Differences between US and U.K. homes

[Youngatheart00]

Just a ponderous thread as it’s my day off and I’ve been thinking, mainly following the abundance of Netflix we’ve all watched over the past year, but also some of my travel experiences (not recently, obviously!)

Some of the differences I’ve noticed are;

• many more of the US homes seem to be fully open plan downstairs. Some don’t even seem to have doors between the rooms?

• the bathroom count / ratio to bedrooms is much higher! (Eg 3 bed / 3 bath or even 2 bed / 2.5 bath)

• heating systems, I don’t recall seeing radiators, instead vents in the floor, are these used to flip between hot and cold air depending on the time of year? How effective / efficient are they compared to our big radiator bars here?

• toilets - they seem smaller and the flushing mechanism is different

• baths - they also seem smaller, short and strangely blocky

• Space and size - all of the bathroom stuff is unusual when the overall size of homes, even cheaper ones, is so much larger. And some ‘back yards’ are absolutely huge! Obviously more land space in the US compared with the U.K. but still, notable but often not much privacy / fencing?

• waste disposal units - what ARE these?

• closets - I haven’t seen any free standing wardrobes. Are these just not used in the US?

Anyone got any others to add or any comments?

We've lived in the US, a long time ago when we were very young, so only in a cheapish apartment but still... Much cheaper, much, much bigger housing. Air conditioning system that blows hot air rather than central heating as we have here. Walk-in 'closets' as standard. Big bathrooms with a double sink, big vanity type of counter as standard. Just in general much bigger, better, nicer and cheaper houses! Obviously a massive generalisation, but I really loved them!

@LolaSmiles

I love the idea of a laundry room. We've got friends in the states and they've got so much house for their money.

Isn't a laundry room just a utility room though?

Isn't a laundry room just a utility room though?
Our utility room has the laundry stuff, garden and cleaning things, dog stuff and general house stuff. It's a Jack of all trades room.

I'd love a dedicated laundry room with a nice, wooden ceiling drying rack.

Im just in the process of having an extension done (im in the UK), and im having typically 'American' things built - utility room, large master suite, amongst other bits. I think it makes much more sense but PPs are right, the UK just doesnt have enough space for this to be standard.

Brit living in America here:

As PP said, yes, it's a legal requirement that all bedrooms have closets in order to be marketed as bedrooms. People will often have a chest of drawers, usually known as a dresser, in their bedroom, but rarely a giant wardrobe as they already have a closet.

Screens on windows are the best. You can leave your windows open all day and night long without worrying about bees/squirrels/flies/mosquitos/whatever coming in.

I hate the wholly open plan trend, and I suspect it'll retreat a bit post-covid. I have friends who bought open-plan new builds and have been pulling out their hair because there's nowhere separate for them/the kids to work.

You can't get used to the size. The average house size is about 200 sq m, compared to the average UK house size of about 76. Quite small houses in most American towns and cities would be about 1300 square feet, or about 120 sq meters.

While American real estate rarely has house plans online (boo!), you can always look up house plans for new builds. I like to play around here: houseplans.southernliving.com/search?utf8=✓&plan= Relatively few of them are entirely to my taste, but it's fun to look at the plans!

We're far more crowded in the UK for starters.

I have a family and colleagues in Texas. During the recent freeze there they had lots of issues as the housing just isn't built with snow and ice in mind. One of my colleagues said the insulation of their homes, from the walls to the pipes just wasn't there and she's lived in Chicago which was completely different.

A lot of the US houses you see on property development shows on TV appear to be little more than large wooden sheds compared to the brick built houses in the UK!

Waste disposal units are environmentally poor: can you imagine what it would be like if everyone's food waste were going down the drain and had to be processed at water treatment works? Much better to compost it that add water to it and flush it away.

I can only imagine energy costs, like fuel, are cheaper in the US too.

I must know why it is a legal requirement for bedrooms to have closets. This seems nuts. Free standing wardrobes are beautiful and can be fixed to wall if tipping is a concern??

Upstairs laundry rooms.

The reason you don't really see electric kettles in US homes is because the supply is 110v and it's not powerful enough iirc. Stovetop ones are apparently more common.

'Master on the main' means that the main bedroom/ensuite/wardrobe is downstairs next to the kitchen/living room and the other bedrooms are upstairs. So for the parents it's like living in a flat, seems like a good idea.

Paper thin walls! All over, not just on the inside. I saw a news article where a woman had been shot through the outside wall into her kitchen.

Interestingly as well in the US she was paid $42,000 as a teacher. Here she's on £29,000. So similar salary but a lot less living for the money.

But (ignoring the fact she's a teacher) four weeks minimum paid leave, plus public holidays, substantial paid maternity leave, free healthcare ... Some things are better than huge houses.

Aha! I've actually looked this up and it turns out the closet requirement is a myth, at least on a national level. It can be, and often is, mandated on a state or local level.

Also, more importantly, most appraisers won't count the room as a bedroom without a closet if they're standard in the neighborhood--so, while a house built in 1850 in a neighborhood of 19th century houses might get away with it, a house built in 1990 in a neighborhood of late 20th century houses won't. In other words, even where it's not a legal requirement, it might be a requirement for appraisers and thus you can't get the mortgage you'd need without it.

I have to say, a closet is so much nicer than a wardrobe. And as the bedrooms tend to be bigger (10x10 would be considered a relatively small bedroom), closets are less obtrusive than the 18-inches-from-the-bed type you get in smaller bedrooms in the UK.

The mixer spray attachment on the kitchen sink was a winner - I'm getting one of those on my next kitchen refit.

In much of the US, houses are cheap and huge. You can buy a house on a quarter-lot on a normal income.

They’re not always cheaper, either. Where my Dsis lived until recently in Cambridge, Mass. housing is very expensive for the US, comparable to more expensive parts of the U.K.
Sam Francisco and the Bay Area ditto. Niece who was working there post graduation had a very long commute from her relatively affordable small flat,, and there were many similar.

We lived in US for a few years. What I liked was the large integrated garage. Room for two cars plus bicycles, etc etc. No need for a garden shed.

It was also a gated community. You needed an access code just to drive into the neighbourhood. It really cut the traffic down so the children could safely play in the road outside the house.

Finally, the community had its own private outdoor swimming pool, club house, library and all the gardening was included in a monthly service charge. It was fantastic to not have to trim my hedges or mow my grass. Lots of time to lounge by the pool.

From my extensive tv/movie knowledge and my time spent in USA. I would say that the big things that I just don’t get are there abundance of heavy/dark wood in kitchens. And lots of wall cupboards. The kitchens always feel heavy and oppressive.

Finding this all fascinating.

I’d love a laundry chute and thinking about it, it is a bit strange we tend to have washing machines in the kitchen too. We don’t have a utility room but I’d like one.

Re the voltage does that mean that our appliances all use twice the electricity that American ones do when used in the US?

And never fully realised that ‘gas central heating’ was a British thing.

Energy costs in my part of the Midwest are surprisingly expensive. Because it is a private monopoly, the worst of all worlds.

We have reasonably good insulation because of the winters but build quality is generally poor. Sound proofing in the house is very limited.

Our walk in closet is the size of a box room even in the city.

The worst part about my rented house is that the heating system pushes huge amounts of dust around the house. But this may be because it is old and poorly maintained.

Our heating system runs on gas, but it heats air which is pushed around the house rather than water in radiators.

Our air conditioning runs on electricity.

@GeorgiaGirl52

At last, questions I can answer. I live in the South, so most of the houses are brick (made with the red clay that passes for dirt in Georgia) and most floors are hardwood due to the vast amount of available pine trees.

• No wardrobes. Closets are required for all bedrooms, by code.
• Screens on windows are also required. Even if the house has AC.
• New housing codes banned radiators in the 1960's. Furnaces and ACs are vented either in the floor or in the ceiling.
• Clothes washers and dryers are sold as sets. In many areas it is against code to have a backyard clothesline.
• I have never seen a kettle, except in UK movies or TV shows. we either have coffee makers or use the microwave to heat water.

Sorry, what do you mean ''by code''? Is that like a byelaw or regulation?

Enormous unfenced front gardens and small enclosed back gardens (yards) or sometimes back gardens not enclosed either. Seems to make no sense!

@Skythrill yes, and really overlooked back gardens too!

My brother and his family live in Texas and his house is a huge bungalow. All of the bedrooms have walk-in closets, which are bigger that my youngest DD's bedroom. Also, interestingly, when selling the house, bedrooms have to be a certain size before they are allowed to be called bedrooms - not like in the UK where a converted airing cupboard can be marketed as a bedroom

By code is the same as building regulations in the UK.