Tutorials/Best building materials

When building houses, it's important to build the right materials. Otherwise, you may end up having a house that can be burned down easily and exploded easily, or you may spend tons of time to look for the supplies to build a house out of rare materials unnecessarily. This tutorial page contrasts different building materials, and additionally gives an overall view of the quality of the material.

Stone
Stone is overall a fairly strong and withholding material, and is very abundant. However, cobblestone has nearly the same properties as stone, but for a house of stone, you must smelt cobblestone, which many players think is a waste of fuel. Stone can be very useful if you want a specific style for your home, as it has a distinctive look to it, but if you don't care about the looks of your house or think cobblestone looks better, use cobblestone instead.

Pros

 * Very common - stone is by far the most abundant naturally generated block in the Overworld.
 * Has a relatively high blast resistance.
 * Cannot be destroyed by fire in any circumstance.
 * Stone is a renewable resource, as it generates when lava flows on top of water.

Cons

 * Drops cobblestone when mined, meaning that unless you have a Silk Touch pickaxe, you must smelt the cobblestone into stone.
 * Many players think that stone has a plain and boring look to it, and claim that other materials such as wood planks and stone bricks look better.

Dirt
Dirt is very weak, and isn't the most beautiful material to build with either. However, it is found on the surface of nearly all biomes, and can be mined up very quickly, even with a player's hand, meaning that it is suitable for beginners on their first night.

Pros

 * Abundant on the surface of most of the Overworld biomes.
 * Can be mined up very quickly with a shovel, and can be mined in less than a second even with a player's hand, making it easy to obtain lots of dirt very quickly.
 * Is not flammable.

Cons

 * Low blast resistance.
 * Has a rather unpleasant look for most styles of buildings.

Wood planks
Wood planks have a rather nice look and are inexpensive to make. They're blast resistance is lower than stone but higher than dirt. One of the main disadvantages of wood planks is that they are flammable, so that if a wooden house gets struck by lightning or gets lit by a lava pool, the whole thing may burn down.

Pros

 * One wood log = 4 wood planks, making wood planks inexpensive, as a whole stack of wood planks can be obtained by just cutting down 3 trees.
 * Has a relatively high blast resistance, though it's not as high as stone, mineral blocks, bricks, or purpur.
 * Comes in 6 different yet similar types, which allow for many options with decorating.

Cons

 * Wood planks are flammable, meaning that a wooden building cannot be built near a lava pool or anywhere that it could possibly catch on fire.
 * If you're in an area that does not have any trees, it's very difficult to acquire wood planks.

Cobblestone
Cobblestone is a strong block and is easy to acquire, making it great as a house for a player that has been playing on a world for a little while.

Pros

 * Has a high blast resistance.
 * Stone is extremely common, and it drops cobblestone when mined without a Silk Touch pickaxe, meaning that cobblestone is easy to acquire.
 * Unlike stone, cobblestone does not have to be smelted.

Cons

 * Like stone, many players find cobblestone to have a rather boring look to it, making it not the best material for building modern and fancy buildings.

Bricks
Bricks have a very pleasant look to them and a high blast resistance. However, they are also rather expensive, as they cost a lot of clay, and clay is not renewable. They're good for buildings with a neutral yet pleasant look, or if the player has an excess amount of clay.

Pros

 * Has a high blast resistance, the same as stone and cobblestone.
 * Has a detailed and polished look, but not a wild look, making it great for many styles of buildings.

Cons

 * 4 clay = 1 brick, meaning that bricks cost a lot of clay. Unfortunately, clay is not a renewable resource.
 * Before bricks can even be crafted, each individual clay ball needs to be smelted into brick (item), which can take a long time.

Obsidian
Obsidian is an extremely strong material, and takes a long time to break. Its breaking time can be a pain when building, but is great for protection against other players on multiplayer PVP servers.

Pros

 * Along with the anvil and the enchantment table, obsidian has the highest blast resistance of any block obtainable in Survival mode.
 * Because of the fact that when you go through a nether portal another portal is generated in the other dimension, obsidian is technically a renewable resource.

Cons

 * Obtaining obsidian requires either finding a place where water meets lava, which is rare, or crafting a bucket.
 * Obsidian takes an extremely long time to break, meaning that if you place obsidian in the wrong place, it will take a very long time to mine it.

Sandstone
Sandstone looks great for certain style of homes, especially a desert-style home. However, it has a low blast resistance and is not renewable. It's strongly recommended to have a desert biome nearby if you want to make a building out of sandstone.

Pros

 * Sandstone has a rather pleasant look in many players' opinions, and it can be combined with its variants for some different textures throughout a building.
 * If you are in a desert biome, you can find sandstone easily, as it is found underneath the surface or generated with desert temples and villages. In addition, sand, which can be crafted into sandstone, is found on the surface.
 * If mining up sand to make sandstone, sand can be broken very quickly with a high-quality shovel.

Cons

 * Neither sand or sandstone are renewable resources, making them very hard to obtain if there is no desert or beach near spawn.
 * Has a low blast resistance - only slightly higher than that of dirt

Terracotta
Terracotta is a rather colorful block, making it good for some styles of homes. It also has a high blast resistance. However, it is rather time-consuming and expensive to acquire.

Pros

 * Comes in many different colors, providing lots of variation when building with it.
 * Has a high blast resistance, though not quite as high as that of stone or bricks.
 * Is not flammable, making it better for building colors than wool.

Cons

 * Is expensive and time-consuming to acquire, as it requires mining lots of clay, smelting all of it, and combining it with dyes. The exception to this is if you find a mesa biome.
 * Is almost completely the same throughout, which may look boring when used for houses.