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Baronjutter posted:A councilor in Victoria went on a rant about how she was very concerned about all the concrete and steel buildings in the city because concrete lasts a long time thus is bad while wood is biodegradable thus is good. Also like wood is natural while steel and concrete are UNSUSTAINABLE man made products. The main thing though was that concrete lasts too long and is strong so they'll be harder to dispose of at the end of their life-cycle. She was actually upset concrete and steel buildings are too strong and long-lived and we should instead be building wooden downtowns like in wild-west days so they can burn down every couple decades in a safe renewable way. Really the biggest problem in Canadian housing is not having enough biodegradable buildings 
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Mar 2, 2016 07:17
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Is severe mental retardation a requirement to hold a city council position in this country or something? Is there a single city council in the entire goddamn country that isn't filled to the brim with complete and utter imbeciles?
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Mar 2, 2016 07:34
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PT6A posted:Is severe mental retardation a requirement to hold a city council position in this country or something? How would they get elected if they weren't? Old people are the only voters you can rely on, you know.
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Mar 2, 2016 07:38
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ChairMaster posted:How would they get elected if they weren't? Old people are the only voters you can rely on, you know. Between this and your posts in the other thread: go home, you're drunk. You've stopped making sense entirely, which is a skill you only had the most tenuous grasp on to begin with. I've read your post five times now and it's still a complete non-sequitur.
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Mar 2, 2016 07:42
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The implication is that old people are stupid and only elect stupid people.
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Mar 2, 2016 07:53
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McGavin posted:Yes, the Hindenburg only exploded because it didn't have enough hydrogen in it. Larger wood sections perform significantly better under fire conditions and retain strength for extended periods of fire exposure. So, yeah, that statement made lots of sense and you dont know what you're talking about. Given our modern requirements for fire ratings, exit routes and active sprinkler systems it's probably pretty likely that we can come up with requirements that result in reasonably fire safe wood buildings that are at least a handful of floors taller than what are currently typical. Until recently that was fairly moot, because the economy wasn't there. Buildings of more than a handful of stories aren't really feasible without modern engineered wood products. Caps for wood building heights in codes were generally also near the practical structural limits of light wood framing. From a conceptual standpoint, our fire protection requirements should extend fairly well to wood buildings that are a couple of floors taller. There has been a lot of research going on recently. The various structural and fire code councils are very slow moving and general changes won't happen until there is a bunch of research there and safe fire protection requirements are in place.
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Mar 2, 2016 09:09
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Subjunctive posted:Oddly, there is no cement lobby in BC. The Cement Association of Canada definitely lobbies the government. I don't think the BC Ready-Mixed Concrete Association does, but I'm not sure. I bet Lafarge has a lobbyist or two.
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Mar 2, 2016 09:22
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So does anyone go around squatting in the abandoned Vancouver houses? Seems like you could have a pretty sweet squatter lifestyle just living in an abandoned Chinese mansion. Also does anyone just burn them down with no one living in them?
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Mar 2, 2016 16:05
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Fried Watermelon posted:
Oh, to live in your world. 
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Mar 2, 2016 16:12
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Our only hope to end this speculative nightmare is the police turning a blind eye to squatting.
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Mar 2, 2016 16:22
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cowofwar posted:Our only hope to end this speculative nightmare is the police turning a blind eye to squatting. What's sadly hilarious is that politicians would be more willing to compel enforcement of trespass laws by the police to protect home owner equity than to enforce weed laws.
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Mar 2, 2016 16:23
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SubCrid TC posted:Larger wood sections perform significantly better under fire conditions and retain strength for extended periods of fire exposure. So, yeah, that statement made lots of sense and you dont know what you're talking about. 
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Mar 2, 2016 19:04
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Oh look, Victoria's getting in on the action http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/buying-wave-sparks-bidding-battles-for-victoria-real-estate-1.2188107
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Mar 2, 2016 23:12
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I hope I'm never too attached to a building that I'd eat cat food just to hold onto a house. What the christ.
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Mar 2, 2016 23:34
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Lexicon posted:Oh look, Victoria's getting in on the action http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/buying-wave-sparks-bidding-battles-for-victoria-real-estate-1.2188107 Wonder how Nanaimo is doing. All the buzz on the island is how a FAST FERRY is going to turn Nanaimo into a suburb of Vancouver. Better build that skyscraper hotel and convention centre ahead of that flood of chinese money guys!
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Mar 2, 2016 23:58
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Baronjutter posted:Wonder how Nanaimo is doing. All the buzz on the island is how a FAST FERRY is going to turn Nanaimo into a suburb of Vancouver. Better build that skyscraper hotel and convention centre ahead of that flood of chinese money guys! Does this article agree with your sense of the conditions on the ground there Baronjutter?
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Mar 2, 2016 23:59
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Nanaimo should go for full-on insanity and try to build a giant ekranoplan ferry.
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Mar 3, 2016 00:02
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Lexicon posted:Does this article agree with your sense of the conditions on the ground there Baronjutter? It's not Vancouver-insane yet, but it's not like buying a house makes sense here. My sister sold her condo after a couple days on the market and realtors have been reaching out on social media, looking for anyone who's considering selling because demand is so high. Bonus article to see how awful our councillors are: http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/victoria-councillors-relent-allow-wave-to-be-painted-1.2151761 They seem to imply that this tile mosaic was the deciding factor between approving the development and declining to build more housing.
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Mar 3, 2016 00:33
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The cbc covers the debt bubble thread http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/...-cent-1.3472258
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Mar 3, 2016 02:53
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I honestly don't even register or track housing prices in Victoria anymore. It's like tracking private jet or mega-yacht prices. It's a world my self and no one I know will ever come close to. 5 years ago they were "totally insanely out of reach" and the prices are still there. Maybe they're worse, I don't know. There's a boom of condos though like I've never seen. There was a mild boom in the early to mid 2000's, but the last few years I've never seen anything like. They keep building your bog standard "luxury" condos (see: mid-range) but they've also jumped all over the micro-unit craze. A 350k 1.5br condo out of your budget? Well for just 200k you can have a micro unit and get started on the ownership ladder!!! Better buy in the pre-sale or you'll miss the boat. They're also building a ton of purpose-built rentals, but they all have crazy $2000+ rents. Within a couple blocks of my place there's 4 medium sized condos going up, 2 pretty large towers, a massive apartment building, and a couple medium sized apartment buildings. Tons of 4 story wood frame in-fill too replacing the last of the single family homes in the area. Construction is absolutely booming here in the city, and all the big stalled suburban mega-projects are back on track or under new ownership and steaming right ahead. Rows and rows of nearly identical mass produced LUXURY CHARACTER BOUTIQUE HOMES on tiny tiny lots, totally not suburban tract housing. Transit is still under-funded and crowded for the most part, anything rail based keeps flying off the tracks due to a lack of funding but also inept people/agencies involved, bike infrastructure is still seen as a special interest political pet project and waste of money, but there's tons of money available for new highway overpasses and road expansion to help enable more sprawl. Basically same story as the rest of the continent, just with some slicker green washing because islanders eat that poo poo up.
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Mar 3, 2016 03:11
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Why u hate density
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Mar 3, 2016 03:12
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Baronjutter posted:I honestly don't even register or track housing prices in Victoria anymore. It's like tracking private jet or mega-yacht prices. It's a world my self and no one I know will ever come close to. 5 years ago they were "totally insanely out of reach" and the prices are still there. Maybe they're worse, I don't know. Also the infrastructure seems worse in Victoria than the lovely condo ghettos of Etobicoke et al in Toronto; it's weird to see high density buildings being put up with a bunch of empty land or abandoned run-down poo poo all around them. Kind of post-apocalyptic. When I think of organic density I think of Manhattan where you see progressive increases in density and it seems to make sense rather than just bizzarre towers rising out of Mordor. cowofwar fucked around with this message at 03:37 on Mar 3, 2016 |
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Mar 3, 2016 03:34
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cowofwar posted:Last time I was in Victoria I thought it was cute how all the new buildings have this weird "west coast styling" facade going on. What's up with that? It's the west coast? I'm not sure what the style is exactly. It's something different from Vancouver? Covering everything in nice sharp looking red cedar with no regard for future upkeep of aging? A lot of stuff is some sort of "west coast modern". It's getting over done and a lot of it is done really cheap, but I'll take cedar and aluminum over faux-heritage stucco bullshit any day. PS This giant inverted oreo cookie is going up next to me. All wood frame! 
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Mar 3, 2016 03:38
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So, even if wood-frame condos won't burn you to a crisp instantly now, how are they doing at improving sound insulation? Has it proceeded beyond "practically nonexistent?"
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Mar 3, 2016 03:50
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There's a jenga joke in there somewhere
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Mar 3, 2016 03:52
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I'm in Victoria and I'm gonna go look at some condos downtown tomorow. 
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Mar 3, 2016 04:01
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PT6A posted:So, even if wood-frame condos won't burn you to a crisp instantly now, how are they doing at improving sound insulation? Has it proceeded beyond "practically nonexistent?" The ones I've built were very good, not concrete quiet but very quiet nonetheless. staggered stud double party walls with no contact between the sides, res-bar and plywood strapping to hang the drywall on the ceilings, double bottom plates on the framing allowing for an inch and a half concrete/gypcrete poured floors. caulking in any wall penetration for fire barrier and acoustic damping. insulation stuffed into any cracks around door and window frames before the walls are boarded. as far as fire goes they've all had sprinklers in every space from closets on up so it'll be interesting to see how they hold up in the case of a major fire. I'd never buy a condo but if I had to I'd still choose concrete. as far as real estate in Victoria goes it's anecdotal but small houses in my working class neighborhood near town are selling very quickly for 6-700k. many of the new construction condo towers in town say they are selling units but seem largely empty at a glance.
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Mar 3, 2016 04:04
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Baronjutter posted:Transit is still under-funded and crowded for the most part, anything rail based keeps flying off the tracks due to a lack of funding but also inept people/agencies involved, bike infrastructure is still seen as a special interest political pet project and waste of money, but there's tons of money available for new highway overpasses and road expansion to help enable more sprawl. Basically same story as the rest of the continent, just with some slicker green washing because islanders eat that poo poo up. I'm not terribly surprised to hear there's a lot of naysayers on putting more money toward cycling infrastructure, but It sounds like there's been some good recent traction on improving bike infrastructure in Victoria. http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2016/01/biketoria-cycling-city/ Baronjutter posted:
That's honestly not that awful compared to the endless cheap seafoam green glass tower and podium we have in Vancouver. It would be a refreshing change over here. Speaking of Vancouver... quote:
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Mar 3, 2016 04:16
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Baronjutter posted:
The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire We don't need no water let the motherfucker burn Burn motherfucker, Burn
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Mar 3, 2016 04:20
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One thing that baffles me is the love of flat roofs on wood frame buildings here, where it's pissing rain more often than not. You're putting your faith in a membrane on the roof and downspouts that typically run inside the building. Seems like a disaster waiting to happen but I guess it's cheaper than buying a truss roof with a decent pitch...
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Mar 3, 2016 04:25
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I don't know what is more hilarious, that kik is a ~unicorn~ or that kik is Canadian Lmao get hosed hootsuite
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Mar 3, 2016 04:33
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I've been expecting to hear news of the Hootsuite writedown for a long time (seemed inevitable given the writedowns for startups with much better growth + what's happened to Twitter stock over the same timeframe). Doubt they have an IPO coming any time soon, they'd probably get absolutely crushed in the current market.
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Mar 3, 2016 04:49
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Throatwarbler posted:I'm in Victoria and I'm gonna go look at some condos downtown tomorow. Honest, deeply serious question: whyyyyyyy??? Why not just rent something???
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Mar 3, 2016 05:18
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Femtosecond posted:That's honestly not that awful compared to the endless cheap seafoam green glass tower and podium we have in Vancouver. It would be a refreshing change over here.
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Mar 3, 2016 05:23
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Femtosecond posted:That's honestly not that awful compared to the endless cheap seafoam green glass tower and podium we have in Vancouver. It would be a refreshing change over here. There's a building that looks exactly like that at 8th and main, just up the street from Hootsuite.
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Mar 3, 2016 06:55
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Cultural Imperial posted:I don't know what is more hilarious, that kik is a ~unicorn~ or that kik is Canadian Atop all the discussion recently that kik is a constant hotbed of child porn distributors.
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Mar 3, 2016 07:03
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The only good thing about wood frame condos is that when the tsunami hits youre basically living in an ark which will just float on up to the Rockies! Or down to Seattle! Or out to sea.
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Mar 3, 2016 07:05
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large hands posted:One thing that baffles me is the love of flat roofs on wood frame buildings here, where it's pissing rain more often than not. You're putting your faith in a membrane on the roof and downspouts that typically run inside the building. Seems like a disaster waiting to happen but I guess it's cheaper than buying a truss roof with a decent pitch... I have been wondering this ever since I moved here. Flat roofs are notorious for leaking no matter how well you seal them, but they're everywhere. It's retarded.
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Mar 3, 2016 19:56
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large hands posted:One thing that baffles me is the love of flat roofs on wood frame buildings here, where it's pissing rain more often than not. You're putting your faith in a membrane on the roof and downspouts that typically run inside the building. Seems like a disaster waiting to happen but I guess it's cheaper than buying a truss roof with a decent pitch... There are a number of issues here 1) Water displacement - With a pitched roof, you are relying on a gutter to trap significantly more water then your average gutter due to the space they cover. 2) Insulation - You can do a much better insulation job on a flat roof covered by a membrane. This helps keep keeps energy costs down, especially in the top suites which have to deal with significant heat loss/gain 3) Structural weight and flexibility - Concrete is much heavier and does not "flex" as well considering the temperature differences experienced on roof tops. For places that tend to have lower amount of maintenance because of "cheapness", a properly built wood roof would actually be safer and quite a bit cheaper Membrane roofs to be honest are mostly fine if designed and installed properly. There really aren't good alternatives. Even if the final decking is concrete and your membrane fails, you'll likely have just as bad of a leak considering the number of penetrations you have for mechanical services. Addition: I hate certain newer membranes like PVC roofs or rubber membranes, but good old tar and gravel or torch-on shingling is just fine when done properly and will last as long as any normal roof. Here (Alberta) the biggest problem is roofing is an un-certified trade meaning you have a horde of under-trained / under-experienced workers doing one of the fundamental parts of your building. If you are willing to paid the proper cost of professional roofing, you don't have nearly the same amount of issue. Crowbite fucked around with this message at 20:22 on Mar 3, 2016 |
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Mar 3, 2016 20:18
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Crowbite posted:
it's been almost exclusively a double layer of torch-on membrane on the buildings I've worked on. I guess you're just putting a lot of faith in the installers not being hung over, or improperly trained, or someone with a nail stuck in the tread of their boot walking over it and not saying anything to avoid getting fired. not to mention trusting in your strata to keep the roof drains properly cleared. I suppose my impression isn't improved by the biggest commercial roofing outfit in town replacing most of their skilled, well paid installers with cheap, inexperienced tfws but still dominating the trade because it's good enough if it lasts until the warranty expires.
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Mar 3, 2016 21:02
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