It would be a huge disruption. The entire industry and nearly all materials are sized in multiples (and a few divisors) of four inches. Building blocks are 16" long and 8" high. Framing lumber commonly comes in 8, 12 and 16" lengths. Sheet goods measure 4' x 8'. Drywall is 4' wide by 8, 10, 12 & 16' long. Studs and rafter spacing is on 16" centers. Trusses are spaced on 16, 24 r 48" centers. Buildings are generally sized to hold out to those dimensions although not always (inexperienced/incompetent architects).

About the only materials I've noticed sized in metric are some shingles and luan plywood which now comes in 5mm thickness which is a sixteenth less than the standard 1/4" luan we used for sub-floor over-layment for decades.

Very , very true.

Getting back to my previous point of a global market , consider countries that drive cars on the left vs countries that drive on the right. To make a RHD car for the smaller market share than LHD cars costs a lot as the cars are VERY different , almost a completely different car. RHD markets suffer as not all manufacturers will produce a special RHD edition for a limited market. Certain cars are just not for sale in those areas.

I wonder how many items are not for sale in the U.S.A. because global companies don't want to go to the extra expense of making a product for the U.S.A. market.

We lose out.

I worked as a Tool and Die Maker. We often got part drawings that were in metric. First thing we had to do was convert to Imperial.

All the design work for the tooling was done in Imperial.

All the machines except the newer CNC machines have the dials in Imperial.
Many of those machines tho decades old were still accurate usable machines.


All of the measuring tools (micrometers, calipers, dial indicators) were Imperial.

If we wanted to do everything in metric we would either have to get all new measuring equipment and machine tools or convert metric to Imperial every time we needed to take a measurement or adjust a machine.

So you can see why we still use Imperial.

Even tho I retired over 15 years ago I still know alot of metrc to Imperial conversions in my head, 10mm = .394" and so on.

Jack Daniels used to taste a lot better when it came out of a bottle that was stamped 4/5 Qt, instead of the Communist measure now. Glad the milk industry hasn’t caved in yet, and you can still buy a gallon, half gallon, quart, pint, etc. My Confederate flag will always be measured in feet and inches.

I built a CLT cabin/guest house/sauna lounge thing that had been drawn by an architect from Finland. Plans had both standard and metric, but not for the same dimension. It was a little standard here and some metric there. The feeling I got as I smashed that metric tape with my hammer was one of the best I've had swinging the hammer. It would take a few generations to accomplish.

I drink a litre for every 400 meters I run....

English is considered to be the common language while at sea. It would make more sense to me to drop metric.

Nope.

There is nothing stopping anyone from using the metric system now, if it makes you feel smarter. The studs in your wall are 406.4 millimeters on center if you want to find one. And your plywood is 1.2192 meters wide. Knock yourself out.

NO

NO, I hate the metric system. I lay commercial flooring for a living and many of the products we install are made over seas and are of metric sizes. Always a big pain to lay it out. I think the rest of the world should change to what we use.

Plus, who even owns a single 10mm wrench?

When foreign countries started making tools their sockets and wrenches didn;t fit scat so instead of fixing the problem they made every size nut and bolt imaginable so some worked I'd imagine instead of having a 1/4 inch, 3/8 inch and 1/2 inch ratchet you'd probably need a dozen Sorry i meant 10

I use it in the formal writing that I do, at least square kilometers, I'm not a fan of using hectares although most people can't visualize an acre either. If a person grew up in the township & range surveyed regions of the U.S., a km2 is fairly easily to visualize as basically a half mile by half mile (a little more than that but...). Then again, I suspect most Americans can't visualize a square mile unless they are flying over the Midwest and see the "squares" on the ground.

In weighing things, I like the English system, same when it comes to distance. 60 mph is a mile a minute so that also helps out. People who mostly measure distance in time, it probably makes no difference at all. Again, in formal writing, if I need something such as millions of tons, I do it in metric.

I suspect in tools, if we survive as a whole country for another century, I suspect most will be in metric. In shooting, we already switch back and forth between English and metric so not a big deal.

P.S. A lot of you probably know this but there's a difference in weight between a regular ounce and a Troy ounce but not much, just under 3 grams.