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I don't get why US houses are still built with shingles, they don't seem to last at all. Our houses are generally built with roof tiles (not mine, I've got a flat roof which will need to be redone every 25-30 odd years :/ ) which last for decades and generally only need a few replaced after heavy storms, maybe cleaned up if they look grimy.

Pipes are made from plastic and last decades, but they're generally not too hard to replace though.

I'd argue the biggest maintenance jobs to a house is keeping everything clean, basically the same as a boat. The other one would be painting every couple of years, and of course garden maintenance.




When I lived in southern California, roof tiles were very common but in the eastern US, it's mostly shingles. I hate to think of what a hailstorm would do to a roof full of tiles. Hail can cause significant damage to a shingled roof but it's much less expensive to replace.


Boats also have critical systems such as engines that need maintenance and despite that break often. Esp. on a sailboat, there's nothing more important than the engine and these are usually cooled by salt water.




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