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Comment by mavhc | Hacker News Reader

The existing methods of building houses are terrible though. It's stupidly expensive to edit a house, they're designed and built as if it's still 1800.

Why does adding a socket into a wall cost more than $50? Should be able to just open the wall panel, plug in an extra cable, close panel, done.

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We see the divergence from aesthetics in wood shops, auto shops, and other building shops. Moveable panels, exposed circuitry/plumbing/gas lines. A home typically hides its utility parts behind solid objects (i.e. a wall) that need invasive cutting to reach. Even still, an electrician adds an outlet in the exact process you mention, but it's a little messier and costs $150.

Because people want nice plastered, painted and wallpapered walls?

Adding a socket is the easy bit. It's the putting everything back to how it was that's hard.

If you want plain panelled walls you could install that now. And have your $50 socket. Most people probably don't like that tradeoff.

well if they had more easily removable wall panels you could still decorate and access the inner wall

Seems strange that we'd optimize for making modifications easier, when such modifications are much fewer and farther between than the everyday living that fills the time between, during which people value a solid wall with no gaps or seams.

Of course, not everyone values the same things to the same degree, and a homeowner could cut a 4x8 piece of drywall into smaller pieces and have more easily removable panels like you're imagining.

Interior ceilings are often built as modular panels for this reason, and sometimes even floors. But walls, especially exterior walls, are engineered to serve multiple functions, such as acting as a moisture, thermal, and acoustic barrier, in addition to carrying utilities and structural loads. All of this is best served by arranging, and sealing different material layers carefully within the enclosure. Within the ruthless logic of cost optimization, incorporating modularity conflicts with building-code-regulated neccessities, and will only be used by some small percent of people, for some small percent of time.

> Why does adding a socket into a wall cost more than $50? Should be able to just open the wall panel, plug in an extra cable, close panel, done.

what are you envisioning? using cheap consumer power cables inside of walls, and paying extra to have unused sockets hidden away inside of walls for years/decades, just so that it's fast to add an outlet?

we use screw terminals inside of the wall because they're cheaper and more reliable than the socketed connections. and we use heavy gauge cable with thick jackets for safety.

2 parts, walls should be easier to open and close, that's the major point

Secondly a minor addition, if there were a standard for junctions of power cables, so they could easily be added to, that would be nice.

Then installing a socket would be: open wall, connect socket you just bought with standard junction connectors, close wall. $50

Rather than: cut a load of holes in walls, connect socket using annoying wiring techniques, fill in holes you made, plaster and repaint so that next time it'll cost all that money again. >>>$50

It still would in this system, the website states that you still need to add "plaster panels" or drywall if you're in the US which means everything will be taped, mudded and painted.

If you want easily accessible utilities then there are ways to build to code where all of that is visible and accessible, it just won't be pretty. Aesthetics or utility, pick one.

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