And remember how several decades ago almost every resident of the Soviet Union was striving for the "American dream." Everyone wanted to have a large, friendly family, a job that brings good and stable income, their own car and, of course, a large, spacious, two-story house, sheathed with shiny siding.
This is the ideal picture we were shown on television screens in American films. Soviet citizens could not believe that everything could look so neat, clean and beautiful. Isn't it a dream?
But a dream is a dream, so as not to think about the nuances and not peer into the little things, namely, plastic siding. This material for outdoor decoration is one of the cheapest in the world. It will only be cheaper to whitewash the wall. I dare say that the siding does not look as beautiful as we would like, and it practically does not perform protective functions. Another of the minuses I want to highlight is that it is difficult to mount siding, and the material is environmentally dirty.
Just a lot of flaws! So why is siding so popular then?
Have you guessed? It will be very cheap to simply rebuild such a house with insurance. The American and Canadian houses that we are used to seeing in films are not capital structures. They are simple frame-panel structures, like a barn, chicken coop, etc.
I will not argue that living in such houses is quite comfortable as long as it is safe and sound. If the structure is suddenly damaged, then it will be cheap and quick to restore it under insurance, which cannot be said about stone houses.
In fact, many residents of the USA, Canada and even Europe simply do not have the opportunity to build reliable and durable houses of stone or wood.
A few years ago a friend from abroad came to visit us. He was extremely surprised to learn that all the houses in our village were built of wood and stone. This is despite the fact that some buildings reach 4 floors. The foreigner's face was literally drawn out from such information. He seriously thought that only millionaires live in the village.
When we reported that all our neighbors were ordinary workers, he clearly did not believe and suspected something.
America has a milder climate than harsh Russia. Therefore, they have siding for a long time. It is enough to periodically wash it with a hose, and the exterior decoration of the house will look “like new”. But still, time takes its toll, and after a few years the owner has to repair almost half of the house.
The popularity of siding in America has not diminished over the years. But in Europe and Canada, they are gradually abandoning the use of this material, since it is not environmentally friendly.
There is some truth in this, but to get to the truth, you need to dig much deeper.
For the production of siding, they use not only chlorine, but also oil. There is enough chlorine in Europe, which cannot be said about oil. As their own resources are being depleted here, the Europeans are asking for help from the Arab countries and Russia.
Europe, naturally, is not happy with this state of affairs. Therefore, the local authorities decided to use renewable materials, including iron, stone, fiber cement, etc.
Do you know which material is leading on this list? Wood!
This is how the houses in our village approached European standards. And modern cottage villages, where houses are sheathed with siding, are considered unfashionable and not environmentally friendly.
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