American Reacts to 15 Differences Between British and American Homes! 

Absolutely. I live in a one-bedroom bungalow; the kitchen is so small, I haven't got room for a dishwasher, and I even have my freezer in the living room, cleverly disguised as a cabinet! BUT. . . . I have a hallway!

It also works as a fire break. Most house fires would start in a room, rather than the hall, doors can be closed to allow people to get out via the hallway. But the main issues are privacy and heat loss/draughts. It can work to reduce noise between living room and bedrooms.

We once rented a house with no hallway - the door opened into the lounge and the staircase to the upstairs was also in the lounge. We found it very inconvenient - nowhere to take muddy shoes off, heat was lost every time the door was opened, and, the thing that annoyed us the most - all noise from downstairs travelled to the bedrooms - music, TV, even talking, kept the kids awake. It just never felt like a private space. Was glad when we moved to somewhere with a hallway.

Also, one of those walls is often a 'supporting' wall which should not be removed unless new support can be incorporated.

Halls were a good idea 150 years ago with the then poorly insulated and drafty houses, still required today with the very latest poorly insulated and drafty houses, such a waste of space

I should have read the comments! I said the same.

I'm in the UK and my house (and all houses in my street) is made of wood. It's allowed. Just not traditional, it's down to resources like they said. Brick may well still have advantages over wood, but that's not the reason they're used.

@@christinerigden1403 I am sure you are right. I live in Somerset where there are exemptions, but after the great fire they brought in this law. "It proposed that all new buildings had to be constructed of brick or stone against the future perils of fire. It also imposed a maximum number of storeys per house for a fixed number of abodes to eliminate overcrowding." I love the fact that you live in a wood building. It shows that there must have been clauses

British houses are are built of brick ! They do not blow down etc. and collapse like american houses do in really bad weather ! Most British towns have what you have described as "town houses" !

Yeah like number of bedrooms normally, also I agree as I want to build my own house, houses I looked at have terrible layouts for what I want

I know the exact size of each of the rooms in my house, the entire house and the land, but it’s only about 10 years old. I also have the complete, detailed drawings. Older houses weren’t always built according to precise drawings and they were often discarded of once the build was complete, to the extent that there even were any to begin with. Thus - size not know. But it’s easy to find out. There are companies that can measure the sizes very precisely using small laser instruments. I once sold an old flat abroad, where price is in relation to size. I always had a feel that the size was slightly larger than the stated size when I bought it, so before selling I brought in one of those specialists. As it happened, it was 10% larger than stated, which increased the selling price by 10%. Money well spent.

@@RobertClaeson you get a rough idea in UK as each location has a price per square foot or metre but also depends on how place looks like if it is in trend of the current time too

Do you could the 1m thick stone walls?

My previous house was part of a row of five houses, probably built as starter homes. They had each had the same footprint and garden size, but where the others were three bed roomed, mine had two. It meant I had two decent sized bedrooms where my neighbours had more cramped rooms, but also meant the value of my house was less. When I sold it the purchaser was going to let it to students, so the number of rooms was more important to him, than a comfortable space had been to me. There was no hallway, but I bought the house from its first owner who told me that she paid extra to have internal porch - the others just opened into the sitting room. I had the best way of buying this house - I rented it from the owner for a couple of years (my previous property wouldn't sell easily, so I rented it out) - which meant I knew what I liked an disliked before buying it.

Yes, plus the hallway is a great place to hang any of those family pictures that you don't really like. 😁

Yeah it’s definitely because of heat.

and wish for privacy,; lifestyle. separate areas for confidential talk, tv, homework.

Also most " front rooms" were heated by coal fires, giving off soot into the room. Having a door stopped these fumes and dust from entering other parts of the house. Most brick walls back in the day were load bearing so cannot be removes without steel work and acro Jack's etc.

Also if the UK house is an old and small one (e.g. an old terraced house), it might pre-date the times when there were purpose-built bathrooms - even though they all now have them. In such times, it might have been the case in bygone years where one might bathe in a tin tub in front of the fire. Now imagine doing that, and having visitors walk right into the room from outside without a hallway... It's not the primary reason of course (as others have said, it's for heat conservation, load-bearing and so on), but something to consider.

Well said that man, I also didn't like their spin on we have dungeons. They lived in 9/13 British accommodations probably could only afford a hovel I didn't like their narrative comparisons.

Also the smaller the ‘lounge’ or front room the cheaper it is to heat the room to stay warm, if you don’t have that ‘corridor’ or hallway the warm air goes straight up stairs x

I have lived in two one-bedroom cluster houses where there is no definition of what is a hall, bedroom or kitchen, because it is all one space, but its a small space, which is why some of the houses on my estate were built this way. I have no doorways or doors downstairs, you just walk through the front door into a narrow strip of hallway and immediately behind my door is an area rug which is how we fashioned a very small living room zone for both me and my Labrador dog whose bed is right behind the door with the rug in front of it. The hallway to the left blends into the kitchen, separated only by a breakfast bar counter with a big cupboard where I keep all cupboard foods under it. It is also where I would have a tv if it hadn't just fallen over and died. I have no internal doors, but there are french doors off the living area into the back and front garden which wraps around the house. I didn't really have a proper garden in the old house, so this is better for the summer and for when my dog wants his own space outside.

Also circulation space. If there's more than two people in a home, i.e. a family, it might be a lot better than having everyone walking through the room you're using just to get to another room.

Is that why there are no longer wolves in England? They all starved to death?

🐖🛖 🐖🪵 🐖🧱 🐺🔥🥵

@@gillcawthorn7572 😂

Though UK listings will almost always these days give you the individual room dimensions so that you can evaluate what will fit & where.

We look indulgently at Americans constantly boasting about sizes ! Look at quality ! How many houses in the US have stood for at least a couple of hunrdred years for private homes, and THOUSANDS of years for historic building and houses

Yes or like in my friends house as a kid, they had two doors under the hall stairs one was a cupboard for coats shoes etc and the other a door down to the cellar.

Yeh it's not just that. Internal walls upstairs that might be something like low density blockwork that aren't hugely strong but are still an important structural component as the roof timbers will use them to brace/transfer load. Knock them out and expect the roof to fall in on you.

Yeah, my idiot ex-neighbours took down a supporting wall so that they walked straight into their living room...they had no idea what they were doing and clearly hadn't got permission to do it. My next neighbours luckily got it sorted out/reinforced.

So that you know how big the house is as a whole

@@RochellBarbara4690 but you know how big it is by the number of rooms and their sizes.

nor do you need one.

that's lovely. and lucky you. cherish her. reminds me of a seamus heaney poem

Many kitchens only have one space for a washing machine and nothing else. I now have a washer drier but prefer line drying in the garden

Couldn't live without my dryer, have never hung washing outside,it ends up with spiders and bugs on it 😝

Statistics reveal that 49% of UK households have a tumble dryer whilst in the USA its 75%. So, nearly half of homes in the UK have a dryer - and only 3 quarters of Americans have them, not everyone then! I wish people would stop making vast generalisations about either country. After watching a few series of 600lb Life on TLC, I am very well aware that many of the poorer people in the US live in houses that are no more than glorified sheds, no bigger than the smallest of British homes.

@@gillianrimmer7733 I agree. To many videos make generalisations which while not untrue give totally the wrong impression of a country.

@@Cjbx11, Yes, until recently ( we've downsized into a retirement apartment) apart from when we first married and lived in a tiny terrace house, I've always lived in a house with a utility room for the washer and tumble dryer - and had a dishwasher - and mixer taps in the kitchen and bathroom. Yet, according to tons of You Tube videos, we don't have these things over here.

Most new build houses these days have dishwashers built in, the young ones just don't know what they are missing do they Josef. 😁

@@martinwebb1681 Heh! Dishpan hands anyone? Remember the slogan "Hands that do dishes . . ?"

@@josefschiltz2192 ... "Now hands that do dishes can feel soft as your face, with mild green fairy liquid." ...... I remember it well.

@@martinwebb1681 Nanette Newman!

I’m American and never use mine I don’t trust them lol

My Victorian semi in Southport built in 1899 is fronted with Accrington brick.

Caroline Skipper: It may be worth pointing out that combined washer/driers are fairly commonplace in the UK. I have one but I rarely use the drier bit - it uses a lot of electricity!

When I used to live in London we lived in a three story end of terraced house, it was massive with three hallways and six flights of stairs two between each floor, it had the biggest kitchen I have ever seen. Getting to the top floor certainly kept you fit. 😁

yes, except the estate agents in York are all now calling any house in the town a 'town house'. Does my nut in. You are supposed to be property experts and you don't know the basics.

Yes they obviously didn't look much in the countryside, because many homes in the country have laundry rooms, also a garage or double garage, and most new build houses come with dishwashers at least in the country/rural areas.

yes, and school catchment areas.

Yes, I always look at the floorplans on Rightmove and all the measurements can be found there.

Betsy lovelie: Surprisingly dishwashers use less water than hand washing! Dishwashers also come in different sizes to cater for family size etc. Applying your logic I suppose you could argue why have a washing machine when you could take your bundle of dirty washing to the river and scrub them there! LOL.

@Nicky L : Well said. I have a slim sized one, perfect for my needs. Wouldn’t want to go back to washing dirty dishes in the kitchen sink!

Always tickles me when they say on instruction to rincevprior tonputying on dishwasher, of you are doing thst you may as well just wash it, I ended up using mine as a cupboard to hide anything nice from the kids !

They are crap though, lol!!

Tumble dryers are not at all environmentally friendly either. In the summer we hang laundry outside on the washing line to dry and in winter or in wet weather we use a heated airer, combined with a dehumidifier; it gets washing dry very quickly and uses far, far less energy than a tumble dryer. Added to that, a very high proportion of clothing cannot be tumbled dried anyway due to the fibre content.

@@zosemabubble7825 That is so true. Shrinkage occurs.

In Britain, when buying a house, we tend to be more interested in the dimensions of each room rather than the overall square footage. Most people tend to know the measurements of each room, in order to gauge the amount and siting of furniture. As regards pantries, prior to the almost universal installation of fridges, most middle-sized houses and certainly all large houses would have had some kind of pantry or larder for storage of dry goods but also perishables. Kitchens were often built on the north side of the house and there would be a walk in larder sometimes with quite wide tops to lower cupboards and with a small, preferably north facing window, unglazed, covered by a perforated metal panel. Larger terrace houses would have had a kitchen, scullery where washing up was done and vegetables prepared plus a small breakfast room, as well as a dining room, living room and sometimes a small study. Families, before central heating, which really only started to be regarded as the norm in the late 1950-60s, tended to live in one room for warmth. Families only started to spread out as a consequence of central heating, TV, and better insulation. Up to this time, our brick built houses were only single skin, not cavity built. One of the things which I think we regard as unnerving about American construction is the fact that they seem to have rather insubstantial footings with the whole house sometimes lurching sideways. To return to the matter of food storage, another solution to the storage of perishable items would be to be apply a sturdy metal meat safe to the north facing outside wall of the house, easily accessible from the kitchen, where meat and dairy produce could be kept away from the heat of the kitchen. As for laundry, even the humblest, would often have a small row of outhouses comprising WC, wash house and little tool shed, where food items like strings of onions and sacks of potatoes could be kept. The wash house would have a big sink and built in coal or wood fired copper. The outside WC would have been the only lavatory in a little terrace house in a working class area or in a country cottage or in the latter case might well be an earth closet some distance from the house. As you may gather from the above, I am in my 90s and lived in many different types of dwelling, from timber-framed farmhouse to modern flat and seen many lifestyle changes.

@@maryandrews4097 A larder is what my parents' house had, exactly as you describe - on the north outside wall of the kitchen. The house was built in the 1950s and had no double-glazing or central heating. We used to wake up to ice on the inside of the bedroom windows in the winter, and yet we somehow managed to survive! 😆

@@zosemabubble7825 Thank you for responding to my post - I think all the responses to the video have been well expressed and very much to the point. In my teens I slept in a very large timber framed farmhouse in chilly Bedfordshire ( nothing much between us and the Urals!) and have woken up in my feather filled sleeping bag, inserted into the usual bedding, with frost on the blankets but still quite snug in my "downy nest"! My response to the cold is still just wear thermal longjohns and add another jumper.

Maisonettes!

It is a terrible thing, meaning more and more people, the house number are stagnant and house prices are sky rocketing due to, people from other countries with money buy houses and they are unused, that 100,000 at least are coming mostly Illegally into the country, Watch Clarkson's farm, I watched clips which shows you why red tape and Curruption is destroying the UK,

Yeah, also remove the hall wall and you just might end up with your bedroom collapsing into your living room. 😁

yes, but to be fair that's not the reason. very few houses had phones when they were built.

@@acommentator4452 No, I never said it was but it was one of the advantages of having a hallway in those decades in the 20th century over the custom in the USA of not having one. One other possible reason the hallway became standard in the UK might be in imitation of the country houses, stately homes and town houses of the upper echelons which almost, without exception had imposing front doors leading into a hallway. No doubt the middle classes wanted something in imitation of that idea and, eventually everybody wanted one even in the least prestigious dwellings. In fact, many middle class people of modest means had staff to answer the front door or the phone often in the hallway and filter callers to guard their employers' privacy when necessary.

Flashback to my teenage years, sitting on the stairs chatting with my friends on the phone with my dad shouting every 5 minutes "Get off the phone!"

Granite counter tops tend to destroy crockery not carefully placed down. Personally I prefer wood as it is both warm and gentle to crock's, it's also easy to resurface or repair if damaged.

@@garystroud6153 Yep. I won’t disagree with that.

The Three Little Pigs and the Wise Man and the Foolish Man were my teachers.

Brits learned their lesson after the great fire of London

Yes you're right, a washer dryer, which is basically two in one.

I wouldn't say it was common, people often buy them to save space but they take forever to dry your clothes .

I don't think dishwashers are that rare, most newly built houses these days have dishwashers built in especially in the countryside. I don't personally have one as my house is not new, but every one else I know locally has one in their newish houses.

Maybe there's whips and chains in his cupboard , or a dragon

I think it's specifically the sort that go up and over the bed they were referring to. I personally _do_ find those tacky, but normal fitted wardrobes are fine.

​@@sweeperboyWhy are they tacky? They're ideal for a small room.

@@jillhobson6128 I don't doubt that they are practical. It's just the look is very much of its time. Of course, that's just my opinion, tastes vary naturally and there's nothing wrong with that. Especially if space is a problem.

@@sweeperboy ... Yes very 1980s and into the 90s. Today viewed as a tad old fashioned, at least among the middle and upper classes.

In afraid not everyone can have huge spaces to have individual wardrobes.

My flat used to have a pantry. In the warmest side of it.

My elderly neighbour who has a tiny tumbledown (yes) cottage just had a granite top fitted. never mind the roof leaks, lets just do what matters!

Granite worktops are very common in the UK. Everyone I know has them. I don't think they look tacky personally.

We don't all live in large houses with laundry rooms or offices! Some of us live in terrace houses or small bungalows.

I am in my late '60s and I have known very few people who have a laundry room and I myself have never had one. Laundry done in the kitchen, in my past and present experience, is far, far more common among the population, I would venture.

​@@jillhobson6128 ... or flats, many with just two or even one bedroom (or none, in the case of studio flats).

The ‘it’s cold here’ argument doesn’t really stack up. From the 40th parallel northwards (apart from the Pacific fringe) North American winters are absolutely frigid compared to the UK. In a city like Chicago (I’ve been several times) -20 Celsius in JAN/Feb is nothing noteworthy yet their homes almost invariably have no buffer between the entrance and the living space.

@@gerardmackay8909 so in those houses when you open the front door the whole living room gets a massive rush of cold air, and possibly rain or snow?

@@avmavm777 yes crazy isn’t it. In fairness many homes do have an external porch which offers at least some protection but my aunt’s home did not and she definitely liked our hallway when she visited the UK.

Yep, watch out for those tornados if you're in your wooden house. 😂

And woodworm could be an issue...

and you know the water has boiled properly - essential for a decent cuppa.

Integral washer/ driers means when one breaks down, you lose two appliances.

I don't know anybody that lives in uk that doesn't have a dryer, people often prefer to dry washing outside rather than waste electricity and shrink their clothes.

I'd add a third - don't buy a conversion (i.e. a flat in a house converted into flats.)

​@@chrisamies2141 I've rented a number of flats inside houses, but I would never buy one.