I sort of already answered this one in an earlier post on hurricane resistant construction HERE.
Frame, as we call it, refers to a house with walls made of wood wood, like 2×6’s, with a cover over them, typically plywood, and then perhaps stucco, shingles or clap board over that. OR, the plywood itself is painted and it is the finish, which is a T-1-11 plywood finish. ‘CBS’ is a home with exterior walls made of concrete block (CB) and stucco (S) over that, CBS.
So, to return to the question. CBS or Frame?
My answer is this. Everything is worth owning at the right number. I figure the difference between CBS and frame is worth about 30/s.f. so if the Seller is willing to recognize this and you don’t mind paying higher insurance costs (wind & flood) then why not. A wood framed house can be just as strong as a CBS one BUT it is much more susceptible to decay from termites, ants or good old fashioned wood rot. To be clear, there is wood in everyone’s house but the base construction ‘type’ in the MLS refers to the walls. Some homes have CBS on the first floor and wood frame on the second. Some are CBS on the second floor as well. If you do have wood frame on the first floor then you should have what I call the ‘DMZ’ around the house. For 2′, all around the house, do NOT let anything grow, not even grass. This will allow you to see what’s going on at that all important bottom of the wall location, and deter ants and termites. I was at a property inspection for a home in Jupiter Farms owned and maintained by a person who was in the property maintenance business. It was the most meticulously maintained home I have ever seen. Guess what? At inspection we found termites in the front porch where they had forgoten their own advice and allowed plants to touch the patio. The only good news is that it’s cheap and easy to fix wood framing, so long as the damage does not get too far along into say that 2×6 wall.
