Comments by "A Vishnevsky" (@avishnevsky7394) on "The Aesthetic City" channel.

@a_ya5555 I own apartment in house that is 70 years old, neighborhood has 150 years old houses from bricks. Moreover, even low quality brick can last hundreds of years if you will protect it properly from water (because frost damages bricks, concrete, some stones etc by freezing moisture inside the material). Educate yourself. Current video is manipulative attempt to promote particular manufacturer. Building modern house in Europe from expensive stone just to cover it with insulation (mandatory for new houses in many countries) is absolutely idiotic idea.
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Stone wall during winter makes house very uncomfortable (or expensive to live in). Building houses from stones requires a lot of expertise. Bricks are a bit better, although insulation if required (unless you don't have snow during winter). Wood lags houses is joke, it requires a lot of maintenance and has zero advantages comparing to modern house from bricks or any other blocks. For example, aerated concrete in perfect alternative to obsolete materials you are mentioned. It is cheap, very technological to build from, fire resistant. Wall from aerated concrete has several times better insulation comparing to brick wall of the same size.
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@a_ya5555 did your builder mention the reason why this can happen? I live Ukraine (East Europe), we have cold winer here (up to -20 degrees Celsius) and no hurricanes. The main challenge here is to protect walls from water, otherwise the frost will tear it apart eventually. Paint, plaster, resin etc will help to preserver bricks. Building outer non-bearing thin wall with stones (or using tales from stone) will help as well. This video promotes bearing walls from stone. You can do it in places where insulation is not an issue (water never freezes), but in this circumstances bricks are fine too! Pennsylvania's climate is close to Ukraine's, stone walls insulation is mandatory (unless it is from summer time use only cabine or shed). Once you have modern insulation of the walls (it must be outer insulation, not inside the house!), you walls have extra protection from water. Zero reason to use expensive stones😆 I spend some time on research: i renovated and insulated my old house (20 years old brick walls in perfect condition) and build brand new house in 2023 (aerated concrete, popular modern material, recommend it! google it if you are interested in materials and don't know it) because previous house was destroyed by russian occupants in March 2022. Regarding Florida, there are hurricanes and sea water (salt can damage reinforced concrete - rebar starts to rust). Bricks can last way more longer there without extra protection.
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@a_ya5555 for some reason my detailed replay didn't appear here. Frost tears apart bricks, concrete and some rocks due to moisture freeze (it takes multiple cycles). But if you will protect the walls from water - by paint, plater or cover bearing walls with insulation (I live in Ukraine, climate here is comparable with Pennsylvania and insulation is must here), the walls will last longer (no limitation). This video promotes stones for bearing walls without insulation, it gives no advantages, cost more and does not preserve warm at winter (winter bill will be huge). Using stones in Florida also pointless - it does not have frosty winters and bricks will be fine there (hurricanes and salty sea water aside). Number one material in Ukraine for houses is aerated concrete, about half of new houses are built from it.
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@a_ya5555 "done 100% perfect" - nope, just paint\plaster the wall. It is mandatory part of brick wall technology, that often omitted due to cost reduction or low professionalism. Winter in Ukraine is comparable to winter in Pennsylvania, we have HUGE amount of very old buildings, brick are fine. Quite sure that there are even more 100+ years old bricks buildings in USA. By the way, there are special liquids for bricks, stones and concrete that prevent material soaking the water. Modern stuff. Mandatory for outer brick walls.
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@a_ya5555 brick, concrete and some stones requires maintenance in order to last long time. No-one complains on timber quality of outer decorative panels in situation when owner didn't paint them from day one. Same with bricks. Considering stones, let's assume we are designing a house in Pennsylvania. This house has two levels, walls are 200 mm (8 inch) stone blocks. This house during winter is comparable to shed for garden tools, constantly wet walls are guaranteed. How you will insulate the walls?
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@a_ya5555 in Ukraine, the main material for houses during last decade is aerated concrete. I built my house using this material. But it is irrelevant to insulation problem. Hard stone, concrete or brick walls require insulation, and the cheapest solution in Ukraine is to use polystyrene foam for outer insulation (although it is flammable and there are limitations). Polystyrene foam shits are glued to walls using special cement-based glue, pressed to walls with special dowels for insulation, covered with 5 mm cement-based plaster and painted. This insulation also gives extra protection for the wall from water. Using stones is pointless. Way more expensive solution is to add outer decorative wall to protect insulation. This is valid use-case for stones, but this wall is non-bearing decoration (this video promotes bearing stone walls).
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@a_ya5555 extruded polystyrene foam (XPS, pink one from home depot) is twice expensive comparing to regular polystyrene foam. XPS is good to insulate foundation of the building of do floor insulation in garage. Having outer wall from bricks, concrete or any other heavy blocks makes house foundation way more expensive (up to two times, depends on foundation type). And it is also extra cost of work. No wonder why houses are so expensive in USA! I built my house in 2023 for 100 000 dollars (55 m2) on empty field, and i overpaid due to invasion into Ukraine. My walls are 400 mm (16 inch) aerated concrete, zero additional insulation. Foundation is 300 mm (12 inch) concrete "wall" 0.8 meter deep in the ground (don't know the correct English therm for this type of foundation, it is the simplest one), insulated by 100 mm XPS. It one of the cheapest combinations available, a bit cheaper is to make 200 mm (8 inch) walls from a bit ticker aerated concrete and insulate it with 100 mm (4 inch) polystyrene foam (foundation will be 200 mm concrete and 100 mm XPS). Timber frame walls cost same or even more (depends on outer decorative material, acceptable quality is very expensive).
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@a_ya5555 i don't know what CMU is (google suggested some university 😄). Regular polystyrene foam looks like pressed (or glued) mass of white crumbles, often used in packaging as soft protective layer. It has great insulation capacity, building material has bigger density comparing to packaging material. In Ukraine, XPS is exact twice more expensive comparing to regular dense polystyrene. For example, my floor is built next way: 200 mm (8 inches) of compacted soil as filler, around 100 mm (4 inches) of concrete, 100 mm of polystyrene dense foam, around 100 mm of armed concrete, finish. Reliable and flameproof solution. Foundation has no mechanical connection with floor. Considering the price of wall material. In my country, concrete bocks (with empty space inside) is 20-25% cheaper comparing to aerated concrete block of comparable size. But the cost of filling blocks with concrete makes this type of wall more expensive.
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@a_ya5555 two typical modern solutions. Insulated "brick" wall: 250 mm (10 inch) bearing brick wall, at least 100mm (4 inch) of mineral wool insulation, around 1 inch ventilation gap, 125 mm (5 inch) decorative brick wall (nice expensive bricks). This all will be placed on foundation, so it must match the size (20 inches - 500 mm). By the way, instead of 250 mm bricks inner bearing wall we can go with 200 mm aerated concrete or 190 mm concrete blocks. ----------------- Insulated aerated concrete wall: 200 mm (8 inches) aerated concrete blocks bearing wall, 200 mm concrete foundation. At least 100 mm XPS on foundation and 100 mm regular polystyrene foam on the wall + plaster + paint. This wall weight is several times smaller compared to previous. 20 inches tick foundation for first wall VS 8 inches foundation for second option. ----------------- That's the reason why having outer decorative wall is expensive. Insulation of bearing wall from the inside is huge NO due to moisture on insulation outer surface + it takes valuable inner space + proper insulation requires more materials.
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Thanks for adequate comment! This video is manipulative advertising of particular manufacturer. Moisture freezing will eventually tear apart majority of stone-like materials. Instead of using expensive and inconvenient materials (such as stone), it is way more cheaper to use modern bricks\concrete (i personaly advocate of aerated concrete) and protect it from moisture using paint, plaster etc.
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@kiabtoomlauj6249 it is totally wrong to say that you can build only "few stores" tall buildings. There are plenty of on 6-9 store buildings with brick bearing walls in my country, same can be achieved with stones. Just add reinfirced concrete belts to even pressure distribution and you are fine to build up the walls.
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Very manipulative video that promotes particular manufacturer. No sane person would spend huge amount of money for nice stone walls to cover it with insulation (mandatory if you have snow and frost). If you consider building new house, use modern materials and go for energy saving. Regarding concrete, rust of rebar is sign of low quality work.
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