@@utahdan231 Wow, 6 burners. Anyway... I don't know about USA, but you'd be suprised how many people in the UK cook premade products from supermarkets in microwaves.
3:00 no it's not because of soil. Cost is a biggest factor here, but you can choose to have one. Basements are typically unfinished in Poland, intended for storage and utility rooms.
I am a Pole living in the US for 17 years now and to this day it boggles my mind how Amricans can live in basements... you mean, like, with potatoes and canned fruit, and mice? hehe ;)
@@alwaystheheart Im actually curious how did you get the green card? Its kinda my dream to one day move to the US but it seems extreamly difficult to do it legally.
@@Ev0ltion My parents applied for a green card 10 years before we were even selected for an interview (I was 5 yo when they applied). It was a loooonnnggg process. I was underage when they finally got it so it was "extended" to me as well. Now, most people get either sponsored by a job/family member or get married to a citizen.
I was about to say that, houses from 70-80’s have basements like mine and my neighbours. I think it isn’t anymore popular cos it’s harder to maintenance them, basement cause more humidity in the house and during the winter is harder to keep them warm...
Yes, there is a lot of houses with basements but recently people build houses without them mainly because of the cost which is roughly about 1/3 of the whole cost of the construction. Besides, the basement, if it's not designed as an additional room or something like that, becomes a storage very fast and after a while you find yourself in the middle of a big mess. Unless you can maintain the order of course.
@@Kam7777 I have a house built in 1989 but I have radiators in all my basement rooms. Look at the left side from me on the wall. My basement is hot and dry. In my area this is very often. All is the question of money, I think so. In the winter if you haven't a basement you don't have to heat it. Heating is expensive. Now it is popular to build passive houses that are greener and cheaper to maintain. th-cam.com/video/qUOJWLm02BA/w-d-xo.html
There is no "first floor made of tiles" rule in Poland. We use tiles either in places where you usually walk in in your boots (hall/anteroom) or where you need to wipe/mop it often (bathroom, toilet, kitchen, utility room). You will NOT find tiles in a first floor bedroom or living room.
I wouldn't generalize. I have tiles on the first floor (and many of my friends have the same), including the leaving room. It's mainly due to the underfloor heating.
Not really...ohhh, we say what the living area is, in square meters, to be precise. That's because we pay for 1sq/m. Rooms/bedrooms is a British thing.
Two important issues: 1) in Poland, if we decide to have a house, we buy the place where it is to be built and build it ourselves, or we commission it to a company. Buying new homes made beforehand without our interference in design and workmanship is still less common, only in cities and suburbs. 2) In Poland, everyone becomes attached to their home, if we decide to buy our own house or flat, we do it for many years, very often for life. We do not like frequent changes of the place of residence. In this respect, we are very sentimental, so much so that we prefer to live where we live than to move to a place where there are better wages and living standards than to move even 100 km away. However, slowly everything changes, the young generation is more mobile ;)
I would say that not an issue of attachment or being sentimental, but simply not having money to buy a house every few years. Nowadays most people can't build/buy a house without mortgage and that takes about 30 years to pay off.
About 4 million poles who emigrated abroad will disagree with you. Another most habitants of big cities. I would say in smaller communities in Poland it is common to stick to your roots but in the cities changing address is common.
A funny anecdote: a friend of mine has travelled with his Canadian friend and they stayed in a hotel one time. The guy from Canada tried to open a window, but he put the handle upwards and obviously the window was in that vent mode. The guy was like: OMG I broke the window. And my friend: no, you didn't you stupid- it's a vent mode. There was really hot in the evening with no AC, so he could appreciate that feature. After some time he said: oh I love that European broken window mode :D
brick dosn't protect from tornados and if every year you have to re build your house because of tornado and you can spend for example 50K instead 150K you would go 50K. I had a house made out of construction wood in poland because it was cheaper and faster to build than the brick block
I enjoyed this video. I’m an American living in Warsaw. We have a finished basement in our townhouse. Love the windows here and heated floors in kitchen/bathrooms! Keep making content on Poland.
I think that in Polish houses you can find attics and separate storage rooms (spiżarnia, graciarnia) instead of basements. Sometimes people use their garages as storage rooms. In flats the opposite - very often each flat has its own storage room assigned in the basement.
@@justynawisniewska1213 new are rare in city centers due to a simple fact that a center was built years ago. I was living in an old building that had 2 storage rooms in the basement for every flat - one normal, and one in a bunker a level below that. And all older buildings in the cities I know (Wroclaw, Szczecin, Gorzów, Hamburg in Germany too) are like that. Also spacious (typical 2 rooms is around 65m2) and high ceilings (3,5m). Well, pre-war buildings have some magic in them, cold in summer, hot in winter with almost no insulation (this might have something to do with the wall thickness...), with a lot of space. Sadly new ones are way worse in that matter, but apartments there are also way cheaper, so people of course buy them.
@@steelrat1733 Newly built apartments are always more expensive than those in communist blocks (unless the location is just very very bad) and usually with communist blocks you would get a little storage unit in the basement. Communist blocks are ubiquitous even in city centers as during the post-war housing deficit they'd build them anywhere with little regard for aesthetics and preserving the pre-war charm of city centers. When it comes to pre-war it depends on location and how well-maintained and renovated the apartment and the building is.
@@justynawisniewska1213 I was talking about pre-war buildings, not those communist blocks. They are awful. As for the pre-war buildings well, those owned by the cities are awful, those privately owned by the tenants - great. But they are mostly privately owned by the tenants, because they were sold to them in the 90's. At least in the western Poland, because eastern parts were way more destroyed during the war, and in pre-war buildings they have issues with former owners.
@@steelrat1733 I used to hate communist blocks too but we should not knock them, they are not that bad. I do believe they should be slowly phased out of city centers but the ones on the outskirts are kinda neat. They are often better than newly built. Often times located closer to city centers, they are more spaced out with greenery inbetween, more parking spaces and good access to public transportation that a lot of new development lacks. Also good to mention they often have preschools, schools, libraries, grocery stores, primary care offices located within walking distance. Btw idk why you think the east of Poland was more destroyed during the war, Szczecin was hella bombed, there was barely anything left by the end of 2nd ww.
Przeciętny dom w Polsce ma między 200 a 250 m. Małe domy mają od 100 do 150 m kwadratowych i takie są coraz bardziej popularne ze względu na koszty, natomiast jeśli chodzi o stawianie domu i to z czego dom w Polsce jest zrobiony to mogę Cię zapewnić że bloczek betonowy jaki Ty znasz z USA odpada bo nie przejdzie wymagań polskiej normy budowlanej. W Polsce stawia się domy z: cegły, gazobetonu, betonu spienionego, silikatów, pustaków ceramicznych, keramzytobetonu, drewna struganego, bali, stali i szkła. Cała ściana, fundament i wszystkie przegrody (strop) są izolowane, i dlatego nie trzeba klimatyzacji, bo dobrze zaizolowany dom jest ciepły w zimie a chłodny w lecie. Okna mają podwójne, potrójne pakiety szyb, z wmontowanymi markizami zacieniającymi i moskitierami, często są z powłokami ułatwiającymi spływ wody - czyli łatwo-czyszczące się okna, do tego mają mnóstwo komór, to podnosi ich termoizolację, są montowane tak, żeby nie tworzyć mostków termicznych. Drzwi wejściowe i bramy garażowe też są izolowane i też są na nie odpowiednie normy. To wszystko można podpiwniczyć jeśli grunt i kieszeń inwestora na to pozwala i wiele starych domów w Polsce ma piwnice, nawet jeśli są położone na ziemi z wysokimi wodami gruntowymi albo w rejonie szkód górniczych, czyli aktywnego górotworu. Od mniej więcej 10 lat coraz popularniejsza staje się w Polsce płyta fundamentowa, czyli nie ma piwnicy, oszczędzamy ok. 10-20 tys. zł. Dachy mogą być pokryte dachówką tradycyjną wypalaną z gliny i glazurowaną, strzechą trzcinową albo słomianą; gontem drewnianym, blachą na rąbek, gontem blaszanym, dachówką betonową. Wszystko zależy z jakiego materiału jest wykonany dom - do niego dobierany jest dach, okna i drzwi ( a tu również wybór materiałów jest duży). Czy stawiasz dom tradycyjny czy nowoczesny - to narzuca materiały i wykończeni, bo nie zamontujesz plastikowych okien w modrzewiowym dworku.... Drzewa ogradzające posesje tworzą żywopłot, który ma tłumić hałas, zapewnić prywatność, dodatkowo chroni dom przed kurzem z drogi, a jak słusznie zauważyłeś Polacy ukochali tuję (thuja in English) bo to mało wymagający i szybko rosnący krzak, który naprawdę trudno zabić nawet niewprawnemu ogrodnikowi ;) Jeśli chodzi o wykończenie wnętrz: Polacy potrafią wydać bardzo dużo na swoje kuchnie. Blat może być z marmuru, kwarcytu, spieku, wylanego betonu, granitu, szkła, drewna, płyty wiórowej i tysiąca innych materiałów - wszystko zależy od kieszeni, upodobań użytownika/niczki pomieszczenia i pojemności kieszeni albo cierpliwości banku ;) Jak chcesz zobaczyć jak budują Polacy to proszę po kroku zobacz budowę pod Poznaniem :) budogram.pl/dziennik/2140-nowoczesna-stodola A jak chcesz zobaczyć jak mieszkają Polacy to Murator - czyli najstarszy polski miesięcznik o budowaniu prowadzi portal www.urzadzamy.pl/ Pozdrawiam :)
@@RappelzWikiaPolska Ytong to również beton komórkowy. Wydaje mi się że kolega miał na myśli zwyczajny bloczek betonowy nazywany również bloczkiem fundamentowym.
Szwajcarzy budują w górach z drewna , bo najbardziej ekonomiczne energetycznie. Jesli oni to robią , to musi to być świetne. Jesli jest tak jak mówisz z polskimi domami z trzymaniem ciepła i chłodu , to macie super dobrze bo nie musicie ani ogrzewać ani ochładzać.
@@utahdan231 Na południu Polski również buduje się z drewna. Może ktoś, kto zajmuje się tematem lub mieszka w domu drewnianym, wypowie się na temat takiego rozwiązania?
In France we don't have basements too because it costs a lot and it's not really usefull, they just have more rooms for storing things. Very interesting video and a lot of research +1 LIKE.
I'm from France (Morbihan) and we had a basements but they tended to flood a lot so there were just empty rooms with concrete walls, no windows, a light bulb and a pump in a hole in the middle of the floor.
In Poland most of the houses has the bin under the kitchen faucet. Also, in Poland it's common to hang the cloth (for example, microfiber cloth) on the handle of the gas stove.
These are very valuable rules for anybody who wants to get rich. Unfortunately, most people who will watch this video will not really be able to apply the principles. We may not want to admit, but as Warren Buffett once said, investing is like any other profession-- it requires a certain level of expertise. No surprise that some people are losing a lot of money in the bear market, while others are making hundreds of thousands in profit. I just don't know how they do it. I have about $109k now to put in the market............
A lot of folks downplay the role of advisors until being burnt by their own emotions. I remember couple summers back, after my lengthy divorce, I needed a good boost to help my business stay afloat, hence I researched for license advisors and came across someone of due diligence, helped a lot to grow my reserve notwithstanding inflation, from $275k to approx. $850k so far.
Whole Poland is "higher" on the map, than north borders of US. That’s why houses are built from bricks Many homes have basements, but mostly they are used as storage and garage. Also in many regions of Poland we have clay soil, so it’s holds water, that cause the basements are sometimes flooded during spring storms, so using them only as storage is safer. Microwave is popular. but also many polish people prefer to eat home-made fresh food, even single people when they can and have time will cook something, than buy already prepared meal. Example: I have microwave and I used it mostly to defrost something. When I want to warm some food most of the time I will use a frying pan or a pot.
As a Pole, I use microwave mainly to heat something, not to cook. Like to heat milk for cereals, or reheat tea or coffee. Also to make popcorn. About Poland being north, you have to remember, that Europe is heated by Gulstream, so it is generally warmer than respective lattitudes in America.
Regarding to polish houses: in area where i'm living typical house at 2020-2021 look like this (from foundation, to the roof): Continuous footing/ full slab (depending on geology), on that hydro insulation, over it foundation walls (reinforced concrete or concrete bricks) all hydro and thermo insulated. Basement depend on water table in the area as well as personal preferences of the owner, back in the days almost all houses have basement manly for storage, at the moment it is no very popular. ground floor typically is a "blind screed' ( 4 inch concrete) on that hydro and thermal insulation (eg. 10 inch styrofoam), then screed (3 inch of concrete/anhydrite) with heating pipes (heating floor) nowadays whole house + towel rack in bathrooms. Top layer tiled, vinyl, wood etc. Walls: ceramic blocks / aerated concrete or others, in the inside lime plaster / gypsum plaster, on the outside: styrofoam/mineral wool (8-10 inch) and finish (concrete based 'glue', carbon net as a reinforcement and outer layer acryl or silicone based, colored). If house has more than one floor typically celling is made as one reinforcement concrete slab. Roof: wood based construction, waterproofing membrane, ceramic/ concrete roof tiles or galvanized steel sheet imitating tiles. Inside thermal insulation made of mineral wool / foam, on that drywall. Sometimes instead of drywall there is a full reinforcement concrete ceiling in polish "stropodach" people do this for good thermal and acoustic insulation it also eliminate problems with dry wall cracks etc. Typical area 120-250 square m +garage, porch from the south side / back side. Yard like a quarter acre. Heating natural gas/ electric heat pump(it could heat or cool) + solar panels, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery. AC sometimes however in polish climate it is not necessary if design(considering sun location/windows etc) and construction is well done: good insulation + huge thermal mass could mitigate heat waves. We have got more like NY climate conditions, not Cali/Texas/Florida. heh huge comment but i hope it will be interesting sorry for my 'english';] Best regards
I just went to visit my family in Poland after not seeing them for a long time and Poland has completely changed. Not only is it more progressive than it was when I was there to the homes are beautiful. Even be apartment if they're in an older building, once you enter you'll find a penthouse
I think that in most houses you have tiles in kitchen and bathroom (easy to clean). The rest of the house it can be wooden floors (doesn't have to be a real wood).
I remember my trip to US. I stayed in a Motel and was looking for a kettle. I was pretty sure that on the website there was info about possibility to make a tea on your own. After few minutes I decided that I will go to the reception and ask WTF but then I realized that they probably boil water in microwave :D (by they I mean - people in that motel). This was so foreign to me that I needed few minutes to realize that I can actually use Micro to do this :D (even so I use microwave to re-heat meals ;) ). I do not know how it looks in Poland in general but all hotels I stayed in PL have normal kettles.
Great video. It always puzzled me when in American movies indoor fight scenes someone punches through a wall!! And those weren't about superheroes with superstrength...in Poland- unthinkable...well, except for Hulk, maybe
I live in Krakow, finding a house for sale here is impossible. Sidenote, what's cool about Poland is that below your flat or close to it, it is designed well for people. I have my bank, my post office, lidl, shops like Grossman right by me. It seems it's like this in most areas where people live. If you move to poland and your looking for a flat, if it say 2 rooms, it's not bed rooms, it is literally 2 rooms. If you have a family and need 3 bedrooms, you should look for a place that says 4 rooms or more...
1. As a former student of American English I disagree about most people learning to speak British English. Actually, with most people picking up the language from movies and games I'd say it's a mix of all the types 😄 2. It's not a "heated towel rack", it's a regular bathroom heater, build in a way that allows you to hang something on it, usually towels or pieces of clothing. But the primary purpose is to heat, not to be a hanger. 3. Typically tiles are used in areas that can get wet easily or very messy, such as kitchens, bathrooms or hallways/entryways. I rarely see hardwood floors in people's houses. I'd say the most popular is the laminate flooring, due to the low price and ease of cleaning, sometimes with a smaller carpet put on it in the center of the room, or a completely carpeted room for people who like it, though I think it's a bit old-fashioned nowadays. Sometimes people even use laminate flooring in bathroom or kitchen, you can get the type that is more moisture resistant and suited for such places.
In the US, it looks like no one has polystyrene or hard glass wool as thermal insulation only soft glass wool in the frame, in Poland, no one applies plaster to bare wall but on the insulation and mesh - this is why the windows are set so deeply, some people put windows forward to have a larger windowsill inside, our walls are usually 50cm thick.
I'm from Warsaw and i live in residential block, and we have shared-basement. Each apartament has an assigned room in basement, where they can use it as a storage room.
Country homes in Poland usually have a basement but it's called Piwnica and is mostly used to store vegetables and fruits for the winter as well as coal and wood etc .... It will also include some kind of seasonal "kitchen " that is mainly used during the hot summer months because it's cooler in the basement in the summer so a lot of cooking and canning is done in piwnica
In Poland basements are usually used for cellars or storage because they are built with concrete making the basement cold and sometimes dump. They are using the attic for extra inexpensive living space.
1. Basement - in the past they were almost obligatory for "real house". Nowadays people are smarter and skip this saving 30% of building costs. 2. Shoes - traditionally you don't take them off as guest, but people actually living there on daily basic put them off because it's comfortable and often allows guest to do this as well.
What I find unusual in US buidings as a Pole are: 1. carpets in bathrooms, 2. windows that can't be opened - especially in hotels, 3. toilets filled with water looking like they were clogged, 4. lack of fences around houses, 5. water tanks on top of roof on some states, 6. fire stares outside in NYC, 7. motels where you enter the room directly from outside buinding without corridors, 8. 110V instead of 230V, 9. more attention to space size than to quality of work and materials, 10. different interior design styles than in Europe, 11. majority of houses made of wood, 12. huge parking space in front of shopping malls
Poland's climate requires to heat the house for about a half a year. Walls are designed to accumulate the heat and are insulated (about 10") from outside so that it requires much less energy to sustain the temperature inside. We use wooden constructions for buildings, which are occupied periodically, so it's easy to heat-up in hours, but they chill-down also fast.
A washer-dryer (two in one) takes more water (it has a different technology), so I decided to buy both a washer and a dryer separately. They will stand one on top of another to save some room in my small bathroom in an apartment.
Yeah about that flush... I always use both of them at once, didn't know they were different hahaha. And about basements, every basement I saw was just raw, unfinished concrete, and always used for storing things You won't need for a long while/bikes. In houses usually garage fills that role, or one more level above the garage is also sometimes built for it
I live in Poland and two of my neighbours have liveable basements, with separate front doors, so I never know where to knock, they always seem to be on the other floor.
Great job Trev 👍👍👍👍 finally someone explained home names for me 😁. Back in the nineties I spent few years in Indiana and I remember there were no basement houses.
Hi! I just found your channel and I love it :) as a Polish girl I highly recommend you to visit Tatry- our beautifull mountains. They are breathtaking ;) Zakopane is the closest city to heart of Tatry ;) have a good day 😊
In Poland walls aren't just masonry. We put nowadays thermal insulation up to 15cm/6in thick and then the paint. We have microwaves but very rarely people just put plastic there, we put food on regular plate and that in microwave.
About the basements: most of old buildings have them, new usually don't. There is no more such need as you don't store that much of food, coal, wood, old stuff. Mainly cuz it's more expensive and not very needed.
I live in Greece and I miss so many things about Polish houses! Good heating, basements, wooden floors... I don't miss tiny or non existent balconies though! :D
Yup. Electricity is quite expensive here. I know a person who had her apartment heated by electricity, she spent on average 1/9 of her income just on heating... Also why would one heat up a driveway? Shovels are cheaper...
@@urgon6321 Just for the thing that you don't have to use the shovel. And it's not that expensive. Remember that it's a simple resistance cable. It can work on any electricity, literally any voltage, and it doesn't matter if you have it sinus or still. Therefore all you need to have a heated driveway is a 300W solar panel. No electronics, regulators, batteries - for what, if colder=less clouds in fact, and if it's around 0*C you don't need much to heat it up to 1*C. Got mine for 50 PLN, from Germany (former power plant, dismounted now), a cable was 200 PLN. That's all, and I don't pay for electricity to heat it...
@@steelrat1733, now imagine that every driveway gets heated from solar power. How much energy it would waste just because some people are too lazy and/or stupid? But that's the first world mentality, when no one gives a flying f**k about waste as long as they get their Netflix, TH-cam, and new iPhone every year. No wonder climate is f***ked up!
@@urgon6321 how exactly reusing scrap panels (it comes from the German plant that had been demolished as depleted) is harming the enviroment? Sorry, but I don't get it :P
There also a difference in driving skills and so on. -10 well no problem for Poles. Schools working, buses going... USA: closed schools, noone can drive a car...
Those popsicle trees also have additional purposes - they reduce a noise coiming out from roads and also "filter/absorb" the dust if there is a ground road. Whats more, they give a good cover against the wind if the house is located in a low building density area.
I live in a semi-detached house in PL and neither me, not my neighbor have a fence in front of it. Like in US you can just get right to the front door. On top of that we do have a big window starting right on the ground level and I think these foster human interactions, because sometimes someone's dog comes close and owner tries to catch it and in the end we have a small talk :D. Actually many people ask us "why don't you build a fence", but I really like it this way. Good vid BTW.
The main reason wood is so popular in many places in America is because wooden structures are much easier to expand upon. It is a lot easier to add a second floor or additional rooms to the first floor. The use of vinyl siding is popular because it is durable, low maintenance and easy to replace if you want to change the look of the house. The roofing you are talking about is asphalt covered with aggregate. Again, durable and easy to replace or change. All of this is, of course, dependent on the local conditions and weather. Most large homes or mansions are built of cinder block and covered with stucco. The style of homes an roofs depends on climate. In Florida you will see mostly "hip-roofs" which are resistant to high wind and in New England you will find steeply pitched roofs that do not allow too much snow to accumulate.
I live in an old house which is made of bricks, and every single house in my neighbourhood has basement. Nowadays it's really expensive to get basement, people usually build Two-story doom which is cheaper option. Btw great vids!
Thx for vocab. It is very useful. There are a few factors about the basements. First of all it depends of what is your source of heat in the building. If you use those coal furnace, you have to have a place to store the coal. Second is an extra space to keep all kinds of products. Nowadays in new houses basements are less popular because of the cost and the slow withdraw of coal heating.
5:51 There is typically another layer made of styrofoam, about 10 cm (4 inches) thick, attached with plastic anchors, and covered in a mesh, that is then covered in a type of mortar. Insulation is a really important thing to lower the cost of heating, and comply with energy ratings of houses in Europe. An extreme version of it is a "passive house" using a mix of insulation and heat pump + alternative (green) energy to manage the heat and ventilation at zero cost & impact to environment. Generally building codes in EU are pushing in this direction gradually year by year, so newer houses get more and more energy efficient.
11:25 They aren't needed as much, yes, but they are also very, very expensive. During hot summer periods we just whip out our old trusty standing fans from the attic and place them on the floor to cool your face down. Works well enough and is a much cheaper option.
This is a great vid ! Just one hint why in Poland we don't use granite too often for the counter tops. This material It's used primarily for building graves so it'd feel kinda awkward to have it in your kitchen..
I like many solutions in American homes that I would gladly adopt to homes in Poland.. that's why the Internet and information exchange are such a wonderful invention that we don't appreciate on a daily basis. it's worth learning from each other... 👋☺️👍🇵🇱♥️🇺🇸
The word "condo" is being used more often in Poland now. I used to work in a hotel where every room was owned by a specific owner and they referred to that setup as a condo.
11:02 I build my house with windows with integrated bugscreens. Many ppl don't think about bugs before they are move in and after first summer they are looking for it. But what I found more interesting is that in almost every US movie windows have single glass (sorry if that's not correct name for it) but in Poland new windows have 3 layers with additional noble(?) gas between these layers.
Hi! We don't organize the basement as a floor number zero in our houses because such space historically was used as storage. For all centuries was used as a storage for a coal first of all (to warm up the house), then for potatos, other vegatables (onion, carot and so..), for wines and other alcohols ... Today for several old furniture and other goods which are not in use, but too good to be thrown away.. You can collect your bicycles there, sport equipment, tents for next summer trips... We almost NEVER organize there a place for playing table football or hockey or the other games because we treat this as too stupid. Furthermore in bacements are small windows usually, giving not enought of a day light and this is not good for children! Recently, sometimes in a basement is established a home cinema. And only this idea is treated as good and ..elegant.
There are a few things I can add from a Polish point of view. First, Polish houses built from bricks or kind of ceramic blocks does not mean that they are in decent quality. Many builders build as fast as they can and use poor quality materials. The second thing is our big fenses. I think apart from privacy, they are built so high and solid because of the defence reason (they definitely won't work, but in your mind you can feel safier). In the US you can have a gun and defend yourself if someone comes uninvited.
If you want to build a basement, the costs are much higher. You need much more digging job, and you have to invest a much into the perfect water and heat insolation. Also might be a big concern when ground water level is high. It's much easier and cheaper to simply build a bit bigger house and use few extra rooms at ground level with same function as cellar. You will find cellars mostly in older and bigger houses.
We have granite on cementaries so we rather have wood in our kitchens. The large granite plates are simply looking like your grandma, grandpa, place od final resting, so we tend to not mix that picture with food ;) but you have different types of graves so your mind is not making that connection. Actually if you are wealthy in Poland you would have crazy big (and crazy expensive) wooden one. Wood is quite expensive here. It's better quality cause it's growing slower, but it's better. Also about these basements... like one stated: it's mainly used as utility space but we usually don't have them due to: humidity of soil (can happen as Poland far and wide and no concrete can beat that sooner or later you will have flood in your basement and nice spot for plants like cave shrooms ;) ) or rocks beneath them so it's crazy expensive to dig through that. I hope that I help a little and thank you for that video. I was enjoying it very much. You have excellent attitude in your videos calm, straight to the point and also curious about what people have to add to the discussion. Love that.
About the granite counter tops. One of my relatives got them and everyone looked at him like he's a madman because of it. It's been about ten years since he got them and they still look new. Turns out granite is hard, like really hard even by rock standards. You could drop a brick on a granite top and nothing will happen, while wood countertops get scratched and rot in contact with moisture.
I have a hardwood counter top just oiled, not painted or covered with anything. Never had problems with moisture. And scratches are just ignorable. Oil again and it is done. Looks even better in some sense.
In Poland there are some places with clay. Rest is mostly dirt and sand. Building house with basement (which is rather understood as non living/sleeping part of house) is quite expensive so we do not practice this in Poland. Many old houses from 70' and 80' has basement though. There were kept coal for furnances in those years.
I was born and raised in Poland. My grandfather was born in 1936. In all houses he built (26+ on his own) in the 50s-70s in Poland the chief factor was accessibility of raw material, since there were lots of shortages of pretty much everything due to socialist oppression. The most efficient use of material was to make cube-like houses with (mostly) flat roofs, which is really predominant in construction from that period. Many times basic materials like bricks had to be salvaged from demolition places (I recall going to those when I was small with him). Our house had a basement and most that I knew did have that as well, since that's where the coal furnace would go, as well as storage for potatoes, onions, etc. I can't speak for any new construction (i.e. after the 90s when Poland was no longer under Soviet-controlled regime). Brick/stone is a dominant building material because a) we have no seismic activity at all b) it provides good basis for insulation in the winter / cool in the summer. Tall fences and curtains in windows (several layers) are very likely the remnant of the communist times, when anyone could be a spy (our neighbors were), and you wouldn't want anyone to look inside your house. "My house is my castle" would best describe the Polish building sentiment. The window opening style is (probably) due to insulation - you really want it as tight as possible in the winter (even though it almost never gets as cold as most of the US midwest...).
I literally don't know anyone who doesn't have a basement in their house in Poland. The basement is often the place where the heater is place, and I don't know where would you put the heater if not in the basement. Even in the apartment blocks there are basements and every flat has a part of that basement assigned, much like a parking space, and they can use it for storage.
In newer apartment buildings there are usually parking spaces on the basement level, so there may be less of those storage rooms than in older blocks and not all apartments own them (in my building there are over 60 flats, but less than 40 basement storage rooms). Those that don't have a basement have some kind of "technical room", where they have the heater, usually close to the garrage. Also now more homes have gas heating, so they don't need so much space for storing coal etc.
A very interesting clip. About apartments - in Poland the type of apartment differs depending on the type of ownership of the apartment and the building. So you can rent an apartment in a housing cooperative being a member, you can live in a council flat owned by the state, you can own an apartment in a housing cooperative building, and you can own an apartment living in a house owned by something that's called 'wspólnota mieszkaniowa' or 'tenants' association'.
5:05 in Poland this is called papa, but its (at least from my expirience) rarely used when making roofs, also there isnt wooden layer before the roof, this "layer" is part of rafter (roof's frame), it would be alot harder to mount the roof on bricks/cinder blocks without it
Lack of basement is due to tax mainly and partially due to increased cost of building. I don't think it's really popular everywhere but in my area most of the people have a separate utility building to do washing, keep bikes etc and it's not like a shed, more like another small house with 2 floors and plumbing and improvised kitchen reusing old, outdated equipment xD. Almost every 30+ yo building has them in my region.
Some things I would like to comment on. Most houses have not just grout but they have outside insulation made out of styrofoam, usually around 3" thick, rarely they are insulated on the inside, with a layer of plaster over it. The big gates don't swing open manually - I've never seen that, all are motorized, with most either opening to the side on rails (sometimes split, sometimes to one side), some swing to to inside or out, but you never do it manually - unless you are driving your tractor onto your field. As for microwaves - I don't know many modern homes without one. You have it for conveniece, heating stuff quickly is handy, but we don't usually cook our regular meals in them. Frozen food is rarely done in a microwave (unless you use it to defrost food) - we just put it in the regular oven (like frozen pizza, lasagna etc) but we do use microwaves - especially in office kitchens - it's a basic staple of any office kitchen - you can reheat your lunch, quickly cook a store bought lunch, mostly used for soup and store bought quick dinners. At home - we usually only cook hot dogs in there if we are in a hurry, reheat some milk or formula or need to make microwave popcorn. But regular dinners - rarely it gets used, if ever (maybe if the dinner is getting cold and somebody is late - you could reheat it then). Maybe some old homes don't have it, but I've basically never seen a modern home / flat without a microwave, altough - I now question why it's even there - today for breakfast I cooked my hot dogs on my stove, and the microwave is only used to heat up something from the frigde (like canned / preserved stuff) - but it's very rarely. The washer and dryer is because of the smaller houses - you compared 200 vs 100 square meters of average, but that means, some homes are even smaller - especially in flats - you basically have about 50-60 square meters flats (and sometimes 20-30 for single person flats) - so you never have enough room in your bathroom or kitchen for 2 big appliances - so everybody has the washer, and some people can afford a washer/dryer combo, but almost nobody has the space for both.
Basements were popular because of gravity heating systems. Coal-fired furnace in basement, large diameter pipes and large difference in height between the basement and living rooms makes electric pump to move warm water at all no needed. For example, there is an electricity failure and you can have heating, which is impossible with modern gas heating systems and thin tube installations. Survival for harsh time.
as for rooms - it's super weird if a house doesn't have a basement, only few years ago super new homes started the trend. Overall nearlly all houses got basements. Usually we don't have a separate laundry room though. Microweave is also considered to be a standard appliance in any kitchen. As for dryers and AC - people usualy now opt for thsoe as well if they get solar pannels, which are getting super popular atm)
Very nice video! Learned a lot from it, thank you! Regarding the cellars - it's not the soil thing. In the past almost every house had a cellar as there were no or few fridges and people kept there food to keep it cool and also, especially during the communism time where there was not enough food, people made preserves and kept them in their cellars. Nowadays it's no longer needed and most people are rich enough to buy preserves in a shop (in the past you had to keep saving on anything). Not to mention that building a house without a cellar is much cheaper. Regarding the shingle - we also have them made like your US ones. In the past most of the roofs were covered with roofing felt fully made of material that you're using in the US now. Regarding the flooring - in majority you have wooden floors or wood like floorboards in living rooms, may also have them in the bedrooms. Tiles are considered more practical for kitchens and bathrooms where there are liquids and moisture. Nowadays we have really huge range of floor and wall tiles looking exactly like wood, which I find really nice cause you can use them freely in your kitchens and bathrooms.
in Poland, whether you can have a basement is conditioned by the Building Conditions document. If the groundwater level is high in a given region, you cannot build a basement because it will be difficult to drain the water from it. So it depends on whether the office allows it and whether you have the funds to do so.
In US lots of people have an asphalt driveways and basketball board hanging above garage doors, which is much less popular in poland, in kitchen in us you can find foodrests trasher mounted on sink which is isnt common in Poland. In Poland especially villages is normal to have big gardens at the front and the back as well. Fence culture. yes its true, In Us a lots of houses have National flag waveing all the time not only on national days like in Poland. we use lemon and tea often. Great video, keep goin
It's true that wood isn't like it used to be. I was renovating my grandparents house and the 100 year old lumber was still healthy and when cut it smelled of fresh resin! It was ancient.
3:00 - A basement in houses is available on every kind of soil - sand, clay, rock. It depends only to ground water level and money to spend. A basement houses you can find on sandy dunes near Baltic, clay plains of Wielkopolska or rocky mounts of Karkonosze. Why in US and Canada a wood house is so common. It caused a cheap and well quality wood. In Poland and most of EU countries (exept Scandinavia) a wood is expensive and low quality, so wooden house is just expensive.
Polish houses built now do have a thick layer of insulation on the outside of those block walls which is rendered over, this building method is very common now over the whole of Europe, only the covering will depend on regional taste varying from rendering to brick slips and wood or composite covering. The high degree of insulation in new houses enables the use of heat pumps even in colder zones, the underfloor heating is more comfortable and energy efficient than the distributed air heating common in the US, drafts are completely absent.
Basements are usually only found in flats and other large multi-family buildings. Usually it's cheaper to build a multi-purpose garage or a storage room into the house.
I think of where I live as southern. There are towel racks, I've never been anywhere in the US that doesn't have one? I love say homes here are about 50% brick/stone and vinyl. I do not see many homes solely vinyl as described in this video. My home particular homes front is all stone while the back is vinyl. My first home was all brick. Growing up a lot of families set out the clothes to dry but as I've gotten older less families do this because of allergies. I think most people would assume heated floors more of a luxury and not necessary? most people I know wear slippers, socks or sandals inside for warmth. Most homes I see now days have floors solely wood, vinyl or tile as a lot of people think carpet is dirty. it rains half the year here so that may contribute to not wanting to carpet too.
I wonder if you know, that people build cement/concrete boats. Hull made out of reinforced concrete is one of the cheapest things you can do to make sea-worthy medium size ship, the most expensive part will be the form. There is also pykrete ship, but that's another story :)
Washer-dryer combo is a compromise that is always crappier than having those machines separate. Usually you go with that only if you don't have space for both (Which is common in Poland, especially in apartments). And yeah, my ground floor is fully reinforced concrete - it should survive at least one artillery barrage. :D
3:00 - basements are present in houses all right, it's just you can't have living / usable quarters with floor below the ground level by law in Poland and you wouldn't get a permit with one designed for living, so basements are just for tech and storage rooms.
My newest video... th-cam.com/video/cz7zIcXaFQY/w-d-xo.html
Most homes in Poland also have microwave ovens but we usually just use them to reheat homemade food instead of cooking premade products.
I second that
That’s what people do in USA. Reheat.
Nobody cooks in microwave because most people have 2 ovens and a full size stove , sometimes with 6 burners.
@@utahdan231 Wow, 6 burners. Anyway... I don't know about USA, but you'd be suprised how many people in the UK cook premade products from supermarkets in microwaves.
Yeah... heating up sausages and milk for cereal.
Yes and the most popular windows for 5+ years is Windows 10 ;)
3:00 no it's not because of soil. Cost is a biggest factor here, but you can choose to have one. Basements are typically unfinished in Poland, intended for storage and utility rooms.
True, I can second that. It much cheaper to dig small hole in the ground for the fundations instead of digging giant hole for the basement.
I am a Pole living in the US for 17 years now and to this day it boggles my mind how Amricans can live in basements... you mean, like, with potatoes and canned fruit, and mice? hehe ;)
@@alwaystheheart Im actually curious how did you get the green card? Its kinda my dream to one day move to the US but it seems extreamly difficult to do it legally.
@@Ev0ltion My parents applied for a green card 10 years before we were even selected for an interview (I was 5 yo when they applied). It was a loooonnnggg process. I was underage when they finally got it so it was "extended" to me as well. Now, most people get either sponsored by a job/family member or get married to a citizen.
@@alwaystheheart well you can live in a basement in eastern europe. there u have palinka,wine and pickels what do you need more...
In fact many older houses in Poland do have basements, but it's rather a storage/utility space.
I was about to say that, houses from 70-80’s have basements like mine and my neighbours. I think it isn’t anymore popular cos it’s harder to maintenance them, basement cause more humidity in the house and during the winter is harder to keep them warm...
Yes, there is a lot of houses with basements but recently people build houses without them mainly because of the cost which is roughly about 1/3 of the whole cost of the construction. Besides, the basement, if it's not designed as an additional room or something like that, becomes a storage very fast and after a while you find yourself in the middle of a big mess. Unless you can maintain the order of course.
@@Kam7777 I think they would also be expensive, right? You gotta dig in. It's more convenient to just have a bit more land and make a garage.
@@Kam7777 I have a house built in 1989 but I have radiators in all my basement rooms. Look at the left side from me on the wall. My basement is hot and dry. In my area this is very often. All is the question of money, I think so. In the winter if you haven't a basement you don't have to heat it. Heating is expensive. Now it is popular to build passive houses that are greener and cheaper to maintain. th-cam.com/video/qUOJWLm02BA/w-d-xo.html
@@Kam7777 it's the opposite. The basement makes home breathe. And it's a natural AC.
There is no "first floor made of tiles" rule in Poland. We use tiles either in places where you usually walk in in your boots (hall/anteroom) or where you need to wipe/mop it often (bathroom, toilet, kitchen, utility room). You will NOT find tiles in a first floor bedroom or living room.
idk i think it depends because in our old house we had tile like wood panels or the first floor, and on the second floor we had actual wood
I wouldn't generalize. I have tiles on the first floor (and many of my friends have the same), including the leaving room. It's mainly due to the underfloor heating.
In Poland when we describe a house/flat, we say how many rooms it has, in US they say how many bedrooms it has.
Rooms in polish law are livable spaces. (bedroom, livingroom)
Not really...ohhh, we say what the living area is, in square meters, to be precise. That's because we pay for 1sq/m. Rooms/bedrooms is a British thing.
Two important issues: 1) in Poland, if we decide to have a house, we buy the place where it is to be built and build it ourselves, or we commission it to a company. Buying new homes made beforehand without our interference in design and workmanship is still less common, only in cities and suburbs. 2) In Poland, everyone becomes attached to their home, if we decide to buy our own house or flat, we do it for many years, very often for life. We do not like frequent changes of the place of residence. In this respect, we are very sentimental, so much so that we prefer to live where we live than to move to a place where there are better wages and living standards than to move even 100 km away. However, slowly everything changes, the young generation is more mobile ;)
I would say that not an issue of attachment or being sentimental, but simply not having money to buy a house every few years. Nowadays most people can't build/buy a house without mortgage and that takes about 30 years to pay off.
@@Aerinn21yes. It's popular in Poland to put complicated psychology in places where simple economy explain everything 😅
@@pio7763 Not really. I agree with @RK-lk5di. Most of my family built their houses where they currently live/were born, and I don't mean cities.
@@Aerinn21 Why TH would I buy a new house if I already have one to live in?
About 4 million poles who emigrated abroad will disagree with you. Another most habitants of big cities. I would say in smaller communities in Poland it is common to stick to your roots but in the cities changing address is common.
A funny anecdote: a friend of mine has travelled with his Canadian friend and they stayed in a hotel one time. The guy from Canada tried to open a window, but he put the handle upwards and obviously the window was in that vent mode. The guy was like: OMG I broke the window. And my friend: no, you didn't you stupid- it's a vent mode. There was really hot in the evening with no AC, so he could appreciate that feature. After some time he said: oh I love that European broken window mode :D
USA: has tornados and builds weak ass houses
Poland: builds gigachad houses despite not having tornados
So true lol
It feels so much safer, when your house will not get ruined by a strong wind, hay, or some madman driven car :P
*"hail", not "hay"
brick dosn't protect from tornados and if every year you have to re build your house because of tornado and you can spend for example 50K instead 150K you would go 50K. I had a house made out of construction wood in poland because it was cheaper and faster to build than the brick block
@thr Cops is it way cheaper to built from wood?
I enjoyed this video. I’m an American living in Warsaw. We have a finished basement in our townhouse. Love the windows here and heated floors in kitchen/bathrooms! Keep making content on Poland.
I think that in Polish houses you can find attics and separate storage rooms (spiżarnia, graciarnia) instead of basements. Sometimes people use their garages as storage rooms. In flats the opposite - very often each flat has its own storage room assigned in the basement.
Assigned storage rooms are rather rare in newer apartment buildings but they are a common feature in communist blocks.
@@justynawisniewska1213 new are rare in city centers due to a simple fact that a center was built years ago. I was living in an old building that had 2 storage rooms in the basement for every flat - one normal, and one in a bunker a level below that. And all older buildings in the cities I know (Wroclaw, Szczecin, Gorzów, Hamburg in Germany too) are like that. Also spacious (typical 2 rooms is around 65m2) and high ceilings (3,5m). Well, pre-war buildings have some magic in them, cold in summer, hot in winter with almost no insulation (this might have something to do with the wall thickness...), with a lot of space. Sadly new ones are way worse in that matter, but apartments there are also way cheaper, so people of course buy them.
@@steelrat1733 Newly built apartments are always more expensive than those in communist blocks (unless the location is just very very bad) and usually with communist blocks you would get a little storage unit in the basement. Communist blocks are ubiquitous even in city centers as during the post-war housing deficit they'd build them anywhere with little regard for aesthetics and preserving the pre-war charm of city centers.
When it comes to pre-war it depends on location and how well-maintained and renovated the apartment and the building is.
@@justynawisniewska1213 I was talking about pre-war buildings, not those communist blocks. They are awful. As for the pre-war buildings well, those owned by the cities are awful, those privately owned by the tenants - great. But they are mostly privately owned by the tenants, because they were sold to them in the 90's. At least in the western Poland, because eastern parts were way more destroyed during the war, and in pre-war buildings they have issues with former owners.
@@steelrat1733 I used to hate communist blocks too but we should not knock them, they are not that bad. I do believe they should be slowly phased out of city centers but the ones on the outskirts are kinda neat. They are often better than newly built. Often times located closer to city centers, they are more spaced out with greenery inbetween, more parking spaces and good access to public transportation that a lot of new development lacks. Also good to mention they often have preschools, schools, libraries, grocery stores, primary care offices located within walking distance.
Btw idk why you think the east of Poland was more destroyed during the war, Szczecin was hella bombed, there was barely anything left by the end of 2nd ww.
Przeciętny dom w Polsce ma między 200 a 250 m. Małe domy mają od 100 do 150 m kwadratowych i takie są coraz bardziej popularne ze względu na koszty, natomiast jeśli chodzi o stawianie domu i to z czego dom w Polsce jest zrobiony to mogę Cię zapewnić że bloczek betonowy jaki Ty znasz z USA odpada bo nie przejdzie wymagań polskiej normy budowlanej. W Polsce stawia się domy z: cegły, gazobetonu, betonu spienionego, silikatów, pustaków ceramicznych, keramzytobetonu, drewna struganego, bali, stali i szkła. Cała ściana, fundament i wszystkie przegrody (strop) są izolowane, i dlatego nie trzeba klimatyzacji, bo dobrze zaizolowany dom jest ciepły w zimie a chłodny w lecie. Okna mają podwójne, potrójne pakiety szyb, z wmontowanymi markizami zacieniającymi i moskitierami, często są z powłokami ułatwiającymi spływ wody - czyli łatwo-czyszczące się okna, do tego mają mnóstwo komór, to podnosi ich termoizolację, są montowane tak, żeby nie tworzyć mostków termicznych. Drzwi wejściowe i bramy garażowe też są izolowane i też są na nie odpowiednie normy. To wszystko można podpiwniczyć jeśli grunt i kieszeń inwestora na to pozwala i wiele starych domów w Polsce ma piwnice, nawet jeśli są położone na ziemi z wysokimi wodami gruntowymi albo w rejonie szkód górniczych, czyli aktywnego górotworu. Od mniej więcej 10 lat coraz popularniejsza staje się w Polsce płyta fundamentowa, czyli nie ma piwnicy, oszczędzamy ok. 10-20 tys. zł. Dachy mogą być pokryte dachówką tradycyjną wypalaną z gliny i glazurowaną, strzechą trzcinową albo słomianą; gontem drewnianym, blachą na rąbek, gontem blaszanym, dachówką betonową. Wszystko zależy z jakiego materiału jest wykonany dom - do niego dobierany jest dach, okna i drzwi ( a tu również wybór materiałów jest duży). Czy stawiasz dom tradycyjny czy nowoczesny - to narzuca materiały i wykończeni, bo nie zamontujesz plastikowych okien w modrzewiowym dworku.... Drzewa ogradzające posesje tworzą żywopłot, który ma tłumić hałas, zapewnić prywatność, dodatkowo chroni dom przed kurzem z drogi, a jak słusznie zauważyłeś Polacy ukochali tuję (thuja in English) bo to mało wymagający i szybko rosnący krzak, który naprawdę trudno zabić nawet niewprawnemu ogrodnikowi ;) Jeśli chodzi o wykończenie wnętrz: Polacy potrafią wydać bardzo dużo na swoje kuchnie. Blat może być z marmuru, kwarcytu, spieku, wylanego betonu, granitu, szkła, drewna, płyty wiórowej i tysiąca innych materiałów - wszystko zależy od kieszeni, upodobań użytownika/niczki pomieszczenia i pojemności kieszeni albo cierpliwości banku ;) Jak chcesz zobaczyć jak budują Polacy to proszę po kroku zobacz budowę pod Poznaniem :) budogram.pl/dziennik/2140-nowoczesna-stodola A jak chcesz zobaczyć jak mieszkają Polacy to Murator - czyli najstarszy polski miesięcznik o budowaniu prowadzi portal www.urzadzamy.pl/ Pozdrawiam :)
Ytong przechodzi normy a to właśnie Amerykański Bloczek :D
@@RappelzWikiaPolska Ytong to również beton komórkowy. Wydaje mi się że kolega miał na myśli zwyczajny bloczek betonowy nazywany również bloczkiem fundamentowym.
Szwajcarzy budują w górach z drewna , bo najbardziej ekonomiczne energetycznie. Jesli oni to robią , to musi to być świetne. Jesli jest tak jak mówisz z polskimi domami z trzymaniem ciepła i chłodu , to macie super dobrze bo nie musicie ani ogrzewać ani ochładzać.
@@utahdan231 Na południu Polski również buduje się z drewna. Może ktoś, kto zajmuje się tematem lub mieszka w domu drewnianym, wypowie się na temat takiego rozwiązania?
Super odpowiedź.
Zasługuje na przypięcie. 💐
In France we don't have basements too because it costs a lot and it's not really usefull, they just have more rooms for storing things. Very interesting video and a lot of research +1 LIKE.
I'm from France (Morbihan) and we had a basements but they tended to flood a lot so there were just empty rooms with concrete walls, no windows, a light bulb and a pump in a hole in the middle of the floor.
In Poland most of the houses has the bin under the kitchen faucet.
Also, in Poland it's common to hang the cloth (for example, microfiber cloth) on the handle of the gas stove.
These are very valuable rules for anybody who wants to get rich. Unfortunately, most people who will watch this video will not really be able to apply the principles. We may not want to admit, but as Warren Buffett once said, investing is like any other profession-- it requires a certain level of expertise. No surprise that some people are losing a lot of money in the bear market, while others are making hundreds of thousands in profit. I just don't know how they do it. I have about $109k now to put in the market............
A lot of folks downplay the role of advisors until being burnt by their own emotions. I remember couple summers back, after my lengthy divorce, I needed a good boost to help my business stay afloat, hence I researched for license advisors and came across someone of due diligence, helped a lot to grow my reserve notwithstanding inflation, from $275k to approx. $850k so far.
Whole Poland is "higher" on the map, than north borders of US. That’s why houses are built from bricks
Many homes have basements, but mostly they are used as storage and garage. Also in many regions of Poland we have clay soil, so it’s holds water, that cause the basements are sometimes flooded during spring storms, so using them only as storage is safer.
Microwave is popular.
but also many polish people prefer to eat home-made fresh food, even single people when they can and have time will cook something, than buy already prepared meal.
Example: I have microwave and I used it mostly to defrost something. When I want to warm some food most of the time I will use a frying pan or a pot.
As a Pole, I use microwave mainly to heat something, not to cook. Like to heat milk for cereals, or reheat tea or coffee. Also to make popcorn. About Poland being north, you have to remember, that Europe is heated by Gulstream, so it is generally warmer than respective lattitudes in America.
I don't like microwave therefore never buy anymore, it is unhealthy and to use plastic when microwaving is terrifying- begging for cancer
Semi-detached is in Polish "BLIŹNIAK", like a twin.
Regarding to polish houses: in area where i'm living typical house at 2020-2021 look like this (from foundation, to the roof):
Continuous footing/ full slab (depending on geology), on that hydro insulation, over it foundation walls (reinforced concrete or concrete bricks) all hydro and thermo insulated. Basement depend on water table in the area as well as personal preferences of the owner, back in the days almost all houses have basement manly for storage, at the moment it is no very popular.
ground floor typically is a "blind screed' ( 4 inch concrete) on that hydro and thermal insulation (eg. 10 inch styrofoam), then screed (3 inch of concrete/anhydrite) with heating pipes (heating floor) nowadays whole house + towel rack in bathrooms. Top layer tiled, vinyl, wood etc.
Walls: ceramic blocks / aerated concrete or others, in the inside lime plaster / gypsum plaster, on the outside: styrofoam/mineral wool (8-10 inch) and finish (concrete based 'glue', carbon net as a reinforcement and outer layer acryl or silicone based, colored).
If house has more than one floor typically celling is made as one reinforcement concrete slab.
Roof: wood based construction, waterproofing membrane, ceramic/ concrete roof tiles or galvanized steel sheet imitating tiles. Inside thermal insulation made of mineral wool / foam, on that drywall.
Sometimes instead of drywall there is a full reinforcement concrete ceiling in polish "stropodach" people do this for good thermal and acoustic insulation it also eliminate problems with dry wall cracks etc.
Typical area 120-250 square m +garage, porch from the south side / back side. Yard like a quarter acre. Heating natural gas/ electric heat pump(it could heat or cool) + solar panels, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery. AC sometimes however in polish climate it is not necessary if design(considering sun location/windows etc) and construction is well done: good insulation + huge thermal mass could mitigate heat waves. We have got more like NY climate conditions, not Cali/Texas/Florida.
heh huge comment but i hope it will be interesting
sorry for my 'english';]
Best regards
5:00 - this thing on the root is called "roofing felt" made of bitumen - in Poland it is called "Papa". Used for waterproofing and isolation.
I just went to visit my family in Poland after not seeing them for a long time and Poland has completely changed. Not only is it more progressive than it was when I was there to the homes are beautiful. Even be apartment if they're in an older building, once you enter you'll find a penthouse
I think that in most houses you have tiles in kitchen and bathroom (easy to clean). The rest of the house it can be wooden floors (doesn't have to be a real wood).
I remember my trip to US. I stayed in a Motel and was looking for a kettle. I was pretty sure that on the website there was info about possibility to make a tea on your own. After few minutes I decided that I will go to the reception and ask WTF but then I realized that they probably boil water in microwave :D (by they I mean - people in that motel). This was so foreign to me that I needed few minutes to realize that I can actually use Micro to do this :D (even so I use microwave to re-heat meals ;) ). I do not know how it looks in Poland in general but all hotels I stayed in PL have normal kettles.
In every chain motel in USA you have coffee maker , micro and small fridge.
they do WHAT?!
electric kettles don't exist in us, if you need your liquid hot use damn microwave ;) who would drink anything hot anyway ;)
@@marcinsobczak2485 Disgusting microvaved water is gross
my babcia would give me a klapsa if I used a microwave to boil anything
Great video. It always puzzled me when in American movies indoor fight scenes someone punches through a wall!! And those weren't about superheroes with superstrength...in Poland- unthinkable...well, except for Hulk, maybe
I live in Krakow, finding a house for sale here is impossible. Sidenote, what's cool about Poland is that below your flat or close to it, it is designed well for people. I have my bank, my post office, lidl, shops like Grossman right by me. It seems it's like this in most areas where people live. If you move to poland and your looking for a flat, if it say 2 rooms, it's not bed rooms, it is literally 2 rooms. If you have a family and need 3 bedrooms, you should look for a place that says 4 rooms or more...
Jestem dumny z mieszkania i życia w Polsce, i cieszę się bardzo, nawet nie wiesz jak, że tacy ludzie jak ty mają dobre zdanie o moim kochanym kraju
Maja inne zdanie nie dlatego ze sie im podoba ale dlatego tez ze sie im oplaca.
1. As a former student of American English I disagree about most people learning to speak British English. Actually, with most people picking up the language from movies and games I'd say it's a mix of all the types 😄
2. It's not a "heated towel rack", it's a regular bathroom heater, build in a way that allows you to hang something on it, usually towels or pieces of clothing. But the primary purpose is to heat, not to be a hanger.
3. Typically tiles are used in areas that can get wet easily or very messy, such as kitchens, bathrooms or hallways/entryways. I rarely see hardwood floors in people's houses. I'd say the most popular is the laminate flooring, due to the low price and ease of cleaning, sometimes with a smaller carpet put on it in the center of the room, or a completely carpeted room for people who like it, though I think it's a bit old-fashioned nowadays. Sometimes people even use laminate flooring in bathroom or kitchen, you can get the type that is more moisture resistant and suited for such places.
In the US, it looks like no one has polystyrene or hard glass wool as thermal insulation only soft glass wool in the frame, in Poland, no one applies plaster to bare wall but on the insulation and mesh - this is why the windows are set so deeply, some people put windows forward to have a larger windowsill inside, our walls are usually 50cm thick.
W blokach jest 35 cm.
I'm from Warsaw and i live in residential block, and we have shared-basement. Each apartament has an assigned room in basement, where they can use it as a storage room.
This is not a basement. It’s piwnica.
@@utahdan231 uhh same shit different language
Country homes in Poland usually have a basement but it's called Piwnica and is mostly used to store vegetables and fruits for the winter as well as coal and wood etc ....
It will also include some kind of seasonal "kitchen " that is mainly used during the hot summer months because it's cooler in the basement in the summer so a lot of cooking and canning is done in piwnica
& marlenapiwonska7233 Jak sama nazwa wskazuje, tam też trzymali piwo. Pozdrawiam
In Poland basements are usually used for cellars or storage because they are built with concrete making the basement cold and sometimes dump. They are using the attic for extra inexpensive living space.
1. Basement - in the past they were almost obligatory for "real house". Nowadays people are smarter and skip this saving 30% of building costs.
2. Shoes - traditionally you don't take them off as guest, but people actually living there on daily basic put them off because it's comfortable and often allows guest to do this as well.
08:00 - gdy sądziedzi ch$$je to się sadzi tuje :)
good
😂🤦♀️😝😂😂😂😂😂
What I find unusual in US buidings as a Pole are: 1. carpets in bathrooms, 2. windows that can't be opened - especially in hotels, 3. toilets filled with water looking like they were clogged, 4. lack of fences around houses, 5. water tanks on top of roof on some states, 6. fire stares outside in NYC, 7. motels where you enter the room directly from outside buinding without corridors, 8. 110V instead of 230V, 9. more attention to space size than to quality of work and materials, 10. different interior design styles than in Europe, 11. majority of houses made of wood, 12. huge parking space in front of shopping malls
Very entertaining anf educational, also your accent makes your speech so clear and fully understandable for me, thanks a lot.
THANK you Great work Trev😘
Poland's climate requires to heat the house for about a half a year. Walls are designed to accumulate the heat and are insulated (about 10") from outside so that it requires much less energy to sustain the temperature inside. We use wooden constructions for buildings, which are occupied periodically, so it's easy to heat-up in hours, but they chill-down also fast.
A washer-dryer (two in one) takes more water (it has a different technology), so I decided to buy both a washer and a dryer separately. They will stand one on top of another to save some room in my small bathroom in an apartment.
Yeah about that flush... I always use both of them at once, didn't know they were different hahaha. And about basements, every basement I saw was just raw, unfinished concrete, and always used for storing things You won't need for a long while/bikes. In houses usually garage fills that role, or one more level above the garage is also sometimes built for it
I live in Poland and two of my neighbours have liveable basements, with separate front doors, so I never know where to knock, they always seem to be on the other floor.
Basements are simply expensive and mostly used as laundry or garage, not living space, so it's not really money-wise.
Very accurate observations. Excelent video!
Great job Trev 👍👍👍👍 finally someone explained home names for me 😁. Back in the nineties I spent few years in Indiana and I remember there were no basement houses.
Hi! I just found your channel and I love it :) as a Polish girl I highly recommend you to visit Tatry- our beautifull mountains. They are breathtaking ;) Zakopane is the closest city to heart of Tatry ;) have a good day 😊
I am going to follow you Trev, cause you seem like a genuinely nice guy.
I lived in the USA 🇺🇸 and I’m traveling a lot in Poland 🇵🇱 so I love your channel very much
In Poland walls aren't just masonry. We put nowadays thermal insulation up to 15cm/6in thick and then the paint. We have microwaves but very rarely people just put plastic there, we put food on regular plate and that in microwave.
About the basements: most of old buildings have them, new usually don't. There is no more such need as you don't store that much of food, coal, wood, old stuff. Mainly cuz it's more expensive and not very needed.
I live in Greece and I miss so many things about Polish houses! Good heating, basements, wooden floors... I don't miss tiny or non existent balconies though! :D
You have sun in spades. so of course you'll have a large balcony.
In Poland balconies are considered thermal bridges and people say you will rarely use balcony, if you have a yard.
świetne porównanie - trafiasz w punkt ! 100% :)
I shuddered at the thought of the electricity or gas bill you'd get here in Italy for using a heated driveway... I'm sure it'd be the same in Poland.
Yup. Electricity is quite expensive here. I know a person who had her apartment heated by electricity, she spent on average 1/9 of her income just on heating...
Also why would one heat up a driveway? Shovels are cheaper...
@@urgon6321 Just for the thing that you don't have to use the shovel. And it's not that expensive. Remember that it's a simple resistance cable. It can work on any electricity, literally any voltage, and it doesn't matter if you have it sinus or still. Therefore all you need to have a heated driveway is a 300W solar panel. No electronics, regulators, batteries - for what, if colder=less clouds in fact, and if it's around 0*C you don't need much to heat it up to 1*C. Got mine for 50 PLN, from Germany (former power plant, dismounted now), a cable was 200 PLN. That's all, and I don't pay for electricity to heat it...
@@steelrat1733, now imagine that every driveway gets heated from solar power. How much energy it would waste just because some people are too lazy and/or stupid? But that's the first world mentality, when no one gives a flying f**k about waste as long as they get their Netflix, TH-cam, and new iPhone every year. No wonder climate is f***ked up!
@@urgon6321 how exactly reusing scrap panels (it comes from the German plant that had been demolished as depleted) is harming the enviroment? Sorry, but I don't get it :P
There also a difference in driving skills and so on. -10 well no problem for Poles. Schools working, buses going... USA: closed schools, noone can drive a car...
Those popsicle trees also have additional purposes - they reduce a noise coiming out from roads and also "filter/absorb" the dust if there is a ground road. Whats more, they give a good cover against the wind if the house is located in a low building density area.
I live in a semi-detached house in PL and neither me, not my neighbor have a fence in front of it. Like in US you can just get right to the front door. On top of that we do have a big window starting right on the ground level and I think these foster human interactions, because sometimes someone's dog comes close and owner tries to catch it and in the end we have a small talk :D. Actually many people ask us "why don't you build a fence", but I really like it this way. Good vid BTW.
The main reason wood is so popular in many places in America is because wooden structures are much easier to expand upon. It is a lot easier to add a second floor or additional rooms to the first floor. The use of vinyl siding is popular because it is durable, low maintenance and easy to replace if you want to change the look of the house. The roofing you are talking about is asphalt covered with aggregate. Again, durable and easy to replace or change. All of this is, of course, dependent on the local conditions and weather. Most large homes or mansions are built of cinder block and covered with stucco. The style of homes an roofs depends on climate. In Florida you will see mostly "hip-roofs" which are resistant to high wind and in New England you will find steeply pitched roofs that do not allow too much snow to accumulate.
I live in an old house which is made of bricks, and every single house in my neighbourhood has basement. Nowadays it's really expensive to get basement, people usually build Two-story doom which is cheaper option. Btw great vids!
@@zenqq1458 Oh, yeah, that's true. I remember my grandmother stored potatoes basement.
I can't believe how spot on your video is from someone who didn't grew up in Poland.
Thx for vocab. It is very useful.
There are a few factors about the basements. First of all it depends of what is your source of heat in the building. If you use those coal furnace, you have to have a place to store the coal. Second is an extra space to keep all kinds of products. Nowadays in new houses basements are less popular because of the cost and the slow withdraw of coal heating.
In Poland, we do not have bug nets installed on windows, but some people buy such nets in stores and install them on the windows themselves.
5:51 There is typically another layer made of styrofoam, about 10 cm (4 inches) thick, attached with plastic anchors, and covered in a mesh, that is then covered in a type of mortar. Insulation is a really important thing to lower the cost of heating, and comply with energy ratings of houses in Europe. An extreme version of it is a "passive house" using a mix of insulation and heat pump + alternative (green) energy to manage the heat and ventilation at zero cost & impact to environment. Generally building codes in EU are pushing in this direction gradually year by year, so newer houses get more and more energy efficient.
11:25
They aren't needed as much, yes, but they are also very, very expensive. During hot summer periods we just whip out our old trusty standing fans from the attic and place them on the floor to cool your face down. Works well enough and is a much cheaper option.
This is a great vid ! Just one hint why in Poland we don't use granite too often for the counter tops. This material It's used primarily for building graves so it'd feel kinda awkward to have it in your kitchen..
I like many solutions in American homes that I would gladly adopt to homes in Poland.. that's why the Internet and information exchange are such a wonderful invention that we don't appreciate on a daily basis. it's worth learning from each other... 👋☺️👍🇵🇱♥️🇺🇸
"Would you build ships out of rocks?" well, concrete ships are a thing, so why not?
The word "condo" is being used more often in Poland now. I used to work in a hotel where every room was owned by a specific owner and they referred to that setup as a condo.
11:02 I build my house with windows with integrated bugscreens. Many ppl don't think about bugs before they are move in and after first summer they are looking for it. But what I found more interesting is that in almost every US movie windows have single glass (sorry if that's not correct name for it) but in Poland new windows have 3 layers with additional noble(?) gas between these layers.
U.S. movies are made typically in California where it has a mild climate.
You haven't mentioned the ownership of houses/flats. In Poland, owning, not renting an apartment is quite common.
Hi! We don't organize the basement as a floor number zero in our houses because such space historically was used as storage.
For all centuries was used as a storage for a coal first of all (to warm up the house), then for potatos, other vegatables (onion, carot and so..), for wines and other alcohols ... Today for several old furniture and other goods which are not in use, but too good to be thrown away.. You can collect your bicycles there, sport equipment, tents for next summer trips... We almost NEVER organize there a place for playing table football or hockey or the other games because we treat this as too stupid. Furthermore in bacements are small windows usually, giving not enought of a day light and this is not good for children! Recently, sometimes in a basement is established a home cinema. And only this idea is treated as good and ..elegant.
There are a few things I can add from a Polish point of view. First, Polish houses built from bricks or kind of ceramic blocks does not mean that they are in decent quality. Many builders build as fast as they can and use poor quality materials. The second thing is our big fenses. I think apart from privacy, they are built so high and solid because of the defence reason (they definitely won't work, but in your mind you can feel safier). In the US you can have a gun and defend yourself if someone comes uninvited.
If you want to build a basement, the costs are much higher. You need much more digging job, and you have to invest a much into the perfect water and heat insolation. Also might be a big concern when ground water level is high.
It's much easier and cheaper to simply build a bit bigger house and use few extra rooms at ground level with same function as cellar.
You will find cellars mostly in older and bigger houses.
We have granite on cementaries so we rather have wood in our kitchens. The large granite plates are simply looking like your grandma, grandpa, place od final resting, so we tend to not mix that picture with food ;) but you have different types of graves so your mind is not making that connection. Actually if you are wealthy in Poland you would have crazy big (and crazy expensive) wooden one. Wood is quite expensive here. It's better quality cause it's growing slower, but it's better.
Also about these basements... like one stated: it's mainly used as utility space but we usually don't have them due to: humidity of soil (can happen as Poland far and wide and no concrete can beat that sooner or later you will have flood in your basement and nice spot for plants like cave shrooms ;) ) or rocks beneath them so it's crazy expensive to dig through that.
I hope that I help a little and thank you for that video. I was enjoying it very much. You have excellent attitude in your videos calm, straight to the point and also curious about what people have to add to the discussion. Love that.
Najbardziej Polski dom ma śmietnik pod zlewem. XDD
About the granite counter tops. One of my relatives got them and everyone looked at him like he's a madman because of it. It's been about ten years since he got them and they still look new. Turns out granite is hard, like really hard even by rock standards. You could drop a brick on a granite top and nothing will happen, while wood countertops get scratched and rot in contact with moisture.
Granite counter tops are all fun and all but getting 7m long top to the 4th floor is nightmare 😂
The sound it's making with dishes keeps me away from this material as kitchen material.
I have a hardwood counter top just oiled, not painted or covered with anything. Never had problems with moisture. And scratches are just ignorable. Oil again and it is done. Looks even better in some sense.
In Poland there are some places with clay. Rest is mostly dirt and sand. Building house with basement (which is rather understood as non living/sleeping part of house) is quite expensive so we do not practice this in Poland. Many old houses from 70' and 80' has basement though. There were kept coal for furnances in those years.
I was born and raised in Poland. My grandfather was born in 1936. In all houses he built (26+ on his own) in the 50s-70s in Poland the chief factor was accessibility of raw material, since there were lots of shortages of pretty much everything due to socialist oppression. The most efficient use of material was to make cube-like houses with (mostly) flat roofs, which is really predominant in construction from that period. Many times basic materials like bricks had to be salvaged from demolition places (I recall going to those when I was small with him). Our house had a basement and most that I knew did have that as well, since that's where the coal furnace would go, as well as storage for potatoes, onions, etc. I can't speak for any new construction (i.e. after the 90s when Poland was no longer under Soviet-controlled regime). Brick/stone is a dominant building material because a) we have no seismic activity at all b) it provides good basis for insulation in the winter / cool in the summer. Tall fences and curtains in windows (several layers) are very likely the remnant of the communist times, when anyone could be a spy (our neighbors were), and you wouldn't want anyone to look inside your house. "My house is my castle" would best describe the Polish building sentiment. The window opening style is (probably) due to insulation - you really want it as tight as possible in the winter (even though it almost never gets as cold as most of the US midwest...).
I literally don't know anyone who doesn't have a basement in their house in Poland. The basement is often the place where the heater is place, and I don't know where would you put the heater if not in the basement. Even in the apartment blocks there are basements and every flat has a part of that basement assigned, much like a parking space, and they can use it for storage.
In newer apartment buildings there are usually parking spaces on the basement level, so there may be less of those storage rooms than in older blocks and not all apartments own them (in my building there are over 60 flats, but less than 40 basement storage rooms). Those that don't have a basement have some kind of "technical room", where they have the heater, usually close to the garrage. Also now more homes have gas heating, so they don't need so much space for storing coal etc.
A very interesting clip. About apartments - in Poland the type of apartment differs depending on the type of ownership of the apartment and the building. So you can rent an apartment in a housing cooperative being a member, you can live in a council flat owned by the state, you can own an apartment in a housing cooperative building, and you can own an apartment living in a house owned by something that's called 'wspólnota mieszkaniowa' or 'tenants' association'.
woah, im here at 41 views! love the channel btw!
5:05 in Poland this is called papa, but its (at least from my expirience) rarely used when making roofs, also there isnt wooden layer before the roof, this "layer" is part of rafter (roof's frame), it would be alot harder to mount the roof on bricks/cinder blocks without it
Witam, to było bardzo pouczające. Pozdrawiam
Living in Silesia and basements are the norm. In my basement there's a two car garage, laundry room, (summer) living room and storage.
Lack of basement is due to tax mainly and partially due to increased cost of building. I don't think it's really popular everywhere but in my area most of the people have a separate utility building to do washing, keep bikes etc and it's not like a shed, more like another small house with 2 floors and plumbing and improvised kitchen reusing old, outdated equipment xD. Almost every 30+ yo building has them in my region.
Some things I would like to comment on. Most houses have not just grout but they have outside insulation made out of styrofoam, usually around 3" thick, rarely they are insulated on the inside, with a layer of plaster over it. The big gates don't swing open manually - I've never seen that, all are motorized, with most either opening to the side on rails (sometimes split, sometimes to one side), some swing to to inside or out, but you never do it manually - unless you are driving your tractor onto your field. As for microwaves - I don't know many modern homes without one. You have it for conveniece, heating stuff quickly is handy, but we don't usually cook our regular meals in them. Frozen food is rarely done in a microwave (unless you use it to defrost food) - we just put it in the regular oven (like frozen pizza, lasagna etc) but we do use microwaves - especially in office kitchens - it's a basic staple of any office kitchen - you can reheat your lunch, quickly cook a store bought lunch, mostly used for soup and store bought quick dinners. At home - we usually only cook hot dogs in there if we are in a hurry, reheat some milk or formula or need to make microwave popcorn. But regular dinners - rarely it gets used, if ever (maybe if the dinner is getting cold and somebody is late - you could reheat it then). Maybe some old homes don't have it, but I've basically never seen a modern home / flat without a microwave, altough - I now question why it's even there - today for breakfast I cooked my hot dogs on my stove, and the microwave is only used to heat up something from the frigde (like canned / preserved stuff) - but it's very rarely. The washer and dryer is because of the smaller houses - you compared 200 vs 100 square meters of average, but that means, some homes are even smaller - especially in flats - you basically have about 50-60 square meters flats (and sometimes 20-30 for single person flats) - so you never have enough room in your bathroom or kitchen for 2 big appliances - so everybody has the washer, and some people can afford a washer/dryer combo, but almost nobody has the space for both.
Basements were popular because of gravity heating systems. Coal-fired furnace in basement, large diameter pipes and large difference in height between the basement and living rooms makes electric pump to move warm water at all no needed. For example, there is an electricity failure and you can have heating, which is impossible with modern gas heating systems and thin tube installations. Survival for harsh time.
Please do a 3rd video on this topic
as for rooms - it's super weird if a house doesn't have a basement, only few years ago super new homes started the trend. Overall nearlly all houses got basements. Usually we don't have a separate laundry room though. Microweave is also considered to be a standard appliance in any kitchen. As for dryers and AC - people usualy now opt for thsoe as well if they get solar pannels, which are getting super popular atm)
360p gang come here :D As always Trev cool vid, keep it up bro !
HD is still processing :/
@@Trev_in_Poland No problem bro i'd still watch the whole episode even if it was in 140p :D
Very nice video! Learned a lot from it, thank you!
Regarding the cellars - it's not the soil thing. In the past almost every house had a cellar as there were no or few fridges and people kept there food to keep it cool and also, especially during the communism time where there was not enough food, people made preserves and kept them in their cellars. Nowadays it's no longer needed and most people are rich enough to buy preserves in a shop (in the past you had to keep saving on anything). Not to mention that building a house without a cellar is much cheaper.
Regarding the shingle - we also have them made like your US ones. In the past most of the roofs were covered with roofing felt fully made of material that you're using in the US now.
Regarding the flooring - in majority you have wooden floors or wood like floorboards in living rooms, may also have them in the bedrooms. Tiles are considered more practical for kitchens and bathrooms where there are liquids and moisture. Nowadays we have really huge range of floor and wall tiles looking exactly like wood, which I find really nice cause you can use them freely in your kitchens and bathrooms.
in Poland, whether you can have a basement is conditioned by the Building Conditions document. If the groundwater level is high in a given region, you cannot build a basement because it will be difficult to drain the water from it. So it depends on whether the office allows it and whether you have the funds to do so.
I have a habit of ,,exploring" every room in a new house I'm in.
In US lots of people have an asphalt driveways and basketball board hanging above garage doors, which is much less popular in poland, in kitchen in us you can find foodrests trasher mounted on sink which is isnt common in Poland. In Poland especially villages is normal to have big gardens at the front and the back as well. Fence culture. yes its true, In Us a lots of houses have National flag waveing all the time not only on national days like in Poland. we use lemon and tea often. Great video, keep goin
It's true that wood isn't like it used to be. I was renovating my grandparents house and the 100 year old lumber was still healthy and when cut it smelled of fresh resin! It was ancient.
3:00 - A basement in houses is available on every kind of soil - sand, clay, rock. It depends only to ground water level and money to spend. A basement houses you can find on sandy dunes near Baltic, clay plains of Wielkopolska or rocky mounts of Karkonosze.
Why in US and Canada a wood house is so common. It caused a cheap and well quality wood. In Poland and most of EU countries (exept Scandinavia) a wood is expensive and low quality, so wooden house is just expensive.
YES. KILN dried wood was hard for us to find when we built here
in 6:25 regarding tiled floor - it's due to fact that most of the houses are built now with floor heating - wood does not conduct heat that good.
Polish houses built now do have a thick layer of insulation on the outside of those block walls which is rendered over, this building method is very common now over the whole of Europe, only the covering will depend on regional taste varying from rendering to brick slips and wood or composite covering.
The high degree of insulation in new houses enables the use of heat pumps even in colder zones, the underfloor heating is more comfortable and energy efficient than the distributed air heating common in the US, drafts are completely absent.
Basements are usually only found in flats and other large multi-family buildings. Usually it's cheaper to build a multi-purpose garage or a storage room into the house.
Some houses in Poland dont have basements because underground water level is too high.
I think of where I live as southern. There are towel racks, I've never been anywhere in the US that doesn't have one? I love say homes here are about 50% brick/stone and vinyl. I do not see many homes solely vinyl as described in this video. My home particular homes front is all stone while the back is vinyl. My first home was all brick. Growing up a lot of families set out the clothes to dry but as I've gotten older less families do this because of allergies. I think most people would assume heated floors more of a luxury and not necessary? most people I know wear slippers, socks or sandals inside for warmth. Most homes I see now days have floors solely wood, vinyl or tile as a lot of people think carpet is dirty. it rains half the year here so that may contribute to not wanting to carpet too.
I wonder if you know, that people build cement/concrete boats. Hull made out of reinforced concrete is one of the cheapest things you can do to make sea-worthy medium size ship, the most expensive part will be the form.
There is also pykrete ship, but that's another story :)
In Poland too many houses are built on or near flood plains. Years when there are major floods cause lot of damage.,
Washer-dryer combo is a compromise that is always crappier than having those machines separate. Usually you go with that only if you don't have space for both (Which is common in Poland, especially in apartments). And yeah, my ground floor is fully reinforced concrete - it should survive at least one artillery barrage. :D
3:00 - basements are present in houses all right, it's just you can't have living / usable quarters with floor below the ground level by law in Poland and you wouldn't get a permit with one designed for living, so basements are just for tech and storage rooms.