Decrease In The Quality of Construction Materials

Let’s read about in which construction materials there has been a decrease in the quality.

The statement can not be generalized. However large requirements, high and cutthroat competition, over-dependence on factor safety in design, availability of alternate materials, and such other economic factors lead to compromise in selecting high quality of material. Get the best quality construction materials from a construction supply online shop.

In the US lumber prices have gone way up while quality, at least with the dimensional lumber, has gone way down. You can still find good plywood even though a lot of it is pure junk. Lumber? Expensive and junk. You will hear people say that the pandemic has hampered production or the demand for housing has increased demand, or that the now routine summer forest fires have reduced supply. All no doubt true to a degree.

The Port of Coos Bay Oregon is the largest exporter on the West Coast, with nearly all of its raw logs. This is the definition of a third-world economy.

There have been several. The earliest that was a grout that would allow us to put brick masonry assemblies in designs that created inverted or cantilevered conditions, not previously possible with brick. This was in the 1970s. The product was a super mortar grout that glued the bricks into a single structural unit. The only problem was that months after the first buildings were completed the steel ties holding these big, heavy assemblies started to corrode and huge parts of buildings fell to the ground. Bad chemical reactions.

Early EIFS (Exterior Insulation and Finish System) around the late 1980’s early 1990’s, had a horrible performance history, particularly on wood frame buildings. Entire facades failed due to improperly build walls, and the situation was so bad that a court ruled that the concept was flawed. Insurance companies started refusing to insure buildings with EIFS on them and the building codes started to prohibit certain assemblies on wood frame buildings. The industry reinvented itself and today there are some really good systems out there.

Corten steel has had some failures and can be problematic if not understood, detailed correctly and the early rust anticipated. There have been some projects where the steel rusted improperly (though the panels) and had to be patched. There are several architect’s detailed corten facades without any consideration for water runoff and pre-cast concrete elements that are forever stained.

Aluminum wiring looked like a good idea until a whole bunch of houses burned to the ground after the wires started working themselves loose of the connections in outlets and switches. The solution was to open up every device and add short runs of copper wire to the aluminum so that the connections would be on copper. Very expensive and problematic for homeowners trying to sell a house. Wood roofing shingles might be considered a horrible idea, especially in an area prone to fires.