Do you guy in the US have these issues?

Do the builders tend to have liquid lunches? 🍻🍻🍺

Things like that have been happening in the U.S. for decades and it seems to be getting worse. We seem to have far fewer skilled tradesmen working in construction and a whole lot more day laborers.

With houses in the U.S. it's pretty hit and miss as far as quality in my experience.

Most houses in the U.S. are wood frame with either a full concrete slab or concrete footer foundation, the footer being only a perimeter foundation with wood floor joists spanning the empty space in the middle and then 5/8" subfloor boards installed over those. Our previous house was a new build with a concrete slab that had big cracks and was not level, so the vinyl plank flooring on top moved and made noise. Our current recently built house with a footer foundation has a floor that, while quite solid and well-supported, makes a little noise when you walk on it, so likely the subfloor boards and/or joists aren't perfectly level across their full spans.

Interior walls on houses built from the 1950s on are 1/2" drywall/sheetrock gypsum panels, and I've seen really shoddy installation of those with nail heads exposed and cracks. The exterior walls of most houses are 1/2" wood sheathing with a waterproof barrier and either wood siding, vinyl siding, or brick/stone facade(a single-layer brick and mortar wall that is not self-supporting and isn't part of the actual house structure).

My mother's house was built in the 50s. The foundation wasn't adequate, so she's got cracks in the basement wall concrete blocks and water seeping in when it rains. Her wood floor makes a lot of noise when you walk and in some places even sinks a bit. Her house has had these problems for the past 35 years, BTW. This house was built in a time when workmanship was supposedly much better than nowadays, but you wouldn't know it in this case.

We had a house for about 10 years that was built in the late 70s. At the time it was 30 years old and was clearly built very well. The slab foundation was smooth and level with no cracks, the exterior brick had no cracks, and the interior drywall had no cracks or flaws. It was even insulated extremely well because we had temps one winter get down to -15-17F for two nights in a row and the water pipes didn't freeze.

I've had to fix some shoddy work on our current house, like door latches not lining up, hinges not tight or missing screws, deck stairs not level so had to lift up a side and add a support, but nothing major so far. We paid a pretty penny for the house and part of the reason for that was that it looks like it was built pretty well and uses higher quality fixtures. Houses are just like many other things in that you get what you pay for; not in every case, but most of the time.

Houses in the U.S are basically designed to be built quickly and to last about 50-75 years. There are some older houses that are 100+ years old, but most of them required major work at some point which is why they've survived. I've read contractor forums where many builders say that newer houses are better in that they're safer, more energy efficient, and conform to more modern building codes, and I've come across some who think that older houses are better because the wood was stronger and overall workmanship was better. It really depends on the particular house.

IMO there have always been home builders who rip people off by using poor quality materials, rushing the job and not checking that things are done right, and ignoring building codes and requirements to save time and money and hope they don't get caught. I think this happens a lot more nowadays simply because there are a lot more houses being built with massive developments and such.

When you're buying a house, I strongly recommend that you have a qualified home inspector check it out before you sign the purchase contract. We were about to buy a house a couple years ago, but after having it inspected and finding some problems, we decided to cancel the purchase.

Dave

Edited Saturday at 02:50 PM4 days by dave2013

2 hours ago, dave2013 said:

When you're buying a house, I strongly recommend that you have a qualified home inspector check it out

Oh yes, thats the way its done in the British Isles, a mortgage valuation is required. And then if the purchaser is wise theyll get a structural survey.

47 minutes ago, martin-w said:

Oh yes, thats the way its done in the British Isles, a mortgage valuation is required. And then if the purchaser is wise theyll get a structural survey.

And if the seller is on the ball....make it easier on the buyer and have an inspection done before putting it on the market.
My sister and brother-in-law did it before putting their condo in Hillsboro, Oregon on the market. They used a trusted
inspector recommended by their agent. He found very little wrong. The buyers, who made a slightly lower offer, made it
contingent on their own inspector's report. Now this inspector did the inspection for free and then wanted to do the work
that he found as a problem. Of course, he found ancient dry water sports in the crawl space underneath. He wanted
$10,000 to do the fix. My brother-in-law's agent did a sneaky by telling the buyer's agent there was another pending
offer in place. All of a sudden there was no more mention of the "dry water spots" and closing is June 11th! 👍

When I bought my house, I had a professional inspector conduct a very thorough inspection. This guy was supposedly on top of everything. He said this house had no problems. Wrong! After I bought it, significant problems showed up, like insufficient support for load bearing walls and PB pipe. Much of the PB pipe had been replaced by the previous owner, but only in areas that were easily visible. PB pipe and its decaying joints were still within the walls.

2 hours ago, stans said:

PB pipe and its decaying joints were still within the walls.

Your house must be pretty old if it has lead pipes.

I've read a few debates between those who think old houses are better and those who think newer ones are better. Some claim that because there are 100 year old houses still around this means they must have been built better, but others point out that those houses are simply the very well built ones that survived, plus many old houses were demolished or had major repair work done at some point.

Some advantages with newer houses is that they use the PEX plumbing water lines which are less susceptible to bursting if they freeze, and they use more metal wood connectors which are stronger than nails. The downside to newer houses is that they use cheaper and weaker wood, and many are built very fast to maximize profits, leading to defects and flaws.

Dave

We have an old Victorian house built in 1889, 137 yrs old. Still rock solid on a stone foundation. Very little is level or plumb anymore, adds to the character.

As for modern day construction, I spent 20 yrs in residential construction, 10 yrs framing houses, 10 yrs working on existing homes. I never once witnessed any work like the OP or left a job looking like that. Not easy when you're working on homes 200 yrs old. We called it pride and taking ownership of your work.

I changed careers in 1994 and became a physical therapist for the last 32 yrs. I'm a lucky fellow to have two careers vastly different, but I loved them both. Retired now, thank God.🤸‍♂️

1 hour ago, tdflightsim said:

I changed careers in 1994 and became a physical therapist for the last 32 yrs. I'm a lucky fellow to have two careers vastly different, but I loved them both. Retired now, thank God.🤸‍♂️

Have I ever mentioned my "aching back"? 😉 Just tryin' to wrangle free dental from Stan, PT from you, and lookin' for a chiropractor on the site! 🤣

1 hour ago, charliearon said:

free dental from Stan

Stan S. Fluoride, DDS?

Radon causes cancer. It's natural in the ground everywhere on Earth. Too much radon is very bad. To test, you just set the tiny box on the floor and wait a whole week and then mail it to the lab. (I don't know how you could do that before buying a new house).

Our last house was a 90 year old stone house on a double lot. The roof was tiles. The plumbing had been replaced and had no central heating. There was a floor furnace in the living room and a gas wall heater in the master bedroom. In the summer we had window air conditioners. We lived in it for 30 years and except for occasional leaks in the plumbing never had to have any work on it. It was the oldest house in the neighborhood.

Noel

On 5/31/2026 at 4:06 PM, tdflightsim said:

We have an old Victorian house built in 1889, 137 yrs old. Still rock solid on a stone foundation.

1839. Granite 18 inches thick. Not in your NEW Jersey, in the original Jersey. 😁

Edited Tuesday at 11:23 AM1 day by martin-w