The Invention that Accidentally Made McMansions

Comments · 4.6K

• HO

  @Howard-Kevin · 1 year ago

  An unfortunate downside to gang nail plates is their contribution to sudden roof collapse in fire situations, making it more dangerous for firefighters to attempt on-the-roof operations. The large surface area of the plate conducts heat into the wood joint area, encouraging it to burn first and fail faster than one fastened with nails.

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• DR

  @DrCassette · 1 year ago

  Over here in Germany these prefabricated trusses held together with gang nail plates became known for being the central failure point of many standardized discount store buildings in case of fire. As I understood it, once the roof space has reached a certain temperature the gang nail plates (at least the ones used over here) tend to just let go, causing sudden and unpredictable roof collapse. This is why fire departments will not enter these types of store buildings when they assume the fire has spread into the roof space above the shop floor.

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• BO

  @bobjoatmon1993 · 1 year ago

  Banks had a big effect on house size, my mother was a very successful Realtor and one of her gripes eas banks discouraging loans for smaller affordable homes and pushing people to buy bigger more expensive homes by convincing tgem they could afford it... Afford it by living paycheck to paycheck with no cushion though. Yes, she made more commission wirh a more expensive home but since aftee school id go to stay in her office break room i heard with my own ears her tell clients that it was better to buy smaller than they could, so they had that cushion and could always sell and uograde later. She prided herself on doing right for her client's vs maximizing profits.... And later her partner pushed her out because she wasnt maxing profit at the expense of buyers. Interesting life lessons for a kid.

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• HI

  @HijkLop · 1 year ago

  Fun fact: after ww2 The Levitt family (father and 2 sons) built most of the homes (cape cod style and ranchers) in Levittown PA and near Long Island NY. They built Over 140,000 homes. I do work on many of those Levittown homes today. Most of fascia boards on these homes aren’t even wood, underneath the aluminum capping is like cardboard. When it’s rotted it literally just breaks apart like a cookie.

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• RI

  @RingerStudio · 1 year ago (edited)

  The one positive of truss plates is that it enabled me (a roofing contractor by trade) to build my own house and do the framing (with my roofing crew) ourselves. It is not impossible to learn roof framing, but it is SO much easier with trusses. But Mcmansions as a whole are the bane of my existence as a contractor trying to waterproof impossible angles with valleys terminating in walls and the such. I can waterproof them with the help of water & ice membrane because the siding is not yet installed enabling me to run the membrane up the walls. But...when these houses get re-roofed due to age or a hail storm, the next contractor will not be able to waterproof them near as easily. Long-term maintenance is rarely considered. I built a two-story colonial - simple yet elegant roof lines that never goes out of style!

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• W_

  @w_lemay · 1 year ago

  A gang nail plate cut a gash into my leg when I was using an unused wooden truss as a ladder for a treehouse I built during the construction of my parents&apos; house as an 8-year-old kid, when I slipped and tried to catch myself. &nbsp;I still have the scar.<br><br>21 years later, I am now in graduate school for architecture at IIT in Chicago.<br><br>Thanks to this video, I finally have a name for the piece of metal that left that scar, and another explanation for why I don&apos;t like McMansions.

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• WH

  @Whisper555 · 1 year ago

  Thank you for providing non-clickbait content.<br><br>You actually delivered on your premise, which is a refreshing change in this day and age.

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• KE

  @keithalaird · 1 year ago

  Several years ago, the Delaware Association of Professional Engineers ( their license board) had an article in their newsletter reminding engineers to be very cautious about signing and sealing structural plans for McMansions. &nbsp;In really simple terms the Residential wood framing requirements offer two compliance paths. &nbsp;You can do either a &nbsp;complete engineering analysis and specify each connection. &nbsp;Or you can rely on the prescriptive requirements, which typically say something like use &nbsp;three X sized nails on Y centers for this application. &nbsp;The problem was that the prescriptive requirements &nbsp;are still assuming a fairly modest size building with modestly sized rooms. &nbsp;While many interior partitions in a conventionally sized house are not officially load bearing, they act as &nbsp;internal stiffeners (sort of an egg crate effect). &nbsp;With these enormous McMansions with their two and a half story great rooms and 20 x 30 master bedrooms, you don’t have the internal stiffness. &nbsp;On top of that, a lot of builders are using much weaker sheathing materials. &nbsp; Anyway, there were some fairly spectacular residential structural failures that were attributed to using the prescriptive code sections outside of their range.

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• DH

  @DHD-p4v · 1 year ago

  In the late 1960s my father was working in Illinois for a company that built simple buildings for farmers that were primarily wooden posts covered with aluminum siding; incredibly simple construction. &nbsp;But I remember him bringing home a few of these gang nail plates (I guess when his company had just started using them) and wanting me to marvel with him at their incredible elegance and strength. &nbsp;He told me that these were a bit part of the future in building construction, but I don&apos;t think he was envisioning McMansions.

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• JA

  @jamesslick4790 · 1 year ago

  My house is from the &apos;70s (1875!) It&apos;s a modest middle class rowhouse in the city with 3 occupied floors, and It&apos;s the opposite of &quot;open floor plan&quot;. It has many small rooms and dozens of doors, For this I&apos;m THANKFUL. Victorian architecture has been criticized for excess, but that&apos;s in mansions, not normal middle class homes, The architects then were not idiots, The high ceilings, tall windows and rooms that ALL have doors in my house are pre- A/C climate control! &nbsp;I can control the temp in every room, (entirely &quot;ignoring&quot; any room being unused at the moment..) and the floor plan allows more privacy than modern homes (important when my kids still lived at home) and all available space is used, Being a &quot;Mansard&quot; roof design, the otherwise wasted &quot;attic&quot; has two full bedrooms,. I live in Pittsburgh, So hurricane winds are not a &quot;thing&quot;, But I&apos;m gonna say that the 1870&apos;s design WAS &quot;sustainable&quot; as 150 years is a good &quot;ROI&quot;.

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• AD

  @adventurefuel5172 · 1 year ago (edited)

  As a 60 year old builder I’m very familiar with these truss plates. &nbsp;I think they are fantastic, and this examination of the larger effects they had (or contributed to) is just fascinating. &nbsp;It’s both educational and entertaining. &nbsp;Well done. &nbsp;This is the kind of content we need more of.

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• BC

  @bcornels · 1 year ago

  This seems like an example of Jevon’s Paradox, where efficiency makes it easier to over-consume a resource.

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