Comment by giorgioz
3 months ago
> brick isn't earthquake resistant
This is an extreme that is not true. Bricks are harder to make earthquake resistant but it's perfectly possible to build houses that have SOME bricks in it that are also earthquake resistant. There are permutations of materials that are both more fire resistant and more earthquake resistant to the required level at a certain height of the building.
They clearly qualified it with "Not without steel reinforcement."
Anyways the difference in labor costs between wood and reinforced brick would be massive in LA county not to mention the additional cost of materials.
Massive not. Italy has mostly buildings made with non-bearing walls made of bricks. The bearing skeleton is made with "reinforced concrete" which is essentially columns and architraves made of poured cement with inside steel bars. Clearly we should not force the whole US to drop wood. Very hot an dry regions like LA might be a good place to switch away from wood.