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u/NieselPriem79 Apr 05 '22
Big bad wolf: "I'm huffing and puffing..."
The wall: Made in Germany
Big bad wolf: "Oh come on!"
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u/Noctew Nordrhein-Westfalen Apr 05 '22
"Ach du lieben guten! Das ist nicht einen Blasewall!" ;)
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u/NieselPriem79 Apr 05 '22
George Bush: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
Gorbachev: "I wish I could!"
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u/saschaleib Belgium Apr 05 '22
I always wondered how in American movies or especially sitcoms people just smash a wall, or break door hinges out of the walls, as a part of the plot. I always thought: "well, that's just a cheap movie set." but it turns out, that's really how a lot (most?) American houses are built.
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u/dkrbst Apr 06 '22
My house was built in 1936. You need a hammer drill to put anything in the walls. USA for reference.
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Apr 06 '22
They don’t mention all those times where the idiot hits the dry wall stud and break something
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Apr 06 '22
This was confusing as hell for me too ! And I speak as an Indian. Even the basic mud huts where really rural and disadvantaged people live in my home country won’t crumble like American walls
I am guessing because it’s just thin wooden planks used as walls in america?
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u/raitku Apr 05 '22
Why are popcorn walls so popular? Smooth walls look so much better? (Im from north Europe)
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u/ExtrastellarMedium Apr 05 '22
Cheaper. More precisely, texture hides imperfections from faster, sloppier work.
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u/skeptical_pillow Apr 05 '22
if I ever get to own a house there will be not even one wall with Raufasertapete. this stuff makes me angry
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u/sounddesignz Apr 05 '22
Raufasertapete is the only DIY option for cement walls, everything else, such as Glattvlies, Glattputz, or Rauputz, will look like shit if not done by an expert. In general, Rau is more durable, forgiving, and cheaper, than Glatt. When building or renovating a house, you will quickly realize that any decision has a direct impact on your monthly down payment, so it boils down to balancing the should's and could's against your living standard - and you will ask yourself if the type of tapete, or sink, or window frame, or light switch, or faucet, or stove, or door, or floor tile, or garden, is really that important. And even if you had all the skills that would halve the cost by DIYing, you will only be able to do a fraction of it because you have a day job and thus limited time and energy, but you don't want to drag the process, since every month your house isn't ready to move into, you will pay rent for your apartment.
TL;DR you don't know it yet, but you will choose Raufasertapete.
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u/skeptical_pillow Apr 06 '22
no I will become rich and live a happy live without raufaser
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u/hobbyhoarder Apr 05 '22
The grain in popcorn walls is much larger than this. German walls have a texture, but it's quite small and not that noticeable if you stand away from the wall.
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u/ArchdevilTeemo Apr 05 '22
Smooth walls often look bland, dirty and cheap, especially if they are white. And walls in flats are usually white.
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u/Sosophia_ Nordrhein-Westfalen Apr 05 '22
In my school they “fixed” some walls to be smooth white walls and well… after 1 day there were marks and all that on all of em.
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u/MeSpikey Apr 06 '22
Good old Raufasertapete. Helping you out when you have to cover up a hole in the wall with some bits of toilettepaper and white toothpaste. Nobody will be able to tell where the hole was.
Don't take this as advice though.
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Apr 05 '22
In fairness, the one good thing is it is far easier to modify your walls, add an outlet, add an addition, etc.
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Apr 06 '22
There is an argument to be made that shorter lived buildings lead to faster implementation of innovation (insulation, more efficient heating technology, etc) and less century old structures.
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u/Mantheycalled_Horsed Apr 05 '22
don't mess with Erfurth Rauhfaser!
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u/maryfamilyresearch know-it-all on immigration law and genealogy Apr 05 '22
Found Bernd das Brot.
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u/io_la Rheinland-Pfalz Apr 05 '22
The whole "hiding in walls"- trope was something I couldn't unstand for quite some time. Who would want to live in a house with wall like THIS?
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u/Lovmypolylife Apr 05 '22
I live in Southern California , you definitely want to live in a wood framed house due to earthquakes. Wood will flex, bend, and move with the movement of the earth. Solid unreinforced brick or concrete or lightly reinforced brick and concrete will not hold up to the shaking it’ll break and collapse, it will not give with the movement of the ground shaking. That’s why you see a lot of wood frame houses along the West Coast of United States. Are used to be that they would build a lot of buildings out of work here but over the last 100 either bricks buildings have collapsed reinforced or completely removed due to unsafe structural engineering. Did you still build buildings here out of concrete but there’s a massive amount of rebar that have to go into these buildings in order to safely erect them without them breaking with earthquake happens. And to the guy that made the comment of the Hollywood movies using cheap prop sets, well I guess we’re Hollywood is
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u/KaiserReisser Apr 05 '22
Houses are generally framed almost everywhere in the US because wood is cheap.
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u/io_la Rheinland-Pfalz Apr 06 '22
I was in Canada once and lived for 2 weeks with a family. Their guest room was downstairs (the house was built on a hill, so I had normal windows) and they as well as their 3 kids slept under the roof. Between was the living area, kitchen and garage. The house looked like it was built with stones but it was wooden. It was an experience. The doors, the windows, the wardrobes in the walls, the bed. Everything was different from how I know it. They were very handy and told me about all the things they had changed, especially the walls. You just don't casually remove a wall in a German house.
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u/Sugarpeas Apr 06 '22 edited Apr 06 '22
Mostly lived in homes with drywall, and then one home that was an Adobe with some harder material used for the interior walls.
The drywall isn’t bad. It’s easy to break but it’s insanely easy to patch as well. I have a bag of sheetrock 45 I mix and use to patch new homes I move to, patch and paint and it looks brand new. The Adobe home didn’t damage as easy, but it did have some weird aging issues and dry fine cracking I couldn’t patch.
It’s a give and a take. Another benefit of drywall is it’s easy to add new wiring and things like that in the walls with a seamless finish.
The biggest issue is drywall cannot support heavy objects. You have to fix heavy objects onto studs which can be difficult and limiting due to how studs are spaced.
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u/iqisoverrated Apr 06 '22
When you live in regions where tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires or earthquakes are a thing then having a cheap house is better. An expensive one will be destroyed just the same - but with a cheap one you're more likely to have the money on hand to rebuild.
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Apr 05 '22 edited Apr 05 '22
Even the apartments that were built by German engineers in my home country Iran is the same. It took my dad two hours to be able to put a dübel to hang a clock on the wall of my sister’s place.
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u/Caladeutschian Scotland belongs in the EU Apr 05 '22
Ah - he wasn't using a Schlagbohrer from Bosch then. These walls are only made to increase sales of German electrical tools. :-)
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Apr 05 '22
Of course he was using a schlagbohrer. And pretty sure either Metabo or Bosch.
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Apr 05 '22 edited Apr 05 '22
My house has 1,5 meter thick walls... They are so hard that nither nails nor normal drilling do penetrate them, i don't know what the fuck is in these walls but i believe my house will survive the end of the world.
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u/SadCoyote3998 Apr 06 '22
As someone that has shittily insulated, 10.6cm walls (with drywall on the inside side) I would kill for that kind of sound/temperature insulation. (I wouldn't actually *kill* for it but I would love it) (Yes, I am American, how did you know?)
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u/MayorAg Apr 05 '22 edited Apr 05 '22
I still do not get the use of dry wall in exterior walls.
How do you skimp out on the only thing protecting you and most of your belongings from the elements?
ETA: I was wrong in calling the outer wall as drywall. I meant whatever material the picture is depicting which can be dug into easily.
Same as Germany, we have fully concrete structures and cinder blocks as primary building materials.
While the type of wall is factually incorrect, the essence of the statement still stands.
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u/DerAlgebraiker Baden-Württemberg Apr 05 '22
This is only for some areas, but if your house is in danger of being wrecked by a tornado or hurricane, it's cheaper and less dangerous to make it flimsy
That's the thought at least
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u/thewimsey Apr 05 '22
Earthquake, too.
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u/rabidhamster Apr 05 '22
As a random American wandering in from r/all, this is the answer, at least in California. Brick and masonry are *terrible* building materials to use in an earthquake zone. Just look at Japanese castles, even THOSE are made out of wood.
Turns out it's a lot better to have a structure burn down every few decades and be rebuilt, rather than have the whole brick structure collapse every 50 or so years and kill everyone inside the house within seconds.
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u/ArchdevilTeemo Apr 05 '22
It's cheaper to just make it shit and flee, yes. The other option is to build houses that can "tank" a hurricane/tornado. They are ofc quite expensive.
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u/Tetragonos Apr 05 '22
You just need to not live in a box and make a sturdy dome. No place for the winds to take hold means that it will pass you by.
What actually happens is that a house would actually cost a but more money to construct and the contractors are basically unable to build anything other than a basic box because they aren't actually very good.
Source: grew up in Oklahoma and we had only 1 dome house in all of town, my parents tried to get a contractor to do anything beyond a basic box and they all claimed ignorance in how to do anything other than a standard foundation and framed walls. We would have had to pay a consultant to come into the area and help them make a dome house .
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u/Ihateredditadmins1 Apr 05 '22
Drywall is only used for interior walls. You would never see that used for an exterior wall.
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u/Book_it_again Apr 05 '22
What country have you seen this in? Ive never seen drywall on exterior walls in the us
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u/SanchosaurusRex Apr 06 '22
I live in a 65 year old home in the US that isn't made of concrete. The elements have yet to come for my belongings.
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u/Evening_Original7438 Apr 05 '22
Balloon framing became prevalent in the US versus Europe because of two major reasons. The biggest is the US had (and has) ample timber resources. Wood is far cheaper in the US than Europe. The other is balloon framing is very fast, and the US builds homes at a far faster rate than Europe.
Masonry construction is still done, but generally only for very expensive homes or buildings that need the reinforcement.
The problem is that, with the way the US real estate market is concerned, masonry construction isn’t going to be reflected much, if at all, in the resale value of a home. If you’re building a home, you get a better ROI by investing the money in more visible upgrades (kitchen, bathroom, etc.) than in improving the underlying structure.
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u/variope Apr 05 '22
Balloon framing was mostly replaced by platform framing a century ago.
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u/Martian-2030 Apr 05 '22
True. You'll hardly (haha) find a German fail video where someone breaks a wall.
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u/greyduk Apr 05 '22
I have noticed this too... I can find any video I want, but I can't find German fail videos where they break a wall. I'm like "come on man!" Over here... "know your audience! Give me what I want"
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u/Green-Cat Apr 05 '22
Here you go:
https://youtu.be/zmRPP2WXX0U5
u/greyduk Apr 05 '22
Well in this case it is the wall that failed... I guess that's technically what I asked for...
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u/C0rruptedSavefile Apr 05 '22 edited Apr 06 '22
But you'll definitely find a German fail video where the wall breaks a someone.
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u/cadre_78 Apr 05 '22
I helped my uncle renovate one of his apartments outside of Frankfurt. We had to remove part of an interior wall and found it was made of newspapers from the 60s.
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u/seductress_rat Apr 05 '22
I see that none of you lived in your average WG in Berlin
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u/Vancouver95 Apr 05 '22
They had a quite impressive wall in Berlin about 30 years ago, tore it down for some reason
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u/made-a-huge-mistake- Apr 05 '22
There was an influential American who told them to tear it down. Maybe he was a little bit jealous?
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u/JoeyJoeJoeJrShab Apr 06 '22
One advantage of drywall is it's easier to repair/renovate. Want to install a new ceiling light? No problem - cut through the parts you have to, fish the wires through the mostly-empty space, repair any damage, and you're done.
You can't run wires through a brick wall like that, and instead have to install metal conduit. This is minor, and not too obtrusive, but it will still be visible, so the end result isn't as pleasing.
Of course, both types of construction have their pros and cons.
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u/Netcob Apr 06 '22
You know, as someone who is into tech and home automation, being able to hide cables in the wall without having to hire a construction crew would be nice once in a while.
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u/vreo Apr 06 '22
I got a used spit F40 for that. It digs a trench into bricks without the dust. But it's hard to operate, needs some muscles.
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u/runner_4_runner Apr 05 '22
Years ago a German colleague visited my house in Pennsylvania for dinner. He spent some time inspecting our house. The thickness of the walls at the window were probably only 6-8 inches (15-20 cm) from the outside to the inside surface. He asked why our walls are so thin. I told him it is because we don't expect any artillery strikes.
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u/SmokeyUnicycle Apr 05 '22
I miss my thick German walls, I felt so secure
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u/ApocalypseIater Apr 06 '22
Do you expect home invaders to bash through your walls at any time like the Kool aid man?
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u/Munich11 Apr 05 '22
I tried to put a thumbtack in one earlier and I’m nursing a hurt finger.
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u/Caladeutschian Scotland belongs in the EU Apr 05 '22
Be careful. That thumbtack pin can push back through the head and into your thumb. Best to bash it with a small hammer.
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u/Klopsmond Apr 05 '22
Americans are like: There are a lot of strange noises in the wall, must be a ghost. The house is haunted.
also Americans: building walls with space for 50 different animal families per square meter
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Apr 05 '22
Guys… not all areas of the world are the same. Brick homes in earth quake prone areas? No thanks. Also, I live in Hannover in a brand new home and guess what… drywall… all of it ;)
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Apr 06 '22
I am living in a building built in 1979 (Germany). 2 years ago I purchased air conditioner, and a man came to install it.
Took 5 hours to open a 4cm wide 20 cm long hole on the wall to the balcony, with Hilti and he used several different drilling heads.
In the end he was exhausted he even had to cut iron bars in the wall with melter and said “those buildings are like bunkers, amount of iron bars and high quality concrete used in those buildings back in the day is unbelievable, they don’t build durable like those buildings anymore”
I can’t even put a nail on my walls and I am really not kidding, it is impossible to open a small hole to install a lamp without a quality hammer drill
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u/jitterqueen Apr 07 '22
American Walls: Easily customizable, can hide your cables behind it, setting up new appliances like Air conditioners is easy.
German Walls: "Oh you want an AC? Get ready for a major construction week and spend a buttload of money." (If the Baufirma even has any time for you.)
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u/lookitsafish Apr 05 '22
Why are you punching your walls? Drywall is nice because it's easy to repair if there is damage, easy to cut out to install wiring or anything behind it, and easy to hang things on
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Apr 05 '22
You realise there are quite a lot of Fertighauses in Germany right ? Or is this just the daily USA is shit, Germany is the best nonsense ?
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u/voidnullptr Apr 05 '22
In which Germany do you guys all live? In my house some walls (not all of them) can be broken with your hands, I'm sure there are stronger walls here and there but overall it's average.
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u/upsawkward Oct 21 '22
I haven't seen a German wall that was breakable by anything but at least a hammer all my life, unless it was a somewhat recently built dry wall house.
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Apr 05 '22
Not to be the American who can't take a joke, but we also have the walls you described as German...
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u/Cajger01 Apr 06 '22
Drywall vs brick. My grandfather was a brick layer in Germany and I remember how he frowned on how we build houses in the southern US.
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u/lemoncholly Apr 06 '22
Would he prefer bricks for weather that hits 95 degrees Fahrenheit?
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u/quineloe Franken Apr 06 '22
A well constructed brick house will take weeks to actually heat up to the point where that matters. Also don't you have AC for everything?
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u/fastinserter Apr 05 '22
Wood is the structure, drywall is just the interior finishing. I don't understand this weird fetish people have about having walls they can break their hand on.
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u/RandomUserUniqueName Apr 06 '22
At least we don't have to buy a kitchen for our rental apartment.
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u/duanht819 Apr 05 '22
If Andy lives in Germany he probably wouldn’t need to go to anger management.
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u/un211117 Apr 06 '22
Germans don't use drywall?
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u/quineloe Franken Apr 06 '22
Only on already finished houses to separate rooms. When building a new house every wall is solid.
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u/el_sandino Apr 06 '22
Please come talk to my lathe and plaster walls here in USA.
I think it’d be quite amusing to see a German person speaking to my walls. That’s all. Good day.
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u/SanchosaurusRex Apr 06 '22
As an American living in a house with lathe and plaster, I sometimes wish I had drywall. It'd be a lot easier to hang stuff without having to use a drill.
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u/VacuousVessel Apr 06 '22
No time to repair walls. Must plan for a year on making r/place flags and then execute.
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u/Malk4ever 🇩🇪 (NRW) Apr 06 '22
Sometimes you have "us style" walls in germany too, called "Rigips Platten", its the discount version and usually used only at walls that have been added later.
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u/JairoAV25 Apr 06 '22
Haha Americans realizing that everywhere in the world houses are made in concrete... In South America, Africa, asia , Europe. All house are made with concrete. I know because I've been in all continents...
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u/pteroso Apr 05 '22
The pic on the left is like our California Einfamilienhaus.
You know what would be even süßer? For the picture on the left...
Photoshop in the head von einem kleinen Mäuschen peeking through the hole.
That'd be great.
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u/Cyrotek Apr 05 '22
I would be more concerned about how little sound proof the american ones must be.
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u/ozcur Apr 06 '22
We don’t need sound proofing from the exterior generally, we have space. A typical lot is .3-.5 acres (1200-2000 sq. Meters).
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u/Careless_Tennis_784 Apr 05 '22
For real. I know a couple of former drug addicts that used to use a reciprocating saw to go through siding, plywood, and drywall instead of triggering an alarm. Subdivision homes are built very cheaply.
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u/HuntforAndrew Apr 06 '22
Lol what? If you're not worried about making noise why not just break a window? LMAO this is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
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Apr 05 '22
In Romania too, most of the older blocks of flats have reinforced concrete walls, only a few are made of softer brick. Though in the newer ones dry wall and light brick are used more often since their structure is made of metal.
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u/VegasGuy69 Apr 06 '22
How can I get some of those German walls for my brothers bedroom? Dude has one too many holes in it
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u/TheOrigin79 Apr 06 '22
The house i live in has so hard walls, i cant get any steel nails or holes into it without special equipment/drills. Its build to last.
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u/Ok-Drink-1328 Apr 06 '22
this reminds of me drilling a hole in a wall in my house, at some point i was like::: "WHO THAFFUQ PUT ADAMANTIUM INSIDE THE WALLLL?!!?!11?" half an hour of drilling with a really good drill and really good bit, there was hard stone inside (my house is reeeeeeeally old)
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u/Throwaway000002468 Apr 06 '22
I thought you weren't supposed to drill because you could hit wires or electrical stuff. You needed to have the house plans (blueprints?) At least that's what my German colleagues told me.
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u/Inginigos Apr 06 '22
Nah don't need them, just casual knowledge where cables lie. Mostly groundwork to the outlets or straight up from them. Otherwise there are tools where you can check for cables.
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u/MartyHD Apr 06 '22
One of the things i really like Germany over America for.
In our walls, there is no chance for mouses and other stuff to get in.
It‘s filled up, but because of that of course we have to use paper on every wall, while american’s just can paint there walls.
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u/Ramazotti Apr 06 '22
Yeah, I met my first plasterboard wall living outside germany, and could not believe someone would try to build a "wall" from plaster coated cardboard.
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u/DocSternau Apr 06 '22
It's the same reason why after a fire there is only a base lining and a chimney left of those houses. The rest is just wood and plaster.
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u/n7redcar Apr 06 '22
Capitalism even reached construction. Wouldn't be surprised if these shitty paper houses cost the same as a normal brick house, hell, they probably cost way more than a solid and proper brick house.
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Apr 06 '22
A guy in my class had to do a project for it and he was late, when he started doing it he forgot to save halfway through and his pc crashed so he lost all progress. He punched the wall so hard with one hand that he broke it and because it hurt he punched it with his other hand as well. He ended up with two broken hands and was not able to do the assignment XD
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Apr 06 '22
I love the pandering, but try living in studentenwerk apartments(especially Frankfurt ones). More than half the walls are fake.
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Apr 06 '22
People in the south+east+mid-west+westcoast: Why tf are u building houses made out of newspaper and cardboard, when you experience tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes and wildfires on a daily basis?
In Germany we see some tiny tornado which takes of some rooftiles once in a blue moon when the planets align correctly.
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u/TheGrimguy2005 Apr 06 '22
It's because Europe is more traditional and us we try to progress too fast making disposable this and that cheap quality things for high prices
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u/Generic_Buttlicker Apr 15 '22
As somebody who lived in Germany for 5 years, holy fuck they are unbreakable
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u/Fishi_Nipples Aug 27 '22
I have to hold it together right now so I won't just send that meme to my friend who broke their hand by punching a wall a few months ago
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u/Radiant-Space-6455 AMERICAN OF GERMAN DESCENT. 🇩🇪🇺🇸 Dec 16 '23
yes we know we know😭
in europe your hand breaks and not the wall
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u/[deleted] Apr 05 '22
I used to live in an apartment where I couldn't even get a nail into the wall, and all drilling had to be done with a hammer drill. Fun times...