edit: and even if some of the wood has rotten you can almost always just replace or sister up that piece and be absolutely fine.
edit: and even if some of the wood has rotten you can almost always just replace or sister up that piece and be absolutely fine.
https://imgur.com/user/AlphaStructural
What's interesting to me is you have Europeans marveling at houses built of flimsy wood instead of strong brick and concrete. Yet except for occasional water and termite damage what's failing in these houses is the concrete and brick foundations. Not the wood framing.
I wouldn't want a concrete house in the US without inspections so strict that the inspectors basically dictate when & how concrete may be poured, and/or laws explicitly breaking corporate liability protections for failure of concrete within some long time span, or otherwise ensuring that builders care very much that their structures last several decades without needing repair. I suspect they'd be crazy-expensive as a result.
In Florida a slab foundation and cinder block walls is what you want in a place with Hurricanes and a high water table.
On the California coast you want a stick built house. Because of earthquakes.
North east the frost line goes down several feet.
Lot of places you have expansive soils which will totally wreck a masonry building.
Also the problem the local workforce will be familiar with local designs. And likely to make mistakes if forced to build something different.