Japan to set new standards for longevity of wooden buildings

My wife's grandmother lived in a house that is about 350 years old (Ibaragi pref.) fully wooden structure, I was amazed when I saw it.

The old wooden houses in Japan are very stout and strong but the newer houses or not.

I know as I live in one of them. The frames warp and cracks appear, water egress anppears they need rebuilding after 50 or 60 years at the most.

It is not just the rainwater ingress, that is primary! but the use of smaller softwood timber sections that although treated cannot withstand the damp/humid a/c repetition. Eugene, if u asked gu-ma how many yen it cost 350yrs ago? (to be fair comparing it to ??? 350yrs ago) and did a little keystroke thing mmh KKK or MMM.

you only get what you pay for. UGHK got same timber frame damp problems (and omission of fire barriers in the rafters), you only get what... sorries you knows.

I think it is misleading to talk of "old" and "new" houses. There is huge variation among each of those categories.

Hundreds of thousands of houses were destroyed in the Kanto Earthquake in 1923. If Edo, Meji, and Taisho houses were "very stout", this could not have happened. I can guarantee you that Japanese people were very resourceful in 1923 and would not classify a house as "destroyed" unless very heavily damaged. There was no throwaway culture like today. There are of course famous wooden buidings in Japan that are extremely old, the poster child is Horyuji, but this does not mean every old building was as well built as Horyuji.

Among (completely) new houses, choose the right builder and you can get a brilliant one. Choosing the best builder in your area will likely involve paying more and may involve waiting 18 months for them to have a slot. Probably riskiest is to buy a prebuilt tateuri developer house, because every possible corner is cut on them to get the headline price low. Some 2025 tateuri houses may be little better than Showa or early Heisei era houses that give newbuilds a bad name. The earthquake regs changed after the 1995 Hanshin quake, so anything after that should be sturdy, if still poorly insulated/draughty.

The previous house we lived in was 100 years old in Kobe and withstood the 1995 earthquake. The timbers were very large. However, like many others, it had termites or white ants and the damage was extensive. The house was demolished.

Waterproof wood ? Genius ! Is this a new idea in Japan ?

Or paint and general maintenance...

Houses need upkeep.

Lots of cheap ones where I live....need some TLC to bring them around.

I bought a minshuku for the price of a second hand car.

LOL...used Youtube for education on how to do what and Amazon to buy the products needed.

Turned out pretty bloody good.