenty of other reputable companies as well. Again, this is not a cheap option.

        • TheSanSabaSongbird@lemdro.id
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          8 months ago

          The cool thing about Andersen is that even if the glass on your window gets accidentally broken for whatever reason, it’s still covered by their forever warranty and they will come and repair it for free. The downside is that they are, again, very expensive.

          I personally think it’s worth it and have Andersen windows on my house.